My delema....your opinion please!

[Houston94vert]

My car is at the point where I want to go faster and I'm ready to put down a serious investment towards this goal. However, what would you think is the best way to go.

Option 1) Get a procharger kit with intercooler and run about 8-9psi. I figured after the cost of the kit, (I'll install it), tune, and misc parts I could be in the $5,500.00 range.

The questions that rise with this is...reliability. How long will it last? Is this the best bang for my buck on a 2 year out line.

I say 2 year, because that's probably how long until the next "bigger" decisions would be on my car.

Option 2) Buy a 2003 Cobra motor off ebay, complete from throttle body to oil pan. I've seen them go from 4,500- 9,500 depending on mileagle and everything that comes with it(computer, wire harness, 6 speed tranny, etc.)

The question with this is how much heavier would the car be with this set up? Will it actually just "bolt in" or will there be some fabrication issues? What about my instrument cluster, how would that work?

Option 3) All motor route. Heads, cams, intake, long tubes, and computer tune, and with all the stuff I would get to comidate that I would be spending anywhere from 3,500 - 5,500 in parts and labor.

The questions that rise with this are again reliability, streetablility, and how much power would I actually gain?


:SNSign:

So there ya have it. My delema. Which route to go and why is my question to you?

 

[DropTopPony]

just bolt on a blower...get a safe tune and start saving for the forged shortblock...

 

[hognutz]

I would not run the procharger personally but that is just opinion.

I would start with a forged motor first. If you are really serious about spending money and laying down power I woudl start there.

now how much money you spend at each place can vary quite a bit. I mean stock heads are cheap ported heads expensive. you can spend $2500 on a shortblock for ~500hp or $3500 for ~700hp.

my personal taste would be $2500 vt shortblock, stock heads, KB 2.2L, stock cams would be fine.

then again 500hp on a street car is fine with me. this would be a fast more economical setup IMO.

now you can buy a nicer shortblock, ported heads, custom cams etc and run over 600hp and craploads of tourque but would cost more and more money.

You would proably be wise to set a relistic HP goal and start from there. taking into acount that stock tranny, rear end, etc will not hanlde much over 400rwhp so you need to plan for money there as well if you want to lauch on slicks etc.

as much as proted heads, custom cams, 600hp+ apeals to me that is an extra $2500 that can deal with rear end and tranny issues that even 500hp will create.

now if you never run on slicks **** won't break as easy but at the drag strip a 500hp car launching on slicks could beat a 600hp car lauching on stock rubber just due to traction issues. so when you spend money there are other places to spend it if you really want to go fast at the track.