40k for a 700 whp turbo brz? Pics inside
 

Long time lurker, first post. But I need some advice.

I bought a 2017 brz new from the dealer several years ago with the intention of doing a turbo build when I finally finished schooling and got my first big boy job.

It finally happened about two years ago. I got in contact with a reputable local shop and asked them to do a build for about 400 whp with a budget of 20k.

It has taken legit almost 1.5 years from then for them to almost have the car done (still not done). So the initial plan was going to be a closed deck IAG engine, my heads, turbo kit, tune, and fuel system capable of e85. They did that plus a lot of custom fabrication and added a gigantic precision 6870 turbo.

The car made 480 whp on the dyno yesterday without turning up the boost. It had a misfire and sounds like it blew a valve spring.

They gave me a new invoice for the work done so far. In total so far I will have given them about 34k. They have gone way over budget but they did do a lot of custom work and the car is pretty bad ass. I’m pissed that they didn’t ask me before going overboard like this, but I am excited to own this car. It is something truly special. They think that it will be another 3k or so to take my heads off diagnose and fix the problem.

Does almost 40k sound reasonable for a completely custom build capable of over 700 whp or are they using me as their personal bank?

I’ve never done a custom build like this so I have no barometer for how much this is supposed to cost.

I’d really appreciate any help or advice.

You’re getting penetrated with no condom my guy. My performance shop told me they would install a IAG short block for $8k and they would boost it for $1.5k as long as I supplied FI kit. That’s roughly $15k for the whole damn thing.


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I forgot to mention, the 40k includes the parts which they supplied.

Yeah so I’m saying my shop said a reliable boosted build with an iag block would cost $15k for everything. But they probably upped the cost on parts as shops normally do.


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However if your car can push 700whp reliably. Then you’ve only spent roughly $65k for one of the fastest cars on the road. You would shut on a hellcat.


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This is the answer I was looking for. When I look at other builds capable of that kind of power it rarely shows the totals of how much it cost. So I don’t know what kind of money is reasonable. When you put it like that it doesn’t sound so bad.

Wait, you paid full price for a BRZ (roughly $30K) and sunk an additional $34k-$40k (more than the price of the car) into the car while having barely driven it?

And it sounds like it still has problems. I think the 86 is a great platform but not that great. Sounds to me like you got robbed. There’s a billion other done cars especially at nearly $70k (Porsche) in that would’ve given you want you were looking for. Sorry this happened to you, sounds to me like the shop just views you as a long term cash cow. But this is just my opinion. They should’ve been able to do more on the original budget you set.


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That was an absolute terrible waste of money. I'm sorry man. What were you thinking? The awesome cars you could have had for that kind of money.

I hate to be that guy,. but if you can't do it yourself, it costs however much the shop is asking you to pay.
700whp is nothing like 400whp. It requires so much more. Axles, better fueling (including returning it to the tank and probably quite a bit of pieces to regulate and pressurize this system), transmission swap/upgrade, huge cooling upgrades, etc.

Just a transmission to support it will be at least 7-8k, because you'll need to pay labor for install, and buy a clutch to support the power at those levels.
Axles will be another $1000. A differential to put it down (A 1.5 way LSD would be optimal), a wheel/tire setup that can lay it down, ducting so that your cool new cooling system is effective. Not to mention all the custom -AN fittings, lines, all that stuff adds up fast as well.
Maybe you'll need to go with a standalone ECU? There's another 5-10k.

Get it running as it is, and enjoy 400 to 500WHP. You'll kill 95% of the cars you could find who will race you, and you can still replace the broken parts with something from subaruparts.com or O'Reilly's

I think you spent way too much, but I don't think you got robbed either. Custom fab probably nearly doubled the cost. Just send it and don't worry what others think.

I'd hope you are not paying for the head issue if they did the work and it had a failure already.

Thank you for being that guy. This is very helpful. I Will need a new transmission gear set and differential in the future when Im ready to make more but everything else that you mentioned is already done.

and I absolutely can not do it myself.

thank you. that's really helpful. I don't care what anyone else thinks, I just don't want to be robbed blind.

There is a point of diminishing returns on this platform, and you've gone well past that, hence the cost. As others have said above, all the custom work required for these power levels will push the cost up immensely. Whether you want one of the fastest street brz/86's on the planet, regardless of cost, is up to you.

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Have not seen a single FA20 make even 500whp reliably, a few dyno pulls or handful of passes on a strip sure, but reliably driven at 500whp for a reasonable amount of time, no chance, if done right 450whp seems about the reliable limit on E85 with full built longblock.

This is not even close to a reliable 700whp build. Unless there is a long long list of things you are leaving off the table this isn’t even a reliable 500whp build. 35k for a reliable 450whp on E85 wouldn’t be unreasonable, but this price should include a full CD009 trans swap