Highest mileage GT500? Its a driver!

GT Premi

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Yeah, that's a full repaint. A blend job won't be as expensive. Maybe less than $2K.
 

My Monster

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70k, 55k with a pulleyed 2.3. It's seen the snow twice and I consider driving it in the rain to be a free car wash of sorts. I live in Coastal Carolina and I've driven the BRP and the other curvy roads of Western Carolina. It is gorgeous out there. I've got my share of chips in the nose, a scraped up front air dam, a door ding or two, but I couldn't imagine daily driving anything else.
 

PistolWhip

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What?? you guys are crazy.

These motors have forged rods, pistons, and crank. I bet they would last 500k or more in stock form. Anything under 700whp is childs play.

OP.. i say tune, cold air intake, and pulley need to be on order ASAP.

Its a COMPLETELY different car with those 3 mods.

I feel like a VTEC Prelude would whip my GT500 when it was stock.


Sorry man but this bad advice. Pistons, rods and cranks aren't wear points in an unmodified, properly maintained engine, so those being forged have little to do with the wear and tear these engines endure from mileage. You're correct, those specific components can probably live infinitely in an unmodified, properly maintained and soft driven 500.

HOWEVER...
Bearings, rings, seals, timing components (chains and guides mostly) and oil pumps are what wear due to mileage and those do have "shelf lives" unfortunately and this point, adding power is creating a ticking time bomb out of an otherwise perfectly running engine.

Rings and valve seals can be gauged by compression tests, oil usage between changes and exhaust indicators, so that's an easy tell if you wanted to test before mods. Usually oil pressure and oil analysis can tell a descent story of the rotating assembly bearing condition, so again, not a difficult test to determine if mods are a good idea.

The problem is the timing components and oil pump gears. It's not easy to tell what condition those are in without tearing the front of the engine apart and that's not something I'd want to do at this point. If you start moding the car now, you're much more likely to start exposing the wear conditions of the timing components and oil pump gears which would make me nervous.

You've driven the car the way it is and obviously enjoyed it all this time; unless you're perfectly OK with an engine failure (which you may very well be at this point), I'd wait until you're ready to build a motor to mod anything.

Just my .02 on the mod situation.

It's awesome that you've gotten to drive that car as much as you have. In my area, with the weather and total wangs that live and drive on the roads around here, mine would undoubtedly be dead by now if I drove it that much.
 

gimmie11s

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So the bearings, rings, and timing components are now going to fail after tune, pulley, and Intake? Couldn't disagree more.

If you're talking blower upgrade and a 800hp set up, then yeah... I might agree.

however, bearings, rings, and timing components are not stress points. IF they are going to fail, they will fail at 500hp just as they would at 600.
 
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PistolWhip

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So the bearings, rings, and timing components are now going to fail after tune, pulley, and Intake? Couldn't disagree more.

If you're talking blower upgrade and a 800hp set up, then yeah... I might agree.

however, bearings, rings, and timing components are not stress points. IF they are going to fail, they will fail at 500hp just as they would at 600.

That's not at all what I said. And yes, bearings, rings and timing components wear over time and mileage and are ABSOLUTELY stress points.

What I said was that the forged rotating assembly has nothing to do with the survivability of the bottom end of a high mileage engine. Saying that it does is giving someone false confidence.
 

gimmie11s

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I like the fact that I can drive whenever I feel like it vs. worrying about dirtying up a garage queen. I've got a few chips and dings so there is no reservation in driving and enjoying my car. I bought it to drive it!

car looks outstanding!

....
What I said was that the forged rotating assembly has nothing to do with the survivability of the bottom end of a high mileage engine. Saying that it does is giving someone false confidence.

lol. that must be the most false statement ive read in a long time.

Cast components are weaker. Period. 180k, or 10k miles.. doesn't matter. The combustion process at 500 hp over 180k miles will absolutely be tougher on the weaker motor. Explains why manufacturers have largely abandoned the cast crank in production vehicles altogether. You wont find current a Honda motor with a cast crank. Even the 140hp models run forged--and they seem to go for 3-400k miles routinely.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one.
 

PistolWhip

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I don't think your understanding what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that the rotating assembly does not "wear" due to mileage the same way that bearings, timing chains, chain guides, rings and other friction and tension surfaces do. The oil pump gears are the scariest part of it in my mind, they're sintered metal and the design puts a lot of friction and torque on them being at the end of the crank.
I've built and rebuilt my fair share of engines from small block Chevy's and push rod Fords to full modular engines; complete builds not buying a complete short block that someone else built and slapping on a set of heads calling myself an engine builder. I'm not speaking on what I've been told, I'm speaking on experience. I'm not saying you're wrong, I think you are just misunderstanding my point.
 

PistolWhip

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Yeah no doubt, they're nice. They are precision and when you compare them to the one's you pull out you'll understand 100% why they're needed in high HP / high RPM mod motors.
I used Sean Hyland's back when i built my first mod motor, I think they were the only show in town back then. The difference was amazing.

Get the 2013 GT500 pump too, it's higher volume.

Picture%20033_zpsazibzuol.jpg
 
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gimmie11s

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I don't think your understanding what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that the rotating assembly does not "wear" due to mileage the same way that bearings, timing chains, chain guides, rings and other friction and tension surfaces do. The oil pump gears are the scariest part of it in my mind, they're sintered metal and the design puts a lot of friction and torque on them being at the end of the crank.
.


Fair enough.
 

mikes35

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I think I'm going to try a VMP 2.5 pulley and a tune. I really would like to data log this motor as well and see what shows up. I've got a K&N CAI I got for a good deal a year ago and never installed it. So pulley, CAI and tune, we'll see if it can handle it.
 

pwnyryd

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For the daily drivers, how to you keep the Alcantara steering wheel clean and looking fresh? It sure feels great, doesn't it?
 

rfugio68

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I think I'm going to try a VMP 2.5 pulley and a tune. I really would like to data log this motor as well and see what shows up. I've got a K&N CAI I got for a good deal a year ago and never installed it. So pulley, CAI and tune, we'll see if it can handle it.
Definitely do that! I want to know how it goes!
 

mikes35

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I've got my tuner and pulley. Just waiting on my tune. It's been about 2 weeks since I ordered it so I suspect I should be receiving it shortly.
 

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