i called tom this morning, pleaded my case, and convinced them to do one last 420A motor before they close up shop on import machine work. so if you're reading this tom, thanks a million, you are a lifesaver, man. for everyone else, i would say a thousand times over, take your business to VT, but since they arent working on 420s anymore i guess it doesnt matter. i got just the standard 2.0L, with 8.8 CPs and eagle rods. i was going to order the 2.2L longblock but after hearing that i could have the 2L shortblock at my shop in 3 weeks i decided it wasn't worth the extra wait, i can always build the head later. the extra money i saved is going to the following:

- HRC 3" downpipe
- HRC portfueler
- HRC stage II upgrade w/FMIC
- custom 3" exhaust, 2 new mufflers
- JIC FLT-A2 coilovers
- brembo's and new brake pads

will let everyone know once the motor is installed in a month or so.

:thumbsup

sweet news!

while im on the subject, i may be throwing some cash into a new clutch as well, and i don't really want to install the new one while the stocker still works for 2 reasons:

1) the stocker still works (not for long at 14psi or more)
2) i don't want to put all this shit on the car at one time, if something goes wrong i won't have a clue where to start looking.

so my question, what's a decent price to pay for labor to install a new clutch if i dont get it done while the motor is out of the car?
and also, how hard is it to install myself? i did the turbo kit itself, along with everything else on the car, but a clutch swap intimidates me for some reason.

I wouldn't trust a shop to install a clutch on a car like yours. Too many non-stock parts that they would have to remember to hook back up. Unless they're a really trustworthy shop that knows their way around modded engines, get some local guys from the board to help you out. I did my first clutch job in 6 hours by myself, but I'm pretty mechanically inclined. I'd say if you set aside two days to do it, and take your time you won't have any problems. Especially if you stick with a modular setup. Labor costs are ridiculous. I think I was quoted $400 or $450 just for labor to install a clutch in my car. I'm pretty sure that the book hours on it is at least 8. That's a pretty good chunk of change you could put towards building your head.

dang man. $400? last time i did my clutch, i got charged $200. where you from?

Originally posted by cyan
i called tom this morning, pleaded my case, and convinced them to do one last 420A motor before they close up shop on import machine work. so if you're reading this tom, thanks a million, you are a lifesaver, man. for everyone else, i would say a thousand times over, take your business to VT, but since they arent working on 420s anymore i guess it doesnt matter. i got just the standard 2.0L, with 8.8 CPs and eagle rods. i was going to order the 2.2L longblock but after hearing that i could have the 2L shortblock at my shop in 3 weeks i decided it wasn't worth the extra wait, i can always build the head later. the extra money i saved is going to the following: - HRC 3" downpipe - HRC portfueler - HRC stage II upgrade w/FMIC - custom 3" exhaust, 2 new mufflers - JIC FLT-A2 coilovers - brembo's and new brake pads will let everyone know once the motor is installed in a month or so.

what's up with VT. why areb't they doing 420A's anymore? this is the first time hearing this.

if you searched on vt, you'd realize they have been awesome for awhile

About the clutch Cyan, You should do it now while the engine is out of the car. They have to unbolt and remove the whole assembly anyway so there is just as much possibility for errors, plus clutch problems are pretty easy to diagnose anyway, and it's kind of hard to fuck up a clutch install. No point in putting it all back together and then dropping the tranny 5-6 weeks later to replace the clutch that you know now will fail in short time. Just my $.02 but I would do it all now that way you can break in the clutch and engine all at once rather than breaking in the motor, having all the power and then breaking in a clutch so you can't use the power...lol

Wow, that's a surprise. I even searched on their web page to look for their rebuild options. It doesn't look like they are doing any type of rebuilds other than Ford. There are no listings for the 420A or the 4G63. I have a VT Engines rebuilt block and it runs absolutely perfect. I wonder if you could still call them and have them do the work even though it isn't listed on their site anymore.

Who does this leave for rebuilders besides local shops? I know VT seemed to be very popular on this board and didn't Faster Than You (FTY) use VT as their rebuilders?

I'm glad I rebuilt my engine when I did!
--Kurt

well that sucks

that sucks they wont be doing dsm's anymore, but hey, at least you convinced them to do your motor.

Originally posted by grain
if you searched on vt, you'd realize they have been awesome for awhile

were i posting a question i would have already found my answer via the search...i'm posting a comment on a shop that i knew was good from searching previously, and adding my own experience to the previous slew of comments. keep the unnecessary smartass comments in someone else's posts, noob. if you didn't mean it to be a smartass comment then ok, but i get the feeling that it was, with the whole "if you had done a search" thing.

I'm glad you made the right choice. I love my VT shortblock. It's solid as hell. Shit, It had perfect compression before it had EVER started up! That's just sick and wrong. Nothing should be that perfect, but I'm glad it was! ;)

nice choice.

DWAYNE H
1996 eclipse
under construction widebody eclipse, targa top, 19inch rollers, big brakes, 10 point custom cage, frank 2.4 hrc s20g turbo, custom marble paint job

2000 Yamaha R-1, 165rwhp 117 ftlbs tq

ALMOST THERE...... MUWHAHAHAHAHAHA

Originally posted by etx(SIUECLIPSE)
Yeah right. He is making 380fwhp with ebay hoses and the HRC 2.25" clamp on downpipe attached to his stock exhaust. And a SFMU, LOL! You should be maimed and beaten you fucking liar.

Oh yeah, It's not an import, It's a dodge damnit. :P ;)

does anyone know how to get it touch with tom at VT any way besides the numbers listed on the VT website?