I bought a 95 GSX a few months ago not running and popping out of first gear, according to the PO. It has 106K miles, big EvoIII16g, full exhaust (not sure what kind yet), Evo550's, Ebay FMIC, aluminum radiator, boost gauge, wideband, DSMLink V3full, and Evo 8 wheels. My plans are (for now) to build the motor as reliable as possible and use it as my DD. Of course, when I rebuild it, its going to be somewhat of a beast. No reason not to huh? I finally got a 6 bolt from a 90 laser last week thats going to be the heart of my build. Heres my plans for the motor as of right now 5/20.
I'll start by saying I'm going to leave the head alone for the most part, I dont have enough in the budget right now but it's much easier to take off the head and get it machined later rather than build the head and have to replace pistons later. I want to build the bottom end for 400-450hp but keep the car tuned to 350ish.
-OEM Mitsu MLS headgasket
-Timing components. Water pump, tensioner, pulleys, and belt all OEM
-Balance shaft removal kit
-2g pistons on 1g rods w/ new rings (need recommendations for rings)
-ACL tri metal bearings (not 100% sure, I want it to rev high but I know I'll need new springs for that too)
-ARP rod and main cap bolts (any machining required for this?)
-ARP headstuds
-New oil pump, OEM
Am I forgetting anything?
As far as the machine work goes I want to get the cylinders honed, headgasket surface cleaned, hot tanked block, and magnafluxed to check for cracks. Anything else while I'm in there?
I do need a few recommendations for parts with the bearings and rings. I'm curious about the HP capacities of aftermarket pistons for my 1g rods. AFAIK the 1g rods will be fine for 400+hp, which would make the pistons the weak point. I need to weigh the price of machining my 1g rods vs buying pistons that already fit. If I have to spend $50 more on aftermarket pistons it would be worth it if they could handle more power or have other advantages (feel free to chime in here).
I think this is gong to be a good start for me. I am still in the process of tearing down the motor so theres plenty of work to be done. The original motor is still in the car as well. While I'm building the engine I'm going to powder coat a few things to spruce it up, probably just the valve cover and water pipe, but we'll see.
Worthless thread without pics right? haha
A little about myself
I work at a performance shop in Plainfield and have been working on my own cars since I was 17. Until now, I've been a Muscle car guy but my shops got me on the turbo wagon. It's much cheaper to buy and build this than turbo my Z28 haha. I like to do things by the book the first time, and with that, I like to build overkill for what I'm going to be running for reliabilities sake (build it to handle 450 and run 350). I'm also big on supporting mods weather its the fuel system or suspension theres no point to adding more power if your not using all of the potential now.
