Okay so out of luck I found a 1996 3000GT, she looks sexy with the 18s on there, stock 16s included. I was able to trade a 1991 Nissan Sentra 1.6l for the GT, and I only paid $200 for the Nissan.

The downside, which is why I was able to pull all this off, is she needs a valve job. I know that in order to do the valve job, the head has to be removed and thus it will have to be shaved before reinstalling. I found a place online that sells refurbed heads for $300. Aside from the heads, $300 each, how much would you expect it to run me for a complete teardown and rebuild? Im thinkin obviously head gasket, new heads, timing, water pump, valve cover gaskets. What might I be overlooking for the rebuild? I would like to have the block bored out, new pistons and obviously rings, but only if Im not selling my soul to do so. What else (internally) is vital to a rebuild? Ill be lookin up expernal parts online such as wires, intake manifold, etc.

 

Send GirlyVR4 a message and see if she can quote it for you. That way you'll have a ballpark number to look at.
I'd recommend a complete rebuild from the oil pan up (as it were) if you're going to be driving it like you stole it. If it's just a commuter, check your compression and if it's all good, I'd just redo the heads and call it a day.

It's going to get expensive when you add in new rods, pistons, cylinder bore, etc. So if you can get away with stock internals, I would.

I have a VR-4 with stock internals that's about to be pushing 380+awhp with no problems at all. It was rebuilt about 30k miles ago. The 6G72's are fairly resilient from the factory.

 

It would actually be cheaper to turbo it than it would be to get it bored out. For a complete rebuild plus bore, and heads, ur lookin at around a lil over 3 g's. Unless u can do most of the build ur self. But u still have to find a good machine shop that bore it out for u. The rod bearings will probably be the cheapest thing u buy, but the most important.

 

Well Im possibly getting a 1992/1993 3kgt sl in exchange for my 1995 eclipse rs, which will be the immediate car. Thats why I didnt mind taking the time to do the 96 right. It wouldnt hit the track but a rebuild would cover most of the comes-with-age problems I can expect. And I realize it would be cheaper to simply turbo it on stock internals, but I wanted to make a monster :-) just in case it does one day go to the track. I suppose it would more cost effective to just get the valve job and call it a day. But I dont wanna replace head gaskets 6 monts later, or jump timing or some ****.

And I am capable of doing most of the build myself, the main area where I cant do it myself is machining. Shaving the heads and boring the cylinders.

And I forgot to mention, all the GTs in question are 5spd. FUN