3000GT 130K mechanic broke engine

[searcherrr]

I started out by writing to Dynamic Racing (the email threads) below. They have given me a good reference and I plan to use it, but I'd really like to get some other peoples opinions as well so that I may see a pattern to all the madness. Basically, I'm looking to add some HP to my base model 3000GT due to the fact that I'm being told I need a new engine (See below). The whole job is going to cost me $6000 roughly and I figure well if I'm going to be spending that much money (which I currently do not have; so this is going to be a "wait till later" issue) that I might as well look into the VR-4 turbo engine or at least giving my base GT some turbo upgrades to boost the HP to at least that of the VR-4. This takes me into my story that I emailed to Dynamic Racing:
------- Email 1 --------------
I saw your web site after looking around for some 3000GT remanufactured
engines. It turns out that because of a negligent mechanic on two
occasions of a mis-adjusted timing belt this mechanic caused my engine
to
become inoperable. He bent a couple valves and broke at least one rod
that
I know of. I say that because he didn't provide me with a receipt after
fixing it all on his bill because he didn't want it to follow him.
Anyway,
here I am a few thousand miles later at 130,000 miles and I know these
engines are supposed to go way more than that. The other day the car
overheated, white smoke was coming out of the tail pipe and it started
acting up (shaking a lil etc..). Turns out there is oil in one of the
spark plug shafts and from what the new shop I've got it at says, there
is
nothing they can do external to the engine that will resolve the problem
and that they'd have to open up the engine to fix it. At that point they
are suggesting a whole new engine altogether because of what is involved
in opening an engine that old and putting it back together hoping that
they found all the problems in that cycle.
Summary: What I'm wanting to know is if you know any good connections or
companies that sell a good new or remanufactured engine for my car and
even more if its possible to turn a 3000GT base model into a Turbo
without
having to go into replacing a bunch of other mechanical parts like the
tranny etc... Could I just plop in a VR-4 turbo engine with the Turbo
Charger as is and have it run in my base model 3000GT with my automatic
transmission? Whats involved in all that? LOL - I know it isn't a short
answer, but I appeciate your help ahead of time. Please let me know soon
if you can, because my car is sitting in the shop this weekend and I'm
trying to make an informed decision by Monday morning.
----- email 2 ------------------------
I do have a DOHC engine in there now. Doesn't the SL have the same as the
Base GT ? A DOHC? I know there was that SOHC thing for earlier models and
yielded something like 181 hp or something like that, but I have the DOHC
1995 base model which has the 3.0 L engine with the 220 hp.
Thanks for the info on Ty. I'll call him as soon as I can. My dilemma is
that I figured I'm going to have to spend around $6000 anyway to get a reman
or a new engine in there as it is, so thats why I was checking up on the
turbo upgrade option. Now that I'm thinking about it though, if I did do
that, wouldn't I have to upgrade the transmission as well? I mean, I know
all the VR-4's came with a standard vs auto and that was my main concern on
plopping a VR-4 engine in a base model GT. Also, I have seen some car parts
dealers posting used 3000GT engines with the description of "VR-4 w/o
turbo". How is that possible? I thought the turbo was just what you got with
a VR-4 engine or can the turbo portion of the VR-4 engine be disconnected?
-----end emails --------------------
The place that my car is sitting at now is not the same mechanic that broke it. Yet again I place my trust in another shop because I simply don't have the time I need to do all this work myself (even though I don't know how now, I know that I COULD know how and do it myself). Sorry for a bit of redundancy in the email part of this thread. Since my car has been in the shop (still is sitting there waiting on a decision) I have been looking around at options. Currently I'd have to save up for a couple months to put in the new $6000 reman engine job that the shop wants to do, so in the meantime I'm borrowing a car and looking at buying a cheapo car so I can give the borrowed car back to my dad. The cheapo car would give me the transportation I need, while saving up to fix my 3000GT. I've been turned down for bank loans today because of debt/income ratio, so that option is out. While tempted to upgrade to the VR4 engine (if I should) I have seen some used 3000GT engines online with low mileage that I am really tempted to buy, but you don't know of the warranties with those things.... still though its very tempting because of the low mileage and higher year. I found a good 1999 engine for my base model that I was thinking of putting in my 1995 base model. From what I've been reading, this shouldn't be a problem right? The engine difference between those years is basically non-existent right? So, I'm toying with "Do I just put another 3000GT base engine in and TURBO it up later when I have the $$$$$ ?" or "Do I get my cheapo car now, let ma 3000GT sit, save money and convert to a VR4 turbo engine?" - Dilemma aye? The thing about it is the tranny. Do I have an issue there or not? I do not know of any VR4 to exist (TURBO-fied) in the 3000GT community that ran on a AUTOmatic tranny. I know all the macho ramifications connected with wanting a MANUAL vs an AUTO and how you can control the shifting better because its YOU doing it instead of the car, but guys sorry I really love my AUTO. Isn't there a way to have the VR4 engine and an AUTO and still take advantage of the 320 HP? I heard something about Electronic shifting...etc.. ? Even if I decided to buy a USED VR4 engine and make the TURBO upgrade that way I'm still looking to spend some bank. So...... what would you guys do? Basically I want to be able to whoooop the riced up Civic (as I saw in one of the many posts I've read) that challenges me from time to time on the highway. I do not race for hobby and I'm not constantly working on my car or trying to figure out daily how to "rocket" it up, however if I had the $$$$$.... I sure as hell would be. I just feel like I want a LIST of what would need to be done to convert from the base engine to the VR4 engine or rather a list of what I'd need to bump up to 320 HP in my current engine type and have the ECU actually make use of that additional HP while still running the AUTO tranny. I have not seen such a list. There seems to be a lot of talk about how to do upgrades of this nature, but not a site that has detailed the steps taken and step by step list of what was removed/added to the car to make it happen.
Well, thats me and my story. Aside from that, hope you like the graphic to the side of this post. Its actually my head/face/upper body from a picture I edited. I placed myself in a picture of the 3000GT that looks just like mine and animated the headlights/fog lights to blink. Hope ya'll like.
Hope I didn't bore anyone.
I hope this spawns some very good feedback. I can't wait. I have been hiding behind my monitor reading threads of the 3S community for years and never sticking my OP out there because of the lack of JACK (thats $$$$$ to the late person).
lata,
Rolland
-searcherrr-

[Im2Fast4U]

Um, ok I'm a little confused. There was alot to read there. So basically, a mechanic screwed the engine and now you're out an engine and you want to know what your options are for replacing it, right? The first obvious choice is a rebuild (with forged internals and possibly higher compression, etc, etc). The second choice would be a DOHC engine. If it's of the same year and you have the ECU, wiring harness, etc (that is from the same year as the engine) it's not too hard. The third choice is a DOHC TT engine. This follows the same path as the simple DOHC engine. Both the DOHC swap and DOHC TT swap are becoming bery popular. Before I try to go into long descriptions and explanations in a field I'm not as knowledgeable as I'd like about; I'd suggest going to www.3si.org , going to the forums and clicking "search" at the top and typing in: dohc swap or dohc tt swap. That should answer alot of your questions. Good luck.

-Jeff