Actually the eBay manifolds are pretty decent. I'm running one, just needs to be braced or the welds crack.a lot of times you have to take a dremal and clean up the welds. I'd rather take 30 minutes to do these than spend an extra $600 on a manifold. Not to mention obx has a lifetime warranty
You can buy an eBay turbo and rebuild it 10 times and it might equal out to the cost of a brand new garret. Even used Garret's when they go it's an $800 rebuild. Only reason I have one is it was a deal I couldn't pass up. It's cost effectiveness. It only takes an hour or so to rebuild them. And when you rebuild the journal bearings you get to see how simple they are
The fsde will take 200 whp all day long, more than enough power for fun. My 323 made that and it was a blast. There are people in the 220-250 area the risks are there, they know them, I'm not denying them. I pointed that out
If the motor is poorly maintained yes it will give out my na protege was treated horribly by previous owners and threw a rod just driving down the interstate cruising. If the motor was maintained by someone who cared about the car then there shouldn't be any issues
You can have cheap fast and reliable if you know where to cheap out at. Something's you don't go cheap on ie internals. I damn sure wouldn't recommend cheap rods pistons or bearings, or anything that takes more than 30 minutes to replace. Setup on my 323 is this eBay manifold, intercooler and piping. Garret gt28 custom home made down pipe. eBay oil and water lines. Act heavy duty clutch. Mega squirt 2 with custom harness. I'll have about $1400 when it's all said and done plus tuning if I don't feel comfortable doing it myself. Now if I were paying someone to do all this I could see 2,000 added to the price, especially with the harness as I'm dreading doing it. Now granted the b6t is a way better designed motor and holds more power I'll still be pushing it to it's limits. And since I know that I'm pushing it when it does give out it won't bother me. I'm waiting to see what's gona go first trans or motor. Granted it will be getting bp swapped next winter so I really don't care
I'm not trying to kid anybody, no turbo car is reliable even in stock form. The amount of times I've had oil lines leak, inter cooler piping blow off, waste gate issues, boost controller issues, the list goes on. It will be a headache it will take more maintenance, you will have to pay more attention but it's well worth it when you see the face of a cocky mustang owners face in your rear view. I can also say I can pull my down pipe off re toque the turbo bolts ( absolute b**** to get to) and have it back together in 30 minutes
I highly recommend op doing it himself. Gotta learn somehow. A lot of times you have to pick up a book and read or google it. I've never messed with wiring, don't even know how to solder but I'll be making my own wire harness. Not only for the learning experience but for the fact that I'll be able to say I made that