I recently had a speed shop build a 383 lt1 for me with an f1a procharger. The guy did the bare minimum to get the car running, tuned, and back to me after taking almost a year and a half! ive learned that if ur going to build a car u have to do it urself. some of the issues im having are, multiple oil leaks. Timing cover, oil pan...

The crank hub just spun off doing minimal damage, i caught it in my driveway when i felt the powersteering going out and shut it down right away. I have driven the car a few miles, and as far as power and performance, the engine setup seems solid. diamond pistons, comp cam, eagle crank, edlebrock lt4 intake, edle brock heads, 40 # injectors, 2 performance fuel pumps, upgraded radiator, stand up intercooler, trans cooler, 4 '' mufflex exhaust, custom kooks headers, quarter master drive shaft, qa1 shocks, al tubular racing suspension... shoot the list goes on!

My main questions are, what should i be doing as far as hp and torque? What other upgrades can i make to avoid any further tough learning experiences and unnecessary costs? is my intake and head set up to accomadate the f1a procharger? i know its a lot of ?'s but im changing my approach to my build so any good advice is greatly appreciated. this guy took me around the block on money,( not even gonna say what ive spent so far), and then pretty much abandoned the project as soon as i started ta get pissed. stupid him. i would of spent a lot more to get what i wanted out
of the car if he knew how to do buisiness.

Im a builder by trade, but very mechanically inclined. never had the time to do any of this before, but im semi retired so im ready to learn.

 

Sounds like you are not too happy and sorry to hear you are having trouble with your setup.

Here are some general questions:

Did the machine shop not key the crank? Sounds like they didn't if the hub spun.

What is your current pulley setup? How many ribs?

Who chose the injectors? 40s sound real small for any decent boost level on a f1a.

What are the cam specs? Target boost level?

Are you on a MAF or speed density tune?

Are you doing anything for crankcase evap? If you are pressurizing the bottom end, its going to push oil through the seals.

As for the leaks, well its best to check where they are exactly coming from. Check the torque specs first and you will have to replace gaskets and such as needed.

 

The first thing that does not look right are the 40# injectors. Depending on how much boost your running, you should be making at least 600hp. So 40# injectors will not support that.

Your oil leaks are most likely from excessive crankcase pressure. What kind of evac do you have? Do you have any HP numbers or 1/4mile times?

 

Yea 40lb injectors will not keep up with that blower.

How much boost are you seeing? How many ribs are on your blower pulleys?

Are you using the stock hub setup? if so grab an ati setup and save your motor!

with that kind of setup you should have had a great powered motor an easy 500rwhp plus all day long Bro. It gets to me when shops try to just get your money and run and once you pick up your car they don't know you. I have my own shop and I will never do that to my customers. Sorry you had such a bad turn out on your build.

 

The crank wasn't keyed , i have a catch can setup to releive crank case psi but there is never any blow by in it so I don't know... Hasn't ran long enough to get a 1/4 mile time.

 

I m on a maf, no upgrades to pulley setup yet. ( waiting on advice for pulley set up ) 12 rib belt, stage 1 pulley on blower.

 

I have to get my gauge set up installed. No idea what the boost is right now. It was the builders suggestion on the 40# inj. What I'm realizing is he didn't want to give me too much of anything cuz he didn't want his build to blow up, and he's local and a buddy told me he wasn't gonna build me anything faster than his firehawk. Jerk!

 

I'll have ta get my paper work out for the cam specs, but he had it custom made so I'm thinking by the time I make a few changes it's gonna be worthless. When I agreed to let him do the build my target hp was 1000 hp. That's why I got the Dana rearend and the 400 turbo.

 

I know now that with the money I've spent, I could have a bought a crate motor for less and had a lot more potential in every aspect. Shoot I was just gonna buy a frickin viper but I wanted ta build something of my own that would smoke my buddies who did buy the new vettes, lambo, and vipers off the road!

 

I'm so unconfident in the build that I have half a mind to pull the motor out and start all over. The only reason I don't is when the car has run with no issues, ( which was maybe 75 miles tops ) , it was a beast! Great throttle response, no cooling problems... but then again, my frame of reference is naive at best. This is the first car I've ever sat in that's suppose to be over 500 hp, so I don't know if it's 500 , 600, 375 lol. I have a set of vette wheels with used nittos that won't hook up at all so...

 

My buddies dad has a 383 with a d1 blower and he s tried three different places to get it tuned, he ended up in Ohio just ta have the guys down there tell him he needed ta upgrade his fuel system before they'd do it.

 

The crank should be keyed for this kind of setup. I recommend an ATI big block hub which will require an ATI damper and a timing cover machined for the larger hub with a new seal. Lonnies Perf is a sponsor and can help get you what's needed. Hopefully your crankshaft snout isn't damaged. Your engine builder sounds a bit incompetent and should have recommended this at the beginning.

How is the catch can setup as in where do you have your lines ran?

The 12 rib should be fine as long as the crank and blower pulley are aligned perfectly. The belt should be readjusted after you get a couple hundred miles on it. I don't know what stage 1 means but it would be best to get the pulley sizes for the crank and blower.

A boost/vacuum and a fuel pressure gauge are needed at a minimum for your setup. If the car isn't tuned or running properly, I would wait until your issues are fixed and bring it to a reputable tuner. The 40s are way too small for any decent boost with the f1a so get those changed once you know what boost level you should be running. For 1000hp, you are going to need a lot of fuel. Running lean with not enough injector will blow the engine so another knock on your builder.

What fuel system are you running by the way? I hope not just a single 255lph pump.

The cam could be fine but I was just curious.

You will get there so don't get discouraged. You went to the wrong guy and it's always best to do your homework before jumping in to a build like this. Hopefully the engine is in good shape and it's just the details that need panning out.

You really just need to get these other items addressed but I wouldn't beat on the car until you get the issues fixed and the car tuned professionally.
Def talk to the tuner before taking any trips. Ask what items he may need and come prepared. If you brought your car to a tuner with those 40lb injectors, they would have told you to upgrade otherwise you are wasting your time.

Good luck

 

The catch can is a 1 quart plastic jug with a breather on top and a drain valve on the bottom. A nipple on one side that I ran the pcv hose to. All the other setups looked over complicated and I read a thread that said no reason to run a line back to the charger tubing cuz the fumes are actually a minus on volumetric efficiency . Like I said tho I'm new so this might be all wrong but I haven't ran the car like this yet so...

 

Thanks for the encouragement too. I took the front of the motor and the charger out, can't see any damage except for a couple lil scratches on the crank snout. What it looks like is the hubs center bolt wasn't near long enuf and only threaded a few times so it just pulled out. But still the threads on the bolt and inside the crank snout both look fine so it may not have been threaded at all.