im was going to put a xe224/230 in my car this next month, but i was thinking if i should just rebuild the motor while i have it out? some guy told me that the motor had to be pulled to get the cam in and i was going to regasket everything cuz oil is leaking every where. i also plan on getting some ported heads sometime this summer. i was wondering if i should use the same shortblock or put some forged pistons/rods/crank? this is my daily driver for now so i dont want to rebuild it again in a few months. i guess what im trying to say is that i need this motor to last another couple of years. i plan to drag race this car once or twice a month and i am going to drive it 50+ miles a day, and some 300+mile road trips every now and then. any help is appreciated.

 

You don't have to pull the motor to put a cam in and change all the seals. He's just lazy.

 

regardless of what you decide I definitely wouldn't let him touch the car. Anybody that thinks to put a cam in an LT1 you have to pull the motor out of the car can't know what the hell they are doing....

 

i would just rebuild the bottom end and put some arp rod bolts in. the stock rods and crank are pretty strong. as far as the stock pistons, if you arent going to run any nitrous then i would reuse them.

when you put a more aggressive cam+valvetrain combo in your car, you reduce the life the motor. i am not sure if you will get two years out of your car with a top end kit and as many miles as you are talking. maybe some people that have a similar setup as you are wanting can tell you how many miles they have on there setup.

in any case, good luck.

 

o.k. so i can just get away with reusing the bottom end, just change rings,bearings, and bolts. having said that would it be any better to go into a fully forged bottom end, or will it end up being the same thing regardless if i use orignal shortblock?

 

I would probably just do the h/c/gaskets now and worry about pulling the motor later. Definetly do the heads/cam at the same time. You don't want to do the cam in a month and then tear everything down again in the summer for the heads.

 

only thing i am worrying about is the fact that my motor has 145k miles. i know the whole spinning bearings and what not stories have come up from time to time. thats what worries me, i will order a LE2 h/c package so i really dont know if my motor is up to the HP it will be putting out? but i guess there's only one way to find out!!!

 

I would definitely have bearings changed. Wouldn't be too cool to get new cam in and first 5800rpm shift you spin a bearing (rod or cam).