VandykeT/A

I'm eventually going to be going LS/LQ in my 80 Trans am and in the mean time I want to get an idea of what the best route to go is. A friend of mine can get a LQ4 from a guy he knows for nothing but its supposidly a bad engine ( don't know whats wrong) but I assume it would be rebuildable. I'm not looking to make a race car but I would like a mid 12s car in the end and I"m sure I can reach my goals with a stock displacement motor but would I be better off rebuilding or would I be better off finding a good running lower mileage engine and going that route. If rebuilding it would be the better choice are there more to it than rebuilding a SBC. Ive done those before but never had the oil pan off an LS. What do you guys think?

Tainted

iTrader: (9)

Go for an lq9, they have flat top pistons which will be better for ptv and compression

chrisfrost

iTrader: (8)

Ultimately rebuilding is going to be better "If It's Done Correctly" new bearings and measure the bearing clearance ,,,,,,hone the rod big ends ,,,,,,have block bored to an over-size and new pistons ,,,,,,,new ls2 timing set , new Melling 10295 stock volume , high pressure oil pump ,,,,,,,,,but there are alot of good running engines that will work just dropping 1 in ,,,,,,so it depends on You ,,,,,how much cash you have for it ,,,,,,,,i can tell You this ,,,,,,,,You can easily spend $1500-2000 buying an engine and rebuilding it Yourself having the machining done at a shop .

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

With such a modest performance goal I would save a lot of cash and just find a good condition stock engine. That should cost you less than pistons alone would cost for a rebuild.

Far as displacement, the stock crank in these is very strong and again your performance goal modest, I wouldn't consider replacing it till aiming for a LOT lower ET.

Hell as modest as this goal is some well thought out boltons and a cam should do the trick.