Thanks guys, I appreciate the info and am going to look into some of the shops. If I have to drive a bit no big deal, I would rather have it done right than save on gas money.

RW99: Graduate of Washington eh... I go to Sioux Falls, Lincoln but I have a cousin and some friends who go to Washington . I'm not worried at all about the cars value because I plan on keeping it my entire life, it's paid off and everything and has always been on top of my dream cars list. I'm glad you gave some info on the forged internals part also... I would like to do whatever I can to make the car as driveable as possible so what would be the maximum or somewhere in-between for forged internals?

And again I appreciate you guys giving me some of your time... if it weren't for this board I would be driving a pretty messed up car lol.

 

ChevyOutlaw, always good to talk to someone from back home. Even if they are a Patriot. Washington High used to be downtown back in the day, in this crappy huge quartzite building... and we just hated the pretty boys that went to that nice new air-conditioned Lincoln High. I'll forgive you, though.

Search "forged", particularly in the forced induction area... you'll find quite a few threads addressing which portions of the stock bottom require forged components. I'm in the midst of going FI with intercooling right now, and I've made the decision to run about 550 rwhp on the stock bottom. I posted a poll a few weeks ago https://ls1tech.com/forums/poll.php?...lts&pollid=499
and found that roughly 44% of the guys responding (mostly FI engines) were running over 533 rwhp with a stock bottom end... and about 10% were over 633 rwhp.

But if you're dedicated to 650 rwhp or so, the consensus is to do at least the pistons and rods. Expense is mostly in the labor, so be prepared for it. Since you have a 2002, I'll assume you have relatively low miles on it (<40k?) and that's a good thing.

I do have to mention something, though... don't want to sound too much like a dad, but I am one. If you're in high school, there's a real good chance you're going to wreck that car one way or another unless you're uncommonly mature. I wrecked my '67 Nova in the spring of my senior year, in a really stupid manner... and I'll bet a whole bunch of guys here did something similar between the ages of 17 and 25. So I'd think twice, seriously, about piling your money into the car right now. End of sermon.

Are you going to drive this car in the winter? It would kill me to drive my TA, after all I've done to it, in that yearly mess... with the sand/salt, etc. If you'd like to keep the car your entire life I'd say that you need a beater to get you around for those sloppy months.

Another way to work toward your goal would be to purchase a custom engine now, maybe a 402, with all forged internals... get the heads that you want, and build a real serious powerplant outside of the car. Swap it in when the time is right, throw on a serious turbo, and make insane power. Think of the car as a long-term project.

Anyway, good luck to you... and drive safe.

 

RW99: I'm glad you forgive me for going to Lincoln, considering it is closest to my house and does have some pretty good looking ladies. And for the record I was born in Nashville and my entire Dad's side lives in West Virginia but Mom insists on being close to her family aswell

I'm taking some of your suggestions into consideration, it may be better to wait ahwhile before turning my baby into an allout beast. And it would be nice to have a custom built engine in her when I do. And I did wreck my first car when I was 15, it was an 91 RS Camaro and I'm much smarter now having rolled it 3 times . I think what I might do is just start off slow, maybe but a few parts here and there. Shoot for about 450HP before I graduate and worry about attaining my true goal when I'm in or out of college. I think 450HP would be pretty easily attainable and much easier to control for now. And I do not drive this car during the winter, I have a pretty nice 98 Silverado that I got last summer when my Grandpa bought a new Silverado SS. My Camaro has 33,253 miles on it so I'm doing pretty good... but I'm gonna be racking on the miles now that summer is in my sight, I'm gonna try and avoid rain as much as I can but you know SD aswell as I do and you never know whats gonna happen.

Anyway I'm gonna think it over and see what I come up with... I do plan on having this car the rest of my life so no rush

 

D1sc :d