Well i have done many searches and found alot of useful info but its always easier and you get more of the answers you want with your own thread. Plus you have to keep the board alive somehow.
My questions are to Lloyd and anyone that has done a 355 build especially with le2 heads/cam.
I'm looking into doing this and wanted to know basically if its the best idea/combo for the money.
It's for the car in my sig, basically i thought about doing a s/c but the engine prob would blow with my luck so i want to rebuild it. I'd like to build it kinda with the hopes one day i could supercharge it but if so thats along way away.
So i wondered what were your costs for parts and labor for doing this?
What parts did you use i.e. forged etc?
I'm looking to make hopefully around the 400 rwhp mark and I've seen alot of his le2 packages do this on the boards.

Could i do it with like a le1 cam and le2 heads?
Whats your idle at with the le2 package and is it streetable and calm enough to take a 100 mile trip if you want? Now the car is not my daily driver anymore and hopefully never will be again so i don't kill it but i will dirve it a good bit in summer so any suggestions would be great.

If anyone could provide some details about whats all needed and possible costs since ive never had a motor rebuilt, my friend used to build them so i know only about what he and i used to do years ago and have no idea of current costs besides what i see online.
thanks in advance for your help i emailed lloyd but i didnt get a reply yet(about a week or so ago)

 

If you want to one day supercharge it, you'll want a low comp 355. Only prob is a low compersion 355 wont make 400 rwhp. I would build a forged 355 with 11 to 1 comprsession and spray it. I would say that the le2 is a very good deal and will work good on a budget.

Give llyod a call he is very nice to deal with.

 

Yeah i wanna stay away from spray... before spray i would prob just stay na therefore allowing a better compression for na. How much power would be lost from lowering the compression in hopes of a supercharger? Also if i built it for na and aimed for the 400rwhp mark and decided to add a sc someday at like no more then 6-8lbs would that be "safe" at the compression needed?

 

I'd say you'd be giving up about 40-50hp depending on how low the compression gets.

 

Well if you have to build it for the blower anyways, build it for spray and you will have all the power you want. It would be much better than a low boost setup anyways.... 6-8lbs is worthless if you are going with a blower setup anyways, when I build blown motors they are for 12lbs minimum.

Bret

 

i have the le2 head cam set up 12-1 compression spraying 155 shot and am wanting to go to diff heads because of compression and wanting to supercharge as you are saying..so if anyone has some afr210's lt4 intake 72cc chambers id be glad to trade them

 

There ya go.... build a flat top 355 and put the large chamber AFRs on it for a blower, thats what I do with those setups.

 

So anyone with any other ideas for costs? I've heard 3k and want to know how much I'm gonna have to spend to get exactly what i want. Parts and labor? I know labor is diff from shop to shop but anyone have a idea of timeline or what it cost them.

 

I know it may not be optimal, but if someone already has the le2 cam in and wanted to supercharge later, will it be fine to use the cam if the compression were dropped?

 

No the LE2 cam is a NA cam, it's not going to work well on a blown motor.

Bret

 

First get Flat Top pistons. When you decided to go with blower change your pistons, its the easiest way I think.

 

I suggested the flat top stock heads NA then switch to AFR's (210's) later on with the blower because you get a thicker deck and much lower compression on the same motor. You just have to switch to the large chamber heads and a new cam later on when you do the blower motor and you are good for all sorts of boost.

A 4 bolt, Eagle Forged bottom end with 5.7" rods would work great for this.

Bret

 

Is there any reason to go w/ a 5.7 rod instead of a 6 Bret?
-b

 

The piston for the 5.7" rod has a lower top ring from what I remember.

Bret

 

Aren't the chambers on the Trick Flow LT1 heads a bit bigger than the stock LT1 chambers?