To rebuild or to buy a rebuilt?

[Dred]

My car is pure stock
5Speed.

About a year and a month ago I had to get a new clutch cause some gears wouldn't engage. So I took the car to a "friend" of my brother's who was surprisingly a mechanic.
Anyways, the guy did a half ass job (3 times) and I still had the gear engagement problems. Basically, I had to rev or decel the engine to engage in a gear. Now whenever I go past 3.5krpm the clutch simply drops to the floor and i'm stuck with trying to sync the engine w/ the wheels for next gear.

So went to my x-job to put the car up on the hoist. Took the tranny off, and guess what? The halfass mechanic that did my clutch didn't change the release bearing (which was rusty, worn, and very old). The bearing ate through the shaft (dunno exact name of it but it's the shaft where the bearing lies on along with other parts, goes into)

Anyways, looks like I might have some cash (not alot) coming in, and I really wanna get rid of this problem, also, shifting w/o using the clutch is getting old.

I dont have enough money to make a super heavy duty tranny nor do I inted to take the car past 400hp in the nearest future. I got 2 choices:
1) To rebuild my tranny (more expensive)
2) To buy a rebuilt trany for a lesser price.

Which should I do? I wont be rebuilding it myself cause I dont want to mess things up, since i'm a "hobby" mechanic more than anything else for now.
Input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[The Foos]

talk to TRE or Shep...don't rebuild the trans yourself or have a local shop do it. Have someone that knows what they are doing do it. I'm a very competent mechanic and engineer, and I still had TRE work on my trans for me.

Scott

 

[Dred]

Well I know a mechanic that knows what he's doing, he's done a lot of custom work and a few people that I know have no complaints whatsoever. Considering he made/rebuilt tranny's for tracks also, he has a good rep. The only thing is that I wouldn't be able to afford to put in performence parts, just the OEM ones. The rebuilding my tranny will also cost more than just buyin a rebuilt or used transmission.

Reading alot of the articles, I sort of worked out a axium. Do it once, and do it right. So i'm thinking whether to just get a used tranny for the time being (cheaper) and then when i get more money, build a better tranny.

Simple choices, rebuilt tranny to oem specs / parts, or just buy a used one?
Which should I go with?

Only bad thing about buyin a used one is that it might break, and warranty or no warranty, still cost time/money to pull it out and put another one in.

 

[92awddsm]

I purchased a rebuilt tranny from dsm graveyard about a year ago and have had great luck. I spent $900 on it and the only problem with it is that I broke a center diff on a launch. I drive my car hard and shift it even harder with 6k stutter box launches and no lift to shift and it has held together well. I dont know what you plan on spending but I highly recommend them for a rebuilt tranny.I also have a few mods so its not like I have it in a stock dsm either.

 

[Dred]

Well going through your mods it seems to me that a rebuilt tranny will do just fine.
I dont plan to take the car past 350hp, so I don't think I'll need any heavy duty parts for the tranny anyways. Looks like most of your mods are what I'm planning to do with my car in the summer when I get more cash together, right now I'm working on bringing back to factory condition

Sort of an off-topic question, I see you have 750 injectors, aren't those a bit large for your setup?

I'm also planning to get a new fuel pump, and i'm pondering whether to get the 190 or the 255lph. For now i'm sticking with the stock turbo and stock injectors (till I have more money that is) Is it worth going with the 255 or will the 190 do good enough for a 14b?

 

[92awddsm]

I wouldnt say that 750's are not too large. Actually, I would probably be better off running an 850cc injector with the turbo I have. The pte 5252 is a 60-1 with a stage 5 exhaust and I run 22psi on pump gas and 28psi on race gas. At those boost levels, I am working the 750's. Anything smaller and I would have problems by now.