Please review my staged buildup plan and critique!
11-13-2010, 07:14 PM
#1
Staging Lane
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Please review my staged buildup plan and critique! So now that I have my ls1 running with pretty much no issues in the new body I want to go through a staged upgrade path to get my to various goals along the way.
I'm looking to continue using the car for part time DD duty and continuing to add more track time to it. I'm going more so for the reliable/affordable options out of the pick three: quick, cheap, reliable quadrants.
Currently the engine is bone stock '01 F-body spec with the exception of long tube headers to fit the engine into the car - the exhaust is then dual 2 3/8" through the cars stock cat's and stock rear muffler. The car also has a 3" intake elbow off the throttle body to the side of the engine bay. EGR and secondary air have been deleted - evap has been maintained.
I'm looking at roughly three phases.
Phase 1:
underdrive pulley and belts
valve springs and ti retainers
push rods
a moderately sized cam (power under the curve for road racing)
tune
----------------------
rough price with all ancillaries ~$1000
power goal: ~400whp
Phase 2:
custom exhaust from the headers back
3" cats
2 1/2" dual exhaust
new rear muffler that is louder/higher flowing - likely an M3 fitment one to maintain nice rear fitment.
custom intake to get rid of the restrictive 90 that is currently needed - something similar to the f-body/vette intake that keeps a straight intake line.
----------------------
rough price ~$1000 depending heavily on exhaust setup
power goal: ~425whp
Phase 3:
budget build style ls2 block + l92 head combo
stock ls2 shortblock
forged pistons - leave the rest of the bottom end stock.
off the shelf l92 heads or the general's CNC ones - ground down for proper CC
l76 intake + injectors/fuel rail
90mm cable throttle body
wiring stuff for the movement of the sensors.
swap the cam and valve springs and underdrive pulley over to the new setup to save buying another setup
retune
----------------------
rough price ~$2500 depending primarily on short block price - not accounting for selling the stock long block minus the parts I bring over.
power goal: ~525whp
somewhere along the way i'll also need to step up to a bigger clutch and potentially a different rearend LSD unit. I'll leave that excluded from the engine list but know that they are expected.
Is buying a cam now with the intended end goal in mind going to be false economy up front? IE I know I wont have the ideal cam for a 5.7 stock longblock and a 6l with much better flowing heads. Let's assume a 6 month or so window for doing all of this work if that helps.
I approximate I could get this done for about 3k in all 3 phases with selling my leftover parts/engine along the way. I'll also be doing suspension and ancillary work on the car in the same timeframe, some of that including an oil cooler and an accusump.
I'm really looking for opinions - I want to lay out a solid upgrade path and be mindful of the steps along the way - I don't want to sacrifice reliability to save a buck at all but I don't want to call up a reputable engine builder and write a 10k check either.
I'm looking to continue using the car for part time DD duty and continuing to add more track time to it. I'm going more so for the reliable/affordable options out of the pick three: quick, cheap, reliable quadrants.
Currently the engine is bone stock '01 F-body spec with the exception of long tube headers to fit the engine into the car - the exhaust is then dual 2 3/8" through the cars stock cat's and stock rear muffler. The car also has a 3" intake elbow off the throttle body to the side of the engine bay. EGR and secondary air have been deleted - evap has been maintained.
I'm looking at roughly three phases.
Phase 1:
underdrive pulley and belts
valve springs and ti retainers
push rods
a moderately sized cam (power under the curve for road racing)
tune
----------------------
rough price with all ancillaries ~$1000
power goal: ~400whp
Phase 2:
custom exhaust from the headers back
3" cats
2 1/2" dual exhaust
new rear muffler that is louder/higher flowing - likely an M3 fitment one to maintain nice rear fitment.
custom intake to get rid of the restrictive 90 that is currently needed - something similar to the f-body/vette intake that keeps a straight intake line.
----------------------
rough price ~$1000 depending heavily on exhaust setup
power goal: ~425whp
Phase 3:
budget build style ls2 block + l92 head combo
stock ls2 shortblock
forged pistons - leave the rest of the bottom end stock.
off the shelf l92 heads or the general's CNC ones - ground down for proper CC
l76 intake + injectors/fuel rail
90mm cable throttle body
wiring stuff for the movement of the sensors.
swap the cam and valve springs and underdrive pulley over to the new setup to save buying another setup
retune
----------------------
rough price ~$2500 depending primarily on short block price - not accounting for selling the stock long block minus the parts I bring over.
power goal: ~525whp
somewhere along the way i'll also need to step up to a bigger clutch and potentially a different rearend LSD unit. I'll leave that excluded from the engine list but know that they are expected.
Is buying a cam now with the intended end goal in mind going to be false economy up front? IE I know I wont have the ideal cam for a 5.7 stock longblock and a 6l with much better flowing heads. Let's assume a 6 month or so window for doing all of this work if that helps.
I approximate I could get this done for about 3k in all 3 phases with selling my leftover parts/engine along the way. I'll also be doing suspension and ancillary work on the car in the same timeframe, some of that including an oil cooler and an accusump.
I'm really looking for opinions - I want to lay out a solid upgrade path and be mindful of the steps along the way - I don't want to sacrifice reliability to save a buck at all but I don't want to call up a reputable engine builder and write a 10k check either.
11-14-2010, 07:32 PM
#2
It should be a nice ride and I think your have a pretty solid plan of attack in general. But I think you might be underestimating the cost and overestimating the performance a little bit.
Phase one for example. You will probably come close to exceeding $1k in parts alone. $700ish for a cam kit with good springs. $100 for gaskets and miscellaneous items. $200 for the underdrive. Maybe if you're planning to tune it yourself you'll be in the ball park, but if you're not, expect a few hundred for tuning.
If your drive train is efficient, you can be near 400rwhp with cam, exhaust, and bolt-on's, but it's not as common as one would be led to believe, especially with a cam designed for road racing (Here come all the cam-only people to post up about their 425whp cars lol). 425whp is about the norm for a stock lower end LS1 M6 car with cam, bolt-ons, and a good set of aftermarket or ported stock casting heads.
It's not very common to be hitting 525whp with a stock cubed LS2 with budget heads and intake.
That's all I got for now. Off to watch some football. Good luck with your project.
PS you might want to check out the conversion forum on here.
Phase one for example. You will probably come close to exceeding $1k in parts alone. $700ish for a cam kit with good springs. $100 for gaskets and miscellaneous items. $200 for the underdrive. Maybe if you're planning to tune it yourself you'll be in the ball park, but if you're not, expect a few hundred for tuning.
If your drive train is efficient, you can be near 400rwhp with cam, exhaust, and bolt-on's, but it's not as common as one would be led to believe, especially with a cam designed for road racing (Here come all the cam-only people to post up about their 425whp cars lol). 425whp is about the norm for a stock lower end LS1 M6 car with cam, bolt-ons, and a good set of aftermarket or ported stock casting heads.
It's not very common to be hitting 525whp with a stock cubed LS2 with budget heads and intake.
That's all I got for now. Off to watch some football. Good luck with your project.
PS you might want to check out the conversion forum on here.
