*This may be in the wrong forum, so if it is, please delete*

OK, heres the story.
Ive been driving a 97 Camry CE for about 2 years and Dad has agreed to buy me a car. We've got about 11K saved up and were starting to seriously look at cars to buy now. I find a bunch of awesome cars here in the Vehicles for Sale forum and other places. Most have a good bit of engine work, which is naturally fine with me, but Dad says all this will affect reliability, so he wont put the money into anything that wont be reliable. I tell him a swap wont be unreliable, or new internals in an engine wouldn't make it unreliable.

Am I wrong?

Basically I just need some proof to help convincing my dad that there is nothing wrong with a built motor, so that I can have a car that I will love, and he can see that there is nothing wrong with it.

I know alot of you are very good with engines do alot of work yourself, so Im sure someone can vouch for the reliability of a built engine.

Another thing he keeps throwing out, is that if I were to buy a car that has alot of aftermarket parts, that I wouldnt be able to take it to a shop to have it fixed if something were to happen, because it doesnt have anything that they could fix, because its all aftermarket. Is he right on this, or just being an old man? Im leaning toward the latter.

Like I said if this is in the wrong forum please delete or have it moved somewhere else, but I would really apprieciate some help. I dont want to end up with some rolling joke, and I wanna prove that if I got a built car, it wouldnt automatically be a mistake.


Any help would be great, so that I might one day have a car to be worthy of posting on this site.

AIM: Puntr69

 

no help?

 

wutever u do to the motor a shop can fix it. wuts ur plan turbo and nos can sometimes run into problems more then a regular motor. honestly from wut ive seen people that modify their cars always random stuff happens but it doesnt matter too much because they work on their own cars. how about u buy a civic and drop a k24 motor and leave it stock it should be fun to drive around if u want a little more power throw a hondata system on it.

 

the there is a bunch of swapped hondas with stock engines that will be fast and as reliable as from the factory

 

great great great guys, this exactly what im looking for.

Im lookin at this one car and I would like for yall to look and tell me if everything appears to be in order.

here is the website that has all of the parts
http://www.speedstyles.com/4sale

and here is the place where I found it
http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/...st=65


Does this car look like everything is ok?
I wouldnt pay 11500 but im sure he will come down.

What yall think?

 

it looks nice, but dont be thinking that a car with forged pistons will last you 100k, cause it wont....

why dont you buy a stock car and modify it yourself? fun fun fun....

 

I would love to, but the thing is, I dont have the money to do all that.

If I could afford to do all that to a car, I would in a heart beat, but that would take me probably years to do.

I graduated high school Saturday, and Im still in the process of finding a job, so when I find a job, I wont be makin that kinda money. See what I mean?

 

any more advice?

 

bbbbbbbbbbbump

 

^

 

buy a newer stock car like a GSR or something like that. If you are not planning to modify it. If you are going to go turbo, nos or something instead of the normal upgrades ( intake, exhaust, headers, etc) if would be good to look into a built engine. But not every one know how to work on engines that are stock also.

 

don't buy a car that will tons of money to maintain. i.e. - don't go turbo because in the end, it'll be costly no matter how much you put in initially.

 

Agreed. I havent planned on doing any type of turbo or nos set up.

Basically the normal upgrades.

I dont need a 10 second car, but I dont want a 34 second car either.

I need something that will be reliable daily driver, but is also quick.

I have a post in the VFS thread seeing if anyone has anything for about 11K so if anyone knows anything like that in the NC area, or if anyone hears about something you think would be good, please let me know.

Or if anyone wants to give me about 6K so I can get an ITR
That would be great.

Thanks for everyones help BTW

 

The real problem is that in most cases, it's hard to say what your reliability is going to be.

In the case of engine swaps, not only do you have to worry about how good the people that did the work are, but what kind of shape the engine was in to begin with. How many miles are REALLY on it? What kind of miles? How good is the maintenance?

A rebuilt engine offers even more things to worry about. The very first engine I ever rebuilt I ended up rebuilding two more times after that. It wasn't that I was stupid, or careless, just that there are plenty of ways to screw up. There are also a ton of questions to ask like: when they rebuilt the engine did they replace the oil pump, or just R&R it? What about the valve guides, balance shaft bearings, tb tensioner pulley etc. etc. etc. (depending on what engine you are looking at). Heck, I've seen people "rebuild" an engine without replacing the freaking TBelt. There are people calling themselves engine builders that shouldn't be allowed to play with legos.

Your best bet, in many cases, is a stock engine with bolt ons. A GSR with the typical IHE is quick, and plenty reliable.

 

RevenantAE took the words right out of my mouth. If you're going to get an engine that's been worked on internally, it's only as good as the person who did the work. Same with swaps, people can mess them up many ways, or it can be done fine and run like a stock car.

What your old man says about modifications and shops, is basically true. I've seen plenty of friends try to take their cars to shops to have repairs done, the worker opens the hood, then sends them away. They can fix cars that are built from the factory, but if some kid was screwing with the wiring and adding additional parts everywhere, it'll throw the shop off everywhere. Quite honestly if I were you I'd get a near stock car, sometimes when you buy a persons modded car, you're buying their problems. A stock or near stock car will be your best bet, with limited knowledge and no income.

 

So if I were to get a car with as near stock engine as possible, what do you guys recommend?

I think you guys know the jist of what im wanting, something quick, but still can be driven and used as a daily driver. Something yall would like to drive as your own car. That kinda deal.


And again, I really appreciate everyones help

 

damn man...just get a gs-r or 99-00 si or something. they're comfortable, fun as hell to drive, decent accelleration, and reliable. plus, if you choose to modify them in the future, they have HUGE potential.

 

basically, you should buy a stock car, do your mods yourself. Modding a car will possibly make it unreliable, but it's all in who does the work. A modded car requires a lot more matinence and attention than a stock car, and if you do the mods yourself, you know what's going on. If you don't want the headaches, get a stock car and do bolt-ons.

 

As I , and a couple other people have said, get yourself a GSR. They are very reliable, quick, respond very well to mods, have a wealth of after market parts available, are relatively cheap to insure..... there are just too many good things to say.

For the money you have, you should be able to get a 97-98 GSR with less than 70k miles on it. Bone stock with a manual tranny these cars pull from mid 15's to high 14's in the quarter, do 0-60 in mid 6's to low 7's and are incredible daily drivers. If I didn't need to haul crap from Home Depot to my house, I'd have one of these as opposed to an 89 teg for my get around car.

The one thing I can say is, for the amount of money you have, the GSR is just about the best car you could get.

Just my 2 cents.... do a lot of research around here and maybe you'll decide on something else.

 

or for like $5k you can get a hatch schell and drop in a gsr swap = 13's

 

I believe I will be looking for a stock 98+ GSR then

Anybody know of a mint cond. one In NC?

 

http://www.autotrader.com/find...=used

Here are a few. The white one looks nice.

 

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/...st=55


this one?

 

I was thinking this one
http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/...st=13

Now, it's a sedan, but look at the miles.... that's pretty darn good.

 

It is very nice, but im not lookin at a sedan. I have a sedan now so im lookin to get alittle bit of sport

How about the one that i mentioned in my previous post?