You gotta love those aluminum blocks!

 

i'd take the L92, stroke it, and spin it just as high...

 

414 budget stroker...go figure

 

you can keep going to a 4.125 stroke, and run a 427/428....
yea, a bigger bore would be better, but i still havent found a good reason to not put the biggest easily available stroke in there.

 

383 for me but it was really proximity of the shop that swayed that decision along with their reputation. If I was going to get real crazy, I probably would have gone iron instead of aluminum.

 

if ur gonna go iron u might as well go .060 over and get 414 ci with a 4 in crank
its not like its gonna get hurt anyway and u can use the l92 heads

 

keep in mind the iron bock adds weight
Rob

 

I'd go iron block and boost the hell out of the mother. But that's just me.

 

build an alum motor, boost/spray it just as hard and have no problems.. and save 100 lbs off the nose. You knwo hoe much more power it takes to push the extra 100 lbs? Enough... and you won't make an ounce more power with an iron block then you will with the alum.

I have yet to see an alum block fail because too much power was being made. Sure, if you break a rod or whatever... but if that happens in teh iron block, you're just as fucked. Oh, and the price differnence beetween a 408 iron and a 402 alum, is 500 bucks. Figure out what you'll need to buy for LW parts to remove 100 lbs off the nose, ( assuming you have all the free removable stuff done, and now have to spend $ to get lighter ) and I promise, it's gonna cost you alot more then 500 bucks to pull 100 lbs off the nose. Hell, a k member is that alone, ad so are the lower a arms, and the LW brakes, are anywhere between 600 and 900, depending on which you go with, and all 3 are needed to remove 100 lbs from the nose.



Iron block guys won't agree... but this is the facts.

Personally, I was gona build an iron block setup, but changed my mind due to the weight, and am not gonna rebuild my alum setup.

 

What is needed to make an LS2 block work when replacing it from an LS1?

 

The iron blocks are much better as far as everything except weight and we have to work on both but the iron block's cylinders are always much nicer. A .001 hone will usually clean up a 4.030 bore engine that's been put through hell. The aluminum block's cylinders move around and you can see the results when you first run the hone through one. Also I don't think the aluminum block is 100 pounds lighter! You also have the problem with all aluminum blocks of the blocks expanding more than the caps and the crank and the lifters etc. when hot. This causes lower oil pressure and more windage and more cap walk. The iron blocks don't have those problems.

I will have a freight scale in another week or so and I will try and weigh them both for real for you guys.

 

Erik,
All the points you make are valid ones from what everyone has told me, yourself included, but for the goals that I have and the power I plan to make, the reduced weight will be more of an advantage then the iron block stability.... when you're only trying to make 500 rw on motor and about 650 give or take on the gas, I don't think I'm pushing the alum block to a point where the block strenth is going ot be an issue.

 

If you need the weight off I don't have any problem with the aluminum blocks it's just that it is not better in any other way than that though.

 

With what I'm trying to get my car to run and the kind of power I want to make ( so it is still streetable, I could go bigger in the HP dept. but the sacrifice of what streetability is left isn't something I want to do ) removing the 100 lbs is going to be a large step in the right direction.

 

Erik, it seems that in sbc the aluminum blocks really do have issues and move around causing not quite as good seal in the ring/bore interface from what i've read. I'd imagine this is an issue as well with the stock sleeve found in the ls1, ls2, and ls7 also. Question though, is this still an issue with the wet sleeves, they seem to be more stable judging by an article in engine masters on a 427 wet sleeve motor that Steve did which saw some of the lowest blow by figures ever seen when measured (all according to that article ofcourse)?

 

I considered several different stroker options including a 382, iron 408, and LS2 402. In the end I went with the iron 408.

 

the aluminum blocks are plenty strong for even high boost applications...its the 900+ HP wild setups that really require the iron. but if you dont care about the extra weight, go iron.

for those of us who already have nose-heavy cars, the extra 100lbs of the iron block just is not the best option.

 

The DArton sleeves are very thick and seal up very good!

 

So, the iron block would be about 100 lbs more. As far as track times go, that 100 lbs would add .1 to your time? or more? Would it effect weight transfer a whole lot?

 

aluminum block because it weighs less