well it looks like ill a litle extra money due to selling my civic hatch, the question is what should i do to my motor with the money. some of it has already already been allocated to other projects but i would like to spend some of it on the -se.
a little info on the car.
right now its pretty much bone stock,85 gsl-se just a little over 200k, it gets driven daily and is really reliable.

option 1
i found a guy that has a tII engine for sale(motor,electronics,computer,tranny,turbo,racin g beat downpipe,everything)for 1000 bucks. it has 142k on it this guy is the original owner of the car(and it looks like he really takes care of his stuff). the motor was running fine when it was pulled to do a v8 swap and has been sitting for about a year.and if i get the tII i want to rebuild it(which i dont have room for in my budget)

option 2
lately ive been thinking about sawping a carb onto my 13b. i searched this a little but still have no idea on which one i want to go with.

at the moment ill have about $1200 to spend. so unless i sell my explorer i really dont have the extra cash to do what i want to the tII motor and put it in. so i quess my reall question is which carb do you think i should go with and what supporting mods should i do first?

 

if i was you, id port your motor, and get a holley carb, with a full SDJ header

 

if it were me... i'd buy a racing beat holley style intake manifold, a holley style throttlebody, some injectors, and a megasquirt... would beat the hell out of the stock SE injection... oh and port it

 

i dont want to tear the engine down just yet. ive ben thinking about the holley carb. i know the sdj is noce and all but i dont know if i can bring myself to pay that much for a header. you sig says you have the weber now and your wanting a holley, care to give a little detail as to why.

 

IMHO you have a solid daily driver in that GSL-SE. Save your cash or sell your Explorer and go get yourself a nice project car.

 

if it were me, and i was going carb, i'd buy a weber... tho i'm using a holley on my motor i'm putting in my FB, if i could afford it i'd go weber or mikuni(already had the holley setup from a previous car, so didn't have to buy the setup i have now)

 

Couldn't agree more. If your SE is in nice shape, bone stock and working fine keep it that way and take good care of it. Drive it only in summer on nice days. In a few years it will spike in value--- as long as it hasn't been fucked with. To give you a hint of what it could be worth in the next few years, a pristine and stock 1970 to 1973 Datsun 240Z that could be had just a few years ago for under 8K is now worth over 15K. Modded ones are worth 8 or 10K tops.

A modded SE is like a wife with a brand new set of fake *****--- more fun to play with than before, but does not get better with age. (In fact they sag like a pair of bowling pins on a rope). You'll have spent a few grand now for better acceleration, but your car will be worth a few grand less than stock SEs in otherwise equal condition later on. Simply put, the mods increase performance but decrease the value and reliability.

I'd pick up a non-SE 1st gen that has a good body for under $1000 and then drop the T-II into that one. Also, find a rust-bucket SE for a couple hundred that's too far gone to be restored and swap the suspension from it into the project car. That way you'll have the better brakes, LSD and 4 X 114.3 bolt pattern hubs that can fit most aftermarket rims.

 

thanks for all of the input guys. im actualy picking up another -se next week thats closer to being in stock shape. mine doesnt have the ac or cruise control anymore, thats why ive decided to mod this one and keep the other one bone stock and restore it.
elysian i had thought about doing the holley projection thing, but maybe latter on down the road.