I have 4000 to spend on motor, nothing is wrong with the motor in the car now but its on the stock internals (3 years,24000 miles)and I would like the car to be more reliable and faster also. The current drivetrain mods I have are as follows:

Ati p600b with twin highflow intercoolers, FLP long tubes with off road pipe, dynomouth cat back,MSD btm, 24# Svo injectors, ATi Fmu, AIt inline pump, stock fuel pump in the tank, street twin for a clutch (on Friday just bought it) 1le drive shaft, Moser 12 bolt with heavy-duty posi 33 spline axles and ta cover,spohn trq arm, mac lower control arms, mac pan hard bar, pro 5.0 shifter, FLP subframe connectors,and of course all the gauges fp and boost.
unless listed consider the part to be stock.(throttle body, mass air meter etc...)

My question is you see what I have to work with what could I possibly get done for the amount of money I have to have a strong short block and maybe a cam with ported and polished heads or even new heads. I will be the one pulling the motor but, I cannot put the motor together because I just don't have the tools to do it or the know how to build it


what have you guys who have built motors put in your short block to have strength and reliability? my goal is 525+ rwhp I would be willing to build a tank of a short block and add heads later they are a little easier to remove then the motor lol

this car has put down 449rwhp with the mods listed above and I have the dyno sheet to prove it and Aaron advance who post frequently on this board was there to see it so I need a little advice I know 4000 isn't alot when you start to buy quality parts and start machining things but, that is all I have to spend as you can see I have spent a little money already on this car and there is no tuning back now unless I part it out and start over but I've put alot of blood sweat and tears into this thing and Im not going to give up on it there are some fast ls1s out here in Vegas and I would like them to see my tail lights for a change on the track!!!

thanks you in advance for all your help and expertise

Steve

 

I'd build a decent bottom end, and do the heads next year.

Here's something that should meet your needs:

http://www.cmotorsports.com/lt1shortblocks.htm

LT1/LT4 Street Stroker 383

- 2 bolt main caps with ARP main studs
- Eagle 4340 forged steel crankshaft
- Eagle 4340 forged H-Beam connecting rods
- SRP forged pistons (flat top/dish top depending on application)
- JE Plasma Moly ring set
- Clevite 77 race bearings
- Melling high volume oil pump
- Fully balanced and blueprinted
- Custom hydraulic roller camshaft designed for customer’s goals
- GM LT4 Extreme Duty timing chain set with oversized crank sprocket
- Fully assembled short block

$3495.00 plus shipping (engine core required)

They're a board sponsor and in LV too, so that should work out well for you.

Your also going to need to upgrade your fuel system to at least 42# injectors, and a walboro 340.

 

Do you mean Aaron Vance? He's a jackass (inside joke between me and him).

 

why yes i do mean Aaron vance.

 

We have very similar cars.

95 Firehawk w/ P600B front mount 2 core, FLPs, MSD 6a w/ BTM, ATI fuel pump, 42# injectors, yadda yadda

I haven't had mine on the dyno yet, I'd be thrilled to pull 420rwhp.

 

I'd go w/ a 355 w/ a mild blower cam and some heads.

 

i would like to go that route with the blower cam and heads but i only have 4000 to work with give or take a few hundred. So if i could build a bullet proof short block with a nice cam and my heads be the restriction that would be ok because i can change those my self in the garage now the short block is a different story I only want to do it once and have somewhere to grow from there.


tech what times have you run with your car at the track?

Are you in the local f-body club there in ill.? I bought alot of the stuff for my car from a crook named Jim at turbo connection ever heard of him??


Steve

 

You should be able to get a 355 built for well under $4K. SRP pistons, Eagle rods, Eagle or maybe even stock crank. That would leave you some bread to spend on either drivetrain, suspension, or headwork.

That dumb**** is notorious around here. He's the only "tuner" I know who could get a 600hp supercharged LS1 to run low 12s. :roll: He installed my charger right around the same time you got yours(in fact, he showed me your dyno sheet to show the difference between stock manifolds and headers). I had problems after the first few months because the clown kept the PCV hooked up.

 

I haven't had the car to the track. I haven't even put 100 miles on the blower. My install has been a nightmare.

I'm the webmaster for the F-Body Association of St. Louis. Stop by and say hi sometime.

http://www.fastlouis.com/forums

 

well jim is a little.... I dont know what. the problem is he hires these people to work for him and i dont know where he finds these clowns i mean one of them handed me a set of injectors and the nozzels were broken off and was getting mad at me because i didnt want to accept broken parts that i just paid for!!!!! Jim had to come over there and tell the guy to go outside and he would take care of it!!!lol The thing i dont like about the guy is he puts motors together with way to much boost and timming with FMUs and they last a week so he can sell you a new motor and then he will do the same thing to that motor!! I guess thats how you have job security but damn my friend bought a 93 cobra and he put 17# pulleys on a stock short block needless to say this thing blew up in a week and now he is in the process of getting a new motor through jim of course Jim did not touch my car, well he touched the fmu screw but nothing else! my wife and i did all the work on this car the only thing i have not done is any welding that had to be done because i dont have a lift of a welder. so he showed you my dyno sheet on this car?? What did you think ?was it what you expected for the mods that are done to the car.

what has been going on with your install tech??
just little crap??


are there anymore opinions on what parts, to use to get me to the next level?? like i said earlier i just want to show some of the fast ls1 in the club what an ol lt1 can do for the money they have in their cars. i currently have with the cost of the car 31000 in the car total and i can handle most modified ls1 that have the same amount in their cars considering they pay almost that just to buy one


thanks for your time steve

 

I would recommend waiting until you are ready to spend a bit more, if it were me. There's a bunch of things I'd want to do once the motor was out. But if you are intent on going ahead, consider the following. Reuse your stock crank and rods, but get a good set of "blower" pistons and have the rotating assembly balanced for these. Select pistons to achieve ~9:1 CR. The SRP pn 139631 is a 0.20" over piston with a -24cc dish that might be a good moderate budget choice. Get a set of 4-bolt caps (I prefer straight caps, not the more popular splayed caps). Replace the mains and rod bearings while it's apart and have a set of ARP main studs installed. Get new rod bolts as well. Figure on spending ~$600 for the pistons and a good set of rings and another ~$400-600 for the other parts mentioned plus misc stuff that always adds up. There oughta be another ~$500-750 or so in labor to have the machine work done and the short block reassembled.

The above puts you at less than $2K for a pretty decent short block and leaves another $2K for the stuff that makes hp. A valve job and some port work, a cam, valve springs/retainers, etc. should leave you with enough $$$ to get a larger set of injectors. That's my $4,000 budget blower buildup recipe.

Good luck.

Rich Krause

 

I would think with a small blower and not spinning the car too high, this wouldn't be necessary. It wouldn't hurt performance, but I would rather go with a keyed crank and crank hub before the 4-bolt conversion. You can get the keyed hub from IRS or Thunder Racing. You'll have to have a keyway machined into the crank snout too. Good insurance when running a supercharger.

I do agree with everything else though.

 

Problems with the install:

Used kit, missing parts. Instructions were crap. Previous own relocated IC and didn't give me **** for directions. Sent the blower to ATI to have the misting nozzle replaced and they told me the bearings and seals were shot ($500 bill for a blower advertised as "good" and "great shape"), no place to work on in it under 1 hr away, leaky eBay fuel injector hydrolocked the motor which shattered the starter, relocated IC to behind bumper cover, had to find misc parts (t-bolt clamps, couplers, mandrel bends), and NOW I'm trying to get rid of 12* of knock retard.

I'm sure I left out 5-6 other things. That's just an idea.

To top all of this off, I'm still going to be slower than an automatic bolt-on LT1 with a 100 shot.

 

why would you say your car would be slower than an auto with nauss???

rskrause how much do you think it will take to achieve this goal of 525 rwhp with reliability?? I can wait longer to do this since the car is just fine the motor is still strong as of a few weeks ago when I took it to the track the car ran 12.1@114 with a bad clutch
so I have some more time left on this motor. I only want to do the short block once so I guess I will have to save up some more money and see what happens. The 4 grand is what I have now but I can wait maybe I can convince the wife to let me put a little on her credit card lol

the goals for this car are to go to the grocery store or go to the track and the car be just as happy as ever the one thing I need to find is someone here in Vegas to tune the car with the new parts because when it comes apart the fuel system will be taken care of with racetronics dual 255lph intake pumps and 42# injectors more if needed, new optispark and plugs and wires I would like to use the new built opti Ive been reading about but ill have to see Im sure a new opti should be just fine since I don’t drive the car in the rain. From the flywheel back has been beefed up pretty well with a street twin, Moser 12 bolt and spohn suspension parts so hopefully I don’t have a problem there
I guess the next week link is the drive shaft or the output shaft on the tranny but I will deal with that when the time comes


thanks for the help to make an educated decision on parts for this little hot rod


Thanks Steve