New guy rebuilding 420a

As the subject says I am rebuiling a 420a 1999 Eclipse GS. During this rebuild I plan to focus on perormance and use popular brands with good reviews. I have little mechanical expirience seeing as I am only 15 but I have one person, who is much more expirienced than I am, that could help me But we all get stumped at something sometimes. 
 
Opinions are appreciated. And any expirience with any troubleshoots of the 420a that you know of would be helpful.

What are you rebuilding it for? Are you just doing a rebuild because of the age and miles or are you trying to build up the block with stronger internals and trying to turbo it or something. Just trying to get an idea of what your actually looking to do

I want to rebuild it because it has about 130,000 miles on it and I want this to be my project car that I will keep ( and probably race a little bit ) for a long time. Also like you said I want stronger internals so that I can turbo it and add some nice mods.

If you want a good place to find parts for the 420a check here. They have alot of good parts. But one thing you have to realize is with the internals. If you are gonna turbocharge it you want to find lower compression pistons, which are not very good for a N/T car. So basically when you do everything, its gonna have to be done all at once. If you really want my honest opinion, just fix it up as a daily driver. Have your fun with it but dont spend alot of money on it. Because the 420a is not one of the best power potential motors. They arnt too great at handling boost without having small problems like head gaskets.
Id say if you want go and do the rebuild by just getting all new seals and gaskets. Then youll basically have a new engine with stock internals. Thats not all that expensive if you have someone to do it with you. Then just do some small mods just to make the car fun to drive. I just wouldnt expect to get some good power out of it. Then when your done with your fun and want something faster sell it. This is just what i think from my experience. But really its your car so if you want, go all out with it, but its just not something i would do.

Welcome. i also have a 420a and im rebuilding it also. But theengineer is right, theres no comparation between the 420 and the g63, im sure it is possible to reinforce and turbo the 420a with no biggie problem (just quite a spend) but its no way as fast or strong as the other engine. Mine's gonna be a daily driver, so to each one its own, and welcome 

OK thanks for the advice but here is what I am going to go with..

I have two options get the 420a or the 4g63. If I get the 420a I would use this site as a guide     http://www.****.com/www/corbin/rebuild.html  .This setup (if I upgrade some of the parts) should handle the boost and the things I want to do with it, right?   BUT I noticed that alot of people say that you shouldn't attempt to turbo engines that aren't ment to be turbo'd b/c of the reasons you all explained, too much time and money. And I was stuck on the idea of the 420a b/c that was the first option presented to me and because of the website shown above that is available. I may go with the option of upgrading an already turbo'd engine such as the 1999 eclipse GT-S or AWD GSX    . Thanks for the help and I still have alot of time to plan a little more and make better decisions.
 
 
 
*IN the stars to the link above it should say ****

Wait are you thinking of buying a new car or just dropping in a new engine because just to warn you dropping in the turbo engine into the nonturbo eclipse is a lot of work, custom welding, wiring, and what not and probably would cost more than turbo ing the 420a.

I havn't realy bought the car yet but the one that I am getting from this guy I know has about 130,000 miles on it and needs a rebuild.Soooooo if I get this car I WILL rebuild it to handle turbo and other mods. But if I don't have the money to rebuild it I will just go and upgrade some GSX or GS-T. But I'm really gonna try to rebuild this 420a because I'm pretty familar with it even though i've heard the 4g63 has a little more potential.

Ah gotcha, well as far as an everyday driver the GS is great, i have one and I love it. Its not going to stomp every car out there but it is fun just whipping around the backroads. I am right now looking to maybe  purchasing a 1st gen GSX hopefully and making that into the more track car.

a couple things i think you should understand.   if you plan on getting the 420a eclipse when you do rebuild it you will need to put lower compression pistons (the lowest i've ever found for this car is 8.5:1).  now once you do this your car will be EXTREMELY slow until you do turbo it.  the stock compression is 9.6:1 so if you do some simple math you are going from a stock 140bhp to 123bhp.   if you are looking for a quick car, PLEASE get the gs-t or gsx, i have a 99 gs w/ a 420a and was very very very close to turbo'ing it i had EVERYTHING needed but ended up selling everything and am currently selling my car to get a GSX.  if you whey out the price of everything you can buy a gs-t or gsx for well under the amount of a 420a eclipse + parts to turbo.   do some research, don't jump into a car without knowing about it!!! trust me! that's what i did and 2 years later i'm regretting it.

I have done my research and have decided to go with the turbo eclipse. But one last and final question....
Does the GSX have any negatives against the GS-T personaly?   like would brakes or drivetrain mods be more difficult to find or install becasue of the AWD in the GSX? Is the GSX heavier?
 
Thank you for the help it is much appreciated.

yes the gsx is heavier. No the mods are all just about the same for doing. Unless you get into the tranny or something, then its a bit more work. But the gsx will get much better traction and be alot more fun IMO

your launches will be unbeatable, not to mention shifting from 1-2 and 2-3, you will have no wheel spin unles you are putting down 450+hp  which is a huge plus b/c anybody putting over 250hp will spin a good deal in 2nd and 3rd.   awd is unbeatable up to 80mph then the 2wd starts to reel you in and not to mention this is all dependant on the driver.