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It has about 160,000 miles on it and I recently brought it back from the dead earlier this year but I've run into a new slew of problems. It has a very probable intake gasket leak. It eats METAL headlight gears every 2 months regardless of the age of the motor itself. Its knocking upon startup. I changed to Mobil 1 Synthetic oil again and this did help on the last problem a bit... but ever since I got the car, I've wanted more power as I am a former Z28 owner.
I can go ahead and turbo the motor as is but I am SUPER scared of the reliability factor.
I can motor swap but all the parts involved will be expensive, yet I am not really interested in buying another Z28, I wanted a project car.
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I was THINKING of building a more turbo capable motor, or just snatching a motor from a GTP and putting all my accessories on it and replace all gaskets with stronger gaskets and proceed to turboing it. It would make me feel much safer about turbo'ing or forced induction in general as the motor would be built to withstand it. Im not so much afraid of the pistons going Kaboom on my current motor, but I AM afraid of the age of the gaskets and other internals such as bearings a lifters with the added stress in my current engine.
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Building a BUILT turbo motor would actually cost much more than an LS1 swap... unless maybe I stole one from a GTP and just replaced gaskets which would probably cost about the same as an LSX swap...
but an LSX always seems mentally more reliable..and dont get me wrong, I do know guys here who have been running turbo's for years without trouble but I am not sure if I trust my current engine, MAINLY because I believe I have a bad intake gasket and lifter...with those there's no telling how many other hidden problems my motor might have.
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The LSX swap leaves me feeling the safest BECAUSE it replaces everything and that means no bad gaskets, new suspension, new transmission, new everything... but it comes at a price...I currently live in an apartment and have nowere to do it - performance shops around here want $5k in labor alone... I could buy an entire Z28 for that - Its just I dont really want to start over with another F-Body, I love my Firebird, just want more out of it... and by more I want it to be as fast as or faster than my older stock Z28
I can go ahead and turbo the motor as is but I am SUPER scared of the reliability factor.
I can motor swap but all the parts involved will be expensive, yet I am not really interested in buying another Z28, I wanted a project car.
----
I was THINKING of building a more turbo capable motor, or just snatching a motor from a GTP and putting all my accessories on it and replace all gaskets with stronger gaskets and proceed to turboing it. It would make me feel much safer about turbo'ing or forced induction in general as the motor would be built to withstand it. Im not so much afraid of the pistons going Kaboom on my current motor, but I AM afraid of the age of the gaskets and other internals such as bearings a lifters with the added stress in my current engine.
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Building a BUILT turbo motor would actually cost much more than an LS1 swap... unless maybe I stole one from a GTP and just replaced gaskets which would probably cost about the same as an LSX swap...
but an LSX always seems mentally more reliable..and dont get me wrong, I do know guys here who have been running turbo's for years without trouble but I am not sure if I trust my current engine, MAINLY because I believe I have a bad intake gasket and lifter...with those there's no telling how many other hidden problems my motor might have.
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The LSX swap leaves me feeling the safest BECAUSE it replaces everything and that means no bad gaskets, new suspension, new transmission, new everything... but it comes at a price...I currently live in an apartment and have nowere to do it - performance shops around here want $5k in labor alone... I could buy an entire Z28 for that - Its just I dont really want to start over with another F-Body, I love my Firebird, just want more out of it... and by more I want it to be as fast as or faster than my older stock Z28
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