oh alright cause I've never heard of anybody using either of those so it kinda threw me off. But yea I jut need to get some money together to get all these parts and then I can actually start doing it so my car's probably gonna sit for a little while longer. By the way what difference does it make if I use a head gasket that's thicker. For example on extremepsi.com they have 2 hks head gaskets for the 4g63 but one of them is 1.2mm thick and the other one's 1.6mm thick. Is it just better go thicker so it's more durable or no?

it depends on how much boost you want to run. 500hp and under the thinner one is better, 501hp+ the thicker one is better. That's not exact science just a rule of thumb because usually if someone is above 500hp they have a pretty big turbo on there

yea well it's FWD I think 500 hp is a little overkill and a waste of tires and I'm still debating on whether or not to do the AWD conversion cause it honestly doesn't look that hard the only thing is $$$. I can't find a clean 2gb GSX for a respectable price anywhere! But thanks a lot pwee you're a huge help up here. We need more people like you on here.

:beer: thanks, there's a bunch of people like me on here though. that's why so many people stick around

I don't think you need the 2gb for the conversion. a donor 2ga should work too. other than looks the only major differences I can think of off the top of my head were in the ECU and really only matter in a 6-bolt swap application

no I was saying I'd rather just buy a 2gb gsx and sell my gst but I can't find a gsx. But yea if I'm gonna do the AWD conversion I'm gonna get like a stage 4 tranny from sheptrans and probably drop a built 6 bolt in and mainly just build a straight race car. I'm always gonna have 2 cars so I figure one of them might as well just be built for autocross.

autocross FTW!

the tools they say you need to change the timing belt are:

Timing belt tensioner pully adjuster thing, it's usually a socket with 2 little spikes like 3/4 of an inch apart.

Tensioner tool, this one is a long screw looking thingy that slides into where that little rubber nipple is on your upper timing tin a little below the cam gears.

Crank puller. If you can't get the pulley off, you need this little guy because appearently you can only pull on that pully in certain places.

Truth be told: you can do it without them, I have. As long as there is no slack in the belt and all the marks line up, you are good.

And the waterpump is easy if you are taking off the timing belt. You have to remove the belt to get the pump out, so that's why it's a pain. But, change that pump, do not skimp on this! And make sure you get a pump that has a metal impeller, the stock one has a plastic one that deteriorates over time. I took my stocker off when I pulled my head off and the impeller fell out in 3 pieces!

Oh, and you can spend the extra couple hundred dollars and get all new pulleys and tensioner for your timing belt, and spend an extra 60 and get the gates racing kevlar belts, best bang for the buck on good belts. Oh and you can save about $200 by going with the cometic headgasket. It rivals the HKS in quality and it only costs about $100!

Thanks for the input but honestly I have no problem letting the car sit a little while longer so I can raise some more money for better parts considering I have another car to drive in the meantime. I REALLY don't like putting parts in my car that aren't like basically top of the line. I know I don't need them but I'd rather just do it the best I can the first time around. I know some people view that stupid but I honestly don't care and it gives me piece of mind. But when I'm ready to get all this done I'm just gonna change out as much as I can cause most the parts in there are still the stock parts.

Not stupid.

+1

IMO I like the mitsu metal headgasket, its a little more than cometic but I've always felt it's the best one

well the hks head gasket on extremepsi.com is about 200 which isn't too bad and the arp head studs are about 80 and I don't really have a problem spending that much on it. It might be a little overkill at the moment but I still don't know what I'm gonna end up doing with the car. I might just get this done and then go with a turbo upgrade and throw the evo 3 16g in there or I might leave the car the way it is and save money for an AWD conversion, 6 bolt swap, new internals just to be safe (and in case I go power crazy in the future), tein full coilovers, maybe still the evo 3 16g so I still get a nice spool cause I would wanna use the car for autocross. Also if I do the 6 bolt swap I could still keep the 7 bolt kinda as a back up engine in case I blow it or use it for parts whatever. I know I could just get this done keep up with maintance and toss in the evo 3 turbo but I'd get bored eventually and it would just be a waste of time. I don't really plan on getting rid of this car for a long time so I might as well just go all out.

I like 7-bolts better. they have a main girdle not just main caps.

I would still go with mitsumetal headgasket.

http://www.slowboyracing.com/estore/produc...page=1&featured

I agree I never understood why people wouldn't buy the OEM part when it comes to Timing belts and headgaskets.

I mean I hvae no problem using some oem parts but I also plan on building this car for (this is a REALLY rough estimate cause I haven't decided on turbos and stuff like that) somewhere around 450-600hp after the AWD conversion. I know oem parts are good but they're not made to handle a lot of power. Mainly I just go for the best quality parts I can get regardless of cost but that metal head gasket from slow boy racing looks pretty good and it's about 100 bucks cheaper than the hks head gasket and I might just go with that for now with some arp studs.

oh I also took basically the whole cooling system apart yesterday and realized that my radiator is done so I'm gonna have to replace that too. This shop by my house gets a serious discount on mishimoto (or however you spell it) radiators so I was thinking about giving that a try. Anybody have any experience with those and would you recommend them?

mitsu met