My neighbor built a 396 lt-1 with 11.8-1 comp., ported stock heads and int. , with cam specs 236-244 @.050 with 650 lift. He was running the car on 93 octane and it spit out a head gasket. he pulled the motor and looked it over all was good so they dynoed it with a dual plane and carb as our engine shop can't hook up the computer ?? Anyway it was dynoed on 112 octane 34 deg timing and made 525 HP @6000 and 535 FT LBS TQ at 4250( the lowest the dyno reads).
His question is will this run on 93 octane and any recommendations for setting up his lt-1 edit ? ( timing,fuel, knock sensor....etc)

i don't know much about this but i told him i would post here and see what advice i could find for him.

Thanks
Mike

 

Is this in a 93 or a maf car?

My best recommendation would be to get a program from one of the mail order tuners as a base.
Then he can tailor that for his car.
Just as a reference, my buddy has an 11.8:1 396 that I do the programs on and we only run his car with 31-32 degrees. Any more than that and it starts to tickle the knock sensor.

Are you sure the headgasket going was computer related?

 

it's a 94 and upon tear down there were some signs of detonation.

thanks for the reply.

are you using the stock knock sensor ?

 

Yep...stock knock sensor. The car is a 93 though, but I'm sure it's no different until you get to OBDII.

 

Mike,

Dan K is right. You will have to modify a program (I think significantly) for a custom engine setup as you are talking about.

BTW, what were some of the physical signs of denotation that you found?

Ben