Need help deciding on crank/rods/pistons

[uncle philly]

I've been lurking for a while, I currently have a 96 spyder gst and it's seen better days.
While searching Craigslist I found an unbelievably clean 98 gst with a blown motor. I call the guy and he tells me the car is at a mechanics shop and he doesn't have the money to fix it, he was out of town for work and the wife drove it until it was out of oil. I get there and find out that the car had been sitting for almost year and the mechanic is surprised I'm there to look at it. The car is crazy clean, has a dvd headunit and I can tell its been garaged it's whole life (even the factory Chrome's look perfect). There's no aftermarket parts. I talk to the mechanic at the shop and he proceeds to tell me they rebuilt the engine, put in a brand new trans and a t28 and 4 months and 6,000 miles later the car was back having run out of oil, which clearly upset him. I could also tell by the way he spoke about the previous owners he is definitely not friends with them. So here's the question, if you were me, which crank pistons and rods would you buy? Would you do a budget 4g64 swap or stay with the 63? I'm leaning more towards swapping better oem stuff instead of aftermarket (ie 1g rods). Eventually I'd like to step up to a 16g next summer, so I want to plan for the future, but I intend on maxing the t28 out first. Between my current car and what's in the basement I have a k&n, turbo back exhaust, 1g bov, boost controller, prothane engine mounts, kiggly auto trans kit (new), moshi radiator and boost/egt/oil temp gauges. I've done hours of searching and just can't seem to decide and I'm working 100 hour weeks right now so I'm busy and brain dead.

 

[1990dsmkid]

Id say just stick with a stock rebuild. Good for 500hp plus if tune is done right.

 

[blackpearl2g]

I would definitely say stock rebuild is fine especially if you only plan on running a 16g in the future. No reason to spend extra money if you don't have to

 

[mercaholik]

Just have everything checked at machine shop and balanced re sized as needed. I'm going with 2g piston on 1g rod using new npr .20 over 8.5:1 compression.

 

[talon97]

I did not know we had chrome.?! Sounds like a nice car. I'd stick with the 4g63. The t28 can be powerful, look at the ecmlink.

 

[brane_97talon]

So you have a clean car with new turbo and blown block? I see a few options here:

Stock rebuild and 16g.
Forged internals and 20g.

Currently you have a 7 bolt motor. You could swap in stock EvoIX pistons and rods, they have forged tops.

And dont forget some sort of tuning and logging. (SAFC, DSMlink, Evo ECU etc)

 

[jared_gibbs]

I'm pretty sure the 7 bolt will not stand up to 500+hp. Sorry to break balls dsmkid, maybe you assumed he had a 6 bolt.

Plan your power goals and base your modifications on that. Search for the "upgrade paths" article here on the site it has lots of useful info. This is a crucial step to avoid wasting cash. You won't be able to use all your parts for a 300hp setup for a 500hp setup if that makes sense.

Building the motor is the first step and it's good to hear somebody starting with the maintenance first. Realize that the mods involved after that will take some cash. The 16g and def 20g will need a properly sized fmic. Decide which turbo you plan to use first as the size of IC will depend on that. You'll need an upgraded fuel pump, injectors, and dsm link. If you don't have an EPROM ecu (ECM link's website has an article on how to tell) it will cost more, the better part of $1k for the tuning stuff. And then of course there's dyno time you'll have to pay for.

Most will advise getting dsm link for tuning. You can use it for any setup from 300hp to whatever; it's one of the few pieces you can invest in and reuse should you desire to change your goals.

HTH