I am looking to begin building a 408 solid roller motor for my dedicated drag car. Ive built plenty of old sbc engines, but have only barely messed with LS motors. I plan on using a single plane carb intake, and have been looking at the XFI278R113 and XFI286R113 cams. They are 243/248 .653/.648 113lsa and 251/256 .660/.655 113lsa respectively. I've also considered talking to some people to have a custom cam specd.

My biggest decision will be with the heads. I have found results with various head and cam specs, and Im curious to see what the general consensus is. I know I should at least go with a 225cc head, but how much to gain would there be with one of the bigger heads avaiable? Im also not sure what various heads require special parts. What does everyone think?

 

No thoughts, opinions?

 

If you are building a 408 (me too, hyd. cam though) go with the L92/LS3 heads. I have, much like you been building SBC/BBC hi-performance and some racing engines for the past 17 years. I can say that a stock L92 head damn near outflows a rectangular port BBC head on the INTAKE side. The best bang- for-the-buck is the L92 head, in my opinion. Do a little port work and you have a race flowing head that will support and help generate nice horsepower figures. As I am learning, these heads are picky when it comes to camshafts, if you will...Good luck with the build and keep us posted.

 

Call up Allan Futral or any of the sponsors who have been around a while and they can give you a top end that you will be happy with. I think you will learn a lot from one of those guys too. Allan made me completely rethink my intake choice and by the way my car drives I am glad he did!

 

if going solid roller i would stay away from the std L92/LS3 head. How about a set of mast LS3 med bore !!!

 

Curious to know why?

 

weak casting around the rocker arms i'd say.

I have a set on my stock bottom 6.0L. Made 585 on pump gas with a GMPP intake(junk) and a utlra low edelbrock elbow. 242/246 custom grind cam. HYD lifters, I rev it to 7800.

There are a few more tricks to my little 6.0L to make it rev and make power, but nothing a good engine builder shouldn't know.

I have a set of all pro hurricane's on my bracket motor. It made 7xx with a single plane super victor and no vacuum pump. its a 418 6.0L iron block also.

If your wanting solid roller, with shaft mount rockers, I'd go with some aftermarket casting....

 

Thats kind of the conclusion I am coming to. If I want to go solid roller and spin on into the 7000s, I should just get one of the aftermarket heads. I may need to stay with a hyd. cam and some ported stock castings after I pay for the bottom end. It will still be way more hp than my old 350 ever thought about lol.

 

You can make some nice power with a HR 408. You are right spending the money on the bottom end. Good choice. Are you using a LQ4/9 block?

 

I wish I could have went with All Pros for my solid roller 408 setup, which I'm in the middle of now. I bought a set of TF 235's milled down to 58cc's. I'll be using a Super Vic intake as well as a 274/285 .748/.748 113 LSA cam. I have my 408 up for sale, so if that sells I'll put my solid setup on a LSX 440.

 

Yah I was planning on getting ahold of a 6.0 engine, slapping on the carb top end, and saddling it in my 80 Camaro. I saw a CHP article that looked very similar to what I was thinking about, but with a Super Vic and a bigger cam.

402 LS2