I've just got my car back with a used block with Eagle H-beam rods, Wiseco nitrous pistons, a balanced stock crank and a SLP high-volume oil pump. The cam is a 228/228 575/575 114LSA grind supposedly from ARE. I put in new 918 springs and valve seals and ground the block to accept my LS6 PCV system.

I'm not drag racing, but I do autox and would like to get into road racing as well. Would it be safe to spin this to 7200? With the exception of autox, I rarely took the old block above 6000, even though I had the limiter at 6800.

 

you could easily spin 7000 all day

 

he might be able to even do 7500 no problem...I know people who did 7K all day long for years on a stock bottom end!!

 

Whoah...7500 - I dunno about that! I knew the bottom end was stronger, but I guess part of my concern was valve float at the upper RPMs. Will the valvetrain be stable?

 

The 918's are the weak link in your setup. I would feel safe spinning the bottom end to 7K, but would probably set the limiter at 6800 to make it last.

 

I plan on an Ed Curtis cam this year anyway, and planned on switching to dual springs (921's - I guess(?)). Is that the best route? I want the rev limit to be reliable in the same manner GM chose the stock rev limiter for the stock components. If by switching springs I still can't 'make it last' at a higher RPM, I might as well stick with the 918's and keep the limiter at 6800.

 

First thing you'll need for reliable high RPM use is a nice, sturdy crank balancer bolt.
Next thing to fail will be the GM hydraulic lifters and 918s.

 

I'm waiting for my installer to call me back with a time to visit I've barely had it above 3000 since I picked it up. Nice that the bolt which was shipped 2nd-day took a week to get here, and the guy never called me back with the tracking number as promised. I hope that's not a sign of things to come

 

Good choice on using Ed Curtis. He does excellent work.

As far as how far he can spin his motor, that depends on a lot of things.

Eagle H-beams aren't the best for high rpm use. Nor are the 918s and the stock lifters. If you have good machine work, you should be good to 7000rpm. Otherwise, I would hesitate to go higher than that.

The biggest question is why do you want to spin that high? Does the engine continue to make power?

 

I don't know what the powerband is yet. I was just curious what the reasonable limitations on the materials were.

 

You shouldn't have any need to go much above 6800 with that cam. I'd be very suprised if it needs to even go that high.

BTW...you might give Ed your heads as well.

 

I asked Ed about his heads, and he made it sound like he will only be selling the AFR heads...?

 

I'm not sure, I haven't talked to him about the AFRs.