Staged short block or upgrading current block internals? (Old tale)
 

Hi All,

Trust me, I have spent months researching this and searched here, Reddit, FB, NAOISC (sp?). The information is either old or lacks any sort of consensus.

Goal: To reach 80,000ish miles with sub 300whp with a touch more reliability.

I am running an Edelbrock SC with the stock pulley and currently at 246whp with 220 ft/tq. This feels great, somewhat conservative for FI, and all the power I really need..

We all know the failure points of the FA20; rods, bearings, pistons (somewhat), oil starvation, etc..

In anticipation of stressing my engine much more than the OEM intended, I am thinking of building my engine in the next 6 months.

My problem is, do I go with an IAG short block, or use the reputable performance shop in the area that knows Subaru and builds engines regularly to just upgrade my current motor with pistons, rods, bearings, ARP head studs, etc? Is it cheaper to upgrade a current block or to just slap in an IAG?

IAG offers "improved oiling" so this is why I think they are good...but my 2020 BRZ only has 8.7k miles, so the block is fresh; this leads me to want to save money and upgrade it before anything happens, proactively.

Thoughts? Maybe a stock block is fine with my current power numbers?

I think you are over thinking it. Run good quality oil, get periodic UOA's to monitor engine health.

Sounds like you're trying to spend a hell of a lot of money to fix something that isn't broken. Conservative numbers, plus a newer model engine. It's unlikely you'll have issues with it. It will almost certainly be cheaper to reach 80k miles using 2 40k motors than build one in the hopes it reaches 80 on it's own. That said IAG did have a good reputation, and "improved oiling" sounds attractive. Therefore IAG sounds better than a local by a little bit.

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Understood. Thank you and I have been saying that in my head too; "It isn't broken..."

I think I am in an echo-chamber and just reading too many horror stories of people blowing engines I've convinced myself I have a Top Fuel car or something and need to rebuilt in 10k

If anything, the clutch might need to be replaced early...hopefully that's it.

Thanks, again!

Those cars get rebuilt after every pass. Your engine is very fresh yet. And you can get a used one for 3.5k. you'll be hard pressed to build a motor for much less than 10k. Do that math on that one. You may very well pop your engine and it will be very inconvenient but from a financial standpoint, I'm not seeing that much benefit. That said, I just spent a shit ton of money having an LS3 built for mine after my LS1 took a shit. The more I think about the cost the more I feel like I should have just dropped in a motor and sent it

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Those top fuel cars are ridiculous

You have a V8?!?!

Thank you for the voice of reason. I just dropped $10k on the SC, supporting mods, and labor 2k miles ago haha But hey..single and no kids; what are you gonna do!

Hey Buddy! Thank you and I appreciate what you're saying. What is a UOA?

Single no kids: apparently put big V8s, superchargers, or both, in little cars is what we're gonna do. That's why I built mine was for the supercharger

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Used oil analysis. They send you the kit for free. 30 bucks per sample. They give you a ton of data. What foreign material is in the oil. If there is an abnormal amount of a specific material in the oil. They will also give oil change interval suggestions.

https://www.blackstone-labs.com/prod...ree-test-kits/

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...39&postcount=1

I went with the IAG Stage 1 after the recall destroyed my motor. I’m NA however I felt the extra money was worth it to have something bulletproof. Breaking down at a track 8 hours from home is no fun and something I never want to do again. If your motor still seems fine then I’d just service it properly and then if it ever goes then do something about it.

Whoa! That is cool. I might do that this upcoming change since it will be the first after going to the Dark Side.

$30 isn't bad at all, for what it is.

Thanks!

Good to hear! I actually followed your progress from old posts I read yesterday haha It was a similar thread to this back in 2020. Good to hear it is still chugging a long well. Did you install the block yourself?

No. I had the guru of the FA20 do it. Amazing attention to detail on the build. Not cheap.

Can I ask what it cost? We talking $3k in labor or $5k+?

11K turn key. The heads also got redone plus some other goodies. The oil cooler had to be replaced on top of that. A big mistake is not replacing oil coolers after there has been metal in the motor