A "budget turbo build" has been snowballing and one upgrade leads to another, as always seems to be the case. My short block will probably have 80k on it by the time I install my turbo setup and retire it from daily driver duty.

I have a set of 317 heads I am going to put on, along with an LS6 cam and springs. Then I got to thinking about swapping out the rod bolts if I decide to drop the oil pan to tap for my turbo's oil lines, and I figured if the heads, intake, and cam were going to be off...as well as the oil pan and rod bolts...the majority of the engine's parts will be out of the engine bay.

Then I got to thinking, if I'm going to go that far, would it be easier to just build up a "budget" short block to replace the one in my car and just do an engine swap instead of taking it apart piece by piece while its in the engine bay? If I could do it for a reasonable amount of money, it might just be easier to do that. I can't really say what my "budget" would be for this "budget" short block build, it'll just come to a point where if it starts exceeding a certain price point I'd just say screw it and leave the stocker in there and run with it til it croaks. Being that I can buy a forged, bad *** short block from a builder for around $3k, I would put a "budget" build significantly less than that. Otherwise, what's the point? Might as well just get the forged one right?

What are my options for a "budget" short block build? Get a used LS1 short block, have it bored and oversized better pistons installed, new bearings, crank, etc? Find a 6.0L block at a junkyard and build up off that? I'm sure people build "upgraded" short blocks all the time this way, without going "all out" and doing forged, blue print/balance, etc.

This will be a weekend/fun car that sees the track once in awhile - not often though. I don't need or expect to make 900 horsepower, I'm just looking to make a safe and reliable amount of power for the max my turbo can support (MPT70...so 650/700ish flywheel?) and not having to worry if the next time I punch the throttle if my 80k+ mile short block is going to take a dump.

Am I asking to have my cake and eat it too?

 

I suppose I could just pull my current motor and rebuild its short block with newer/better components - could I get that done for ~ $1000 -1500? (closer to $1000 would be the goal )

 

For a turbo setup I'd a least do a decent h-beam rod and forged piston. Every engine built should be balanced so thats nothing crazy. You could always do a truck 5.3 oversized to a 5.7 then you have an iron block for some added strength. Clean up the stock heads and use dished pistons to take some compression out of it. That would be a somewhat cheap build that could hold a decent amount of power.

 

I have 317 casting heads I'm going to run to lower the compression, I don't think I'd need to go any lower than 9:1ish?

 

No they would work fine. I was going to use them if I turbo my vette in the future. I'd probably do a little touch up porting wise and get the chambers as large as possible to drop my high NA compression.

 

A 6.0 block with forged internals+machining is going to be upwards of 3kish but if you've still got good compression and all that jazz in your stock 80k motor, just keep runnin it and build something big and forged in the meantime. IMHO anyways.

 

Just throw a 5.3 in there and turn up the boost they hold 15psi. And they only cost $500

 

LOL interwebz wisdom..

 

Yes that is only what i have read on every other thread in the fi section. I haven't finished my turbo project to find out for myself

 

This guy. Don't listen to him.