I am not usually the person to half *** anything. I am getting another project together (1984 regal) but I still want to use the car in my sig as a test bed. I was thinking to throw some inexpensive forged pistons in it with stock rods and crank (I have heard this is good for approx 500 WHP). Is it possible to do this without heading to the machine shop on a high mileage engine? I have seen the tops of the cylinder bores develop a lip etc, how would you handle this from a back yard perspective? Obviously some attention has to be given to the balance of the rotating assembly, can I order “drop in” pistons that are matched to the stock weight? Maybe an inexpensive, pre-balanced rotating assembly. How hard is it to change cam bearings in a backyard?

 

cam bearing are simple.

the bores need to be checked for roundness, honed etc.

I have redone them before and reused stock pistons etc. as long as everything was withing spec.

Have also dingle hoined a cyl. and replaced 1 piston/ring set in truck...

The most important thing is to know what your looking at, what your looking for etc.

Trying to make 500hp in the back yard, can be done. but I think your wasting time, might as well spend a little extra and do it once.

Bearing clearancing I learned is a pretty key part, everything is simple stuff, but there is alot of it, blueprinting I guess you call it. and getting eveything exactly where it needs to be.

 

I was hoping to buy/borrow a bore gauge, a set of mic's, ridge reamer, ball hone, cam bearing installer, and not have to go to the machine shop. I think the hardest part would be getting the balancing right.

Do true "drop in" pistons actually exist?

 

I would be looking at rod bolt replacement depending on rpms they should be resized with that.

Only ridge I have found on an LT1 has been carbon.

I would look for a decent piston without looking at weight, then give a shop the pistons rods and crank. Let them polish the crank rebuild the rods and balance the whole thing. Would be nice to not spend this say $400 but at the same time I think it would really help longevity and reliability.

 

Good hardware all around. How many LT1's have you torn down?

 

I've been told you can't resize a stock rod, just get new ones.

 

Is there any machining that needs to be done to install arp rod bolts?

 

I don't know, I have never wasted my time messing with that stuff.....why waste the time and money for it to fly apart.

 

Most people do not bother to resize the stock rods because that cost say $160 and there are decent aftermarket options under $300. You can resize them though. If you put new bolts in rods you should resize them.

I think the "can't resize them" comes from the LT4 fractured cap where they can't take material off the mating surface to make the bore smaller so they can resize, even that though I believe there are now oversized bearing for so no mating surface material need be removed.

I have torn down only 4-5 LT1s, just a hobbyist not a professional. There is a guy on the Impala board that advocates a stock bore stroker kit from Summit though and if there were any bore wear attempting such a thing would have to do big ring damage immediately. I would not do such a thing but the fact someone has repeatedly gotten away with it is anecdotal evidence the bores remain in good shape.

 

I put in the arp rod bolts and got my stock rods resized all for under $115.00 at my machine shop, and was able to use standard size bearings. But I do agree with everyone, take it to a shop and have the work done right. It is better than something going wrong and doing the whole thing over again.

 

Location plays a big part in machine shop costs, the OP lists NYC as a location, I don't think he can find cheap labor there so I aimed high on my $400 estimate for rod rebuild, crank polish and balance job. Always better to budget high.