ok from what i have gathered on research for doing a turbo you want lower compression ratio. somewhere around 8.5 to 9. Inverted dome pistons or dished. Hogged out heads so you can cram all of that air in. And a wastegate and all the turbo essentials, downpipe, BOV, better fuel delivery and beefier injectors. My car is a 350 TPI and I just want to hear what kind of input you can offer on where to start building from. Im thinking the turbo headers will be next in line once my engine can handle all the air i want to put in it and all the fuel i need to send it. Would like to run 12-15 lbs of boost. I want to rebuild the engine first though so it's nice and solid.

1. Rebuild kit...unsure one that lowers the CR and I don't want to increase bore or stroke, just want newer internals because I am on a budget and want to have a nice fresh platform.

2. Better fuel pump 255lph one

3. Better injectors 24-36???

4. MSD BTM (made for boosted applications, lets you play with boost retard and over rev protection)

5. turbo header/s unsure as if i want twin turbo's or just a single one, I want boost at low and high rpm's so I want to hear what you turbo gods have to say, I know that a t70 wouldn't hurt but would take forever to spool. And I want to spend a decent amount on my turbo cause it's what determines how much power I make and @ what rpm's.

6. figure out plumbing and get a FMIC and cut away some brackets under neath the nose, with some custom reinforcement.

I like the performance my engine gives me now, but im greedy and want to be able to annihalate just about everything i encounter. Im sure i could hit the 400-600 hp range easily and I could always mess with the boost so that it remains streetable.

 

It sounds like you want to do almost exactly what I'm doing, and kudos for researching before you ask questions.

For the engine, decent cheap pistons should work great in the form of Speed Pro L2441F pistons, they have a -21.1 cc D-cup dish, and cost $320 a set at Summit. Best bang for you buck I'm pretty sure. Those are the pistons in my engine (which isn't boosted yet) and with a .036 quench clearance and 61.9cc chambers (milled stock heads), the static CR is 9:1. Under those I have GM powdered metal rods which are rated for 450hp continuous, but should have no problem handling a solid 500hp with boost to "cushion" them. The rotating assembly is balanced, which I would recommend (only a couple hundred to have done).
Other than all that it's a stock rebuilt L98. Providing everything goes right I plan on 15 psi with my twin T3's.

More later, gotta run now.

 

steven had some real good ideas. i dont agree with him on piston and rod choice but i like to overbuild things and do it right the first time.

for the block, i would have it completely torn apart, magnufluxed and decked. i would have it bored .030 just to be on the safe side and to get a good starting foundation. the normally doesnt add much to the price of the pistons anyway because its a fairly common setup. also if you are really serious i would have the 2 bolt block splayed just for some added safety.

for the crank i would run a nice forged 4340 unit. the new popular hot rodding has a bit about a 400hp smog legal 383 and they talk about an $800 4340 stroker crank. i cant remember the name (i can get it for you tho if you want) and i would assume a stock stroke crank would be a little less.

rods, im gonna run pauter x beams. a buddy just spent about 700 for a set for his turbo honda. they are NOT cheap but ive read for several months about them and have not run across ONE SINGLE rod failure yet. and these are run in 9k+ rpm 25+psi honda engines.

pistons, speed pro makes good stuff for a decent price, but im gonna go with wiseco. they make good stuff but you pay a good price for it as well.

heads are actually a place you can skimp a *LITTLE* on price. your not working with an engine thats sucking in air now. so you can give up a little flow and still make excellent power. me personally i plan to go really custom and go with 18° heads but those push around 4k a set and require a special intake (which no one makes a premade EFI intake for that i know of) im gonna run a standard carb intake with injector bungs welded in and a 90° elbow on it. for you i say you would be ok with some Trick Flow g2 heads and like a stealth ram or a mini ram.

thats just for the shortblock. thats a WHOLE lot more money than what you were planning on spending tho. i wouldnt skimp on parts much tho. redoing something a second time is more expensive than doing it right the first.

as for the other stuff..

2. i would go 255 atleast. if you go to www.ls1tech.com and look up the screen name "Parish" (he drives a blue turbo silverado) hes running a walbro dual intake setup that ive got my eye on. either would work in your case.

3. im not real good yet with sizing injectors but 24-36 is about the range people are in with NA motors in the 350-450rwhp range so i dont think they will be enough. but i could be wrong.

4. if you wanna stay with the stock ECU the MSD stuff is the way to go. if you wanna do it right the first time (if your expecting some bigger numbers that is) then go with an ECU that includes all that in it. AEM just released a universal ECU that im gonna start looking into. AEM is REAL big in the turbo import world and for good reason. they are THE BEST. <---see the period? LOL. the AEMs even have a built in traction control for the strip.

5. your ahead of the game here. two smaller turbos will make more low end than one big one. no one can argue that. plus you will be faster because you will be in boost longer. but twins are twice as complicated and twice and involved. but to me its worth it.

6. i have yet to really see a good intercooler setup for a firebird without hacking into the body work. its something im looking into tho.

good luck and im sorry this was so long.

 

I was on a tight budget for my engine, it was either a stock rebuild or that ($620 extra for pistons/rods/balancing). For well under a grand it'll handle a ton more power than a stock engine would have.

I was going by his comment here when I suggested what I did...
"Rebuild kit...unsure one that lowers the CR and I don't want to increase bore or stroke, just want newer internals because I am on a budget and want to have a nice fresh platform."

That was exactly my criteria for the engine I built.

I most definitely agree that the right way is to really overbuild, but it all depends on your cash flow. Forged everything is great but will always cost to do it right. I've researched a lot and it seems that my engine really shouldn't have a problem handling ~500 at the crank with what's in there, plenty of other people have done it reliably on boosted apps.

As for everything else I agree 100%, that's pretty much just what I would've said.

Ack, gotta run again.

 

from time to time i AM known for going a little overboard with stuff like that...lol.