Engine rebuild opinions please

[dac69er]

I've now decided it is time to give my starlet an engine rebuild.

It has no problems other than a niggling issue with the oil pressure, that may or may not be me being paranoid.

Anyway; my plan was to fully forge the engine and go to town on it. I'm also going to stick a quaife diff in the box whilst I am at it

My conundrum is that I don't really plan on changing the turbo from the hybrid ct9 it has now. Biggest turbo I would go is td04 if I was going to change it in the future. I am more than happy with sub 300bhp, 200-250 is ample on back roads imo.

Ignoring the cost point for the moment. Is it worth the effort to forge it for my end goal? What would I gain by forging it rather than a stock rebuild? What would I lose by forging it?

I have some other questions relating to other engine related mods I am looking at doing, but I will leave those questions for later

Fire away at me, I want as much info and feedback from others that I can get....

 

[the toffinator]

All being well a well built stock rod efte with a PROPER Ecu setup, IE Nice torque curve, no knock etc should last a long time at mid 200s.
Its a shame there is no reasoably priced pistons around, i noticed a chinese company selling both pistons and rods the other day but cant find them now.
There was talk back in the day of 1NZ/2NZ-FE Pistons and cheap (Maxspeeding) rods being a solid and reasonably priced combo.

A good forged build will increase reliability, at the end of the day the components are at the least fairly well used now, and a lighter, stronger rod and piston combo is a win win.

Downside is always the money!

 

[SKINY]

This is exactly what I'm thinking for when I eventually get mine sorted and on the road. I have the tf035 kit sitting there and it should do 200/220 ish hp.
I was thinking fuck it forge it too but would it really need forged for that hp ?
Mine ran absolutely spot on for 2 years straight with 150psi across the board, not a kick in the arse away from the factory spec, no1 suspect is gummy rings as it never showed any other symptoms, it's started and ran weekly and never any issues.
I'm thinking now leave as is and get it on the road to enjoy it.
But it will need a refresh, so at least bottom end bearings and rings, providing everything else is still within the factory specs. I don't plan on shooting for the stars on the HP chart but I would like a nice safe setup for 200ish HP that's going to be reliable fir a daily driven hard daily

 

[dac69er]

All I did on my other GTs was more of a refresh of everything and they are still running great. One is pretty stock and the other is running td04.

I like the idea of forging and going to town. Money isn't really a concern, to a point of course.
I just don't want to waste time doing it if it's not going to gain me anything or actually end up worse for what I plan to want out of the engine.

My other thoughts are, now is the time to do it whilst I can still get parts. Wait too much longer and I may not have a choice!!!

 

[Djaniero]

If your going to the trouble of rebuilding the engine @dac69er , it makes sense to forge and future proof yourself for further down the line, in the event that you crave for more power imo.
I really regret not forging mine when I had it rebuilt, as I thought td04 at 1 bar would be ample for my needs. However I'm now craving for more . I know some of the overseas members have run some pretty impressive figures on non-forged 4e's over the years, but it I can only assume UK tuners map on side of caution instead.
If money isn't so much of a concern, I can only see benefits of going forged.

 

[dac69er]

I have concerns with things like rod weight, piston design affecting cr and head gasket thicknesses.

If for example I reduce the cr ( which most forged builds would end up doing to some degree) I would sacrifice off boost performance. As the car is relatively low power, that would make it less fun to drive.

I'm really not that fussed about much more power. I've not needed it in the last 15 years and I'm getting old now, so can't see myself wanting anything too extreme.

 

[WhiteOverGoldMK1GT]

rebuild it to oem Specs. as i have learned, dont fuck with things that dont need to be meddled with, like mine, your engine is likely high mileage at this rate, but i suppose you guys have decent mechanics over there, so forging might be best?

 

[SKINY]

But then I'm thinking while it's apart why not go forged pistons and rods, then your future proof if more power is wanted down the line, the kit from Idress is around 1300 notes, pumps, belts, gaskets etc

 

[dac69er]

rebuild it to oem Specs. as i have learned, dont fuck with things that dont need to be meddled with, like mine, your engine is likely high mileage at this rate, but i suppose you guys have decent mechanics over there, so forging might be best?

It's done about 70k miles as I don't use it very often.

I will be doing all the work myself apart from the machining

 

[WhiteOverGoldMK1GT]

It's done about 70k miles as I don't use it very often.

I will be doing all the work myself apart from the machining

you should be fine

 

[dac69er]

But then I'm thinking while it's apart why not go forged pistons and rods, then your future proof if more power is wanted down the line, the kit from Idress is around 1300 notes, pumps, belts, gaskets etc

That was my original thought.

In just worried with lower cr (unless it is easy to retian stock cr) and potentially heavier bottom end components, I may lose some of the charm of the 4efte at the expense of better potential top end performance if I ever wanted it.

If that is not an issue, that's fine. I just want to make the best call