STR Motor build
 

Hey guys, blew up my 99' by running it low on oil but my buddy has a 90,000 mile 99' motor for $1,000 that I feel like is too good of a deal to turn down since it looks like I'll have to spend a hell of a lot more than that to have a shop rebuild mine(no place to work on it in my apartment complex).


His motor is pulling 180's to 190's across all 4 which from what I've read is good but my motor last summer was at 210 across all 4 (with a different gauge) so I want to eek out as much power as I can with this build so that I feel like I got something for all this bloody money!

I'd like to freshen up whatever I can to find those extra horsepowers loosely within the STR rules (I only run at my local regional events and we don't sweat the small stuff) but up until this point I've researched pretty much everything but the motors in these little cars so I could use a bit of help.


From what I've read, within the rules I can...

Deck the head .020
Simple valve job/clean up with oem valves
Punch the block .020 (too much $$$)
And replace anything I want with new oem stuff



I guess my main question is on a 90,000 mile motor what can I replace to wrangle in a few of those sneaky horses that make have escaped over the last 14 years and/or make it a bit more reliable.


Right now I'm definitely decking the head with a simple valve job, but I'm up in the air about new valve springs or maybe new rings... I'm sure I'm missing a ton of other stuff that this is the perfect opportunity to freshen up, thoughts?

1k for a 90k 99 motor is not that good of a deal at all.

Refreshing everything (rings, bearings, doing the valves, etc) should gain back whatever it lost.

as for internal engine work, you better be able to pay to play

like said 1000$ for a 99 engine with almost 100 000 miles is ( in my opinion ) too much..

but for your question, deck the head, and redo valve seat should help.. at that millage the bottom end should be that bad..

All of the 99/00 motors I've seen under 100,000 miles are from $1,000 - $1,200, where are you guys seeing them cheaper than that?


Any opinions on whether it's worth the time and effort to re-ring the bottom end with the current compression numbers being in the 180's - 190's across all 4?

Yea, $1000 for a ~100,000 mile 99 motor isn't a very good deal.

Certainly not "too good to pass up"

For $1000 you should be able to get a healthy running VVT motor

yup

You guys arent from the north east. NA8 engines go for like 800 from junk yards. NB engines start at like 1200. For some reason used parts are like gold up here.

STR rules say that I need to stay with a 1999 or 2000 motor, what's a more appropriate price for a 90,000 mile 1999 motor?

According to car-part.com, there's a 1999 w/ 55k miles for $684 that's 232 miles from you:

I got my 99 motor with 140k on it for $250. Pulled even compression across the board and ran great. I even got to drive the car was in before pulling it.

Although part of the deal was I had to pull it myself.

Well I mean its actually 884 after you include the core charge.