Thanks for the input fellas, appreciated. Will definitely give Neil a buzz to get his thoughts, and good to know re him servicing Sydney clients too.

I didn't think that a drop-in STI stock engine would be up to it, but was suggested as an option from one guy a called.

With the forged path, given that the price of rebuilding my existing engine is comparable with a new EJ257 with forged parts (assuming good pricing on parts), what is the better route you think? Could the rebuilding quote on existing engine be a tad high or overspec'd for what I need?

If i'm going to drop $12k on a rebuild I want to know I'm getting better value over a new engine. Else dropping approx the same amount on a newbie is making more sense.

Cheers.