ok, i have all the parts now, and am trying to decide on how much money i want to spend on this short block. i dont think i need all forged stuff, my engine wont be that crazy.i hope to have around 400hp. i want to spin it to 5800-6000, and have a 100-150 shot of NOS. i know i will need good pistons, I was looking at keith black silvo lites(ring gap set accordingly) my question is about rods? will stock rods hold that much power and rpm's? i am gonna run a stock crank. also, i have heard if you put main studs on it, you have to have it aligned honed? anyone know anything about this? i am just trying to figure out how much i should spend on the short block, thanks for any help. cause i need help on this part. lol. lil jay

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Wide Open Till You See *** ...Then Brake

89 T/A Clone
406 in progress
TH700R4 3.42 Posi

 

Don't use stock rods. When you do you limit the piston choice to about 1/10 what you would have. It is really not a good idea to use anything but a forged piston on a motor using NOS. Too many compromises in other areas (like ring gaps) when using hypers and such.

Studding mains is always a good idea. Only align hone if required to make sure the main bearing saddles are within .0015 of each other for free crank rotation. The machine shop can normally tell before the motor is assembled. But, my front main was too tight and i did have to take my crank back out to have it honed.

Get a good set of SCAT or Protech rods and a SCAT crank. Look for something that says stroker clearanced. OR check with your local machine shop and find out what rods they use on 5.7/383 combinations. They probably have experience on clearancing rod bolts on some rods more than others.

From there you can select the proper piston. Thinks like type of casting, weight and ring design will depend on your long term plans.

Get the best cylinder head you can afford!! For one thing, if your going to spray it, you need really good exhaust flow and a cam optimized for NOS (LSA angle and exhaust duration normally get changed).

Good Heads make all the difference in the world on 400s.


[This message has been edited by jcb999 (edited December 11, 2001).]

 

ttt

 

If your going to spray a 406 get a real good supply of felpro or whatever kind of head gaskets you'll be using cause you'll go through a few The 4.155 inch bore of a 406 leaves very little room between cylinders and that's where you'll blow 'em. Now if you have the block o-ringed it'll be a different story. If you can get it to seal 406's are some mean a$$ motors. Have fun

 

Oh yeah, you may be alittle better off if you dont go crazy with the compression also. I had a 406 with 13:1 compression and was spraying 250 hp nitrous through it.....with the stock rods and crank. Only thing I did was get new rod bolts and stress relieved the rods in the oven. Eventually I did lose a couple mains but it held together fairly good considering I street raced the crap out of it.