My car went too the garage tuesday and the motor is being rebuilt. The guy whose building it is using eagle crank stock stroke, eagle rods, speed pro hyperforged pistons
. Block will be bored too .030 over. Heads will be ported polished and planed, not cnc though. New pushrods valves bigger springs lifters and scorpion 1.6 aluminum roller rockers. I forget where he said the cam was being done at but it was a guy that worked for comp cams for 20 years and is now running his own shop. The intake will be matched to the heads. The cam will have excellent midrange and topend. All felpro gaskets. Retaining stock compression for now. I should have a complete buildsheet in a week. The motor should be done and back in the car within two. Im hoping this will be a big improvement over stock. Ill post later once i get the cam specs. Any tips or parts that u think might be a weak point in this build feel free too chime in.

 

HUGE mistake using an Eagle cast crank. Stop him now and have him reuse your stock crank cleaned up. Do a search on Eagle's reputation with their cast products.

Why stock compression? What size cam?

 

Run more compression use the 5898 head gasket, stop him on the crank go forged or stay stock. I am not a big fan of those pistons, but if your doing a budget build I guess they are ok; I would buy better pistons with the money you can save on the crank. I ended up going with probe forged pistons for my 355 budget build; they are really nice for the money http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Chevy...Q5fAccessories
I would not go any smaller than a cc503 cam.

 

Ok ill save some loot and have him reuse the crank. The pistons are already here though. What compression ratio should i use and be able too run 93 anywhere at the pumps?
He just got the motor out of the car yesterday so if i wanna change anything i still can. I know my buddy. Had a motor in his pro stock that was a 355 and had 13 to1 compression. He had too run 110 in it just for it too run right

 

I swore they were forged rods and forged crank maybe i was mistaken. Regardless i'll double check with him. I thought it was a forged crank just stock stroke

 

The crank is forged from eagle. 670.00 dollars he gave me the part number but i didn't write it down. 4340 forged crank is what he said. Are the pistons the weak point in this build since rods and crank are forged? Its not really a budget build. What do i stand too gain by raising the compression to 11.5 to 1? Can i run 93 with no problems or will i be adding octane booster every fillup? Will my injectors hold me back at this point? Ill update againin when i get the specs on my cam and heads. He will dyno the engine once it is done. What should i expect too see? I know the 355's he builds will put out close too 500 hp with a 2 barrel carb and open headers.

 

You are good with that crank, the pistons are the weak point. I would not go with a piston any cheaper than the probe pistons I am using, a forged piston with 1/16"-1/16"-3/16" ring groves is what you want; better for higher rpm's and less drag on the cylinder. For every full point you up the compression you will see about 25rwhp give are take a few hp. You have a lt1 with reverse flow so you can run a little over 12:1 on 91 octane and be fine; I am at 11:7:1 on ca 91 octane. I originally bought speed pro pistons for my build, but when I took them to my balancing guy he told me I would not be happy. I searched for a affordable forged piston with higher than stock compression and lighter than stock; the probe pistons were the best I could find for the price the Mahle PowerPak SBC250030F05 pistons are also good, but they are a little more. Just be sure the car is tuned; I am running a pcmforless.com tune now, but a dyno tune is what I will be doing soon. Also be sure he balances your entire rotating assembly. Depending on the heads and cam you could easily see 500hp at the crank; if your looking to make good power toss a quality forged piston in it and pay extra attention to the heads. If you don't want cnc then http://elliottsportworks.com/home/?page_id=51 would be your best bet for the heads and cam. Advanced Induction would be the best but they do cnc. If you have a a4 you should also install a 3200-3600 stall along with a trans cooler and deep pan; yank, circle-D, and edgeracing converters are all good, yank is the best of the three.

 

The crank is still wasted money, nobody overpowers the stock one with forced induction much less NA.
As covered "stock compression" would be a huge mistake.

"Bigger valves" most shops throw 2.02 1.6 at them to do that and to do it right the valve seats need to be replaced which is wasted money for no good reason because the best RESULTS in LT1 castings have all been with 2.00/1.56 valves.

From your description of what is going on I would completely put the brakes on this "build". It certainly will be a step up power wise from stock BUT you will get walked all over by heads/cam cars put together properly.

A LOT of LT1 have been ruined by local shops like this.

For what he wanted you to waste on the new crank that is bottom of the barrel and likely would need machining just to install you could have instead bought good pistons and rods that would stay round after a few torque cycles.

I really wish folks would ask questions BEFORE they get this far down a road this bad.

 

The Eagle crank as mentioned is still a huge wasted expense. REUSE the stock crank. You can run 12:1 compression far easier than you think. With a good tune and an adequate cooling system you'll be fine. I run 12.7:1 in my 383 without a problem.

Octane booster doesn't do jack. It raises your octane by TENTHS of the advertised points - that's it.

Injectors are something that should be considered before the build even started. I like Fred's formula - take your estimated FWHP and multiply it by .07 to get your suggested injector sizing.

If this isn't a budget build you should be spending your money a bit wiser. I would just cut to the chase and pick up a set of 200cc heads from AI with a matched cam to get the most out of your money. Honestly more effort needs to be invested in the valvetrain at this point, not the bottom end. Pistons, crank, and rods don't make the power.

 

So i spoke with paul this morning and he is going op reuse the stock crank. I feel comfortable letting him rework the heads because he has been doing it for over 30 years. I am gonna see if he will send the pistons back and order the probe forged pistons. This guy is well noted for his machining skills and is the best in my area at what he does. Im not going cheap by no means but i don't wanna spend 7k + on a motor alone. 4500 dollars seems manageable at the moment for the motor plus i still need a tranny and rear that's gonna take the punishment from the new motor. I plan on purchasing a set of heads and cam from ai but not until the winter time so i can have time too save for a sys turbo kit. That's why I'm having him work the stock ones for now.

 

I didn't see you posting goals or expectations for this build. Is this a street/strip car, drag only, daily driver? What do you want to rev to? Where do you want to make power? What gears/stall/clutch are you going to run? Are you building it for boost or N/A? You cant have both unless your going to build it twice, which will cost you even more.

Without knowing where you are going, choosing a path to get there is pointless. You NEED to figure out what your doing before you start buying parts and having the guy who probably designed the CC306 spec'ing you camshafts.

I wouldn't build anything under 11.5:1 unless your planning on running a blower, no matter what your goals. As stated Eagle cast are junk, I'd run a stocker all day in anything 350/355.

Local guys make a habit of screwing up heads and LT1 builds just as 96capricemgr said. I know a guy running a 9.5:1SCR 383, with top dollar AFR heads and the biggest cam he could find in the LT1 section of Comps catalog 242/248. Now he's adding a Pro-charger without changing anything else. He brags it up like crazy and it runs like poop.

Take advice from experienced people on this website like 96capricemgr and RamAir95TA and they will save you money, time, and headaches while helping you go faster and make more power.

-Dustin-

 

In my experience working too hard to "save money" almost always costs MORE in the long run. Why pay for two sets of heads?

Your guy obviously is uneducated about the LT1 seeing as a lot of us have run stock shortblock engines at over 11:1 compression through a combination of milled heads and a thin gasket, but he wants to keep compression stock. He wanted to replace a perfectly good crank. I see a LOT of holes in his theories about what you need.

Frankly these days I would rather find someone who has been doing modern engines for 10 years than someone stuck in the 80s because he has been doing it 30 years.

Maybe I read through too quick. Is there any reason atall you are looking to tear the engine apart? The stock shortblock is pretty good.

 

My motor is whooped and the cam is shot. Lifters are sticking, rear main and or sending unit are leaking. I wanted to build a 9.5 to 1 motor for forced induction but decided too stay stock because it was gonna cost too much right now i was worried i couldn't run 91 and or 93. He offered too build it at 12 to 1 but that's not what i wanted at the time. Im buying a transmission from tci rated to 750 hp. Not sure what stall yet but I'm running 4.10s and a 700r4. I want around 400 at the wheels. This is a dd that will see light strip duty in cicero ny. I thought a forged crank would be better not paul. I picked the parts and he will build it. He just built a 406 for another customer and they love it

 

TCI tranny would be another huge mistake.

Happy customers means about nothing, all that takes is the guy being nice and doing things ontime or being good with excuses when he is late or screws up.

You have no idea how many people I have met that were happy with their setup till it was measured and compared to something actually good.

Folks are happy with say the Edelbrock heads/cam/intake package which made about 400fwhp on Edelbrock's dyno, by contrast though we know that 400rwhp+is possible with ported stock heads, a matching cam and untouched stock intake, meaning the Edelbrock stuff is a sad sad joke but people who bought it and drove it are happy because they don't know better yet.

 

Actually the only complaint I've ever heard about this shop is how long they take. They build motors for 90% of the pro stock and modified cars at our local dirttrack. As far as machine shop work goes he is the best in all of northern ny. He did all the machine work on my 88 tbird and man what a difference. With the heads ported and polished upper and lower intake ported and polished. Exhaust manifold matched too my turbo, custom cam and bigger injectors my car went from 210hp too 345hp. 2.3 tturbo. I think the way i explained everything made him look bad and i probably should've worded differently but hard too post with a touchscreen phone with my 2 year old daughter climbing all over me. Where should i get my tranny from? I was under the impression tci was a very good place too go. Also since my tbird is out of commission how hard would it be too rob the 9 inch rear and put it into my z28? All he said about the cam was that he needed all info on vehicle g/r, transmission, tire size, and how high i wanted it too rev. I told him i wanted good midrange and excellent high rpm. The gears are short enough that i can sacrifice a little low end. I hope this works out for me. I will post a dyno slip next week and let everyone.know how it worked out. How are the 1.6 rr's from scorpion? Paul says they are a great value for the.price and very reliable for dd's