Engine opened - things to do performance wise?

EURO · Post by **EURO** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 2:41 pm

I am getting my half moon seals replaced.... as they are leaking oil! because the cams have to come out (i think) what modifications are worth doing at this time?

My car is fairly stock at the moment in regards to performance modifications... , only ARC intake pipe and pod filter. but I felt if the engine is opened up it might be a good time to start changing a few things...

I mentioned changing the TB but the mechanic felt the best thing to do first was to machine out the intake manifold and gasket....

anything else people might recommend , im not after doing cams etc, just small gains that will add up eventually.

Craig at revzone is doing the work on the seals.

bigpitty1 · Post by **bigpitty1** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:20 am

well with the engine out of the car get a heavy duty clutch of even an LSD if you feel like but you got to get the gearbox pulled apart aswell.
Also you can get the heads ported and polished, you will get some gain from that.

poster · Post by **poster** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:15 am

how about the tappets......
my fto is very sick right now and been in the workshop for awhile now...and its all because of the tappets been too loss or something -.-

SG · Post by SG » Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:48 pm

raise compression a bit

bigpitty1 · Post by **bigpitty1** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 7:11 pm

get oversized valves.

Jase · Post by **Jase** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:04 am

Get a real good head job, cams and tb.

Post by **Bennoz** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:09 am

Jase wrote:Get a real good head job

Thats what I was going to say - just worded slightly different

How much are you willing to spend Dave? You've got the air intake you may as well complete the intake cycle all the way from TB to combustion chambers. Get the TB bored & machined with larger butterfly, have the intake & plenum machined out to suit. If the heads are off get them done - ports machined out & polished, as mentioned above you could try & see what larger valves could be fitted, perhaps a few thou machined off the deck height to bring compression up, perhaps some heavy duty double vavle springs to increase valve operating speed.

The next time I have to take my heads off, I was going to explore all these avenues. Im not 100% sure which of the above can be done, but im sure a good machine shop will be able to tell you.

Cams remain & bit of a $$$'ey mystery at the moment unfortunately

EURO · Post by **EURO** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 2:13 pm

yeah, craig said cams would be a great option but wasnt really aware of what was available for the FTO.

Due to the fact I am trying to be responsible? with my money lol, i am only really doing things to my car when something breaks.... e.g. someone smashed my front bumper so i bought the facelift kit etc etc... cluitch when so i bought a heavy duty one etc...

I guess I was mainly looking at small things within the engine, Throttle body etc rather then cams and im assuming even a port and polish would cost me big dollars..... becuase I havent even got extractors or a cat back exhaust i think these should be my first option but just realised it may be financial intelligent haha to do some small mods whilst the engine was in bits.

khunjeng · Post by **khunjeng** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 3:22 pm

really all the things mentioned can be done...but once you start your can't stop...I mean port/polish the heads...but you also should do you manifold/tb..then values and springs..then the rods...cams...yeah...the list goes on and on...they will all be good mods but in the end of the day all those things together are gonna cost u a lot of $$...you might as well just get a better engine...

I would make sure u have the car "breathing" nicely before doing any major engine mods...as you wont get the gains you expect for your $$$$$'s

Assuming you want a NA car:
1. Get the cat back system and your CAI system working and boxed...
2. Go some extractors
3. emanage/piggy back to fix your AFR and tune it a bit better
4. Major engine mods....

1-3 will cost you around $3k. Well thats what its cost me recently.