slvr993

I know this is a naive question from the underinformed, but I'm looking at options for a friends track car. He has a very solid and nicely set-up 1991 S2. The chassis etc has less than 50K. Suspension and brakes etc upgraded...but 208HP isn't cutting it anymore. One option is to swap in a turbo motor. The question is assuming I find a solid donor motor...

1) What needs to be done to have a motor "done right" and deliver a reliable 300 crank hp, Rough money assuming I (I do most of the wrench work on the car) do the work. Obviously not the machining.

2) What are the key areas that fail. Not just catastrophic failure, but the annoying end your track day stuff I should address.

This will be a car that sees 6-7 DEs per year and maybe 2000 street miles.

Thanks in advance -

Jeff

brrt50cal

You can get a nicely done up LS1 and a Hydroboost power brakes set up that'll run under 20k if you're doing the work.

95ONE

I miss understood. .....

Turbo your current motor. Buy Stand alone.

Cheaper and working with a better VE motor. 300 crank hp should be a cake walk for this stock 3.0 liter.

slvr993

Dan
The LS1 approach I have looked at...too much cash and lots of labor. A local guy just had a very prodessional job done and it ran over 200 hrs of labor.

95one - It is a huge question, but it is limited to building the motor. The suspension, brakes etc I have a handle on. My question is without the granular details..

1) Is there such a thing
2) What basically would it entail from a motor build perspective.

Thanks

Jeff

brrt50cal

200+ hours!?! Thats insane! I can imagine if someone was learning as they go but there's way too much information out there to just go into the situation blind.

gt37vgt

a 951 motor with a 3" or bigger exhaust good programmable efi with programmable safety like autonic/motec and a dry sump system.
could probably be done with a good maf kit witch others will discuss.
standalone is cheaper than maf here in oz.
.I think low pressure turbo on the S2 motor would give 300 hp pretty safely.
But the 951 motor has been done allot the stuff is easy to get .
Although a dry sump is expensive and complicated it is the the most serious reliability mod one can do other than fixing a brick under the gas pedal

gt37vgt

alot of people are screwing 400 hp from dead stock motors with bolt ons it would be great to hear from them in regard to reliability .

Ski

What is reliable for a track car; 2 years, 3 years, 4? How many events per year? On a track car, 350 is easy and reliable - it also can be fairly cheap if you part the car of non race items and do the work yourself.

Chris White

I’m with Ski on this one – 350rwhp can be done on a reasonable budget and made reliable and with a decent life span. Once you get over that the cost start going up quite fast!

slvr993

Ok so let's say I source a solid 70K mile motor from an 86 turbo (random example). For the sake of the game it's goit solid compression across all 4 cylinders.

What am I doing to get to a target 300-350 reliable HP?
Reliable meaning 6 -8 DEs per year with about 2000 street miles. Reliable meaning it's likely to get me home from these events as well as perform at them for 3-4 years. Assuming excellent maintainance.

Jeff

333pg333

If the motor is solid enough. you can get what you're after with a bolt on kit really. I agree that you should do some research into the oiling setup as this is crucial in seeking reliability. There might be a wet sump modification available soon that will cover anything short of dry sumping.

m42racer

333pg333.

That new Wet Sump system will add to the Dry Sump system already out there. For those who do not go over to the Dry system, this is a proper wet sump race system. This should give all those racers something really good instead of some stupid piece of aluminum and a welding kit. The only problem will the the copy cats out there. They have to have some really big ***** to copy this one.

vt951

You should get in touch with Darth Coupe, who has a supercharged 968 that he tracks... I'm guessing there would be a lot of similarities with how it could be done on the S2.

HansB

Like people said: Not much.

If you limit yourself to 300 RWHP you can put on a kit from a reputable vendor, and be there.

My preference with track engines is to rebuild and blueprint them before first use. That is the only way you really know that the engine is fresh and ok, and the tolerances are set the way you would want.

It is cheaper and easier to do this, when the engine is out anyway. And a rebuild of a damaged engine is definitely more costly than the rebuild of a well running one.

A rebuild engine will last you 4 years, or ~150 track hours.

Do not run a track engine over 15 psi.

Put in an additional oil cooler.

Ski

+1. The engine needs to come apart, check everything. Most 944T engines, not all, but most get the cylinders a bit egg shaped, so I would get oversize pistons and bore to specified tolerance and you have new rings. After the rod failure that we had (3.5 years) I would have stock rods proffessionaly checked or get aftermarket. Twin small coolers or large oil cooler are a must. One other thing we did to help the car keep cool (IMHO) is put a hose on the outlet pipe, back of the head, and if you dump the heater core, route this hose back to the pipe returning to the water pump.

You'll end spending more $$ on suspension.

Stick with one vendor, again just me, for MAF/Software/piggyback to make tuning and diagnostic work easier and better support.

Turbo, larger MAF, inj, software, piggyback - we got 351/347 respectively at 17psi on 104 unleaded. Car weighs 2550# with 1/2 tank of gas. Add 200# for each driver.