I have a boosted stock internals LT1 that i am looking into rebuilding with forged pistons and rods. My question is, if i were to assemble the engine myself how would i have it balanced? What could i do with my stock crank also? Does anyone sell stock, brand new crankshafts for the LT1? Another question i have is what pistons and rods would you guys recommend? I don't want the top of the line or the bottom of the barrel just a good set of both. I have been looking through summit and jegs but there are sooo many choices that i don't know what i need. I will have the block bored 30 over. Thanks for any help you can give.

 

If you are not stroking the motor than reuse the stock crank. It has been proven to withstand quite a bit of abuse and in stock form is stronger than most budget aftermarket cast cranks. As far as pistons and rods are concerned you need to figure out what compression ration you are shooting for, what heards you are using (specifically combustion chamber cc) and go from there. I have recently had good luck with clayton racing as far as customer service and pricing on pistons and rods (they are a sponsor here and have a website). With the balancing you are going to have to bring your block, crank, rods, pistons, and wrist pins to your machine shop and have them bore and hone the block, weigh piston/rod combos, and adjust the bob weights on the crank accordingly.

 

To have it balanced you have to take the whole rotating assemble to a machine shop and have them do it

 

ah i see i see. I was thinking about dropping the compression ratio to around 9:1 to 9:5 so i could run more boost. I was gonna have my stock heads sent out to elliots portworks and him port the heads with a custom ground cam. I know this is a dumb question but since i will be using the stock heads will that affect what type of pistons i need to lower the compression ratio?

 

Yeah the heads dictate what pistons you need to run talk to Lloyd and he'll tell you everything you need to know

 

if I am not mistaken LE heads usually finish out to a 56-58cc combustion chamber. Deck height, combustion chamber cc, head gasket thickness, and desired compression ratio all need to be taken into consideration before you order pistons. Dynamic compression ratio, as well as quench distance should also come into the equation but you need to decide on a cam and deck height before you can really get into that

 

depending on deck height and the gasket used, a 355 combo with 58cc chamber and 16cc dish will put you around 9.8. a 26cc dish and 56cc chamber will be around 9.0

 

I wonder how much boost i could run safely at 9.8 compression with forged rods and pistons?...