Two months ago I spun the crank bearings on my 99 LS1 motor due to an oiling issue. I've been dragging my feet a bit on getting the rebuild done. The motor is apart in a friends garage taking up space. Well, almost apart... the balancer is being stubborn...

I AutoX and Road Race the car and I'm not sure what the best path is to mod the motor while it is out of the car. I have a limited budget right now $2-3K at the most. I would like to get the most performance possible out of the motor.

Should I put in forged rods and pistons while it's apart? What cam is best for AutoX and Track events? Change compression? Look for new heads? Maybe just purchase a new short block from Texas Speed, SPDC, etc?

I've looked at doing a 383 stroker motor, for the same price I could purchase a 402 short block. Is it worth doing a 402 short block with all my stock LS1 accessories until I am able to afford new heads, intake, and TB?

The car last dyno'd around 350RWHP w/ the stock motor, LS-6 intake, and JTR headers. I would like to be in the 425-450RWHP & RWTQ range.

Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Anyone???

 

So you want to get a whole new motor for 2-3K?

You may be able to get a short block for about 3K... but thats about it...

Why dont you save up and do it the right way... (new heads, cam, intake, tb)

 

Do you do your own work? If you can do some of the shortblock and have a machine shop set it up you can do a forged piston/stock rod shortblock for $1500 or so. Add some rods to that if you want it's about a $200+ difference since the stock rods need some machine work to accep the floting pins(I think 6L rods have floting pins if you can find some cheap). If you can swing a nice /head cam package now would be the time to do it. Texas speed has some good prices. With the heads and stuff you might go over $3K, but not by a lot. If you need all the little stuff it adds up.

 

Obviously we are talking about 2 different qualities of products...

There is no way I would ever build a shortblock that cost 1500 bucks...

Hell I can't even get decent pistons and a crank for that much!

 

What about a stock crank? $500 forged Mahle pistons are junk I know, much worse than the stock Mahle pistons that were probably suiting him fine.

 

It's hard to give advice to someone that is looking for caviar.... with a pork-n-beans budget


How about trying to wait until you have the necessary funds to do it right

Either way.... good luck

 

Couldn't have said it better my self...

You can buy an ebay quality shortblock... but you will be sorry

 

i heard that the guy was talking if he knew someone in a machine shop...if you knew how the market works, you would know you could get the parts for wholesale prices..