I ran hypatecs at 460rwkw..over 10yrs ago.. Ive also ran stock pistons..but only at 300rwkw ..whats stronger fark knows. But stock pistons are good for 9's with no detonation.. They are strong.. But if you change pistons..you might as well build motor, theres at least $2500..if you can do everything yourself. If you use stock pistons..you can just shim the na pump and put a MLS headgasket in it and headstuds and then see how you go.. On a budget id do that what the worst that can happen..need another $500 bottom end.. It just comes down to the general condition of stock motor..atm we have a Rb25 neo..with studs and headgasket..apart from that its stock..its run 31psi for 2.5yrs so far..on e85 doesnt use a drop of oil either or breath at all. It gets thrashed aswell in a 1800kg car.. It all a bit of luck and good tune. The main problem with Rb30s is they travelled alot of kms', and most now havnt been serviced well by now as 31s/vls are worth **** all, the only good point is they aint turbo so they havnt copped all that combustion pressure abuse either..lol cheers darren

I wouldn't waste time with a hiflow. You can buy a gt35/40 setup on a std manifold for a steal these days. You will build a motor eventually and want more power so no point having to buy another turbo down the track. Ask anyone on here, you start with a hi-flow setup on 98, change to a 35/40 on e85 then you had a gt42. That's the way it goes. Well at least for myself and the people I know. Its good to have a budget now, but you should also look at the big picture. I wish I did.

Jet r31 and Alistair on the money! It's all in the tune!! Allan on here runs a stock bottem end with a commetic gasket makes 400kw, the only advice I can give is the poor man pays twice! In saying that my car runs 10:3 @129mph on a old LT8 microtech ecu and was second hand however a lot of 2nd hand parts I did buy off gumtree and eBay I replaced eventually, And as for the original question with turbos I had a gt35 proboost was a cheap unit and went 10s no dramas at all good bang for buck and was cheaper than getting my t3 high flowed , go see a tuner or shop and get advice from them u can buy all the parts in the world and get a heap of advice from here but they will b tuning it so see what they recommend ,

Yep highflow..gt35 ..gt42 then regret gt42 is how it usually goes..lol 67-70 mm turbos ftw.. cheers Darren

If you're on a tight budget why go microtech? A Nistune board costs $250.

Quote: Originally Posted by Flexy [View Post] If you're on a tight budget why go microtech? A Nistune board costs $250. My tuner advised I get a microtech... I've read pick your tuner then the computer so followed that I'm gonna wire it up myself. Hopefully when I get to that staged someone can guide me lol

Add r35 gtr or z32 afm to that..for nistune Then add in thde fact the loom is old as my grandpa..if you have problems and cant Trace it yourself..your ****ed Cheers Darren

Quote: Originally Posted by Jet R31 [View Post] Add r35 gtr or z32 afm to that..for nistune Then add in thde fact the loom is old as my grandpa..if you have problems and cant Trace it yourself..your ****ed Cheers Darren Agreed the loom is 30years old and will have its own dramas and a nistune still runs a afm meter so add a good one on top of cost, imo it will only do u for so long then u will have to upgrade, my microtech was $400 with loom Ecu,s come up cheap enough if your patient if your tuner says microtech get one, I went to a tuner that had no idea with my ecu and it cost me a bottom end and a head gasket, there is cheap and then being a tight ass u have to find that limit

Quote: Originally Posted by dougall83 [View Post] Agreed the loom is 30years old and will have its own dramas and a nistune still runs a afm meter so add a good one on top of cost, imo it will only do u for so long then u will have to upgrade, my microtech was $400 with loom Ecu,s come up cheap enough if your patient if your tuner says microtech get one, I went to a tuner that had no idea with my ecu and it cost me a bottom end and a head gasket, there is cheap and then being a tight ass u have to find that limit Danny Bresciani will tune the car, if my car was my life id trust him With my life. I can get a nistune but when I called to ask about tuning it the guy at nistune told me vl ECU is 30 years old and he doesn't know how long it will hold up. I've purchased a na loom, can't I rewire it ? It's not about being a tight ass. This thread is more of a challenge and hopefully help someone in the process when building a vl. It could blow on the dyno, and that's ok it's a learning curve. But someone will read this and someone will understand the process from start to finish.

seeing as the decompression plate costs about the same as the low compression pistons and your going to take the head of anyway i would just get the pistons , then a new set of standard spec main and conrod bearings go for $100 , quick grind lighten and polish on the standard rods and port match on the intake side of the head. all things you can do yourself in a day and you can get a new z 80mm afm for $80 you will be laughing. that is just what i would personally do on a tight budget then buy a proper brand name turbo. i dont see the point of spending $1000 + on a ecu if you are only going for 300kw obviously its your car at the end of the and you can go in whatever direction you want good 2nd hand parts do pop up for cheap all the time aswell but you do spend a lot of time praying and refreshing gumtree

Quote: Originally Posted by mattlads [View Post] seeing as the decompression plate costs about the same as the low compression pistons and your going to take the head of anyway i would just get the pistons , then a new set of standard spec main and conrod bearings go for $100 , quick grind lighten and polish on the standard rods and port match on the intake side of the head. all things you can do yourself in a day and you can get a new z 80mm afm for $80 you will be laughing. that is just what i would personally do on a tight budget then buy a proper brand name turbo. i dont see the point of spending $1000 + on a ecu if you are only going for 300kw obviously its your car at the end of the and you can go in whatever direction you want good 2nd hand parts do pop up for cheap all the time aswell but you do spend a lot of time praying and refreshing gumtree I'm honestly thinking of running high comp until it blows. Then decude what I will do next. If I'm gonna change the Pistons I might as well do everything else and it will just be snowball effect. I've read so many people have achieved 300rwkw with a stock na bottom end so I'll give it a crack and see how long it lasts. I found a company selling JE forgies for $800 including rings etc, so that could be a possibility. I'll see how I go once it's tuned and decide what I'll do next

You don't need to lower the comp regardless of what you do with it (my opinion). The quality of fuel now is a lot better than it was in the late 80's when these things were built. A lot of motors run up around 9:1 these days. Will drive better off boost and still make bulk power..

Upon doing some research I found this on another forum More news just in guys. After speaking to a friend who is the QLD distributor for RAJAB, and also owns a VL turbo, he has started building a new bottom end, with NA PISTONS!!! Rajab are helping with the build, and they state that the NA pistons are actually STRONGER than the turbo version, with a thicker crown, and some may remember their red VL from zoom that had stock rods and NA pistons in it, and ran a 9.86@138ish MPH. They advise exactly as I did above, that of the use of the thicker Cometic head gasket, and very good tuning. So I guess that dispells some of the truths about being weaker, and I highly doubt that they are feeding their only QLD distributor, and possibly 2nd or 3rd fastest VL in QLD when finished, full of **** about things such as this. Cheers.....................6BOOST Any truth to this? The more I research the more i find $1200 on a set of forgies isn't really a necessity. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

N/a bottom end will last..... for a short period of time. I suppose at the end of the day it comes down to money. You either spend a little more now for a reliable bottom end, or you spend a lot more later when you melt a piston and pieces of that piston go through and damage your turbo and other components.

Quote: Originally Posted by melbv [View Post] Upon doing some research I found this on another forum More news just in guys. After speaking to a friend who is the QLD distributor for RAJAB, and also owns a VL turbo, he has started building a new bottom end, with NA PISTONS!!! Rajab are helping with the build, and they state that the NA pistons are actually STRONGER than the turbo version, with a thicker crown, and some may remember their red VL from zoom that had stock rods and NA pistons in it, and ran a 9.86@138ish MPH. They advise exactly as I did above, that of the use of the thicker Cometic head gasket, and very good tuning. So I guess that dispells some of the truths about being weaker, and I highly doubt that they are feeding their only QLD distributor, and possibly 2nd or 3rd fastest VL in QLD when finished, full of **** about things such as this. Cheers.....................6BOOST Any truth to this? The more I research the more i find $1200 on a set of forgies isn't really a necessity. Welcome to the 1990's..lol, its not the strength..its the age of the motors now, piston crowns might be strong..but bearings are ****ed... that motor you talk about is probally ONC16..it ran 9's in street trim..pretty sure its still going..user name on here is exchaser..do a search.. You probally dont realise..but in the 90's..before forgies where made for everything of the shelf.. na vl pistons got jammed in a lot of 4cyls for drag racing with a few mods to the pin ...L series dattos..gemini motors etc..all with 30-40psi jammed in them..was very common a lot of those rajab cars ran stock pistons..with h beam rods...45psi for 9's on Ta45 and t66 turbos ..thank **** turbo tech has improved..lol 2jz probally arent busting out 1000rwhp anymore either( or they never where..lol) ...to many km's now on those motors now..the rich ****s back then where using pristine one owner 10,000 mile (16,000km old) supras to set these benchmarks.. cheers darren Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jet R31 [View Post] Welcome to the 1990's..lol, its not the strength..its the age of the motors now, piston crowns might be strong..but bearings are ****ed... that motor you talk about is probally ONC16..it ran 9's in street trim..pretty sure its still going..user name on here is exchaser..do a search.. You probally dont realise..but in the 90's..before forgies where made for everything of the shelf.. na vl pistons got jammed in a lot of 4cyls for drag racing with a few mods to the pin ...L series dattos..gemini motors etc..all with 30-40psi jammed in them..was very common a lot of those rajab cars ran stock pistons..with h beam rods...45psi for 9's on Ta45 and t66 turbos ..thank **** turbo tech has improved..lol 2jz probally arent busting out 1000rwhp anymore either( or they never where..lol) ...to many km's now on those motors now..the rich ****s back then where using pristine one owner 10,000 mile (16,000km old) supras to set these benchmarks.. cheers darren A friend of mine had vl Pistons in a Gemini running 30psi which i recently found out. Another friend had his na bottom end "reconditioned" and is running low 10's. I found forgies for 800 and the difference in price between forgies and a good set of cast. Pistons is about $500 so probably worth the peace of mind.

Cool...what happened to 6k budget Theres no room for any engine building with that budget.... cheers darren

Quote: Originally Posted by Jet R31 [View Post] Cool...what happened to 6k budget Theres no room for any engine building with that budget.... cheers darren Hey Darren, including car, turbo, ECU, injectors, fuel rail, plenum, exhaust, manifold, ice ignition setup I'm only $3300 into the budget. Ive found an engine reco place up the road that will clean hone etc and put it back together for $500 if I pull it apart and buy the parts, balancing $240. But this will only be done when the engine blows (if it does). I do want to invest in a new radiator, oil cooler and other essentials just to reduce the risk of blowing the motor. Where I can see it getting out of hand will be the ECU wirring and tune as I don't want to Take any shortcuts with the tune. Well wirring I'm hoping someone here has done it themselves and can give me a bit of a run through so I can do it myself.

Bud my convertor, tail shaft , and transmission was 6k and fuel system around 4K I'd have close to 40k into my Calais it seems u are well over complicating a budget build There r plenty of n/a motors and comp motors running 10,s

Quote: Originally Posted by dougall83 [View Post] Bud my convertor, tail shaft , and transmission was 6k and fuel system around 4K I'd have close to 40k into my Calais it seems u are well over complicating a budget build There r plenty of n/a motors and comp motors running 10,s Hey, yeah possibly. But I think I'll have enough money in the budget to rebuild the motor so exploring my options. Time will tell.