Still gotta sell the car, it's almost done

 

Being in a pretty intense school myself, I know what you are dealing with. You simply can't put any time into a car period during the school year. (Im an aero at cal poly).
I'd recommend keeping at it. You'll regret selling it after you got this far. Worst case scenario prepare to not have a car... just kinda accept not being able to drive, try to get a beater or a bike for a little or use dreaded public transport. It will be worth it.
I'd recommend just running low boost with a good tune on the stock block, and then get another block (you can get them pretty cheap, I paid less than 300$ for mine) and have a shop build it up for you (if you can afford it). Or if you can't afford it, put one together sporadically when you have time.
Whatever you do, don't go for the immediate solutions; ie sell the car and buy a different one. You will just regret it. If you are anything like me (another kid/person in college building his car), you will regret selling the car even for a bmw or nsx or viper.
You'd need immense performance (911 turbo, gallardo, gtr, r8 etc) to be sustainably happy coming off a modified Z.
If you can get a car that will hold its value, has a really nice fit and finish and can make huge power with bolt ons: that would work. Although that could work, for that money you could just have a shop button up the car for you while at school.

 

Put a stock engine in and be happy with 400hp.

 

ya, i have a bike and my truck i drive. I'm just sick of pouring more and more into this car. I'm ready to have a nice stock car i won't mess with.

selling the car for another really isn't an immediate solution. I've been thinking about all the trouble i put into this car ever since i started grad school. My heart just isn't into working on cars anymore. It's starting to get to be a huge chore and stress and not fun like when i had it first built before school. I still had to work on it then but i enjoyed it. Now it's just become a nightmare.

HP really isn't the issue for me. If i want to go fast i'll hop on my sub 9 second r1. I built this car to enjoy and have fun not for just raw hp.

I hate walking away from it but at some point it's always just one more thing with a modified car that is going to break and that annoys me. Every time that happens it's another 6 months waiting. I've missed 2 summers of car fun now because this thing seems to always have an issue.

 

I feel you, I am one small failure away from a part out myself. I need the back seat for kids so I was thinking M3 or a early 2000s porche. No kids.... NSX although the lack of power worries me as well C6 Z06s have been catching my eye a lot lately as well. The part out does seem intimidating though.

Good luck with what ever you decide, I am currently running my stock block again and I don't mind it at all!!

 

C6 Vette! FTW! Enough with the toy cars!

 

i have about 5 friends with c6 z06's and they are truthfully boring cars stock. I don't mean they don't have power but seriously, 5 people in just my close ring of friends have them and there are hundreds of them around this area. I do'nt think i've ever left my house to go somewhere and not seen one.

That being the case (common in this area) i would want to mod it to make it different....and that goes against my not wanting to screw with things moto. Plus i can just borrow my friend Frank's 08 z06 anytime i felt like it if i really wanted to drive it around. It was fun taking it for a spin a few times but i don't think i'd really feel like i have a sweet car. I truthfully feel more unique in a boosted stock block g35.

strong cars though, i'll never take that away from them.

 

Im actually picking up a viper next year ive always loved the older models, and even more the white version with the blue stripes..

i say buy the viper

 

i live in st.louis as well. i agree with so many of the things that have been said in this post. these are the same thoughts that go through my head all day. the point of no return (that i thought) was the last straw, was only to be followed by two more. as far as the somewhat fast stock car that is reliable, it will only stay that way for a little while. our minds start to wander and the next thing we realize is that we are at our first point of no return only on a different car. at the end of the day, it is still pretty awesome to have that ear to ear smile from your car surprising you in the way you forgot it could from being on those jack stands. and that you have come this far, why turn back now. i love my 600whp dyno dynamics e85 car. i just dont love the route that i took to get there, but i learned from it though. finish it the way you first intended the car to be.

 

Ah yeah I see where you're coming from now. With a full stable like that () I can understand what you want.
If you're not looking for super performance, why not just run stock block setup? Get a real good tune, a bit of meth/water injection and a simple fuel system, 420ish whp and call it a day?

I've actually really considered doing this setup; vortech with pully, utec, 255, meth +water, cams, megan long tubes, shockwave dual, nice clutch, r888 tires, nice body kit and call it a day. That way you get a really nice sounding car with some reasonable power.
Just listen to this sh*t. Tell me it doesn't make you drool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtbMXhCsYUw
Maybe add in some weight reduction. In general keep the car simple and very 'super sports' focused.

 

I dont know. I'd probably just buy a cheap short block core and get it machined. YOu can get a core for like 400$ or less. probably 300$ in machining, drop your old parts back in.

Your heads are already complete. Doesnt sound like you'd need much work after the machine shop.

Otherwise, just drop your stock block back in, trade out for a 6265 and run that.

 

I'd say i'm in agreement here with Rich on this one. If you have the know how, and resources to finish it up yourself, I would...

Simply put, everything else was fine minus the threadings for your L19's, get a shortbloock, and swap over, fortunately you don't have to start from scratch... I think that there are some valid points in this thread, but to part it all out, and buy another platform is a big headache, unless you have your heart set out on something else.

Whatever you choose man, best of luck!

 

Thanks for the words everyone. All these things stated are going through my head. I think at the very least the stock block is going back in until the winter.

Resmarted: I already have a ***** to the wall e85 setup so no worries on thay.

Rich, ive thought about parting the heads and using that money to fund the new built block. For the mid 600ho on e85 do u think I vb would evem need thr heads? This way im basically breaking even so I dont have to invest more into this car. I just sold my backup block last thursday to a local also. I even pondered starting fresh and just doing the IP shortblock and.selling my arias pistons and rods so itll be starting from fresh again. Or just keep my crank, rods, and pistons and have a local shop machine the block for the pistons? Thoughs?

 

i wouldnt fuss with selling your internals. you know the history and they are fine. seriously give Sharif or any of the shops a ring as they have cores laying all over the place

Just get a new core machined for the pistons. At most you'll need new bearing for the clearances. Sucks since you get a real winter, so your months to drive are getting numbered. At this stage, unless you could get a machine shop to do all the work in a short amount of time, maybe just save the motor rebuild for a winter project and just throw in the stocker.

That turbo kit is easy to install and you could put the stock motor back in in a few hours. Just leave radiator, intercooler, etc all attached to the front clip. Thats what I did and just moved the entire front as 1 piece. saved tons of time.

 

front clip is intacted and waiting to go back on! I took your advice on the teardown with keeping it together. Either way stocker is going back in because i'm going to at least drive this thing sometime in 2011.

So even with 15k on the pistons you would say just throw them in a new block? The machine shop said they had some wear but looked ok so they honed the cylinders and filed some new rings for me.

If i put new pistons in i would have to get everything rebalanced wouldn't i?

I'm slowly becoming optimistic now. 400ish hp until the winter (hell, i was only driving my built block on a 450hp tune last year anyways) then do the rebuild slowly while i can still go to car meets.

rich, Do you really think i would need new bearings? I just put acl std sized race bearings in these. Should I keep the crank that i have now since i just had it polished instead of using the crank from the core?

slyvan lake: answer your pm's, i asked about your stock block power.

 

I happen to have a built shortblock for sale, id let it go for cheap

 

Sorry I have been at the beach in Florida, on wife ordered no Internet access

 

Yes, with new pistons you will have to get the assembly rebalanced unless you got new pistons that matched exactly the same to the current ones. Not worth it if the pistons look good.

 

Jeff - Gord's G is a mutant and runs on some crazy Canadian Voodoo... I'm pretty sure he has to sacrifice small animals to keep it running at the power level he's at on the stock block.

 

Canadian Voodoo and small animals shipped to 11413. pleeeease.


edit:

Cass, I like the new sig