I know there is a sticky about this but I need it narrowed down. I have a fresh out of the shop forged internals 383 LS1. CR is around10.0:1 and stock 853 heads no cam yet. Looking for a reliable 550 at the tires. Not for racing just fun on the streets. I do not have anything to put in in yet so consider that whichever route I go will require a computer, exhaust, intake, gauges, fuel system, meth injection etc. I am thinking about boosting it. Looking at either roots or centrifugal blowers it seems to be about 6-7k for the set up. Looking at a mid size, single turbo and it seems like it would be less. So what is the cost of just the main turbo components? I.E head unit, blow off valve, intercooler etc.. Seeing that I do not know which vehicle it will be going into, a kit would not work for me. I figure when installed I can just have the piping made up. And, GO. Thanks.

 

550hp...
VS turbo, $450
3" air to air intercooler, $200
Cold side pipe, $100-$200 depending on clamp choice
waste gate, $150
BOV, $150
China made log manifold setup, $250
Down pipe bends and pipe, $150
$1500-ish off the top of my head

that's out of my general list if someone asks me what it cost to turbo their LS vehicle, plus another $1000 for fuel stuff, wideband, tuning costs, misc. sensors, etc...$2500 in parts. Not including exhaust after the downpipe. That's for a VS turbo and probably 600hp. You can run the price up pretty fast with name brand turbos though and catch right up to the supercharger costs. You can almost just add a zero the the end of half the prices I listed if you look at the higher end stuff.

It's becoming a harder question to answer because there are just so many choices out there now.

 

A 7875 would give you monster torque, but run out of breath above 6500 or so. 550whp would be easy. Depends on how high you want to rev.

 

What fuel?

Alot depends on what you can or can't fab yourself. The turbo and kit can be relatively cheap if you can weld. 2" mild steel piping, factory manifolds, few vbands and go. The drive line, fuel system, ECU are where the moneys at. YOU can build a hotside with WG for less than $500.

You can get the Ebay 78/75 clones for $270 shipped.

 

Absolutely, if you can fab a little bit very few limits exist. Spending some time searching for marketplace and ebay deals pays off.

 

I will not be fabbing the exhaust. There are kits out there for what I'm looking at for a potential sled to drop it in. The only fabbing would be intake work and maybe intercooler ducting. I am not looking for cheapest route possible for this. My only thought was that it seems like it could be done for less than a supercharger. I will not be shifting at redline every time, again this will not be a racecar just something fun and capable on the streets. This is also assuming that since I do not have something to put this in yet, I will need a fuel system, exhaust, monitoring and everything else. I am looking into this because if I end up doing this, it would be better to decide now while I have nothing rather then having nice headers on the car just to remove them for a turbo or have too small of an intake in there. I know how much everything else costs, just curious about the main components.

 

My opinion, 550whp is nothing boosted. You essentially wasted money on an engine. You could have got a stock 5.3 and a 7875 and made that easily for much cheaper. Making 550rwhp naturally aspirated is doable, but its going to take a bit more effort. a gen 2.5 or gen 3 7875 might be the better choice however it'll probably make 550rear on 5-6 psi...if that. Kinda low goals which is the opposite of what most people do.,

 

I paid $2200 for this engine from someone who needed money, I wasted nothing. I know that I could get more out of it keeping it NA but I don't want it to be radical. Adding a little bit of boost will keep it more tame and higher HP numbers. Just looking for some fun and reliability is all.

 

Just for comparison to back up what others are saying above. You can make the power you are wanting with a bone stock $300 4.8. So for $2200 you could have 7 motors that are more than capable of doing what you want. Or 1 motor and spend $1900 towards the turbo kit. Engines are dirt cheap these days.

I'm a fan of different builds as the above has been done to death. More power to you got doing something a little different, even if its not the most cost effective way to reach your power goal. The second post is pretty spot on IMO. Go that route and I'm sure you'll be happy. Personally I don't think a t4 belongs on any LS... Esp. not a 383. I'd run a T6 S475 and a semi aggressive cam. If you run E85 you wouldn't need an intercooler with those goals (or even higher goals).

 

So the original idea for this engine was not to boost it, I know it can make power naturally. But I have a fresh bottom end, the heads are off and I have the money to add some boost to it. And again, I do not want the engine to be really aggressive, keeping it natural. This is just going to be a fun cruiser. Also, I would rather have 1 solid engine rather than 7 junk yard scraps. Thanks for the suggestions. I was thinking about using E85, would it really help that much to where I would not need an intercooler? Would using the E85 and a meth kit be enough?

 

I asked this same question. 10 different people might give you 10 different answers. So I decided to find out for myself. I did not install an intercooler originally. I started off at 2 psi. When I got to 4-5psi my iat temps were easily approaching 200f and do not come back down quickly at all. At that point I knew that the people who told me to install an intercooler were right. I admitted defeat and installed an intercooler. The car was a good bit faster in the same psi but I did have to add a little more spring to get that same psi.


and I think you might be misunderstanding, your motor isn’t a “waste” but it’s far too much motor for your low goals, but I guess that means you won’t need much boost at all.

 

The intercooler is more convenient than a meth kit that's for sure. In my opinion you're not wanting enough HP to bother with meth injection. It's just mess of stuff to work into the tune and maintain the reservoir, etc... All when you can just run 3-6psi through an air to air and call it a day. Run a summit ghost cam or a summit truck cam or something similar. It will drive a like a factory vehicle, just faster.

You're just going to get some facepalms from people when you come out of the gate with a forged engine description and all the accessories and then want the HP a factory engine will provide with a cam change and headers... Of course it doesn't hurt anything but it's just going to raise more questions than it helps answer when you throw it in there while simultaneously considering it not relevant. The whole "a factory engine will be better for you" thing is going to come up a lot for you because you are basically asking for what a factory engine with bolt-on parts gives you and it's very hard to make stuff work better and more reliably than the factory did. So we tend to stay in that camp for as long and the HP goals permit it.

 

E85 all day if you have easy access and the budget for the fuel system.

 

The flaw with that train of thought is thinking an assembled after market motor is better than a factory engine in terms of reliability. What you have is a bunch of parts thrown in a block that weren't meant to be there. This means you have to rely on others to mate these parts correctly. 90% of the machine shops out there don't have the tooling to assemble an engine as good as GM did it. In my experiance engines "put together" are instantly 50% less reliable than an untouched high mileage OEM long block. With a used engine, you know it was put together well. If its in good shape with 100k on it, you know it will continue to perform well. Which is why the ultimate power goal and intended use is so important. If 550hp is your goal, thats well within what a "Stock long block" can handle reliably. It really makes no sense to build aftermaket. It isn't more reliable... it won't last longer.

That said I'm all for building something if its within your budget/time. It's just plain fun! If using E85 with a goal of 600whp or less, I would definatly not bother with an IC or meth inj. With 388 cubes, you'll likely hit 550whp around 5lbs of boost (or less). For reference, my 5.3 twin 64mm setup on E60 fuel made 560/600 on 11-12 lbs. That was with a baby "GM hot cam" at 323 cubic inches. I run 19lbs now... still not intercooled. I do run water/meth now... but its not needed to stop detonation. I just like that it cools my combustion chambers and the plugs read a bit cooler with it. Zero power increase from it.

200* intake temperatures aren't an issue with E85. I max out the IAT sensor before the 1/8th mile at 250+ on 19lbs... So what? It doesnt mean you need an IC. The plugs read well and it makes power there. So if you can easily hit 100 hp over your goal without an IC... Why run one? Sure I may make another 3-5hp per pound of boost with an IC. But if I can hit my goal and more without... it doesn't make sense to me to run one. If the goal was to make the most power possible per pound... I'd definatly suggest an intercooler. With a 550hp goal.. Its a waste of $/space/weight/effort/time IMO.

 

Facts, a lot of machine shops are losing the guys that studied machining and did things correctly, hiring "parts assemblers" to replace them and wonder why they have so many failures.

Agree 200* IAT on E85 (or even E50) isn't bad nor is maxing out the sensor as long as you tune for it. I think a lot of it comes to feeding your turbo fresh air when not running an intercooler, not very efficient to start with 120+ degree air from behind the radiator.

If you have 200* IAT at 4-5psi something is amiss, I can't even get to 200 on double that boost and it returns to ambient within 1/2 mile. Guessing its a small turbo not getting ambient air, solve those issues and you can get a lot further without one.

 

Well what's the point of this whole site if stock engines are so cool? I missed the thread about the fun of driving under the speed limit to save gas and look cool. And I don't need crazy HP numbers. I don't have the desire or the cash to be the fastest guy on the streets. I'd be happy if I could beat most factory built cars. I just threw out a number. I know I can make more, but I'm happy running only 5 pounds of boost leaving a lot more untapped. All I asked was prices for components, not how slow I'll be of how my engine is a waste.

 

It's your money. Spend it how you want. Just go with a reputable company (i.e. don't buy a built 383 off fleabay). Size the turbo for your rpm range. A 383 will make huge torque down low and be a ton of fun on the street.

 

Not sure what your point is. There is PLEANTY of money to be spent aside from the long block. The point is to educate people that don't understand how "cool" the factory long blocks are. To spend $ wisely, and not **** it away on parts that aren't needed to hit your personal goal. That's the purpose of the site IMO.

As I said above... if its within your budget, go for it! Built motors are fun... Big cube stuff is fun... What we don't want is someone new to the hobby coming across this post and thinking they need a forged 388 to make 550hp "reliably". If you had 20k to spend... I'd spend the majority of it on the chassis/driveline/ECU/fuel system/power adder. The engines have proven to be VERY strong and reliable at hundreds of HP past your goal.

The misconception is that if you "build" the engine its more reliable. Years and years of experience prove the opposite. The most reliable engine the Avg. Joe can run is a well taken care of factory assembled motor with low miles. Unless of course you are sending your long block off to some of the BIG names and paying BIG money. And then there's the ridiculous turn around time. This is also only true if the factory parts can handle the power you'll be pushing. What's nutty is guys are running 1000-1500hp at 8000 RPM and 40lbs+ worth of boost on these stock blocks and bottom ends these days. Many of them are running factory casting un-ported heads to boot.

There are a lot of great people here with ALOT of experience. I can tell you turbo engines will break... Built or not. And its a lot less heart break/downtime when you break a $500 long block. Machine shop down time is something I really don't miss! No one is telling you how to do your build. We are simply stating the most efficient, cost effective, and easy way to hit your goal.

 

So many people look at me silly when I say they don't need a built engine to meet their goals. SBE 6.0 engine I did in 2009 is still going and its seen 800+ every day of its life, shows they can take a lick'n and keep tick'n!

Totally agree the real place to spend money is on the outside of the engine, fuel it properly and make drivetrain upgrades to make the power usable. I break 100x more drivetrain parts than I do SBE's.

 

I never said that built engines are more reliable. I was making the connection that a radical NA pushing big HP Vs. that same engine with a little boost. I am not new to this hobby also, I've built 4th gen LT1 Camaro, C5 vette built with a Magnusson blower, an 8 second BBC Chevelle on spray. I've never put a turbo on anything, that why I asked cost. I know their benefits, I know how they operate. The engine was built through a reputable builder. Again, I bought this engine for a deal. Being that it is out and available, I thought why not slap a turbo on it. This is what I have, it is what I am using.