4AGZE Knocking, MK 1.5 Time?

First time poster here, so go easy on me :) 
 
I got my self a Black Limited 1986 AW11 april last year with a 4AGZE that was swapped in running about 11psi with a Nevo pulley on the SC12 & has an A2W IC. Loving it!
 
Sadly she's started knocking, and I'm thinking it's time to look at doing a MK1.5 upgrade. 
 
I was hoping some of you might be able to point me in the right direction, and maybe throw me some recommendations on a mechanic in Sydney that could help me out? Also, What Gen 3SGTE should I be going for, any other mods I should do while I'm at it... and can anyone ball park how much this might cost?
 
I appreciate any help :) 
 
G.
 

I think if you were going to bother with a 3sgte conversion you would want to go Gen 3, 4 or 5. Gen 2 engines are getting quite old and the drive-ability gains of the later engines are well worth it.
 
My guess at a price with a mechanic doing the whole lot including the price of the engine and various other bits required + engineering. $8,000.00+
 
For probably very similar money you could attempt a 2grfe swap. That would create a beast of a car.
 
A Gen 3 in an AW11 body is bloody awesome though :) There are two in NSW that I'm aware off.

If you want easier, just buy a replacement 4agze. There's a guy in Victoria wrecking a Supercharged AW11 at the moment. There is also possibly another 4agze from an automatic Yellow AW11 that someone from NSW is wrecking.
 
I have turned the boost up to roughly 17psi, running a SW20 Greddy copy side mounted intercooler with fan, AW11 HKS exhaust and an Apexi air filter. 

Yep still using the aw11 supercharged HKS exhaust along with the factory cat and half the b pipe. Not ideal at all haha, I do have a Kakimoto 3" SW20 complete exhaust system ready to be hacked up and installed.

Don't bother without another used GZE engine, the price they attract is barely justifiable considering it will probably need a rebuild in due time also.
 
If your current GZE is reusable, take it to an engine builder, if you had 3k budget for someone to rebuild it for you, I'd expect you should just have enough. Save yourself a lot of money by dropping the engine yourself.
 
If you want to save even more, you can do the engine teardown yourself. It's not overly hard with the right tools; a quality set of sockets, both 6 and 12 point, deep socket is better for the 12 point too, a breaker bar for those sockets, and a torque wrench.
 
Download the BGB and have a good read of it. If you can do the engine drop, teardown and rebuild yourself, then you only need $1500 for a machine shop to recondition the engine for you and grab a few parts to give it a major service (water & oil pump, timing belt and tensioner).
 
With a fresh engine, I would then HIGHLY recommend you consider an aftermarket ECU and reputable tuner. It's likely your engine started knocking due to lean out associated with the mods performed on it. An aftermarket ECU will ensure your engine is running its best, and you will find you'll net yourself a very good power upgrade.
 
I can't advise any good engine builders in sydney but I know there are people on here who can help. For aftermarket ECU I recommend chatting to Adaptronic, they are local, very helpful and can advise of good tuners, they are fairly cheap too! Quite a few of the AW11 guys run them and get good results, whether its turbo, SC12 or SC14 with W2A.

It hasn't arrived yet, so I don't have final costs. But ball park I'd be looking at $2k give or take.