2+2 Engine rebuild, eventually turbo'ed
 

I have a 96 2+2 and am planning on doing a rebuild this summer. I've been reading up (a lot) on the TT conversion, most reads ending with the suggestion that I sell my car and buy a TT. For me, I just want to start by saying that this is a no-go. The 2 extra seats, newly redone interior, new sound system (dont actually care about that...), HED's, and the new suspension setup makes this car a keeper for me.

So, all of that aside, I am planning on rebuilding the engine. If I were to do a TT swap, it would be much further down the road AND I would end up rebuilding that engine before I dropped it in my car, so it would be $3200 (front clip, concept-z) + extra bits and pieces + rebuild cost for TT engine. What I think is the more economical thing to do is to rebuild my current engine and make it turbo ready.

Before I get flamed for posting this, I want to stress that any form of turboing will not be happening for a year or two, but this engine needs to be rebuilt now.

I came here to ask what I should simply replace and what I should upgrade. Doing a turbo build on a NA/2+2 seems to be a bit of a taboo subject on Z32 forums, so it is hard to find good info on it. From what I have been reading the only real difference in the internals of the NA and the TT is the pistons, the NA's pistons being weaker. Any info/help you guys can give will be great, thanks in advance.

tl;dr- Rebuilding NA/2+2 motor, selling car and buying TT is not an option, TT swap not an option, what should I upgrade inside the motor to make it turbo ready?

https://www.zdriver.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29614


You can build any engine to withstand anything... it just takes a lot of $$$.

So how much do you have to spend? :D

That second quote says it would be cheaper to just upgrade a stock TT motor but, as far as price is concerned, what would be cheaper:

A) Rebuild (only the top) & strengthen my NA/2+2 motor and eventually turbo it

B) Buy the TT front clip, do the swap, rebuild the top of that motor and buy new turbos

By summer time I should have 5 grand to pour into the Z, that doesn't mean that I actually want to put it all into the Z though, haha

^^^ I suggest re-reading (several times) the quotes I posted.

I guess I am reading the quote differently. To me it sounds like he is saying its cheaper to do a TT swap then build a NA up, but, if I were to do the TT swap, I would then want to rebuild the newly purchased TT motor, including the turbos.

I assume what you and he are saying is that, even if I did rebuild the TT engine it would still be cheaper.

Just googling around, found this great article. I guess there is a lot more difference in the engines then just the pistons. It all comes down to what happens when I do the compression test later today. If I need to rebuild, I will go ahead and do that and be happy with my vg30de for now. If my car can last, maybe I will save up some more and buy/rebuild a TT engine.

Precisely! I've heard a solid stock TT engine can withstand up to 500hp. To get a NA engine to that kind of output would be extremely expensive. I think even just matching TT output with a turbo'd NA is still significantly more expensive than doing the TT swap.