Budget for project car's engine?

[themadscientist]

I need input from the membership for an article I would like to put together. I need to put a new bullet in my 180 and I have several options, but I decided to replace the CA18 with another CA18. I just picked one up from a junkyard complete and looking at it, it occurred to me that this is what the truck drops at many of your garages when you order a front cut or engine from one of these importers, an oily, dirty, mystery motor.

Now this and the various engine specific forums are littered with people who are thinking about or have already got a motor, whatever it is and I include those who have a tired KA in the car they want to use. They usually have high expectations, but some quite reasonable, but most are similar in that they don't have huge budgets. I have an opportunity here to put myself in their sneakers and build a no BS real motor on a tight budget so the guys that come along later have some idea of what is involved, what should be done at minimum, areas where they can spend more with the best returns for their milk money, and what they are likely to end up with. While I will be building a CA I will add commentary as I go that addresses relevant topics on a KA, RB, or SR build. If you are doing an LS, I got nothin, sorry. I don't think that is even close to what the others are and presents unique challenges worthy of specific answers.

I hate seeing all these good-intentioned, motivated people making classic mistakes and winding up with a lawn ornament, an empty wallet and broken dreams. Please help me put this thing together so maybe the next person won't have to deal with the heartaches you did. Here's what I need:

Which engine did you get and why? Did you research them and select one based upon its character and/or your budget to buy it or did you get a sweet deal on it and figure out what it was after?

How much did you pay?

Without mentioning the source, were you satisfied with what you got? Was it complete and in acceptable shape for its age and what you paid?

If not, what was wrong? Was it locked up? Was the wiring hacked up or the computer missing? etc.

What would you say was your experience level at the time and how much work did you send out and what? About how much did you drop on things like machine work and professional tuning?

What were your power goals and did you reach them? If you want to detail what you did that would be great.

FOR THE POLL QUESTION.
I'm sure you had an idea what you would spend when you started, but we all know s*** happens and budgets get blown most of the time. What would you say you spent, NOT including the purchase price of the engine to get it overhauled, a fresh turbo on it and in the car running properly?

We see the heavy hitters with amazing builds and uber-lofty power numbers and that's fun, but I think the average shadetree guys just trying to pull something together on a shoestring are the real heroes in this little hobby of ours and I would like to give them a basic guide to what they are about to begin, what to expect, and how much they are going to spend. No exotic all forged 400+HP magazine car build here. You are going to be bored with all the stock parts. Any aftermarket bit is going to have to replace a factory one that was truly weak and a hindrance to streetable power and reliability. This will be 140% stock power build that can defend it's honor on saturday and get you back and forth to work during the week and you will still have gas money to feed it after you built type engine which I think is where many of us are if we are honest with ourselves.

[Stev0n]

I researched small block chevy engines & decided on a 5.3 LSx (third gen small block).

I sourced one out of an 05 silverado in 2008 with 18k miles. Complete longblock with uncut wiring harness & ecu for $450 & a 4 hour round trip drive.
I later found a T56 6 speed on ls1tech for $600.

I've gone a little over budget buying extra things, nicer parts.

my budget was $3500 for the whole car running (paid $200 for the shell). But went over and am closer to $4k right now with another $400 or $500 to go. But could have finished it for right at $3,500.

[Gold Digger]

I am really interested to see where this goes, Mike. I know how you like to do things and I know your love for the CA engine.

I'm subscribing to this thread.

[Fenris]

Ended up with a Redtop SR20DET

Had a freshly rebuilt KA24E, but in auto-x and cruises it really just struggled to keep up with newer cars. I have a 2011 wrx daily i pay though the nose for (thought it was a good idea after a few post college paychecks... then the loans came due...) and for a much heavier car the get up and go was night and day. But the way a 240 handles is a thing of beauty, so its what i prefer for auto related things.

since 2004 ive been researching motor swaps, turbos, superchargers, anything to make a 23 year old car quicker. I dont drag race, and im not a super dorifto so weight is important, this vetos RB's. LS too expensive for my tastes. So i was leaning SR or CA.

Then i got wind of an acquaintance selling his SR... This motor was built to hell and and a 400hp dyno sheet to go with it. Before i even had 2 nickles to rub together to offer, he got offers on bits, Full race manifold and huge turbo went. $5000 dogbox transmission went. Motec ecu and tune went. But there was still the long block with tomei and jun internals sitting fresh and pretty. I picked it up for under a grand.

then i had an SR long block and needed the rest...

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Motor in, turn key cost was just about $4000

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Motor was awesome for what i paid, but i bought it off a person rather than motor shop.
But, i did have to track down a bellhousing so i could use my KA-E transmission, needed an ecu, motor harness, turbo, manifold, fmic, odds and ends.

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At the moment im running a stock tune, and spent $52 to have a nismo flywheel resurfaced.

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Power goals were: More than the 100whp my KA-E had. I have reached them, butt dyno says im in the 200-220 wheel range.

[float_6969]

I have a CA18DET. I bought it as a front cut about 10 years ago. I chose the CA due to lighter weight (I still think it weighs less than an SR) and it's physically smaller size. I wanted as much of the motor behind the front wheels as possible.

IIRC, I paid $1750 shipped for it.

I paid extra for the front cut because I wanted a complete swap with wiring, intercooler piping, etc. I didn't get any of that and ended up having to spend a bunch of money for a FMIC and extra parts because the front cut had been trashed. No piping, broken sensors, broken plugs, broken clutch fan, broken fan shroud, bad turbo, blown rings, etc.

What little I knew about cars and motors at the time was self taught. It was a great learning experience. In hindsight, I should have rebuilt the motor, but I didn't' know any better, so I put it in with blown rings. Drove it that way for a while till it smoked so badly I was getting pulled over. Then I pulled the motor and had it rebuilt by a shop. Found out later they forgot the oil galley plugs in the crank. I did go with forged pistons, but only because I wanted higher compression and E85 had just become available in town at the pump.

When I first put it together, the engine came with an SR T25 on it and there was a stock CA T25 on the passenger side floor. Apparently they knew the SR T25 was blown and gave me another turbo. I didn't put 2 and 2 together and ran it with the SR T25, smoking like a beekeeper. I ran that till it maxed out the MAFS. Then I got 550's, Z32, and a chip. That let me run enough boost to totally blow up the SR T25. I was pretty happy with that power level, but was poor, so the CA T25 went on at 15psi till I could afford an S15 T28. That was a good turbo and I ran that for a while at 18 psi. Unfortuneatly, I had a cold air intake with the air filter in the front bumper and something tore a hole in the air filter and the turbo injested something and was never quite the same again, so back when the CA T25. I kept that on there till I came upon an HKS T4 turbo kit. I like 300hp with the SR T28, but I wanted more. Then I had an oil filter fail and ruin the motor, so I had to build it again. I've got it up and running again now, and in an S14, and am working on tuning it. I can't even imagine the money I've spent on the CA and vaious chassis total, but if I had all that money, I'd spend it the same way I did!

[S14toRPS13]

Which engine did you get and why?
S13 SR20. Originally wanted to go KA-T or RB25. Did months of research on those engines, until I came upon the deal for my current SR.

How much did you pay?
$4k for S13 SR, rebuilt with factory internals, HKS turbo, Z32 maf, tuned ecm, 550cc injectors, fmic, OS Giken clutch/flywheel, etc, dyno'd around 300 whp, all from a local shop.

Without mentioning the source, were you satisfied with what you got? Was it complete and in acceptable shape for its age and what you paid?
Great engine, absolutely no leaks. Ran a 13.4 in the 1/4 mile on stockwastegate setting. I still daily this car today, except now with a GT2871r, Tomei Cams, Apex'i PFC and other upgrades along the way.

What would you say was your experience level at the time and how much work did you send out and what? About how much did you drop on things like machine work and professional tuning?
My first time doing an SR swap on my own, but it was a simple drop in due to the wiring already done up by the shop. Plus I swap out diesel engines on a regular, so the SR was definitely easier. I ended up spending about $1400 later on for the Apex'i PFC and dyno tuning but that was due to upgrading turbo and cams.

What were your power goals and did you reach them? If you want to detail what you did that would be great.
I wanted between 350 whp to 400 whp for my car. Even after the GT2871R and cam upgrade, I still came short of my power goals, but due to many reasons. I'm using 550cc injectors, I didn't want to boost over 16 psi, and I was on a mustang dyno. Some people will argue with me on that last one, but it makes me feel better for not reaching my power goals.

FOR THE POLL QUESTION.
I'm sure you had an idea what you would spend when you started, but we all know s*** happens and budgets get blown most of the time. What would you say you spent, NOT including the purchase price of the engine to get it overhauled, a fresh turbo on it and in the car running properly?
I was pretty much a drop in, so I only spent money on fluids.

[OutToWinPAHC]

My next goal 10k plus

Twin Turbo General motors swap with another built tremec trans