Building an FA20...Wise or Waste?
 

Hi Folks

Just looking for some advice from those who have actually built and run FA20s. I have a dedicated trackcar which I’ve been running for almost 3yrs now. First year was just stock N/A, but last two have been running with a HKS supercharger. To date the car has been flawless and I have no intention of changing the car as I intend to continue developing it over the years.

The next obvious step in order to increase power is an engine build, but is it really worth it for an FA20? I would be aiming for 350-450 whp, but interested to hear of others experiences? Would you do it again? Have there been issues? Is the FA20 too compromised at these power levels in terms of power delivery?

Also before the onslaught begins with talk of LS and 2jz swaps!! I’m located in Ireland and the options to go that route are very limited and very expensive in comparison to you lucky folks in the US.

Any feedback welcomed, Cheers

Imho not worth it in sense that you may need many more supporting mods to better handle increased power, clutch, gearbox, axle, maybe wider wheels & more capable brakes ..
I'd probably would leave it as is with existing SC moderate power/torque, which should be already plentiful, given twins being rather light cars, and rather spend that budget on more trackdays and track wearables. Yeah, i'm cheap. :)
Also, given that it's your dedicated track car .. how about going lightening route? Ripping interrior, rear seats delete, racing seats, and so on? Or adding more downforce aero, stickier tires and stiffer suspension (i'd add probably also clutch type diff and BBK), so that, acceleration aside, you can corner faster?

Thanks for the reply Churchx, really appreciate it.

In terms of track mods i’ve kind of exhausted the standard routes already, I’m running slicks, fully stripped and caged, BBK, uprated clutch, flywheel, full exhaust, KW suspension, Xracer sump, air jacks etc.

However I take your point on other mods being required such as the gearbox being a weak point and adding to the cost.

It depends on who you are:

1) If you like creating something, having something 'unique', like modified cars better than stock cars, then go ahead

2) If you like fast cars but don't really want to tinker/fiddle with the car, or want to have solid reliability, then another car would suit you better.

Something being “worth it” is very subjective. 5k for one person may be pocket change, or it could be life savings for another. Just look at the overall cost to benefit and decide yourself.
Generally the further you push a car the greater the diminishing return becomes. And cost to benefit aside. The more power you put down the more stress it puts on other parts and those may fail or need to be built. So 5k for a built engine may quickly turn into another 5k to handle that built engine. I would upgrade all the tranny/drivetrain parts to handle the power first. You may even be close to the edge of what they can handle already on your current SC build.

I'd shoot an email to Element Tuning or CSG and ask them what they have had issues with . I don't think CSG has pushed their cars into the power levels that you have mentioned but they do track FI cars. Element Tuning campaigned a turbo FRS in the 400HP range and could probably give you a good run down on what they had issues with, it's just a matter of getting them to respond to email.

If trans is a concern there is a guy in the classifieds that has a T56 conversion for sale for the 86 platform. May be able to bounce some questions off of him.

I think it's worth it if you don't cut corners and get proper advice on building the motor. It also comes down heavily to your budget. Everyone's opinion is going to be different.

Was curious about this as well too, being boosted now makes me nervous about our rods.

I don't know how reliable of just keeping it around 350-400whp would be even with just upgraded rods.

I most likely won't be tracking it'll be a street car.

CSG also have had powerful SC builds, eg. i certainly seen mentioned high power numbers in relation to Ace headers & eg. JR SC with different pulley.
When aiming for higher numbers, and even more so with track abuse .. i'd probably wish to concentrate on longetivity/reliability of parts/build. DD car may handle more vs one abused on track. Stock NA lack of power has nice sidegain of my track spendings being so reasonably low :)