Hmm I guess you just need to know how to build them then. 1500 HP here on an LT1 block, it's in perfect condition, no block failure. Main bearings look brand new.

 

Welllll..... I could tell you about my engine, but it isn't very exciting. In general, I try to avoid posting "my friend's mistresses's brother knows a guy who built a 3,000HP V6....." and only post information that I am familiar with on a first-hand, hands-on basis. Baxter's engine happens to be the only one of that scope that I've ever had a chance to work with/on. If I'm boring people with this info, I'll just back off.

 

Please don't Fred! I feel you and all the other guys on here that have 'been around the block a time or two' have VERY useful information! Whenever I see a thread similar to this, I always look forward to what you guys have to say.

Keep up the good work!!

 

It's just getting the the point that no matter what I post, someone has to bitch about it..... it gets tiring after 16,000 posts or so.

 

Hey, "they" only seem to bitch if a post has excellent high- quality information or absolute junk BS. Your posts (of the former kind) are highly valued by most of us, Fred.

Remember the old motto, "Illigitimi non carborundum"

Besides, I really like your avatar (or what ever that pic is called).

BTW: INJUNEER--I was one a long time ago.

 

On the subject of main caps moving, isnt there some sort of cap girdle? It ties all the caps together. I remember reading about it but cant remember where.
-Mark

 

For how much power the LT1 block can take, I'm suprised that most people agree they should not be bored more than .030-.040 over.

I've seen many regular SBC blocks taken .060 over.

What is the difference in bore thickness between an old SBC and an LT1?

Is it a possibility that even if the LT1 bores are thinner that they are still stronger because of better manufacturing/materials?

Just trying to figure out why the LT1 blocks seem to take so much more than a regular SBC. (or do they?)

 

Like This.....

It's more of a Ford trick than a Chevy one, but basically it's going to stablize the caps more at the top of them. It's fun to fit in a Chevy oil pan because they are not the norm and some of them even make you cut the tops of all the caps flat (if they are not) to get a good mating surface. The old man had to fix some Windsor caps years ago for my brother in laws stroked Windsor, back when you didn't have Windsor stroker cranks, you had 400M cranks made to fit in a Windsor block. Well at least I have a high nickel '69 Windsor block from all of that.

Bret

 

I agree that there's no exact number on hp or tq a block will take but rather how much extended engine life you can expect our of it at a certain duty cycle at a certain power level and a certain rpm. The block that we used in Rick's engine was fine but after the turbo exploded at Thunder, it probably got metal into the shortblock which killed one rod and piston probably when it tried to compress that? Anyway the rest of the block as in bearings and pistons looked great and before that the engine was also doing fine. 1400+hp is not easy on anything but with safe tuning it was hanging in there.

Now a real Bowtie or DART or World would certainly be better and would last much longer that's for sure but Rick was going for the LTx record and so we kept the LTx block. Soon we should be in the 7s with the LT1.

I think the main girdles are sort of an abomination for the most part but hey plenty of shops make money off of them! As Jud says at the school at least it keeps the Ford guys from running over the crank! Now they even have top and bottom girdles for the Ford stuff. I'd say that if you need all that it's time for a real block!

 

Wow! Bret, that girdle looks like it's aluminum too!

 

i do not approve of this post.


in all seriousness, I just stopped posting in tech sections on the net. well aside from this one. its so pointless.

myth and rumor snowball into quantity on the internet. the strength of these myths and rumors are valued to a much greater degree than intuition, logic, science, R&D and expierence. The internet is a terrible place to get your roots.

If i had "learning" to do over again, Id start with sport bikes. you can REALLY see how things interact very well there because they are so sensetive to modifications and are very very well tuned. not safety tuned like production cars.

 

That's a pic from Steve Quinn.

What did the one rod bearing that Rick's motor have fail look like? Did you see a big piece of junk in it or was is black?

Bret

 

No it got crushed on the top and spun so the rod was black and blue. This happened right after the turbo came apart at Thunder and the new turbo was installed and some dyno passes were made. Also keep in mind that this engine is still regular SBC wet sump stock oiling system. I am setting it up more like a regular race SBC wet sump this time and getting more oil to the center mains. All the other rods were fine. These were also Oliver rods that Rick has had since the beginning and were used with mucho NOS before as well too.

The block side of things looked great. All the main bearings still look new. No girdles of any kind and stock front and rear caps. Besides the turbo several other things happened at that race after we left the cars out that night. The main thing though is that the block looks alright and so do the cylinders. There was no cap walk so far and the pins and pistons also looked happy. Basically everything looked normal besides the one rod that spun. We'll see what happens this time as no one else is making the kind of power we are on one of these blocks but it certainly isn't an endurance setup.

 

How ugly was the piston when the parts of the turbo got in there? Obviously if the bearing is black and blue then it ran out of oil so for some reason the clearances tightened up to cause that. Fun stuff to figure out.

Bret

 

if you didnt catch it the first time, i'll say it again...i was only joking!

i value everything MOST of the people in here have to say...including you fred...