weakest link?

[CadetLD]

will be tearing the CA appart soon and have a few bills to spend, obviously i wil need injectors, tune, fpr, ect, but whats the weakest link down below, the rods or pistons? whats usualy the first to go? how much hp can stock rods/ pistons handle relyably before they come back to haunt me. I jsut want be able to drive 10/10ths with a lil peace of mind if you know what I mean. Thanks in advance! - Shane

[nismo.rac3r]

I have seen many people say that the CA's stock internals can handle up to 300HP, maybe more. Weakest link seems to be the head gasket actually. Maybe ARP head studs and a multi-layer steel (MLS) head gasket will easily take care of that...

[r34 gtr]

pistons definitely. good luck breaking the rods. pistons are good to about 350hp safely with some good tuning, and the rods are good to 600+ if properly shot peened and cryo treated. even without the treatments you arent gonna break the rods.

[davidricardo86]

pistons definitely. good luck breaking the rods. pistons are good to about 350hp safely with some good tuning, and the rods are good to 600+ if properly shot peened and cryo treated. even without the treatments you arent gonna break the rods.

What about the rod bolts? Ive read that those are weak after certain rpm. IIRC its somewhere around 7k+ rpm. I suppose if you stay below that, you should be ok right?

[r34 gtr]

i have never heard this information. its new to me. apparently they UK guys have some problems but as far as i know it was just with the edm 4-port deal.

[float_6969]

Not too many HG problems with new HG's. Pistons are good to 350hp+. The rods can take A LOT of HP (not really sure as I've never seen anybody break a stock rod), but the rod bolts are the weak point. They're fine unless you start spinning the motor up pretty fast. This is what I've heard from the UK guys.

[rico05]

Ryan nailed it. Really, for reasonable power goals, the only real weak point are the bearings, and only if you have gunk in your oil system. Install an oil cooler, keep revvs under 8k and hold on.

Stock headgaskets should hold up 18-20psi unless you are knocking really bad. The head bolts are also good to that pressure level. As long as you are not wanting to break 320rwhp, the stock guts are fine...as long as you have enough fuel, a good tune, and no previous issues.

[CadetLD]

Yeah thanks guys for al the info. Like i stated before id be realy happy with 250 relyable horsepower. If all i need is new head gasket, berrings, studs and bolts, that would be awsome because $700+ for a set of pistons is recockulus. I know cryo treating has something to do with freezing the crap out of them but that exactly is shot peening?? Also in alother thread i mentioned i have some blitz access ecu thing. The car seems to run okay but i would imagine it would benifit from something more tunable. Any other sugjestions to help me reach my power goal?

My mods are as follows:Blitz cone filter, BOV (will be recirc son) and the ECU, S15 T-28 BB turbo, 3" exhaust all the way back, NGK plugs, Walbro (sp) 255 fuel pump.

This motor will be trans planted into my new coupe (sil front). Its gonne be used for all around purposes ( DD, autox, drag, lil drifting, and hopefuly ALOT of road racing ) but mostly DD.

When i say 250 relyable horsepower i mean at least 300 capeable and down tuned so it will handle 250 ALL DAY know what i mean??? Im tired of being scared of romping on it hard. I wana build it so it can handle bouncing off a 7.5k rev limiter for a good while.

Thanks again fellas, duno what id do without yall. -Shane

[rico05]

Get some 450cc injectors (DSM or Series 4 RX-7 TII) and a ROM tune all you would need then is some sort of IC upgrade (SSAC FMIC, ARC SMIC, etc) and that power goal is well within reach. Might want to spring for a boost controller and new FPR (Nismo or otherwise).

[CadetLD]

yeah forgot to mentioin i have fmic (3" in and out) there some ghetto stuffs holding it togeather. but new ic piping is comin soon.

so far need:

new metal head gasget, ARP? rod bolts, berrings, rings, FPR, 450cc inj, boost controller, rom tune and im done?

is there anything i should consider while the motor is out and appart before its too late? is an SAFC something i should consider?

ps kind of noob question but are stock CA pistons aluminum? been researching cryotreating and learned aluminum dosnt benifit much if at all from this process. I want to do this right the first time as i cannot afford to do this more than once, but dont want to skimp out on something that could make this mroe relyable.

Thanks again fellas. All of your input is greatly apreciated! - Shane