Ice_Wolf

Yea, that's what I was thinking Richter. Once you convert to a single turbo setup, you basically have a 13BT with a front mount intercooler for about 4 times the price of a 13BT swap. From the sounds of it I'll just be doing the 13BT swap, not only for money's sakes but also because it makes the most sense to build. No point in doing the RE or REW swap when a 20B swap doesn't cost much more, and not to mention that a RE or REW has almost the same potential for power as a 13BT and once you convert to single turbo setup, you don't have much more than what a 13BT is. Also, emissions is not going to be a problem for me, so don't worry about that. I'll have to check into that offer you put up Dustin. Thanks for all your help so far guys.

anewconvert

iTrader: (1)

Popped DEFINTELY means that its blown. For $1000 its still more than worth it. You can spend over $1000 getting diff, trans, ecu and assorted crap. Anyway, this way, sinc eyou dont have to pass emissions, you can rebuild it anyway you like.


BC

sLoW'n'StEaDy

Or you can get DAMN LUCKY like me and nearly trip over a TII at a junkyard, talk to the owner for a wee little bit and buy the entire car for $250 : )

i didnt plan on really doing a swap quite yet (was going to do a 1JZ a ways diwn the road) but for $250 i couldnt pass it up.

Richter12x2

iTrader: (1)

That would be an awesome deal. I'll have to keep my eyes open for that. . .

Ice_Wolf

1000 wouldn't be bad depending on if the housings are fucked or not. If the housing aren't re-usable that would suck. I actually think I found a full TII parts car for less than 400 bucks that has blown coolant seals, so I guess we'll see. Sounds like it's gonna be a 13BT turbo drivetrain swap.

Richter12x2

iTrader: (1)

Buy it. Buy it now. Don't wait.

At $1000 it's still a good deal, just not an awesome one - I've been rebuilding and turboing my sixport using the TII manifolds - $1000 for a complete drivetrain would be MORE than worth the hassles I've had trying to track down all the LITTLE crap it takes to make it work - things like the TII fuel rails, the throttle body elbow, the little water nipple that bolts onto the turbo. All KINDS of crap like that. Plus when I'm done I'm still running an NA tranny (although freshly rebuilt) and NA diff.

I'd actually take an engine popped a month ago with a blown apex seal over an engine popped a month ago with a blown coolant seal :P I just bought a TII engine in a box that had blown coolant seals - absolutely nothing was usable - every face of every iron had rust - even after cleaning you could see a perfect rust relief of how the rotor sat.

With a blown apex seal, worst case you're looking at replacing 3 apex seals, a rotor, a rotor housing, intermediate iron and either the front or rear iron. In nice shape that'd run you about $200 for both irons ($75 a/pc) and the rotor housing ($50) - plus a rotor (didn't need one of these for my just finished rebuild, so I don't know what these are going for) and some reusable used apex seals for under $100. New gasket kit for $150ish and you're back in business for right around $500.

Oh, and if you're lucky you might get off cheaper - I popped an apex seal on my rear rotor, and when I took the engine apart, the only parts that weren't reusable were the one apex seal I broke (ejected straight out the exhaust, I guess) and the rotor housing - both of the faces, intermediate and rear were fine, and the other two apex seals were fine too - but I only put 5 miles on it once the seal went getting it home, too, so that probably helped.

Ice_Wolf

Yea, I already know it's a better idea to just use the turbo parts instead of trying to turbo an N/A engine. I've heard mixed reviews about blown coolant seal engines. Maybe I could get a complete non-popped engine on here or something and just rebuild that instead. I guess I'll tear down the one from the car first and check it out then go from there. The only harder question about this 13BT swap is this... S4 or S5 parts?

Richter12x2

iTrader: (1)

I'd say s5 if you already have them - but I don't think the difference is going to be worth spending any money on by the time you start modifying. If you go s5, just make sure you take care of the OMP. The s4's is crank-driven (well, e-shaft driven if you want to get technical) but the s5 is electric, so if you put an s5 engine into an s4 without taking that into account, the OMP won't run and you'll be doing it again soon.

Ice_Wolf

Well, I remember some people saying that certain parts between the S4 and S5 were better. I thought I remember hearing that the S4 drivetrain besides the engine was better than the S5, but obviously the S5 had the better engine. Also, I know about the OMP thing, but it won't be a problem seeing as how I'll be switching to pre-mix just like how my N/A is now. So, which parts would be better to use?

Richter12x2

iTrader: (1)

I heard that the s5 intakes flow better NA, but I haven't heard about the turbo - there's so little intake there it's hard to think it'd make a big difference. 5 lug wheels for sure, if your s4 doesn't have them, but it'd be better to go with TII brakes and that five lug setup anyway. S5 interior pieces were apparently better plastic - as in didn't crack as often. And I prefer the S5 tails, and the S5 turbo wing to the sport lip wing that I did have.

Ice_Wolf

Yea, I know the S5 NA intakes are better, but not sure about the TII. I remember reading the S5 turbos were better than the S4 turbos. Really it's not cosmetic pieces that are the problem, those can easily be changed. I'm talking just about the brakes, suspension, and drivetrain pieces. I still can't remember where I saw that the S4 drivetrain besides the engine was better because it was stronger, but that's got me interested. I know for sure the S5 engine is better, but not sure about any of the other parts. What are you guy's thoughts?

Richter12x2

iTrader: (1)

If you're forced to choose suspension (like struts and springs) between the two, I'd take s5 just because they're newer. Realistically, you should be replacing these with new - after the springs and struts are out of the way, I don't know that the rest of the suspension is enough different to matter, but a master bushing kit goes for about $80 at Summit because the rubber on a 20 year old car is probably long long long gone. Like on mine, my fronts didn't even resemble a bushing anymore so much as a "blowed up hot dog"

Get someone who knows more about it to verify, but I'm pretty sure the TII and NA transmissions are the same regardless of year - like an NA 87 = NA 91 and a TII 87 = TII 91. The differentials varied in terms of gearing, but if you do a search that stuffs all been posted about twenty-leven times before and I thought I remembered seeing it in the FAQ, but it's been a while since I've been there.

I'm sure you already know that the TII has better brakes than the NA (4 piston fronts and larger single piston rears) but I don't think they changed from year to year - again I could be wrong.

Ice_Wolf

I'd imagine the same aftermarket parts can go on the N/A as well as the TII. I wouldn't imagine that the setups would be different, just that certain parts would be stronger and better than the N/A version. I was thinking that the TII used the same style suspension but just had stronger versions of the individual pieces. If this is the case, I could care less if the TII had a better suspension because you could always get aftermarket parts to replace them and are better than the stock TII parts. I have a feeling the brakes are the same too, just that they use different calipers, which wouldn't be a big deal either. I'd imagine the TII had the same parts through all the years besides engine, tranny, and rear end as long as it was a 5 lug and the same seemed to go for the N/A.

Richter12x2

iTrader: (1)

Your thoughts on this echo my own. Although I do know from recent experience that the TII master cylinder and booster pump are different from NA - and they're different again if you have auto adjusting suspension, although the reasoning behind that evades me, other than there's a sensor on the brake master cylinder or something. If you're going aftermarket, then you'll probably want a non auto-adjust master cylinder because it'll probably not be very effective with non-factory struts - although if the adjustment's in the same place, you could probably make it work with enough effort. It'd just be silly IMO to trust a 20 year old computer to adjust your suspension for you. That's just asking for unpredictable results.