FlorianGee

iTrader: (1)

Hi guys,

I’ve just recently joined the forum and digged through many threads. Reason is my 2002 CETA I just bought, with a damaged engine. It had 0 compression on cylinder 5. Fortunately the previous owner upgraded to dual springs… Turns out that the valve hit the piston, just look at the pics, luckily no traces of parts on the cylinder walls and the spark plug:

Looking at the pics I don’t think it’s worth to fiddle with the 241 heads anymore but rather use the damage as a good excuse to upgrade the heads. Do you think I could just continue using the piston as it is? The crater which the valve left in the piston is about 1mm deep.

Now I am considering my options. First things first, this is the status quo:
2002 LS1 with T56, stock bottom end, stock 241 heads
Hooker 1 7/8” long tubes, 3” exhaust, hi-flow cats
MS4 cam, LSA111
LS7 lifters, dual springs
TSP 7.425 pushrods
LS6 aluminum flywheel & LS6 clutch
MTI clear lid intake + smooth bellow
48 lb/hr injectors
Walbro 255 pump
Bilstein shocks
SFCs, LCAs
3.73 Eaton diff
Tuned by Carolina Auto Masters

The car will only be used on weekends as a fun cruiser, street racing, no strip. I want to stay n/a so this setup “will be it”, no more upgrading after that. My goal is not to have a high revving race engine, I probably don’t want to go beyond 6500rpm and like the torque from low revs. And I definitely want to replace the MS4 with something more sensible. Something that gives me a broad power band up to 6500 but still gives a noticeable idle.

I have a good opportunity to ****** some nice AFR 205 heads with crane gold rockers and now I’m looking for a matching cam. Any suggestions?

I’d love to hear your input, suggestions and honest feedback! What other mods would you do while being at it?

shadowfirep

I wouldn't reuse that piston for a couple of reasons. First, who knows whether its structural integrity is good and why take the chance. Second, a sharp edge like that will not distribute heat the same way as a normal flat top piston. Third, you're wanting high RPM and high HP so you might want to upgrade the bottom end to support it anyway. As far as additional mods, I would look at better intake options to help the beast breathe better on the front end since the headers are already helping it breathe on the back. They are really pricey, but you can't beat the FAST LSXr 102mm intakes with the big mouth TB.