So I finally fell victim to the blown headgasket on my stock St 165 Vin number 0000097 and so decided to increase performance. Whilst motor is out. I use the car for street and track days so whatever happens it is always gonna be a compromise some where. I have already put a full set of Tein coil overs on it and changed to Mintex Brake pads. Eventually I will probably upgrade the brakes to something better but at the moment they work ok.
So here we go!
Purchased a Gen 4 3sgte motor and a St205 box from Wreckers. AFTER purchase I found out that a gen 3 would have been a better choice, as Gen 4s have substantially weaker rods. Even though they put out more power. Since an upgrade of turbo was on the cards I bit the bullet and ordered some forged rods and pistons from Import performance parts. (http://www.importperformanceparts.net/). Excellent service and price. But still Budget = blown!
The block is currently off being bored, honed, decked and cleaned. Head is stripped and about to go to be skimmed.
Have bought a Garrett 2871 turbo.After looking at a lot of different options and learning how to read compressor maps etc. I did look at buying 2nd hand but the "What ifs" came into play and the fear took over and next thing a BIG hole in the bank account!
I made my own steampipe manifold with equal length primaries for it. It is away being ceramic coated.
I bought a 600mm x 300mm x 76mm air to air intercooler and luckily it fits. Now I have seen a bit of talk about FMIC being difficult to fit without chopping the crap out of your front bumper, moving your fog lights etc but I honestly didnt have that much of a problem. The AC had been mostly pulled from the car before I got it. I removed the Water to Air stuff, (Intercooler,pump hoses etc). There are a couple of metal tags on your fog lights that hold the plugs. Chop them off. I removed the bonnet catch assembly and the single strut that supports it. Disconnected the brackets that hold the power steering cooling loop. I could then fit the intercooler in place. Once I have it fully fitted. I will rebuild a bracket that braces to the top the intercooler AND the car to support the bonnet catch.
I am planning to use a Link G4 motor management computer. Of course getting everything to work together is always gonna be painful tedious work but I will pay someone to help sort this out. I am going to try and streamline as much as possible to try and cut down on issues later on.
As my donor motor was from an auto I didnt have a flywheel so I bought a custom one that came up. I have bought a Sprung centre puck clutch.
I still need to sort the fuelling side of things. Bigger injectors, fuel pumps. As I am a metal fabricator by trade I will make up a surge tank hopefully an underfloor one. Bit of a compromise between a usable boot and functionality but we will see how it goes!
I will run the intercooler piping once I have done the swap.
I also will make a larger pcv catch tank as the regulations for track use require a 2 litre volume!
I decided when I bought this car that I am buying an education NOT a car for investment, resale, etc. That way I wouldnt cry too much about how much stuff costs. The bottom line is that whatever YOU think it is gonna cost multiply that by 2 to 3 times and you will be closer. I could do this build for half the cost and PROBABLY be happy with the results but I am trying to do it once and do it "Right". I am lucky that I work for a Car related business and have access to a wealth of car knowledge and experience as my own knowledge is pretty limited.