ArmyIntegra
Registered Teg Driver
No no no.. haha I've heard about the ramifications for that. No the loan is to start my credit. My bank's minimum is 2500.
K-Swap, LS VTEC, or neither?
- Thread starter ArmyIntegra
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ArmyIntegra
Registered Teg Driver
I was just wondering if I could take a chunk of that loan and do something worthwhile to my car.
Nick_C78
New Member
I was judging the age based on the avatar which shows a 94-97. And from sounds of it he hasn't rebuilt it.Is it worn out, is it old? Those weren't mentioned so I'm not gonna scrutinize everything that could be wrong :roll:
You may think you need to spend $5k plus to build something reliable because you had bad luck with motors, but for many people that's not the case. Plenty of us have reliably turbo'd "old" motors and ran them for years without problems.
Haha man I wish that was the case. I didn't cheap out on any of my builds, especially the first round. So I don't assume money was the reason mine failed. Trust was. I trusted their spec sheet instead of checking myself. I just think logically, value for the dollar that modding an LS motor is silly. You could buy a gsr swap, and sell the LS to make up some of that coin. The money out of pocket in the end will only be a few hundred and you'll already be stronger and faster...just saying. Better foundation to build on.
When in doubt go with what honda did. Thats my logic really.
I will say this though, if you blow the LS motor you can just buy another one for like 500, slap your shit back on and go again. It is a cheap way to have fun, but opening up an LS motor to change pistons and do rodbolts...just dumb. Don't even open it up. Run till it blows and buy another. Otherwise stick with gsr/type r foundation.
itzrivera
Member
Talking value for dollar, where are you assuming the gsr is sourced from? Hmo? Cause those go for 3500+I was judging the age based on the avatar which shows a 94-97. And from sounds of it he hasn't rebuilt it.
Haha man I wish that was the case. I didn't cheap out on any of my builds, especially the first round. So I don't assume money was the reason mine failed. Trust was. I trusted their spec sheet instead of checking myself. I just think logically, value for the dollar that modding an LS motor is silly. You could buy a gsr swap, and sell the LS to make up some of that coin. The money out of pocket in the end will only be a few hundred and you'll already be stronger and faster...just saying. Better foundation to build on.
When in doubt go with what honda did. Thats my logic really.
I will say this though, if you blow the LS motor you can just buy another one for like 500, slap your s*** back on and go again. It is a cheap way to have fun, but opening up an LS motor to change pistons and do rodbolts...just dumb. Don't even open it up. Run till it blows and buy another. Otherwise stick with gsr/type r foundation.
ArmyIntegra
Registered Teg Driver
Someone needs to sweet talk Steve for me..3500 is for the ITR swap with trans....not sure where you got your pricing. lol ITR longblock from HMO can be had for 2700. Probably even less if you sweet talk Steve a little bit.
itzrivera
Member
Let's say $2500. You're starting at 185 to the wheels? Then the cost to get anywhere near 225 to the wheels will prob put you over $3500. He might as well buy an eBay turbo, throw it on the ls, beat the shit out of it and then buy another $300 ls when it blows up. That's well under the cost of a stock gsr, for more power. Bang for a buck
Nick_C78
New Member
I believe I already said that....my whole argument is that building up the ls motor itself is dumb. I said previously...in a post you quoted...that if he does the ls turbo to just not open up the motor. Run till it blows then buy another.
Also gsr for 2500 comes with gsr trans....just throwing that tid bit out there.
Also gsr for 2500 comes with gsr trans....just throwing that tid bit out there.
Aussie
Zoom-Zoom
Sorry if that came out wrong but I wasn't trying to say that your builds were bad or cheap, just that I know you had bad luck with them, and a lot of other people have had bad luck with builds. Majority of builds that get done on these cars are cheap, so the chances of having a "cheap" build go bad is high, which is why cheap builds get a bad name!I was judging the age based on the avatar which shows a 94-97. And from sounds of it he hasn't rebuilt it.
Haha man I wish that was the case. I didn't cheap out on any of my builds, especially the first round. So I don't assume money was the reason mine failed. Trust was. I trusted their spec sheet instead of checking myself. I just think logically, value for the dollar that modding an LS motor is silly. You could buy a gsr swap, and sell the LS to make up some of that coin. The money out of pocket in the end will only be a few hundred and you'll already be stronger and faster...just saying. Better foundation to build on.
When in doubt go with what honda did. Thats my logic really.
I will say this though, if you blow the LS motor you can just buy another one for like 500, slap your s*** back on and go again. It is a cheap way to have fun, but opening up an LS motor to change pistons and do rodbolts...just dumb. Don't even open it up. Run till it blows and buy another. Otherwise stick with gsr/type r foundation.
Anyway, NO I definitely would NOT open an LS for anything other than basic maintenance. YES I agree with you 100% that throwing rods, pistons, cams, and any other parts at an LS is a waste of money. Not that it's a bad motor, but for resale you'll have an easier time getting your money out of a built up VTEC motor. But if your stock LS runs fine, spending $2000 and piecing together a small turbo kit for it correctly is perfectly acceptable and reliable if done correctly. I've done it, friends have done it, hundreds if not thousands more have done it.
My friend Joe had 60-70k miles on his turbo LS, he bought the car new in 2000 and and we turbo'd it in 2002, off the shelf turbonetics kit, sold it in 2006; zero problems. On the other extreme I turbo'd a 91 4dr LS, stock LS motor with 170k on it, drove it for 20k miles, zero problems, built the shit out of an LS motor for it, bigger turbo, blew it up in a year.
I think turboing a stock LS or GSR/ITR motor is more reliable than any build, you're not gonna touch the power with a N/A vtec motor unless you throw about $4-5k in it, and it won't be anywhere near as reliable as a stock small turbo motor. Plus you're right, vtec motors are expensive, and when you break one it's costly. Chances are you'll fuck something up, and fucking up a $500 motor can be cured with a 6 pack.
itzrivera
Member
Oh, ok. I thought I saw you say not to turbo b/c of reliability, in another post. I deff agree with the not opening up an ls, not worth it at all. Even a gsr, I wouldn't build for a daily driver cause the value of the dollar can go further else where.
I hope k swap parts end up getting cheaper soon. Seeing as how a k24 can be picked up for just over 1k, that would deff be the best value. But since everything other than the motor is so expenSive, it's not exactly worth it just yet for a teg
I hope k swap parts end up getting cheaper soon. Seeing as how a k24 can be picked up for just over 1k, that would deff be the best value. But since everything other than the motor is so expenSive, it's not exactly worth it just yet for a teg