run the stock motor, or build it?
 

I'm picking up a good 1.8l motor on saturday supposedly (not holding breath). The motor is supposed to be good, so I'm thinking about not throwing the rods and pistons in, and running this bitch as is, with the cast bottom end. I don't plan on throwing more than 14psi or 250whp for now. However, its a track car, and I don't like to think about driving 4-hours away, beating the piss out of the car for 5 sessions in 100* heat, then not making it home.

I'm an indecisive bitch, go ahead and change the thread title to something gay, but not so gay that I get in trouble at work.

the story of my life: :dancegay:


btw, does $1000-1200 sound fair to bore and hone, line bore, clearance rings and bearings, resurface block and head, 3-angle valve job, new exhaust guides, and assymble? I think I'll have John Day of SM fame put the motor together.

For that power you can stay stock with a good tune, IMO.

the price you mentioned sounds ver reasonable
while your at it, you might as well have the crank knifed fwiw

Thats a pretty awesome price I'd say. For that much I would have it done.

I can get a buddy to do it for $700, but this guy has put together countless turbo track cars which still run today, and take severe beatings...like really fucking severe beatings. He also builds strong SM motors, but that doesn't really mean anything to me.

I bet knife edging is remarkably expensive, but I'll ask him about it. Maybe Stephanie will email me and I can give BEGi an MSpnp car to play with, and subsequently tune while I drink beer on the Riverwalk.

$1200 is very reasonable. If he's a SM engine builder, it's likely he's capable of assembling motors in his sleep.

l_bader said he spent $800 lightening and balancing his crank, but he went pretty extreme.

Take it to FM and have them build it.It might cost 3 times as much,but at least you can say it was built by them,and the engine will have magical powers.

just make sure to have them dyno test it wit its 80 gabillion HP and their 1000x dyno correction

But if FM builds it, I'd have a plaque saying it's built specifically for you. You won't ever be able to sell it or else it'd explode.

^Hey now,don't go knockin the plaque down.Many people have overpaid alot of money(mad coin $$$$) for something that is worth 20 cents.

Consider the plaque as "being in a special league" of ballers.

I just priced it out at FM. It will only cost me $4387.55 if I provide the rods and pistons. Not bad.

............so they want 4 times the price to do the same job you have been quoted.Oh well,I say go for it,atleast you will get a plaque out of the deal that says"built for Hustler".

that would be a pretty bad ass plaque.

i heard someone say knife edging a 4cyl is only 299, dont know who or where, im pretty sure it was on this forum...think about it

1200 for the engine work

3187.55 for plaque installation labor.

That's who we use for machine work.

they guy has a pretty damn good reputation around town apparently, and fair pricing.

Run it till she blows then find a 99 head and some better valve springs toss in ur bottom end, and rev the shit out of it.

It all depends on time hustler. If the motor builder can get you a decent turn around i think that is a hell of a price. My short block assembeled was like 1700 includinge some 500$ overfucking priced weiscos.

he told me over the phone that most of the supercharged miata people in town don't like anything lower than 9.0:1 compression pistons. He didn't try to push me either way, but I'm kinda worried. I also don't know how many people actually tuned the car properly with adequate ignition advance in off-boost rpm.

If they seem to be a reputable shop that truely knows what they're doing and has a good reputation on building FI motors and even miata motors, then a fair price of 1200 is just icing on the cake. Do it now or..... I would do it now if you already have the aftermarket parts.

A magic 8-ball would make a better decision than you.

Seriously, you have two choices when making decisions. Listen to what other people say and trust them, or do your own thinking and tell all those with opinions to F-off. You can't keep standing on the fence and expect to make everybody happy. There are compromises: deal with it.

You'll be plenty happy using the rods and pistons you already have, and letting that dude build your block. Do it. Case closed. Or ignore me and do whatever you want, but then quit asking for opinions.

I'm pretty certain I've made a wrong decision which will create a chain of events that make the car die. I anticipate overlooking "unknown unknowns."

That wrong decision being what, buying low compression pistons? How will that "make the car die?"

You can always get those 13:1 JE pistons in m.net classifieds :eek5:

If you're afraid if it dying, run it stock 1.8 w/ turbo for a while until you are either comfortable with it, or until you kill it. And go from there.

Its an unknown, but I'm sure I've screwed something up. I'll make a decimal mistake or something like that when tuning, then pop the motor. I know its coming.

I think belfab has a flat rate of 299 to knife-edge any 4 cylindar motor, i don't think thats too bad :dunno:

2 things, (1) it has to be done by someone smart or you'll f it up, and (2) the cool kids say you need to nitride the crank afterwards.
I'd also be curious about impact to the oil pump gears.

well if belfab fucks it up, i'm sure someone could wage another paypal war with them :bigtu:

Run the stock motor now and turbo that bitch! Run a lower 12psi and keep an eye on your temp/pressure gauges on the track.

Then, pickup a block on the side and build an engine in the interim so you can have something to obsess about. Just get you car freakin' turboed already!

Fear is paralyzing you man. Even the most well built engine can fail. Granted they run on the bleeding edge, but I'm sure there is a hell of a lot more precision that goes into an F1 engine and even they die sometimes. Heck, what if you built the perfect engine and you crash on the track or some idiot crashes into you, how are you going to prevent that? Avoid the track altogether?

We talking about nitriding, and he said he doesn't do it when he has to turn down the cranks. He claims he's never had a problem because of it.

Rods and Pistons... Do it now, not later... pulling the motor later will cost you more in time and effort.

For the love of all that is holy, do SOMETHING already.

Personally I think you are crazy for bothering to build the motor at the power levels you are talking. But since you already have the parts and the engine isn't in the car, you'd be a foold not to do the work now. Why R&R the engine more than you have to?

I want to know I'm going to make it home on the 4-hour drive home from the track, if I didn't blow it up at the track, and make it to work on monday.


Everything has been waiting on motor availability. I'm itching to do something so I can do some track days while its nice, and not 100* in 4 months.

Then you are in the wrong sport my friend. There are a lot of other things that can go wrong beside grenading the engine that'll prevent you from driving home. Put your $$$ into a towing rig, seriously.

If you're going to open the motor, throw some Belfab rods, Weisco pistons (9:1), and billet oil pump gears in. That way when you're ready to spin the motor harder, you just have to swap valvetrains and you're ready for 8k.

Tell you what. I'll solve this problem for you.

Put the "new" block, all the associated parts and the car on a truck and send them down to BEGi. - I'll be there this weekend and take them off your hands.

No car, no worries. You can spend your free time drinking beer worry-free.

- L

I have no desire for high rpm when I can turn up the boost.