Hi, I've decided to take the plunge into a forged engine, I've set a limit of £2500. My engine at the moment seems to be ok except that the head gaskets seem to be on there way out. Its a closed deck block with an uprated oil pump and was hoping to use that as the base. The car is an sti 2 so has phase 1 heads. I'm not going for stupid power (around 350) I just want reliability as I drive it hard and do a few trackdays. So I was after someone with a good reputation and can give me a few options and prices. Ideally I want to just drop my car off and collect it a couple of weeks later.
So can anyone give me some prices or recommendations?
Cheers in advance
Danny

 

Adam at Autotecnica in Buxton built my forged 2.5, he has done a great job and his prices are extremely reasonable.

 

API Engines are doing mine at the moment.

Never heard a bad thing about them

 

Enginetuner built me a 2.1 stroker for that kind of money

 

https://www.scoobynet.com/trader-ann...r-engines.html

 

You do understand that if you want to uprate your internals then its going to set you back a good 13-1500 quid on that alone? even with the best rates your looking at 1500 quid in labour.
Your budget is a little unrealistic considering your after a stronger engine build, add 1k and your probably getting there
Also do you have a fmic fitted already? if not then you should budget for one as for 350bhp its advisable on a classic (plus an uprated clutch).

Tony

 

Another shout for David @ API, you will not go wrong it's the only place I will take my car to

 

stevie whitson at swm ( builds andy forrest's engines ) top bloke , know him well and has always steered me in the right direction
sure he does the engine for £2.5k

 

enginetuner are doing a 2.1 stroker for me as we speak and have to compliment the lads as being the best i've dealt with along with mark at lateral....

 

Engine tuner done my 2.1 stroker build also and they were great to deal with and service was top class, if you speak to Alan he will take you through costs and the process!! top class guy!!!

 

Tony B has a good point. The only way you're gonna get a 'forged' engine for that is to buy some used OEM STi pistons and rods (prob around £150-300) and supply them to the engine builder. My build has them and Zen done it for around 2.3k (excluding the mapping) . But they did do me a deal on STi v.3/4 pistons and STi <ahem> "v.9" rods (there you go Tony, I put the v.9 in quotes! - just to keep you on side )

But the OEM forged items "aren't all that", and it would be better (for the medium to long term) to spend out on 'proper' forged items. You will be looking at 3k, minimum.

That said though, the OEM STi internals should defo be able to handle upto 400/400, so it's a prob just about do-able...

 

just buy a std ej257 for £1500 - leaves a K for labour and job done.

 

dynamix 'comes in over the top' of us all, like the "sandbagging" tactic in Poker!

 

Good option bar the uncertainty of the std pistons

 

forged pistons for a 2.5 would knock him back about 5-600 quid, so thats up too 2k or 2.1k without the price of labour to fit everything, build getting expensive again

TBH unless someone has the mechanical know how to do most of the work them selfs there is no way cheap way around it

 

What are the OEM pistons/rods like in the EJ257? Are they Subaru's typical lacklustre 'forged' efforts, or are they much better? What can they handle?

 

for 350bhp there should be no uncertainty.

 

OE 2.5 will work well no need to swap pistons, box may well suffer as a result on a version 2 car. £2500 all in is pushing it imo, you need to budget more to have the job done right, by the time you factor in gaskets, head skim, oils, mapping etc etc.

 

danny78, what about this WMS built forged jobbie with internals that can tak 500bhp!:-

Impreza sti wrx ej20 forged rally car engine low use on eBay (end time 14-Feb-10 19:57:17 GMT)

 

^^^^^^you are having a laugh right?

 

£2500 will see agood engine built with rodand pistions acl berings new pump ect no prob

 

And your point is......?

 

Mines at Api too, £2500 was my initial budget, but it didn't get me the internals i wanted(sti rods/pistons), so upped it to £3200, which gets me proper forged rods/pistons.

 

You cannot build an engine properly for that kind of money unless you're doing the work yourself.

Crank £500
Rods and pistons 800 - 1000
bearings 120
oil pump 200
machining on head and blocks ( heads skimmed, blocks faced, piston hone) 400-500
Gasket kit £300
oil modine 220

Thats well over £2k before you start and there's more to building engines than thust throwing it all together. Doing it properly is quite labour intensive.

Doing it cheap and doing it right are two different things entirely.

 

mit, I take it you have 'proper' forged pistons and rods e.g. Wossner/Cosworth/Mahle (or whatever)? I'm sure Dave wouldn't recommend STi items, if you expressed a choice/were open to options, at the outset...

 

£2500 got me sti 3 pistons, and sti 9 rods. I'm having Manley rods and Mahle pistons for the £3200. I've also supplied a set of sti 3 heads/cams which will help things a little.
Subaru Impreza EJ20 Forged Pistons Manley Steel Conrods on eBay (end time 31-Dec-09 18:30:55 GMT)

Mit

 

why not import the rods and pistons from the us ? i have done this before and got a set of eagle rods and u get a choice of either cp , wiseco or je pistons and price varies from 600 delivered for the cp package to 700 for the wiseco

 

Sure. (I happen to have STi 3/4 pistons / STi 9 rods).

But with the M/M piston/rods and STi 3/4 heads, you'll have a motor that can easily take 500bhp. The heads, though, may limit you to 480.

Do you intend to get appropriate supp mods to get near 500bhp?!

 

Wiseco 97mm Pistons and Eagle rods cost me less than £500 to bring in!

 

Either use Engine Tuner or Api - I've used both & recommend both. Your budget is a bit low for what you want, but as previously mentioned a 2.5 short motor is probably the best bet for a solid 350bhp at your budget. Personally, if it were me, I would increase your budget & have EngineTuner build you a 2.1 sroker, based on your CDB.