I am in the middle of putting together all the parts for a forged 396 and need opinions of people more knowledgeable than me in this engine. It will need to be mostly street with some track in the summertime.
List of parts:
-forged eagle crank, 6" rods and SRP -7cc flat top pistons (already bought)
-decided on LE3 H/C combo with port matched intake (saving money for)
-Jet-Hot LT's with ORY (already bought) plus I have a Borla on the car already and like the sound
-MSD 6AL, MSD coil and MSD 8.5mm wires, or would the Delteq be better? I might even be willing to try to MSD cap and rotor for the Opti if I go with the MSD setup
-Walbro 255 with Delphi 42# injectors
-AS&M monoblade
-Spec stage 3
-aluminum driveshaft
-moser 12 bolt with 3.73 gears if 4.10's wouldn't be to much

also I would like to run a 100 shot of juice, mostly for track purposes, or a stray Honda. Any other suggestions are welcome.

 

How high do you plan on spinnng this motor?.

 

probably not more than 7000, and probably at the track

 

500hp + gotta spend some time on tuning that thing and you should be good.

Bret

 

I doubt I could hit that here at 5500 ft elevation, and yes I plan to do the dyno tune. would this setup even be good for 500? if so would it still be streetable?

 

A friend has a identical 396 to mine and he puts 420hp down with a stick and a 230/236 XE cam, so the LE3 cam combo should put down more as it is more aggresive than a 847 cam. I put 400rwhp down with the Hot Cam in my 396, awaiting a data cable to dyno with wideband, and will have numbers for my 396 with XE 230/236 with an 4L60.

 

ok, maybe I'll slide the goal to 450 on the motor, and maybe 520 on a dry shot? these numbers being corrected for elevation, probably under 400 on the motor.

 

He's sitting at 5500 elevation, ain't gonna happen N/A. He could get close though. I met a guy here that had a similar combo to what you have there a while back and only made 360 at the wheels N/A. Altitude sucks.

 

yeah, this altitude ticks me off sometimes. I'm mostly wanting opinions as to how this setup will work together so I don't buy a bunch of parts and end having to buy other stuff because these aren't compatible for my goals.

 

I'm not enough of a nitrous guru to know for sure, but I find myself asking the question; "Is 42lbs enough if I'm going to use a dry shot?"

I'm thinking in terms of supplying a very healthy 396 PLUS a dry shot, and of course you could easily decide that 200 sounds groovy too. Your engine combo certainly sounds as if it's up to it.


You may want to pose that specific question in the nitrous forum, and since 42lbs is already getting big for High-Z injectors, you MAY want to consider getting that converter that lets you run Low-Z injectors and getting yourself a set of those injectors, perhaps in the 50-60lb range.

UNLESS of course you go wet.

Anyhow, this may be my over cautious side and the guys who REALLY know what they're talking about may very tell you that 42lbs is fine.


BTW, sounds like a sweet engine. I'm quite jealous.

 

OOPs, did not realize this. Do the Dynos correct for elevation? Or do we have to calculate it ourselves.
I know when I went and climbed to the continental divide at 12.5k in Colorado I couldnt believe the difference in air, or lack of. At Bandimere, you have to feel sorry for the guys running there as there times dont correlate to the real times of at sea level.

 

yeah, the dynos are setup to give you actual HP and a corrected number, but the corrected isn't exact. Bandimere is where I'll be at this summer, and it's at 5800 feet elevation, which just slows you down even more.

using a fuel injector calculator with 43.5psi fuel pressure and 80% duty cycle the 42# injectors should handle about 600 HP

 

I moved here to Albuquerque from Seattle a little over a year ago. I have first-hand experience in what altitude does to an N/A motor. I lost 54 hp and 64 lb ft of torque, 1.2 seconds in E.T. and 7 mph in my trap speed.

Dyno shops at or near sea level don't talk a whole lot about corrected numbers like they do in places that are at high altitude because the numbers are usually pretty close to each other. When you're at high altitude, you see a HUGE difference between what you're actually putting down and the "corrected numbers".

 

Yeah I was just looking at a guys numbers from 3700ft on the track... about a .65 reduction in E/T and 5mph to get corrected numbers for sea level.

Bret

 

Since I moved here, I've begun to depend on the NHRA correction calculator to see any gains after mods. It's actually pretty darn accurate.