I haven't posted up here for awhile so here it goes. Im getting ready to send the car off to paint and body and I have got the old school small block 350 out. I have played around with many, many, many engine ideas on what's going to take the old SBC's place. I've jumped around between a big block or a modern LS motor. Well im going with the an LS motor for my 68 camaro. I do however have a few questions on the reliability of stroker motors. I'm looking for 500 wheel horse power at least. I have looked into it and come up with these ideas.

#1 LS2 408 stroker

#2 LS3 416 stroker

#3 LS3 427 stroker

These are the ideas im with as of now, I know guys can hit 500 at the tires with these with different set ups such as nitrous and forced induction or even all motor. Im looking for an all motor 500 to the wheels, so that could be greatly achieved with the ls3 set ups, but of course theres a higher price tag. One thing I have read is the bigger the stroker you go with these motors the more the piston is exposed on bottom dead center, creating a problem area. Also Ide like to know how much these side walls can be pushed before there's no turning back and the mechanical **** hits the fan. Anything else Im forgetting let me know as well these are only 2 concerns I can come up with off the top of my head. I would like to run a small shot of nitrous ( no more then 150 ) but from past experiences, the bigger the stroker the more susceptible to damage the motor will become once power adders and put into the mix. I would like to get some input, information, and even some horror stories from you guys , what works what doesn't. I know everyone has there preference so give me some feed back and shoot me some ideas. I'll be sticking with fuel injection and a good set of heads and all the goods to make 500 to the wheels. I am trying to keep the weight down on this car so Aluminum is my preference, but Iron blocks hold the power and I'm not against the idea of using a 6.0 iron set up.

 

The piston at BDC thing is a thing of the past with the new longer Darton sleeves. But if you just want a 427ci go with a 4.00 stroke x 4.125 bore and it'll go nowhere near the bottom of the cylinder and you can use a stock LS7 block. Or do a 4.1 stroke with a resleeved LS2 and do a 438ci. L92 heads with an L76 intake and you'll be way over 500 RWHP with a nice idle.

It should last 100,000 miles.

My 427ci uses the older, shorter sleeves in an LS6 block, 7 years old, it has 100,000+ miles now. Still running perfect. So they're reliable as hell.

 

For reliability you cannot beat the GM Performance Parts Crate engines.

While it's cool to have te extra cubic inches and the resulting torque you certainly give up some reliability.

I have found that I can make great power with simple bolt ons and a cam swap. You then retain the OEM reliability. As you know evething is a trade off.

There are too many risks as well as costs involved in re sleeving the OEM blocks. The gain that you see for the price tag doesn't justify the expense.

You can make reach your goals with an LS3 Crate engine. If you add a cam and decent headers it wll reduce the amount of nitrous that you would need.

I had a stock LS3 on the Dyno this weekend. With a set of F Body Hooker 1 3/4" headers and an electric water pump it made 480 horsepower. OK I also used an Abaco Digital Mass Air meter.

With some cam changes that engine made power well over 500 Horsepower.

It's not my story so I can't give up the data. It should be out in several months if all goes well.

Robin

 

Check my sig lq9 daily driver.

 

How much was this set up? toughs are some impressive numbers with an automatic and an unported intake manifold. Thats right on the money as far as what I am looking for.