I'm getting started on restoration / Pro touring build of my 69 Camaro, and am pretty certain I'll end up using a Supercharged LT engine. Would like to be in the 800 HP at the crank range for the engine, fun and reliable for lots of driving. Two I've been looking at are the GM wetsump LT4, and the Edelbrock Eforce LT 416 crate engines. Application is primarily street and spirited backroad driving but might end up on a track once or twice. I've digested everything I can find online about the Eforce but can't find anyone who has used one in anything, quite a few examples of the GM LT4 crate engine including 69 Camaros. The power level of the EForce is really attractive to me, but it's hard to spend that kind of coin not hearing anyone who's had experience with it. I'm sure the GM crate could put out more reliably, guessing the rods and blower are the limiters on it. Any thoughts on the Eforce LT 416 crate would be appreciate or other options to consider for that matter.

 

IF the budget allows it and the Eddy branded LT4 motor is loaded with forged internals and LT4 heads, I'd contact Edelbrock and ask them for some literature and dyno graph. Find out if it comes with electronics . I think they will at least offer the ECM/harness with a custom tune. So what type of warranty they offer.

 

The Eddy can be bought a number of ways from longblock to complete (minus drive system) with wiring and controller. It's a 2 year warranty from date of purchase. Of course the devil is in the details on warrantees so I need to call to talk with them, the information online from their webpage seems odd to me so it might not apply to this crate engine. It's all forged internals (manley parts) and Eddy heads with bigger runners and a lumpy cam stock LT4 rockers. It's not cheap by any means, but the power numbers are impressive. To get close those with a GM crate engine you'd probably have to change the blower, cam, maybe some head work, and would want to swap the powdered metal rods for something more substantial as a minimum and then would need to work on the tune obviously. Guessing you would end up at about the same cost or more going that route.

 

In order to have a valid warranty from GM, I THINK you have to have it installed by a shop. I would call a dealer to find out exactly how that works.

I know if I could afford it and justify the cost, I’d toss in a wet sump LT4 with a Holley FEAD. I think that stock would make a lot of people far back in love driving their favorite care. I would also talk to Holley to see when do they think they’ll have the LT4 tuning on their Terminator DI set up.

Running the Holley ECM would be ideal with all of the functions they offer. I do wish they did offer dual oxygen sensors though.

 

Yeah, the written warranty says it has to be installed by a GM dealer or independent service center. I have a hard time seeing anyone doing that for a vintage muscle car, and I can't see a dealer wanting to take that on either. So I guess the GM warranty is kind of worthless.

 

This way they have a way out on warranty claims.

 

I had one. A friend's shop, small shop, did the work and the warranty was in tact. Easy peasy. Pretty much need just their tax ID and tech name.

 

A GM crate motor? Curious how long ago and how you verfied the warranty was good? That might be enough to push me towards an LT5 instead.

 

My apologies, I meant to go back and type more but forgot. I had the E-Force supercharger but the warranty has the same caveats. My friend worked at a shop and truth be told we did all the installation in his garage. We filled the paperwork out with his boss's business info (I got approval and tossed his boss $100 and a case of beer!). The paperwork was sent in and the warranty was a go. I sold it before the warranty ran out.

 

Got it, no problemo - Yeah I'm looking at a crate motor option really though.

The only build I can find with a confidence inspiring warranty that doesn't look like it's intent is to create loopholes is Blueprint Engines on their 800hp supercharged 427 LS, but they don't offer an LT version right now and didn't share when asked any plans to do so in the future. If they had something now I would definitely go with them. When I called to discuss the engine etc they were just over the top helpful, even put me on the line with one of their development team to talk about the build with very little wait time.

Compared to talking with Edelbrock who had a long wait time and transferred me to Tech Support. The tech support person didn't seem that well versed in the engine, more someone to help out with trouble shooting. On the warranty questions he was going to talk with his supervisor, gave him my email and phone number to contact me about the warranty and I never heard back from him. So my net take away from Edelbrock contact is they aren't really going to be of much help if I have problems with the engine. The thing they have going for them is it's probably well designed, and I haven't been able to find anyone saying anything bad about this engine from them, like failures searching the web. Simiarly I haven't found anything about failures from GM crate engines either.

Guess I should call some of the better known custom builders, but what I have seen they aren't really competitive on a cost standpoint to these off the shelf crate engines, they look to be about 30% higher for comparable power output engines which seems hard to justify to me really.

 

Where are you located and what is your budget? I did a custom build, nothing exotic, but all very high quality components.

 

SE Ohio, figured around 20K plus or minus with controller and tune using a TVS 2650 LT4 with 850ish hp and 700ftlbs of torque

 

That's a good build number. For $20k you can build a hell of an engine. That's about how much mine cost to build top to bottom front to back.

I think if I was going FI a simple 6.0 stroker build with a cleaned up LS3 top end, blower cam, and if you're going top mount probably at least 2.3 litre. Should make that crank HP with relative ease and still be streetable.

 

LT5 is very impressive

 

It is impressive. It's just a bit more of a challenge getting into a first Gen Camaro due to the supercharger height and the need for a remote oil sump. Definitely doable and an awesome motor, it's an option for sure. A wet sump LT5 would be really nice but its not a thing, yet anyway that I know of.

 

After looking at a couple builds, I ordered the LT5. It should fit under the hood with some modifications to the underside of the hood. I wanted something a bit more unique and the shorter stroke. 376 vs 427 and VVT should be more efficient.