so, I just bought a lq4 bottom end for cheap, has a bent rod. Not a big deal.

Crank apprears fine still, pistons are still fine.

Now, I would love to build a stroker with it, what are my options here? Looking at a 416 or 427.

I was looking at ported/polished L92 heads, and than goin with a custom cam. I know the l92 heads have some of the best flow. ALong with those, maybe looking at the new edelbrock pro-flow intake, i havent checked compatibility yet though.

 

that proflow intake is sweet looking, but kinda reminds me of a LT1 engine. I read on another forum where a guy installed one but it was in a trailblazer SS. he said he really liked it but didnt go into detail about anything, and i cant find anywhere if its compatible with an fbody or not.......looks kinda tall.

 

u need to cut into the cowl by the windshield....no biggie. Theres a guy on tech that ran one, gained 6rwhp under the curve, lost 10 peak, but gained 70rwtq the whole curve.

 

i always wondering if on a lt1 u could cut the intake and make longer intake runners like a tunnel ram or some way to have tuned length runner like a TPI for an lt1 i know u would have to cut the cowl but thats not a biggie really.

 

Sounds decent. Look to spend $2900+ for a forged LS1 bottom end alone. A 408 is probably the biggest you'll want to go since the block shouldn't be bored more than .030" over and the only crank you'll want to use is a 4.00". Anything else will give you more stroke than bore... and that's a big no no in the racing world. If you need more cubes, get an LS3/LS7 block

Top it off with an LS7 intake manifold.

Mike

 

arent the ls3 blocks aluminum though? meaning I would have to resleeve it in order to bore it much

 

The LS3 is a different block -- 4.060" from the factory.

The LS1 is 3.90" and the LS2 is 4.00"

Consider it a .060" overbore from the factory --- something that can't be reached with any of the other blocks --- besides the LS7, which is 4.125".

Or you can fork up $2000 and buy an iron LSX block and get a 4.250" out of it and build a 454ci LS motor

Mike

 

ive thought about that. so an ls3, use a 4.060 piston and a 4.00 crank and have my 414 and call it good? How much further can you theoretically bore the ls3 if it had cylinder wall damage?

I can find a bare ls7 block for about 2k, and the lsx block is about 2k.....hrm......

 

The aluminum blocks (LS1, LS2, LS3) usually don't take anything more than a hone or very light bore -- you're probably looking at .005-.010 max (4.065-4.070 for the LS3"). Probably 1-2 rebuilds max.

You can easily see what's available by searching for piston size and price. I'm sure those 4.06" pistons don't come cheap

 

alright, well I have found a true ls7 block, otherwise a LSX block for about the same price giving me both a 427. I may order a shortblock from scoggin dickey if anybody has anything to say about them?

 

The LSX can be made to 454ci+ depending on what you want to do. It can get to around 4.250". The LS7 can't go as big. I think for your purpose ($10000), a 408ci LQ9 or 402ci LS2 will work fine. You'll probably be out of budget far far before you complete an exotic LSX/LS7 build.

I made 530rwhp/505rwtq on a LQ9 408 with LS6 heads and a hydraulic roller, so you don't need a ton of cubes or money to build power. Figure that was around 650 horsepower on pump gas.

For the rectangle Gen IV heads, you'll be better off with much bigger cubes (At least a 4.065 x 4.00) than trying to tune a 260cc+ intake runner head with not enough displacement. Lots of people build garbage power using L92/LS3 heads because they don't realize that an NA motor can only draw as much air as you have cubes --- Yeah, the 427 LS7 uses the big-*** LS7 heads and a small cam, but it's only putting out around 440-450rwhp --- Nowhere NEAR its potential.

Maybe you might reconsider using an LQ9 408 with some heavily-worked LS6 or even some Trickflow cathedral-port Gen III heads.



Mike

 

see, my issue though is, I want to build a rendishion of a zl1, meaning I want at least a 414 to make me feel good about it. Too many people have 408s which is why I thought 414/416 or 427.

If i go lq4 block though, I will go with PRC ls6 heads, and not sure which intake yet. Looking at the new edelbrock pro-flow and notching the cowl, or do you think a ls7 intake would suffice? I really want to get close to 600 at the wheels on motor.

This will be a couple year project, so the budget doesnt bother me. grand here, grand there, two or three grand there...... as long as i dont spend all the money at once, it wont bother me one bit.

 

Two problems:

A) You aren't going to build a 600rwhp LS car for $10k. It just doesn't happen -- In fact, unless you build a high dollar ($20000) 454+ci LSX-blocked solid roller motor with race-gas-only high compression (13.5-14:1), you'll never reach that goal on motor. 525-550rwhp is a more attainable goal with a 6-speed car and a big motor build -- less for an auto car.

B)The LS7 intake doesn't work with the Gen III heads -- You'll need a FAST 90/90 or 92/92 setup for a LS1/LS6 headed project.

 

alrighty, answered my questions than. What if I am using it as a dedicated nitrous car? would the l92 heads start being a better option? Just trying to cover all my basis' here. Can you send me a PM with cam specs u used?

 

I have a magazine at home that has a 98 trans-am with an lsx 454 putting 635 to the wheels, a semi-tame hydrolic lifter cam and 11:1 compression. So IT CAN BE DONE! I dont know how much he had into the engine but it didnt look that wild to me...