Doing this right now. Bought a used 50k mile short block off of here for 1k, had the head completely re-built, 500. Gaskets and timing set with balance shaft eliminator , 500. misc fluids and supplies 200.

I figure i'll have about $2200 into it when i'm done. The stock short block can hold a crazy amount of power if you are staying on a stock frame turbo and the tune is good. My stock motor held 500 whp for 2 years until a bad injector took out a piston (with the crank and block)

My advice would be to find a factory un-touched short block and i think you will have better luck. I really doubt you will even find evo stuff in a junkyard.

 

Not everybody wants or has the means to dump tons of money in a car. Ive been on both sides of the fence.

Just to give you an example of why this is ok.

People have been doing this for years. In the DSM world, its a great swap to use 1g rods on 2g pistons (all used stuff). The new hot is evo 9 pistons. Want a cheap upgrade for your dsm valve train. Grab a set of evo springs and valves, most usually used (valves I would use new tho...).

 

And this is why DSM's got a bad rap sometimes. It can be do-able but unless you are doing the work yourself, know the true history of said used parts and you buy necessary items for a rebuild it could end in catastrophic failure.

The cost to rebuild a stock short block is almost as much as built block (depending on what parts you buy and how much they are).

Why scrimp? I can't count how many times I've seen (myself included) people try to go cheap to save a dollar and end up coming out worse then if they just bought right the first time.

And at a minimum i would replace the rods with Manley H-Beams since that's usually the weak point on the stock block. If you are planning on running a uprated stock frame turbo you don;t have to worry about keeping torque below 400-450 then.

For the record if you aren't putting it together and the people/shop you commission to do the work don't know what they are doing the same failure can happen on a brand new block with all the cool stuff as well as a OEM motor put together. My comments were more about used parts that have unknown history (unless its a friend then I don;'t know that you can trust anyone's words these days).

 

 

Do it right, or do it twice. Write that down

 

If u want a budget build look for parts on here. There's always good deals on new parts in the for sale section.