To rebuild or not to rebuild!? advice needed

[Jason1987]

hay,

well my vl has done 330,000k's i bought it like that, didnt worry me as the car is spotless. it does run rough, im seriously considering buying a rebuilt engine. on a changeover basis The Complete Engine Company quoted me $1680 for a rebuilt engine. what does everyone think? 330,000 is getting long in the tooth i guess and it is getting noisey. Considering im on my p's ill stay away from the turbo option for now as i guess its expensive. but i could get this rebuilt RB30 and get some head work done etc. any thoughts please?

[stock_vl]

dude check out e-bay!!
many blokes are pulling out there rb30 and replacing them with turbo's i seen countless engines going threw ebay... some are rebuilt etc etc.... they go for a max of $300 id be checking them out if i were you!
=)

[=TUR7LE=]

depending on where u live have a look on tradingpost.com.au u can pick up a reco exchange motor 4 around $400 if not get your self some money together get ur self a motor built...something with a bit more then 114kw...

[Jason1987]

yeah. that 1600 dollar quote was for a fully rebuilt engine. stock.
probably worth the extra to get some head work etc. ill head on over to trading post now. i live in melb btw

[Bax]

For 2k you could have a basic rebuild setup for turbo components. Then your only looking at 1000-1500 thousand to get the rest on and ready to go. I know it sounds stupid.

But I honestly don't believe the stock rb30e rebuild should be done unless your engines stuffed to begin with. Run it til it dies. Then either get it rebuilt then, or buy a second and reco it.

I wouldn't buy any reconditioned second hand motor off ebay, especially without receipts being presented.

[stock_vl]

hes like me... P's mean we can drive anything with engine modifcations... new road rules for us P plater...

although not many cops have the brain larger then a peanutt.. (no effence if der one around!) but yeh... ruther not take the risk... n he prob as poor as me =(

[Jason1987]

hehehe
i can hit up the bank for a couple of grand no worries.
VL turbo is legal on p plates. but i dont want to spend mass amounts of cash.
my vl is going good with its powerchip at the moment but the engine has done a lot of k's and would like to have some sort of plan of what to do.
im ganna go down to dynomotive tomorrow and speak with them. i have a few options the way i see it.

get a rebuilt engine, add pod, do some head work and get dynomotive to hook me up with a unichip and some performance tuning,

get a rebuilt turbo engine and replace the running gear in the car that needs replacing to support the engine.

wait till this engine dies, be stuck without an engine then hence me go nowhere.

some nice person from the forums sells me what i need.

i dunno wat to do. a lot to think about. i appreciate the feedback please keep it coming. my engine thats done almost 330,000 is getting tired and noisey. also another question, is detonation a engine problem or gearbox problem? very basic questions im sure. but if im experiencing that rattling in dash in say 3rd gear and i drop back to second then it pulls ok until i bring up the revs more. im running 5sp standard gear box.

thanks heaps guys!

[Bax]

Detonation is an engine problem. Been talked about fairly commonly, happens with poor fuel/ or too much residual heat etc.. just pre-detonation. Instead of the fuel burning when the piston is the top. The fuels burning as the pistons still coming up.

Do you have disc brakes. If you were to do the turbo conversion the mf5 manual should handle quite well so long as you respected it. Along with the drums, they will work, but I'd still change them. But basically thats all you need to do.

[Jason1987]

yeah cool.
i have vl turbo brakes all round.

[Bax]

Well there you go, if you looked after the gears all you'd need would be the bolt ons, the computer and away you go.

[Jason1987]

i just chucked a K&n pod on. took it for a spin, running a lot smoother i have noticed. my mate has told me to run on optimax, or ultimate. and that should get rid of detonation so ill run it till almost empty and give her a tank of ultimate. its just hard as with a lot of vl's my fuel gauge is being difficult, well more than difficult, its being dead. so yeah a few things on the list this week.

new fuel filter
new pod
removing muffler so i get that "fully sick" vl sound. well my mate has 1 muffler and a high flow cat and has a really nice note so im going to give it a go as well.

so bex for turbo engine wouldnt u need to change things like the DIFF, etc?
or is it simply a case of throwing out my stock RB and chucking in the RB30turbo.

[coolngroovy]

Keep hammering it until it blows.Chances are the head will go first.You can pick up complete cars for a few hundred bucks.Why spend $1600 on a reco.Look for a rusty vl with good mechanicals.
300,000ks is not uncommon.I've pulled heads off rb30,s with 250-300,000 ks,& there is no lip on the bores.Why dont the japs build 308,s?

[Bucket]

if u just bought it and the guy before advanced the bejesus out of it and ran it on optimax then u will need to do so or retard the timing to boot. Try a timing light before you blow it and have to rebuild.