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Boosted stroker motors, yes or no?

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Old Nov 16, 2012 | 09:39 AM
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Default Boosted stroker motors, yes or no?

I keep hearing that boosting a stroker motor is bad voodoo. Why do people recommend not stroking? Is it because the piston wears faster with the stroked shortblock? How does it make a difference whether it is N/A or boosted?

I see sponsors and regualr people do forced induction with strokers a lot.
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Old Nov 16, 2012 | 09:46 AM
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Long strokes are frowned upon in iron blocks because of the sleeve length. When you increase stroke it obviously pulls the piston down further in the bore at BDC for a longer cylinder fill. In an iron block what happens is the skirt of the piston ends up being pulled far enough below the sleeve that it allows the piston to rock in the bore. This scuffs the skirts of the piston and after a while can allow oil consumption issues.

With some of the coating technologies of today that piston manufacturers are using on their piston skirts the chance of scuffing them is reduced, but the problem of the sleeve being too short persists.

A LS2 block has longer sleeves and doesn't have this problem or at least to the extent of an iron block. When a company like ERL or RED re-sleeves an engine the sleeves they use are usually longer than the stock sleeves to remedy this problem.

I think it all comes down to how much faith you have in your engine builder and your individual set-up. Me personally I wouldn't be afraid of stroking a turbo motor with up to a 4" crank.
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Old Nov 16, 2012 | 03:39 PM
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Very informative Martin! Thank you!
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Old Nov 16, 2012 | 03:59 PM
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Originally Posted by Martin@Tick
With some of the coating technologies of today that piston manufacturers are using on their piston skirts the chance of scuffing them is reduced.
A piston skirt uses oil to slide on the bore. If you mess up the geometry, no fancy coating on earth is going to save your piston.
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Old Nov 16, 2012 | 04:03 PM
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Originally Posted by milkplus
A piston skirt uses oil to slide on the bore. If you mess up the geometry, no fancy coating on earth is going to save your piston.
Every 4" stroke iron block motor is a ticking time bomb then. Excuse my ignorance.
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Old Nov 16, 2012 | 04:03 PM
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That symptom is caused by incorrect rod length and pin height..
Build the stroker and never look bad, how many 402's and 408s do you see with turbos and blowers and nitrous..
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Old Nov 16, 2012 | 04:04 PM
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Originally Posted by StrokerTA
That symptom is caused by incorrect rod length and pin height..
Build the stroker and never look bad, how many 402's and 408s do you see with turbos and blowers and nitrous..
Steve, I was going to make a post about pin height and rod to stroke ratio, but I'm no engine builder, you can enlighten us though!
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Old Nov 16, 2012 | 04:08 PM
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Wasn't trying to take anything away from you, just adding a little bit more info.
Anytime you add stroke to an engine of any type, you are correct, it will try and basically shove the piston out of the side of the block. Increased rod length, and adjusting pin height with your piston combination will significantly help.
Also as Martin said piston coatings are REALLY helping wear in engines now.
We experimented with micro-blue coatings about 6 years ago, the amount of reduced friction and reduced wear on parts is unreal.
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Old Nov 16, 2012 | 04:12 PM
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Originally Posted by StrokerTA
Wasn't trying to take anything away from you, just adding a little bit more info.
Anytime you add stroke to an engine of any type, you are correct, it will try and basically shove the piston out of the side of the block. Increased rod length, and adjusting pin height with your piston combination will significantly help.
Also as Martin said piston coatings are REALLY helping wear in engines now.
We experimented with micro-blue coatings about 6 years ago, the amount of reduced friction and reduced wear on parts is unreal.
Never saw it that way Steve! You're a wealth of information that I can always learn something new from.

I know that compression height, pin height, rod length and ring land thickness play their own parts in this equation also, I'm just not near as well versed in engine building as I am other areas. I'm building my stroker motor myself though with the help from my boss Jonathan, but until then I'm pretty green in assembly.
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Old Nov 16, 2012 | 07:47 PM
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What the difference in a 370 vs a 408 on longevity? I mean are you going to get 100,000 miles out of a boosted 370 or 408 spinning 7,000 rpms with a big turbo on it? Answer is no. Is the wear difference noticeable? Probably not. I say stroker motors do well on a big single better than a smaller non stroked motor because torque numbers are usually higher in the lower rpms and this offsets the later spool time of a larger turbo. When it comes to high rpm power the non stroked motor shines. On a street car I say the stroker motor shines. Just my 2 cents. . .
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Old Nov 16, 2012 | 08:09 PM
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I had a ProCharged 383 LT1 in my '95 TA. No problems.
My solution (which others may disagree with) is simple. Over build. Spec out parts that can take 1000HP. Then build an engine making 800HP.
The TA was a daily driver, with periodic blasts, not a full time race car. But it had about 160K on it when it grenaded.

Last edited by Dirty Dog; Nov 17, 2012 at 06:35 PM.
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Old Nov 17, 2012 | 02:05 PM
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Originally Posted by StrokerTA
That symptom is caused by incorrect rod length and pin height..
Build the stroker and never look bad, how many 402's and 408s do you see with turbos and blowers and nitrous..
A LOT!

Can you give me a few reputable sponsors to look into? I'm looking for either an iron 408 LQ9 or a 416 LS3.
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Old Nov 17, 2012 | 02:08 PM
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Originally Posted by Dirty Dog
I had a ProCharged 383 LT1 in my '95 TA. No problems.
My solution (which others ay diagree with) is simple. Over build. Spec out parts that can take 1000HP. Then build an engine making 800HP.
The TA was a daily driver, with periodic blasts, not a full time race car. But it had about 160K on it when it grenaded.
I'm just looking to build a nice 800hp procharged street car. Not looking at beating the dog snot out of the car 24/7
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Old Nov 17, 2012 | 06:11 PM
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Without a taller deck though, you're never going to find the room for a longer rod, or being able to move the pin any further up towards the crown on a boosted engine.
Even the off the shelf pistons have the pin cut right through the oil control ring.
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Old Nov 18, 2012 | 09:18 AM
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So you are saying a boosted iron block 408 is not a good dd motor
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Old Jan 21, 2013 | 11:33 AM
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Originally Posted by js2fst
So you are saying a boosted iron block 408 is not a good dd motor
As I understand it, a iron block 408 with a 4" stroke that is built right should be fine.
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Old Jan 21, 2013 | 12:49 PM
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i can bet your not going have big problems with a boosted 408 as these builds are done quit a bit, now a lot depends who builds the engine, how good the machine work is done.. and how much prep work is done and attention to detail before assembly.. check, recheck and recheck!!! as with any increase stroke engine, the difference is made up in the piston pin height depending on rod lenght and what stroke crank you want to run, offset grinds, or what have you...... I say if a 408 is what you want BUILD IT...
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Old Jan 21, 2013 | 01:49 PM
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I wouldn't be worried about it at all. With the right clearances and the right parts, it will work fine. It's not like your in ground breaking new territory. This has been done 1000x over and then some.
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Old Jan 21, 2013 | 03:53 PM
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Iron 390...best of both. Cubes and its a short stroker.......

FWIW....my 4.125" stroked 427ci built in 2002....with the shortest sleeves ever made back in 2001-2002 took me to 173,000 miles without any issues at all. Needs to be built right, thats all.

Also......perhaps the best turbo engine builder on the planet...NRE...does most of his engines with stroker cranks and they are all just fine. His 454ci LSX iron block makes 2,500 HP........
I like the disassemble video of one of his LSX TT 1,000+ HP engines doing over 100 dyno pulls....tears down the engine and all the parts literally look brand new out of the box.

Just gotta build'em right......

.

Last edited by LS6427; Jan 23, 2013 at 02:15 PM.
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