Unlike the majority of people on this site, I am damn lucky I was able to get into an LS1 car. I saved my *** off and found one for $6500 and it was a screamin' deal. Unfortunately I blew the trans last year and I JUST was able to get a new one from Six Speeds Inc. after saving up all that time. I've got shitty credit, so everything has to be cash only. This is why I am trying to do everything on a reasonable budget. Last year I did heads/cam/longtubes/fast intake/true duals for under $2K by scrounging for deals, but I know that won't be happening for an engine build, unless I can find a used shortblock for cheap. Since my trans will now be pretty much bulletproof, I plan on assembling a 9" rear this winter and spending next summer saving for an engine. The only thing is, all I see are shortblocks for like $5K plus. That seems crazy when I only paid $6500 for my whole car. I have seen iron block 402 strokers for around $3600, but I'm not really crazy about adding all that weight to the front of my car. If I don't plan on FI or insane amounts of RPM, is there a way I could build a 383 stroker out of my stock block for under $4K? Has anyone done this?

 

You could do a 370cu in for about 4k

 

Yes if you haven't damaged the ls1 block you could do a 383 for less money. Our ls2 403 is only $4750 as well but you could get into a 383 for around $3500 is my guess if we had a good block from you to work with.

 

My block is in perfect shape, just high mileage (150K). I'd love to be able to do a 383 for $3500. My heads and intake setup would support it pretty well, even if they wouldn't be the best for all out power.

 

Its just a matter of shipping and the rotating assembly and some block work of course but if you've got a good block thats half the battle. We dont like to re-use blocks with spun main bearings, in fact we dont use them.
But the internals you have some options on. We like to use Callies crank and rods but can save a customer $250 by using a Scat crank and Eagle rods. We always use Wiseco pistons how ever and arp main studs.

 

I happen to be doing a budget 421 right now. I'm in the same boat-Being a college kid you don't exactly have the funds to build a 454 warhawk twin turbo setup. But I still didn't want to settle for a regular H/C. Here's what I have so far...

LQ9 block-Picked up for free from a buddy (He is getting my ls1 )
Bored .30 over and honed with a torque plate for $250 including the boil
Durabond cam bearings $20 from SD
L92 Heads $800 Another $60 for a porting kit to midly port them in my garage Also picked up on SD
L76 Intake w/rails and injectors $600 Hard to find these days
Fast 90mm Throttle Body $350 on ebay
Heddman Headers $250 Not very hard to find
RPM Crankshaft/Probe Pistons/Hawks Racing Rods with ARP bolts. Very cheap forged assembly for $1500
Mahle Rings Included
LS6 Oil pump which we are going to port ourselves $40 GmDirect
N-Motion Timing Chain $50 SD
Head/Cam kit $290 WS6store (Will not be able to use some parts such as the head gaskets due to 4.0+bore)
GM MLS L92 Head Gaskets $70 for both SD
King Race Bearings Rods/Mains Included in kit
HP tuners $550 Going to be tuning it myself as I live in Egypt (a joke) and I don't trust mail order tunes.
Racetronix premium fuel pump setup $250 Also a nobrainer to find
Re-useing alot of parts from my old LS1 including the oil pan, an all accessory's. He also has alot of spare front and rear covers.
Innovative LC-1 $300
Cam Kit $700ish-Havent purchased yet. I did have a Torquer 2 when I was just going to go with a H/C I have since then sold that and am in the process of looking for a cam better suited to the larger ci and l92 heads.

$6080 for everything excluding drivetrain. Personally I think that's damn good considering some people spend that just in the bottom end alone. Some people will laugh at some of the product names I have said here, but I will laugh when I yield equal power and reliability for less than a third of the cost. Although you often do get what you pay for, sometimes you're just paying for a name...

 

Very interesting. We like to use proven parts not experimental when we build engines for customers, we dont feel a single penny is wasted in our parts selection. With our engines your paying for a professional hi quality build and nothing less. We will save a customer money by going to a Scat crank and Eagle rods but I will not compromise on the piston as I believe my customers deserve better than the cheapest crap I can find to stuff into a block. Our prices are extremely competative and actually under priced for the quality of the block prep and assembly that we do.

 

I those are the ones that are 1 1/2 primaries to 1 5/8. You NEED new headers. The Hooker 1 7/8" are not that high and will do what you need. You are costing yourself at least 30 rwhp with those...

 

Smaller headers have been shown to yield more torque with the heads. If it costs me 10, or even 15 hp to get 20+ ftlb torque I personally think it's a fair trade. Either way I am going to try them out, if they end up choking it I will have to save up for some kooks, or texas speeds new 1 7/8.

Sorry if I ruffled your feathers. Just because I chose to use budget internals does not mean higher priced parts are of less quality. Yes, diamond, wiesco, and others are of better quality. And for the price I hope so. But does that mean they are necessary for every build? Then you might say well dependability is going to be an issue. The kicker is when you get into racing dependability unfortunately takes a back seat to power. When you build a 400+ c.i. stroker you aren't expecting to drive the thing for 200,000 miles. You are going to have to rebuild it, and put more money into it again and again. That's the cost we pay. If you want dependability keep your engine stock. I see too many people obsessed on this forum with whoring out the vendors products. What happened to people experimenting? What happened to people piecing together their own builds? If you have the know-how, and time save yourself thousands of dollars and build it yourself. To me it's more rewarding that way instead of having the same short-block shipped to your house that everyone else on the track has. I suppose I'm just old fashioned

 

The fact is some of the guys on here aren't racing every weekend and actually want this to be the last engine they build and so we approach it that way.

These arent professional race teams and don't tear down every season and even if they were I'm not sure where I see the value in the cheapest part you can find because your going to replace it every season?? How is that saving money?

Anyway good luck with your build but to suggest using quality parts is not smart money spent is semi ludicrous. You actually do get what you pay for in this industry and you've already admitted that. If someone wants the least expensive engine they can find I'm not the person they come to see. I'm not the most expensive either but I feel a customer gets their money's worth with one of our engines and it isn't wasted money.

 

It can be done really cheaply. I ended up having to sell all of this to help fund my car getting back together, but... I bought a 6.0 iron block honed .030 over with all the machine work done, eagle 4 inch crank, and lunati pro mod rods for $1500. I then got a set of used wiseco pistons off of the for sale section for $225 shipped. I ended up having to buy two new ones for $160.

If I had put it together I would have needed rings $120, bearings $200, gaskets $150, Head Studs $250, and main studs $190 to complete the bottom end.

That's a grand total of $2795 for a high quality part 408. You could use some L92 heads pretty cheaply or do like I did and buy a set of All Pros on ebay for $800ish. You can build a whole 408 with some really good heads like All Pros for around $5000.

Unfortunately, for some of us on a major budget that's not even cheap enough. My car will be getting a truck shortblock with my stock heads and a cam.

 

Depends a lot on what you mean by budget. Our base 408 iron block is in my friend Dominic's car & it has made over 1050rwhp! From a budget standpoint it's not crazy hard on the wallet, but it uses quality proven parts to make sure it performs as advertised. You can definately spend more in certain areas, but the standard TSP short-block give you a base for huge power for right around $3400 or so...

Search ls1tech & see what motors people are using. Sometimes it pays to have a builder that actually does LS1 engines & has done a lot of them build your engine. Just because a local machine shop says they can do it doesn't mean it will be right.

With a TSP short-block your buying a proven performer that ships assembled to strict specs determined by years of building & testing these motors.

Besides we typically stock 40+ short-blocks! Chances are I have 8-10 short-blocks here similar to what your looking to build. Who wants to spend nearly $4,000 dollars to wait 6 weeks on a motor?

Lots of engine builders like to play the "it's custom built to your specs" card. In some applications that's important, but a lot of the time that translates to "I can't afford to keep engines in stock."

At Texas Speed we do things a little bit different. When you keep 40 short-blocks in stock you can keep tons of different size engines with different ring, rod & piston options available. The result is you can get your customer the parts they need quickly. Call it motors for people with a touch of A.D.D.