Personally I think the money could be put to better use elsewhere, but that's just me. Especially with the lower rpm your turning and lower power levels.

-Dustin-

 

Well I wasn't planning on rebuilding the engine. I just want to be able to do a cam and heads, and get ~400 rwhp. If I can do that without spinning too high then that would be great.

 

Well like I said I already have those parts, intended for a 385 I will be (eventually) building out of the 4-bolt shortblock that I have now. For now I want to just do a heads/cam motor and enjoy the car, and probably putting off the 385 for when I graduate. So the money was already spent on the pump and pan, might as well use them while I have them.

 

Well if you really want to be safe and you're rebuilding anyway put an all forged rotating assembly in the engine then get a sbc main girdle and have it installed along with the main studs. This will give you a stout bottom end or if you can afford it have splayed billet 4 bolt main caps installed along with an all forged rotating assembly for the ultimate in peace of mind IMHO.

 

I just want to do a budget head/cam motor that's not going to spin a bearing right after I install it. As I posted above, I already have a 4-bolt block that I will later be building a 385 with. I plan on 14:1 CR, E85, forged internals, good aftermarket heads on that. However, I want to get the car back on the road after sitting 1.5 years and take care of some other priorities in the mean time. After I graduate with my CIS degree, the built 385 will be my gift to myself.

 

I put a hole in a piston and destroyed my stock motor when it hit the stock rev limiter. I would keep it under 6k but thats just me.

 

OK, so your experience reminds us that running lean on a cast piston is bad.

It tells us nothing about the rev capability of a stock rotating assembly, let alone a freshened one.

 

just freshen up the bottom end with bearings and arp rod and main bolts and stick with the stock rev limit

 

Well I've now got a custom cam spec'd that I am going to order that peaks 6300 and should make 400-410 rwhp with LE2 heads on a stock block, and should help build a little more compression for the E85 that I'm going to run, so that's what I'm going to go with.

 

Was that before or after this?

 

The answer should really be shift whereever you really want, everyone knows that lt1s can take abuse and will shift at 6400 or so with a cam/heads or just cam only. Many people have survived but others have not, some go at 67+ rpm to shift and live for awhile but either way these people putting the engine through that stress know that it wont last forever and may only last 1 time. So do what you feel is comfortable and safe with ur build and what you have in front of you.

 

It was way before that. 6800 was on the built motor in my sig.

 

Ok so i left part of it out...the motor was freshened with bearings, rings, honed and arp rod bolts. I at first though it was a lean condition due to hitting the rev limiter, which i had set at 6k, but i was informed that it would cause an out of fuel condition(duh i should have known) and not a lean condtion. The motor had been on the dyno and was running a tad rich...not sure how much as it was 5 years ago.

I know many people have been lucky and seen well past 6k on a stock motor many times...i was not.

 

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Jake

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I would not bother upgrading rod bolts to keep a stock rev limit.

As I said on the other forum one noteable difference in the LT1 vs. LT4 is the LT4 rods were fractured cap, makes the big end of the rod stay more stable, it can't wiggle the way two bolted together machined surfaces can.