I have a 1998 formula my head gasket went at 157,000 miles. I wanted to pull the motor and replace all weak points. I called sk speed in NY and other shops and they have nothing good to say about the 98 blocks. I have forged rods and pistons for my car already. What I would like to achieve, reliable 5-600rwhp car.
i would like to do stock crank, forged rods and pistons a comp cam with hand ported heads and ls6 intake with arp head bolts (not stud kit incase i need to remove it in the car for ) Melling high pressure oil pump, and double roller cam chain. Eventually after a few hundred miles I would like to put a super charger in. I have a powerdyne xb1a. The gear driven. My problem is I don't have someone to build it, I have read the books and have doubt in myself I can do it. I don't really trust these machine shops to build my long block. For the more experience guys how does that plan sound any suggestions ?

 

Being around shops i hear people getting back engines with no compression, oling issues on freshly build motors etc etc..

 

Opinions? Suggestions? Things to change?

 

There is nothing really wrong with the 98 blocks besides the point that they cannot be honed more than .005. Although I have bad news for you in the sense that you will never get 500-600whp N/A out of a stock cube ls1. With a really nice heads and cam setup you're looking at a reliable 460ish whp car, some people have made 500 but it's very expensive and not often done.

If you're comfortable with around 460 a really nice set of heads like ported afr with a good cam will get the job done and would go nicely with the forged internals. If you really want 500-600 then you need to source a 6.0 block and stroke it to 408 with good heads and cam you will see mid 500's

If you chose to go FI then with the right selection of forged internals on your ls1 block it is achievable the route to go is up to you however. Also as long as you go with a good REPUTABLE las builder you should have known issues. I may catch a lot of **** for this but building a motor is not rocket science. With the right tools and attention to detail many people can do it.

 

I have read the books and do all the basic things. I understand the concept of that motor I just want to do it right the first time and be done with it.