I recently purchased a car from a member on here with the following mods...
386ci stroker all forged internals
patroit stage 2.5 head
BBK ssi intake
42lb injectors with walboro pump
3500 tci coverter
3.73 gears
and 234/234 112lsa cam
this car apparently just needed a tune.
Well i sent the car out for tuning to a very reputable tuner and he nailed the drivability right off the bat. The engine runs fantastic but it is only making 345 to the wheels!!! Now i know that without tearing the engine completly down and having it blueprinted i can't know for sure that i didn't get screwed on the stroker aspect. But shouldn't just the heads, cam, and intake be worth at least 400?
The gut who is helping me work on the car is a pretty sharp guy when it comes to cars in general but his wheel house is with Ford mod motors. He said that the first step that he can think of is the pull the front cover off and make sure that the cam is installed correctly and check the timing.
Basically the car will not take the timimng that the PCM should be commading.
Would something like the cam being set up for nitrous really take that much horse away? Or should i pursue a different avenue?
I did get reciepts from the pervious owner for the bottom end being put together with the block honing and installing the stroker parts so i think that the lower end is set up properly and like i said the car runs great.
The tuner showed me on the screen at the dyno that the A/F is great across the board.
That is all i can think of as far as info for right now but if you need more to help i can find out.
I just need to know what else to look for.
thanks in advance
Todd

 

That must be a Mustang dyno

I would take it o a Dyojet first and redyno for comparison.

Aother thing I would do is a compression check and a leakdown test to check if motor is sound on the cylinder side.

 

Dyno is definately a Dynojet. Start with a compression check.
thanks

 

Any luck so far?

 

well that depends on what you would call luck haha. i have pulled the intake off and found the map sensor was jb welded to the intake so had to repair that. Then the knock sensors... one was just sitting in the vally cover not screwed in but it wouldn't have made a difference becuse whom ever installed the intake pinched the harness and broke it. So i got that all back together last night and the car does run better but still feels like there is nowhere near the power that it should have. It is going back on the dyno on Sat but i think that i will know the result. I have narrowed it down to the cam.
That is the only part that we have not seen personally yet so i have a good feeling that the guy that sold me the car put a stock cam in during reassembly. So i have talked to comp and they are supposed to spec out a cam for me.

 

dont you think you would notice the difference between a stock cam and a 10* overlap cam

 

yeah i took some **** yesterday too from the guy helping me work on it for saying that it was a stock cam. He says it def has one in it just maybe not the right one for the set up.

 

compression check done
cyl 1 170
cyl 2 180
cyl 3 175
cyl 4 180
cyl 5 180
cyl 6 180
cyl 7 182
cyl 8 180
does this look good for a stroked ls1??

 

update.... tore the motor down. found the "diamond racing pistons' were in fact a brand called "sealed power" i checked the part # on the top of the piston and found out that they are a cast piston (not forged like i was told) and that they are .25mm over sized. Then i brought #1 piston to BDC and measured the distance to the top of the block deck and got a little tiny bit over 3.5 inches. I am pretty sure that the stoke stroke on a ls1 is 3.6xx so i think that i got screwed all the way around.
I am wondering though did i measure to the correct spot becuase i have read before that ls1 have a "negative block" so the piston actully should travel out of the block by a little bit. Is this true? I didn't think of this at the time and i have not been back out to my car to turn the motor over to see if the piston does come out a little.

 

Damn, this is the second story of a bought motor not being what it should have been that I heard this week. Good luck with it!

The pressures look good, very similar to my stock 346 amd within range of each other.

We see this far to often now at the shop. Engines built at home needing to be fixed and done properly, and lately its a bunch of LSX 454's that are having to be re-worked to do what should have been done when the was engine assembled. Never buy an engine from someone that isnt a professional shop. This has gone on for ages, its the easiest thing to do. Build an engine in your garage using the cheapest parts you can find and as long as it turns over by hand you think your good to go. Clearances dont get checked and it doesnt get line honed and the customer has no way of knowing if you have used parts in it or not.

I no way am I trying to rub salt in a wound but you get what you pay for in this business. Being on the builders end now and hearing about the stuff coming into the shop to be repaired is horrifying to think someone spent thier hard earned money and now has to spend even more to get the engine they thought they were getting in the first place. It's not rocket science but it isn't like putting Legos together either and it should be done by someone who has been trained properly ... not the proverbial " I've been building engines since before you were born" We fix those daily.