I told myself when I bought this car that I was NOT going to catch the aftermarket/tuner bug.. ONE WEEK later and I am craving more! I've sit here every night now for a week and have read through many posts trying to grasp a hold and get myself familiar with the many, many options available with what I can do to make this car more superior than it already is..

damn you all for putting together such a great community rich in information that has helped me become this monster I am slowing but surely becoming..

Now, to the point of my post..

I don't have much knowledge in the hobby of cars as far as modding and such.. I am however pushing to learn more as I go along.. I bought an 03 Redline here last Saturday that came with a ATI Procharger already installed. I am loving every minute of it to date.. Last night a friend of mine whom I don't talk to as much came around to check out my car as he heard of my new toy through the grapevine.. He owns a body shop and has many connections with spare parts and such.. He mentioned to me that he had an extra motor and transmission that came out of a wrecked 04 Z.. 4K miles. Before the conversation was over with, he agreed to sell me them for cheap (REAL cheap) as he wanted it out of his shop.

My thought behind all of this is what to do with this new motor I have. My car currently has 40k miles on the motor. I love the idea that I now have a complete extra motor to drop into this in the event something should happen.. but what has also started flowing through my spirited veins is the idea of building this used motor into a daily driven 600WHP+ Z that will kill the avg street car..

Would it be cheaper to take down this motor and have it built from ground up, or to look into getting a built long block and swapping in this one as the core?

My current tranny is MT, the extra one I bought is AT, would it make more sense to go with AT once the motor is built? Or is this going to just be a personal preference?

My goal is to build a reliable car in the end… if there is such a term with building motors in this fashion. This isn’t my only vehicle so I am not worried about the down time, but I do want something that is going to last.. so maybe over doing some of the internals might help extend the life of the motor?

This will be an on going process that may take anywhere from 5-6 months at least. I am going to be asking lots of questions as I go along. But to start, I just wanted to hear everyone’s input on the basic question of either working with what I have or going after a long block assembly.

Any and all info is greatly appreciated as always…

 

Ditto...








Sorry, no idea on the rest of it. Not knowing what to do with a spare engine = Good problem to have... Good Luck!

 

5 months into owning my G35 Coupe (same engine/drivetrain/chassis as a Z) and I am eating my "I am planning on keeping this car stock" statement I made when I bought it.

Anyway... extra motor....

How much are you "expecting" to spend on your project? That is going to be your biggest decision maker. If you want to try something unique, build it with a stroker kit, some wicked heads, and then slap a TT on top. That'll get you well above 600 whp. I say unique because there are very few people who do anything to increase the displacement of their engines. Or you could skip the TT and put a 200-300 shot of nitrous.

I can't really tell you much about what to do with your tranny. Keep in mind that this whole platform is still relatively new and there are still a lot of things being learned/discovered concerning power handling capabilities of these drivetrains.

 

welcome to the club

no advice, but am intested to see what you come up with.

 

I would just use the extra motor as a core on a build from GTM. It is just easier and for the pricing, it just isnt' worth the time to build it yourself.

To get some serious power, you will need to swap out the SC for a twin setup. Don't even consider swaping to the AT tranny. They won't handle much beyond 350-400 whp. I would sell the auto and use the money to buy a decent clutch for your 6spd

 

I purchased my car with the full intent of TT'ing it. ....fast forward 2.5 years and over $20k later, not even close to being done yet it seems (everything has been extremely progressive...my motor isn't even built yet). Its hard to have a car that is so mod'able and not have an open-ended project.

Basically what i'm getting at is...take you time, think everything through before you pull the trigger, and you will end up happy.

As far as what you should do about the engine/tranny that you bought, I would suggest using the engine as a core for a motorbuild (so you won't have as much downtime) and sell the AT tranny to help pay for some of the motorbuild costs. But you haven't had the car long, so just keep doing some research until you are positive with your decision. There is a ton of great info on this forum and an equal number of members to help you out.

 

sell the AT trans. and keep the engine u can drive ur car every day and mean while u will b moding ur second 1 and once its done then just mounted on and have fun in this way u didnt have to stop ur car for a month or so till its done good luck and wellcome to the club...

 

If you really like cars and want to learn, why don't you build the engine yourself? That's what I did with my Vette. I assembled the engine in my bedroom of my old apartment and installed it in the parking lot. It was a lot of fun, and you don't have any pressure of worrying if some other idiot will mess it up (you only have to worry about yourself ). Anybody can do it with the right tools and motivation to learn what you are doing and why. It's really not as hard as some people make it out to be as long as you're patient and ask a lot of questions.

 

well.. my motor died this weekend.. long story, posted the haps on the FI forum here.. so what I decided to do was take my 2nd motor with 4K miles on it and have it dropped in my car.. minus the SC. Ridin stock for now but this is fine.. The one I take out will be used as a core.. I will get ahold of a 500-600HP shortblock from SBG or GTM and go from there.. gonna research the TT kits out here and see what I can come up with..

should be interesting.. being that I know squat about them... but hey, everyone was in my shoes at some point, and it helps to have the abundance of info available out there for research..