thanks again for the advice. I'm thinking I could buy a 6.0 shortblock pretty cheap and inspect it without having to tear down my motor, pay a machine shop, and so forth. I just don't feel like I can trust a heads/cam/intake/turbo setup on a 100k stock aluminum motor. And having to pay a shop to tear the shortblock apart, inspect it, and assemble it (plus whatever new parts I may need) would be expensive... probably $1000.

 

The sale of both LS1 motors would offset the price of a 364/370 nicely. I wonder if you could even trade your local junkyard even, an LS1 for a 6.0L since the LS1 is worth more to them. With that said however, I still recommend machine work should be in the budget somewhere, even if it takes longer to get it all done. Expect $300-500 for an overbore, hone and block clean/head inspection. You can do much of the ring sizing and short block assembly yourself to save money after finding a good deal on .030" over pistons. Bolt the LS1 accessories onto the truck block, and sell the truck accessories and intake/fuel system to offset the price even more. Any car manifold but the LS1 intake would be a good alternative choice to the truck manifold. Let eBay be your guide.

 

Say hello to my little friend!!!! this is all you need my friend on a forged 346........power at a push of a button, without spending money on an expensive turbo/sc kit, after college and the cars gets paid off i will build a reliable streetable forged ALUMINUM 402 ls2, as long as i hit near over 450rwhp NA I have the juice to make big numbers and low et's while saving weight

 

I don't think I could trust myself with the internal build. I'm going to see if I can find some machine shops around here to see how much they would charge for shortblock assembly/balancing if needed. An idea for this would be buy a 6.0 block and a balanced forged rotating assembly (but with a factory crank) and have a shop put it together. Just curious how much that would cost...

 

lol. thanks for the spray offer but no thanks. nitrous is something I wouldn't be proud of.

 

why not? its a power adder just like turbos and superchargers....and the lsx responds wonderful to it.....and its sooooo cheap and easy compared to other alternatives and it gets RESULTS!, and its not always on like turbos and sc's ,only when u need it...... making ur car more streetable

 

How much work could you do yourself? What is your total budget if you don't mind me asking?
The 370 iron is a great boost engine and is (relatively) inexpensive.
The factory crank is plenty strong for a 500rwhp application. You could freshen up one of your current long-blocks with forged pistons, a nice ring package and ARP rod bolts and easily make 500rwhp with a relatively small blower set-up.
It sounds like you are against spraying, but for the $5-7K invested in a small FI package, you could build a pretty nasty nitrous engine. Just food for thought...

 

again, if I had a million dollars I still wouldn't try nitrous. not going to happen. thanks for the thought though guys. my total budget will be more than 7k. I know building this setup is not going to be cheap and it's going to probably take me at least a year to get there. right now I'm just working on the motor build for preparation. then I'll work on rebuilding my t56 and getting a better clutch. I don't launch the car past 2k rpms so the 10 bolt will be ok for now. my budget for the motor is $4000 to my doorsteps. I'm currently talking with Jon @ TSP about a 408 build. I may end up changing my mind and go with the 370 with them. And I'm seeing a couple of 347 offers from a few members here I'm weighing into consideration. As for rebuilding one of my LS1 shortblocks would probably cost at least $800-$1400, after the lining/honing/inspection/assembly and all the other stuff that may need to be done to run new pistons. And that's without the parts.

 

theres this whole misconception that nitrous is cheating and its the easy way out.....but your goal is to build a fast streetable car within a budget and N20 does that, but people love to spend money and take the hard way, im sure many of the single digit and some of the fastest LSx cars on this forum would agree with me.

 

^ I absolutely agree. many of the sponsor guys build cars for nitrous and run single digits. however I've just never been a fan of nitrous. Guess I don't like "shots."

anyways, I decided to build a 408. but I'm again stuck in that 408 N/A vs 408 turbo question.

 

First you need the 408. Logic says start there, move to a turbo after.

 

Actually there would be a difference. Either do the build NA or FI.

FI requires lower compression and proper piston rings, gaps etc.. This goes for heads as well, high temp valves etc..

They are 2 different animals, now you'll say that you can boost any motor, but how much max boost do you want it to handle.

By going 408 you are waisting 1000$ if you are boosting. Better build a 370 with the right parts, put that 1k$ towards top quality pistons, light rods.
A nitrated stock crank will take watever you throw at it to 1000 hp easily, don't be coned into forged crank unless necessary.

 

I have the feeling you already know my argument against, so as long as we're on the same page candlelit will be fine. I do agree with the 370 idea though; cheaper and just as fun to drive.

 

I still don't know what do do guys. I thought perhaps I could run a forged setup, either 347 or 370, and have it set up where I can easily change the heads & gasket to change the compression if I go N/A first (a little over 10:1 CR) then to FI (under 10:1 CR). I'm beginning to think I don't want to spend over $3000 on a shortblock. so I can have money for cam & heads. I hear I can buy some awesome heads like TFS or AFR's with a cam like G5x3 or MS4 or the VR custom cam and put out over 450+ RWHP on a 347. perhaps I could find a used 347 shortblock and have that done. or use that good 100k LS1 longblock I have sitting around.

 

The sale of the 'spare' LS1 motor will offset the price of the junkyard 6.0L. I'd try to sell both LS1 motors if possible, then go wild on the 6.0L/370 build. Remember it starts as a 364 first, meaning you'll need new .030" over pistons and block work done so shop around for the cheapest complete Vortec 6000 you can find. Miles wont matter on this engine. For example, around my neck of the woods there are complete 6.0L's for $450 with 192k miles on them. Perfect!

 

where can I find a complete 6.0 for that much? are these lq4/lq9 motors and have the 6.0 heads I'm looking for? what all would I need to upgrade on it, besides the internals, if it had 150+k miles on it? will the factory crank in it be fine or should I spend an extra
$900 and put a 4" crank in it?

 

nevermind. I've looked through car-part.com and have found some 01+ 6.0 truck engines with around 70-120k for about $1000. I wish I could just find the bare block and be able to buy each additional upgrade parts so I wouldn't have all that to disassemble & extra weight to move around. or is it best to buy a new 6.0 bare block?

 

If you find an 01+ 6.0L it will have aluminum heads and an iron block. Pre-2001 motors have iron heads, iron blocks. I'm not sure why GM did this, but now we enthusiasts have to look out for them. Any aluminum heads on the 6.0L will flow wonderfully for your motor, especially 317 heads. Stock 6.0L heads will outflow LS1 heads from idle to red line, and even keep up with LS6 heads up until .500 lift, or roughly 5500rpms. What's nice about the truck heads is the larger CC chambers, making it easier to build an 8-9:1 compression motor. The crank and rods will be just fine in this boosted motor provided they're in good shape.

Crank should be:
Magnafluxed
Checked for straightness
Journals ground
Oil holes chamfered
Balanced
Cleaned

Rods should be:
Magnafluxed
Checked for straightness
Oil holes chamfered
Balanced total mass and end-to-end
Bolts replaced with ARP hardware
Cleaned
Pistons pressed on

If the rotating assembly checks out, you'll be set for at least 10psi, probably upwards of 15psi or more. I don't know the exact numerical limitations, ask the guys in the forced induction forums, but don't get suckered into thinking forged is a must with a boosted motor. High revs require forged internals, boost not so much, so if you plan on winding this motor past the stock red line, THEN perhaps consider forged rods and pistons. Inertial loads on the rotating assembly go up with the square of the RPM increase, so consider that at 7200rpm the inertial load will be 144% greater than at 6000rpm.

If you're having trouble finding cheaper motors in the salvage yards, expand your search to a couple hundred miles. I've driven 300 miles just to pick up the right motor, as long as the fuel costs didn't outweigh the price of a more expensive motor closer to me.

 

wow dude your help is awesome! I'm going to remember that post. makes me think about forged again with low boost, since I won't be revving past 5500. That's about where I shift at WOT. I've got a couple of deals I'm optioning right now, one would be a drop in longblock, the other a shortblock, and the last a bare block 6.0

 

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