Coming home from Ocala today I get on it pretty hard, everything seems cool, and as I'm slowing down I start to notice a heavy clatter around 3k. The clatter doesn't seem to be even though, it seems to be fading in and out so I limp the car home. As soon as I get in the carport it stalls out on me. I let it sit to cool down for a few minutes, go out and start it up (it fought me but finally started and stayed running) but when I rev it, theres that rod bearing noise right around 3k. Temperature was fine when this happened as was oil pressure, but I'm sure its a rod bearing its the same noise my KA made when I bought the car before it threw a rod, and the same noise my first SR made on startup day. So this is the 3rd engine in the car now.

What should I do?

Should I save up and rebuild and upgrade the SR with the spun bearing on my porch?
Should I do a factory rebuild on the SR on my Porch?
Should I just buy another longblock?
Should I say fuck it and just part out the car?

Money is tight right now, I don't have another car to drive, this car already had close to 400hp, cams, GT2871R, Intake manifold, etc so I don't know that a stock rebuild is a good choice but I can't really afford to drop in new pistons/rods etc at the moment.

 

Do a budget rebuild like I did.
CP pistons $400
Bearings $180
Block machining $120
Misc. seals, gaskets, & fluids $100
So for $800 I got a rebuilt bottom end to handle 600hp and I only had a week of down time.

 

goodluck finding pistons for that price, and block machining for that price. i usually spend 800 on my machine work. eek. but i'm crazy.

 

I think Matt is right on about finding the pistons for that price. Thats about $100 lower than I've seen them anywhere other than Ebay. As for the Machine work, that also seems really really cheap to me. I had just a head done a while back and paid $200 to reseat the valves, clean it up, and install new seals. Can't imagine that decking a block, honing/boring, hot tanking, cleaning, etc is cheaper than a head. I also can't imagine that there are too many machinists out there that have a torque plate for an SR20DET either.

 

oops those were my prices. but anyhow do a budget rebuild like I did.

 

You can get Wiseco pistons for a great price. Never had any problems with them. Like Matt said though. Machine work will set you back a couple dollars. Well worth it though. Good luck on everything

 

Why not just replace the bearings and maybe have the crank turned if needed?Then run less boost until you have every thing in order to build
it the way you want.

 

i say a new longblock with new bearings. You can find long blocks for fairly cheap, and if the pistons aren't messed up...why replace them? but if you plan on running 400+hp on them they will need replacing to be reliable. IMO

 

The same thing happened to me a while back. I learned form my experence so now i can help you out. Buy the long block and just replace it. If i could go back in time thats what i would have done.

 

Ding ding ding. We have a winner!

Close runner up!


If you're beating up bearings, having a built motor isn't going to help you. First you need to figure out why you ate a bearing. I pulled the bearings out of the 539whp/412tq Trogdor motor (stock shortblock) and the bearings were absolutely perfect. The stock longblock is good for 300tq all day long as long as you're not detonating, keep it under 95*C, and have oil in it. I don't see anything more than 330tq in your setup at 20psi, either. Just slap some grade 0's in the motor and replace the crank with a junkyard sr20de unit if necessary. Done. If you want to spend a few bucks, grab a longblock and swap everything over.