Also, can I do a compression test on the motor in my garage? Couldn't I just like use a ratchet to turn the crank? Or will this give an inaccurate reading. Thanks!

 

Maintenance first. ALWAYS. Whether the car is a turbo or not, don't upgrade till everything is sound.

When you say 'freshen,' what do you mean? A couple hundred won't just buy you miles. And since you say a rebuild will take a year on your budget, I'm going to say you should not turbo. Get a Haynes manual, learn the basics, and once you get those down, you'll realize you should save for a turbo model. Trust me. We all say it, but it's just so much easier, and cheaper.

And you'll never turn the crank fast enough to pressurize the cylinder before it leaks out. Sorry bud, keep reading.

 

I agree with all of the above. Moral of the story is if you love your 420a come to terms with the fact it will never be fast. If you love fast dams just buy a gst or gsx or a talon tsi with the 4g63. Right now though, it seems like you should do all of your maintenance until you feel like you could drive your car very far with nothing going wrong. Believe me I've been exactly where you are with my '97 RS and have found out that it will never be the fast car that the 4G63 powered models are. Good luck with whatever road you take with it.

 

I have decided against buying a gst/gsx for multiple reasons !

Not that I really care, but what reasons might those be? If it has ANYTHING to do with money or 'difficulty of finding one' you are going to be disappointed when you compare your money invested for the power you get against a factory turbo dsm.

No you cannot do a compression check using a ratchet to turn the engine, you need ~300rpm at least to get a reasonable compression reading.

 

I understand the often forgotten importance of maintance, my dad has showed me the ways all of my childhood. He is very picky and always did things the correct way. My car has been well maintained my 6 months of owning it. Flush and fill on the radiator, new fuel filter, synthetic amsoil ect. I was hoping you could tell me the definition of freshen! Mayne new valves, springs and a cam. I've always worked with maintaining Small block chevys, fixing broken suspension and body things and some bolt ons, so thats why I might make stupid comments. Can you Re ring pistons? I saw a Re ring kit, but my understanding is that I'd have to Re surface the cylinder walls for them to seat properly. Maybe I could upgrade my crank bolts to help with the boost. I've watched the local market and I can pick up the necessary compenants to turbo a 420a for relatively cheap. I wasn't looking to go all out off the bat, I'm going to start low boost until I'm comfortable with tuning it and maintaining it

 

My reason for not buying a gst is that I am absolutely horrible at saving money. However I can build a motor piece by piece. I also love working on my car. Idc about the time I will have to out into it. I prefer to know every part of my car personally, I crave the knowledge of how it all works and to be able to say "I built that"

 

And I would buy the supporting mods before I buy the turbo set up. Fuel pump, 3 inch exhaust, Wideband, injectors if I need them whatever else Google says I need

 

So, instead of driving the car you have, and putting money away, you would rather wind up spending 3x as much money to have what a factory turbo dsm has with minor boltons? Fair enough, your money.

 

I know myself and it would never happen.

 

Listen to the fine folks here, Don't waste your hard earned money trying to rebuild and boost your 420a.

You can find some pretty good deals out there on turbo DSM's, I just picked up a 96 2g awd auto that runs and drives like a dream for 1800. The deals are out there.

 

Boosting the 420a can be done, but it is more of a "do it just to do it" than "do it because it makes it a decent car". The car will be more unreliable than a factory turbo car, get worse mileage, run poorer, and be slower than a factory turbo car unless you dump TONS of money into it.

If money is tight, drive the car, put an intake and exhaust on it, and enjoy it as it is until you can afford something that is designed for speed. Otherwise you are literally throwing money away.

 

Well I will take your strong suggestions into account; But for arguments sake, lets pretend every eclipse has a 420a, is putting a small turbo on a 420 with 132k and expecting 20k from it ridiculous, or is it within reason. I won't be driving like an idiot and I will have supporting mods

 

You mentioned a couple hundred dollars is your budget. That's enough for a head resurface and MAYBE cams. That's it.

 

I am going to take a shot in the dark here and assume you are 16-20 years old. Nothing wrong with that, though you need to remember some of us on this forum have been building/messing with these cars for years. Whether it be the guys building 500+ whp cars, the guys chasing their own tail trying to keep the thing running, or the guys like myself, who have the car as a project, and have modest goals, such as my 11.xx 1/4 mile this season. The thing is, we have dealt with at least a couple of these cars already, and know the curveballs that they throw, especially as a daily drivers. Part of growing up, is recognizing when one lacks wisdom, and is prepared to absorb as much advice as those giving it, have to offer.

I will never tell someone what to do with their car, but IF I was in your shoes and wanted a turbo eclipse/talon, I would clean up the RS best as possible, make it mechanically sound, and put it up for sale, or keep it as a daily driver. I would then wait until I found a non molested turbo model. It is difficult these days, but the cars are out there.

Something to think about, I myself have a difficult time saving money. Though I have found if I take out small loans to buy something, I pay it off quickly, because I hate to see any of my money go towards interest. This will also help build your credit also. Key to it is not getting with crazy with it, and putting yourself into debt.

In conclusion, you are the one that has to make the decision on what to do. At the end of the day, it is your money/life. If your time and money, spent on turboing a 420a, is what makes you happy, than that's what you need to do. As long of course, you understand that the end all product will not be nearly as good as starting with a turbo model.

 

If you saved that $200 for maintenance you could easily get another 60k out of it. I bought my 98 GS in around the same mileage, and I can tell you your car probably needs a headgasket because it leaks oil towards the back drivers side corner. They all do. And even if you've had a headgasket replaced recently, they probably didn't shorten that bolt before the installed the head.

So what I'm saying is yes, you can easily make your car last through 200k, but not if you plan on turboing it. I know you'll probably be offended here, but from the things you've said so far, I can guess you probably wouldn't have the cash flow or patience to do it the right way. I know because I've been there.

 

Keep the 99 for your DD, so you can go to work and school. Keep the maintenance up.

Now save some cash up and go find a turbo car to be the toy, so you can sink thousands of dollars into it.

I have 2 420a engines in the shop right now, both were plans of going turbo, but after looking into it, they both decided not to.

Retail on making a 420a a reliable turbo platform is about $10k, This accounts for the engine rebuild, trans mods to hold the power, decent turbo, Stand alone tuning, injectors, ect, ect, ect.

 

I'm going to keep my car. Swap in the 132k and then build my current one over the next year with lower compression. I'm doing that cause I want to fix my rough (if any) idle, I want to clean up the engine bay, do an ac delete, replace the clutch and learn how shit works.

 

Or maybe I will just stroke the motor and do higher compression. I will decide when it comes time!

 

Your money, you obviously have your mind made up so I will dip from this thread and in 2-3 years you will look back and realize how much time and money you are about to waste.

-Sean

 

Hey, cmon guys. The guy asked a question about how to prepare a 420a engine, not whether you approve of him building his n/t, you guys all had your first Dsm and did what you wanted with it, let him do what he wants with his.

Manwithoutaplan: if you want to run decent boost in the n/a ideally you would want to install forged lower compression pistons to handle the higher boost, with that being said though, a company called Hahn Racecraft does make a bolt on turbo kit for your n/t, a local guy had it installed and it actually runs pretty good and can be plenty reliable as long as you dont go any more crazy with boost than what the kit is set up for. I would consider pulling the pan and looking at the bearings and replacing them if any of them show wear, they arent that expensive to replace and now is when its the easiest to do it. If you want to install new rings you can do that, but you would want to hone the cylinders before you install the new rings.

 

Thankyouuu BISHILVR, even if my original question still wasn't answered, atleast you didn't cram GST down my throat. Would I get 10k miles out of a motor with 132k and low boost? I read up on the hahn kit last week and that's what got me thinkin. But I am going to go to the bank and see if I can get a 4k loan. I need to start building credit so I'm hoping this would be my start. My car looks really nice other than the low rise spoiler holes left after I put on the high rise but if I can get the loan, I'm going to replace the clutch and swap in my second motor and try and get 2200 from some kid whose got their parents money. I'll try and post pictures when I get home.

 

Totally aside from the build, you would be wise not to take a loan out for this. If this is your daily, you really, REALLY don't want to pursue it in this manner. I was there and did that. What happens if you run out of that loan and the car isn't where you want it, or worse, isn't where you need it.

It's your money man, but for your sake, rethink what you're doing. There is ALWAYS more time to save.

 

I agree with Kronus, be very careful with going in debt. The best thing that you can do is build the car slowly with as much cash as possible, buying good used parts is a great idea also. Whats the best way to eat an elephant? one bite at a time.

 

I'd rather not eat an elephant. I have a 1980 Chevy K10 as a backup so I can have my car in the garage for a few weeks if needed. I just like to avoid the 8mpg. Lets say I'd have a total of 6k, I am pretty sure I could find a rust free gsx in Virginia. The stock gsx has enough horsepower to gkeep me happy for awhile.. I wouldn't be pouring money in for atleast 8 months. Probably wait til winter was over.

 

I live in my parents old house and I pay zero a month. I work 2 jobs so I don't see this as fooling around with early as much as building credit

 

Early debt** and I would spend 5k on a car with 1k left over for getting it regestered and stuff plus complete maintenance check up. Is doing a timing belt job on a 4G36 as hard as the 420a? I had to drill holes in the wheel well