Runnin' a stock 305 right now. Currently not supporting my testosterone levels . I purchased a complete 350 engine out of a 89' burban and I was curious what I should do to it to obtain 350HP. Block will be rebuilt from the ground up and still depicting if I'm going to forge the whole bottom end or not (pistons, con. rods, crank). I'd like to run a high comp. ratio because i doubt I will be running NOS. Plus Id really enjoy it if I could get aluminum heads for it but I'm not sure what kind or brand to look at. It will be running a modified LT1 intake (Can't run Vortec heads). Any suggestions?

 

Bump

 

You could try lt1 heads and modify them to fit a gen 1. There is a sticky on how to do it in one of the intake message boards. With them you will not have to modify the bolt pattern on the intake and with mild cleanup on them they should have the potential to exceed your goal easily depending on your cam choice.

 

That's what I suggested in one thread i created and everyone said it's not worth the money or time etc. The majority said that you can find better flowing gen 1 heads for the same amount of money and time it'd cost for LT1 heads. One of my buddies from work has a LT1 he said he'd sell me the heads off of for a good price ($300-500). Edit: I meant to put RWHP in the thread title.

 

I would shop around I sold a set of aluminum LT1 heads for 200 on the auction.

 

Well the only thing I'm stuck on is the fact if I should buy used aluminum LT1 heads or buy new better flowing gen 1 heads? With the consideration im on a very low budget, which will change when summer turns along but this will be my first engine build and I'm not going to extreme with it. Just a good stout 350 , possibly 383 to push 325-350 rwhp. Are stock aluminum LT1 heads capable of pushin those numbers without anything extreme? I plan to run a high comp ratio around 10.1.1 or so

 

If you don't have machine shop capabilities, and the ability to weld them up, then it's probably not worth it cost wise to use LT1 heads.
Define your budget. I don't think you'll hit 350RWHP unless it's high revving, hard to drive, and not built to stand up to it long term.
Fast, cheap, reliable, pick 2.
Sounds like you want fast and cheap right? Cast bottom end, maybe balance it. Some used aftermarket heads if you can. 10.5:1 CR, big solid flat tappet cam, like a 240* intake duration @.050. That might get you to your goals.
Why modified LT1 intake? Then I assume for induction you'll be using...? Port FI?

 

There's plenty of machine shops round here to get the job done... I'm not sure whats more important to have forged, pistons, connecting rods, or the crank? I am lookin to put a massive lopey cam in it, but nothing that won't idle. Are hyd. roller cams to costly? And yes I plan to use the LT1 intake for MPFI. Carbuerator won't satisfy my needs of power as much as it will satisfy my gas mileage considering this motor will be going into a daily driver. After all I was planning to spend no more then $2,000 on the motor before it's complete (please hold your flames if that sounds unreasonable, this is my first engine build). Basically to kinda give you a better overlook, my main objective with my car is to modernize it with as much muscle potential as possible.

 

Sonix, you need to read some thread's about 1989TransAmGTA's engine. It makes 350 RWHP thru an automatic, idles only slightly rougher than stock, and gets 20+ MPG. The only "hard to drive" part about it is getting traction when you punch it from a stop. It uses a regular hydraulic roller XFI268HR, not a solid. We have several other 325-350 RWHP engines in SoCal, too, and yes they all pass CA's emissions test with everything hooked up.

 

Oh I remember reading about his engine. I also remember reading about the price tag, don't try and tell me he made his cheap, reliable, and fast, or i'll try and sell you a time machine
I am very impressed with his engine BTW, he sure did his homework and made it all work together very well.

I know you can definitely get 350RWHP, and have it not that hard to drive. Either by cubes, or superior parts, or both. But that's when you're dropping some decently large coin on parts, usually heads. Ie, AFR heads, a fairly pricey roller cam, some good valve train, etc.

If we were to drop the budget down a fair bit, you can still build a car to run the 1/4 mile side by side, but it'd have some rough characteristics. Cheaper heads, maybe hand ported, a bigger cam, shorter powerband, so it's not as easy to drive, etc etc. Probably not as much fun (as in easy to drive and wide powerband), or as reliable, but cheaper.

 

To answer Zroc directly here;
Yea, $2000 won't get you far. Sorry. Unless you can do a lot yourself, or you look for bargains, used parts, etc etc. For the average guy with little to no connections in the high perf world, it's hard.
You won't be able to use FI, with a gigantic cam. Unless you know the secret that I don't (don't get me wrong, I know very little about FI, but one thing I do know is that it doesn't like big cams).

Also, a big cam and daily driver is a recipe for a pain in the rear. Ugh, you'll hate it. Bucking through a parking lot, idling it for 10 minutes before you can drive, because it'll stall otherwise.

A carb is a cheaper way to get to your power goals in the end. For your case, I think it's the only way. Unless you're quite wise about FI tuning, can get injectors cheaply, have a laptop, have all the sensors, etc etc. A carb usually gets more HP/$, considering initial investment only. After you consider mileage difference, maybe after 70,000miles they'll break even say.

Oh yea, no doubt you can find a machine shop willing to do up the LT1 heads, but is it cheaper than a different route? I don't know a lot about the LT1 heads, but if you can get them machined to fit your engine, complete and ready to run, and ported, for less than a traditional head, then power to you. Remember they're a small chamber, so dished pistons most likely.

Rods are always forged, but I think I know what you mean. Pistons are most crucial if you're going to run forced induction, nitrous, blower, etc. Crank/rods if you're going to run higher RPM. That's just my personal opinion there.

Hyper pistons, decent aftermarket I beams, cast steel crank. Balanced. You should be good to go.

I think I covered everything I wanted to say there, hope i'm not stepping on any toes.

 

Yeah that sounds about right. My father is friends with the owner of F-Body Motorsports if ya'll have ever heard of them before (which im sure you have on this forum "" lol). They do good installations and tunes for a good price and I wouldn't mind paying them to do it. I hear all it takes for the computer to take a big cam is some adjustments in the CPU because it tries to compensate for it. Basically I'm trying to do something not alot of people do with this motor. So okay maybe I meant no more then 2 grand on the block now? hehe. But really, I'll change my goal here: I just want a 350HP stout built reliable motor. Maybe not a massive cam but somethin' you can hear lopin around and someone else would think "Oh that things got somethin in it". I can deal with time, because If i build this motor I'm gonna build it the right way so I dont have to go back and correct anything. Any new suggestions now?

 

350 HP, or 350 RWHP? There's a big difference, especially if you expect a T5 to live behind it.

350 HP could be most any old head.

Are you stuck on the modified LT1 intake? Again, makes a big difference. Carb'd 350 HP is pretty simple. EFI 350 RWHP is a different story.

Where did the 350 HP number come from?

 

If you want a carb, then go with an older car that came with a carb and modify that. I enjoy working with fuel injection and the benefits it gives me in the form of gas mileage, lower emissions, and the ability to fine tune it based on the info the engine is telling me. But lets not turn this into a carb vs EFI debate. We have enough of those, and the original poster is wanting to use an LT1 intake.
Keep in mind you're going to need to convert your TBI over with a new high-pressure fuel pump and new computer and prom, very similar to converting to TPI. If you want to do this cheap, then just give up now. Modifying engines for more horsepower is not cheap, and it never will be. Horsepower is like women, the more money you have, the more women/hp you'll have.

 

Heh very true! Your reasoning for EFI is the same as mine. My father told me he'd never use a carb again after all the troubles he had back when he was young and he had a good bit of camaro's. I'm just looking to get the most efficiency out of it as i can as this car will still remain my daily driver. As for the T5, I guess we'll just have to test how tough they are... Well should I say "can be". I just want somethin' that could smoke a lightly modded Mustang GT, close to stock LT1, and possibly a bone stock LS1. I find it embarrasing my car has eight cylinders but today's put-puttin' Honda Accord's are pushing more horses then me. Everyone expects my car is fast due to it's looks but now I need to back up my reputation (just any reputation other then the "slow-maro" ). Forget I said anything about cheap. Let's just say I'm focused on getting a very stout/efficient motor built here.

 

okay building the bottom end can be pretty cheap even if you want to stay under 2000

connecting rods
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...part=SCA-25700 $219

pistons
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...8&autoview=sku $172

Intake
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...1&autoview=sku $153

cam
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...8&autoview=sku $255
XR270HR-10

grand total $799
that gives you $1200 to get your self a set of vortec heads and a carb... your are golden...

i think you are going to find that your 350RWHP number will be very expensive to attain with FI if you cant do your own tuning and you want it to be resonable

and with the T-5 you could get a little bigger with the cam you will just have to learn to drive it again...and people will hear that cam
keep the stock clutch in there and it will live longer... burn up more clutch...

but 350 RWHP... dont know about that i bet it would be close maybe in the 330-340 range...build it and see

 

Yeah Im not going for exactly 350... basically 300 would make me happy (with tuned FI)

 

you could do an LT1 swap.... put a cam, headers and tune on the LT1 and youll have 350rwhp.

complete LT1's with harness can be picked up for $1200ish.

 

I have an LT1 cept its cast iron. But I hear LT1 swaps arent worth the money or time due to so many things that have to change

 

hey it is up to you if you want an LT1 than do that if you want a Gen 1 do that...

i am just a fan of being able to make adjustments without a laptop or in your case paying $$$ for a tune...

and i am sure you will pay good money to have someone else custom tune this engine, when you could have it pretty much all set in a day with maybe $100 dollars worth of carb parts...

or your other option is tune it yourself... but the cam size necessary to get your 300+ HP goal will make it tough NOT impossible i hear this board has a top of the line DIY section... although it has never interested me personally i think you should definitely take a look.. make some decisions on your engine and tell them what you want out of it they can tell you if FI will be worth doing.


But in the end it all comes down to your opinions of FI and Carb...
and what you want, the ease of the carb or the precision of FI.