Who has an 8.8 in their Mk3? does any company make a kit? need something that can hold up over 1000 horse.
Yeah I guess I’d be better off with the same money in a 2J. I’ll just sell off my mound of 7M parts and do the swap [emoji23]That turbo has a 4" V-Band out so you'll need to go 4" back considering your goals.
Forged pistons and rods are available off the shelf and will be more affordable that way than trying to engineer something and have it made. Just stick with letting the companies that do this for a living do the leg work.
CP, Wiseco, and JE will all do custom forged pistons to your spec. Off the shelf rods from Pauter and Crower (not Brian Crower or BC) will work for your goals.
Marine Crankshaft Inc can build you a forged billet crank if you send them a sample 7M crank. They can do the whole lightening/ knife edging thing and they do this for some major companies. Their cranks are made in the US, not China like some others.
Dry sump systems are a pain but worth looking into as the OEM pump has it's limits. Otherwise get a good reman oil pump (new ones are no longer available unless there is a dealership with one stashed in the back of the parts department) and make sure all of the clearances are tight and in spec. A dry moly coating wouldn't be a bad idea here. Or if you're feeling really industrious and don't mind dumping a ton of money into it, have your engineer buddy look into modifying the OEM pump for higher flow or build a billet pump that bolts into the stock location. It'd be cheaper to do a dry sump at this point though.
For engine management, ditch the Series 2, assuming that's what you have based on your mention of an AEM Black box, and go with an Infinity or ProEfi unit. Both are much more refined and versatile units that are still supported. The series 2 is no longer supported by AEM so if there is any issue you're SOL.
If you insist on staying with the 7M be prepared to fail miserably, possibly more than once. There's not a lot of knowledge out there when building them to that level so much of it is still a voodoo black magic type of deal. I've been through roughly 6 7Ms trying to get it right and much of this was back when you could get a GTE motor for ~$450. If you do in fact get serious with it you find that $20k won't be enough to get everything needed for the whole car, and putting that kind of money into it just to blow it all up is pretty disheartening. BTDT. More than once actually