boostedlt1

iTrader: (2)

*Background*
alright.. well after two years of boosted fun my engine has finally bit the dust. believe it or not the engine actually lasted.. my turbo committed suicide however and put a **** ton of metal in the oil. After about three oil changes i got a majority of the metal and bearing material out. car will barely hold any oil pressure at idle now and the piston rings have always needed to be replaced.

i was originally thinking of buying another motor and building that up so i could swap it right in. but i'm going to try to get another 2-3 weeks out of the engine. i only NEED to drive it 3 days a week. the rest of the time i can borrow my parents cars or hitch rides with other people. so i'm hoping it will last..



*Opinions*

I need to keep the rebuild under $2k or right at $2k. As of now i can't afford to put a new turbo back on unless i can do the rebuild cheap.

I have a reputable machine shop that i take all my stuff to, they're building a 383 for my brothers 260z at the moment. My brother said (according to what theyre charging him) it will be about $5-600 to have them to do all the machine work and get it ready.

i'm looking at one of these rebuild kits (obviously i'll have to wait until i take it to the machine shop to see what sizes i need on everything)

anyone have experience with them? or have opinions? i haven't really been able to find a lot of options for lt1 rebuild kits. also this will supposibly lower my compression half a point to 9.9 which would be nice if i go back to boost. however at the same time i'd like to do the forged pistons, however these keep it at 10.4 and cost more.


cam:

not sure what to go with... would preferably like something that would be good for:

-daily driver
-work for 7-8psi and also be decent for n/a driving til a get another turbo

i've been suggested the cc306. opinions?


springs:

something to work with the recommended cam

rockers:

1.6rr's?


lifters:

no idea?



pushrods:

need to upgrade?




i appreciate any help you guys can give me

merim123

iTrader: (11)

did this thing just blow up after all the tuning you guys were doing? did you end up pushing it too far?

check out clayton on ebay, or contact him directly, he's a sponsor here i think. he has a 383 shortblock on ebay for 2k fully assembled. if you are happy with all the boost, keep it simple buy a shortblock and put all your stuff back on and keep going. don't get yourself into a 5-6k build now especially if you want to save money. freshen up that shortblock/or get a replacement and keep going!

boostedlt1

iTrader: (2)

no, something happened internally to the turbo. the motor itself is fine, other than all the metal that went through it..

i'm driving it na right now. i'll check out that motor tho, thanks for the heads up



i know you guys will kill me...

but do you think i could do an lsx swap for $2k? if i could find a 5.3L for like $600?


edit: nvm, forgot the damn tranny is different. not gonna give up my built tranny for a stock one.

quik95lt1

iTrader: (7)

well rebuilding the lt is a good way to go......personally i'd run the stock crank with a set of forged pistons and maybe some scat H beams........have your machine work done and stay away from that cc306 for a turbo car.

personally id just put somehting small and cheap in it....no need for alot of cam at the power level you want to be at..........grab yourself a set of ls7 lifters for 130$ and toss em in..........doing it all on 2k is gonna be really tough ill tell you straight out.......

going 5.3 would be cheap you should be able to grab a 5.3 for $600 and they will take a beating too........but if you do that you have some wiring to do as well as different motor mounts and exhaust.......

personally id stick with the lt if ur on the budget.......like i said though you can do it for around 2k but under may be difficult.......

what i would do is stop driving the car now though if you have oil pressure issues.......last thing u wanna do right now is spin a bearing and toss a rod......that will double your rebuild price

boostedlt1

iTrader: (2)

so the ls7 lifters just go right into the lt1? i thought they did but i couldn't remmeber, i'll grab a set of those.

i know someone selling some heads with crane 1.6 gold rr's and PAC beehive springs for $250, heads would need to be worked tho, would they be good to pick up just for the rockers and springs?

would i be better off just going with a lt4 hotcam, valver springs and 1.6rr's? i can get some gm lt4 1.6rr's for like $75, valve spring kit for $90, then new cam for like $225. that'd only put me at $390. not sure if it's worth it or if that cam would be good for a turbo. with the stock lt1 cam i still put down 400 to the wheels. not looking for a lot more than that on my dd.

quik95lt1

iTrader: (7)

exactly for a cheap price a hotcam prob is a good choice............but i'd run something a bit stiffer than the lt4 spring espically with 8-10psi of boost.....i got a set of trick flow dual springs brand new in the box ill sell to u cheap let me see if they'll fit on the stock head pocket though

nitrous2fast

iTrader: (2)

If you run 8 lbs of boost with stock valves you have 15.52lbs of pressure coming from the intake onto the valve. that will drop your spring pressure that is used to keep the valve stable and closed. Just a FYI. so lets say your springs are rated at 110# closed that means that its really only 95.5# when running at 8 lbs of boost.

If you were running a 2.02 intake then the pressure across the valve is now 16.16#.

a person running boost needs much more spring pressure just to keep the same spring rate.

opps almost forgot... if you are planning on running boost again run SS piston rings, it will keep the top ring from melting.

LSWHO

iTrader: (1)

We didn't get far enough! All I did was very slightly tweak his afr and lower timing 6' we had a lot of work to do on his tune still.

Adam watch the classifieds for a used cam. With turbo being your goal you dint need a crazy cam. A hot cam or one of the common grinds would easily work to give you a power boost. And with you keeping the boost low it's not going to make or break your build either. Then get some drop in springs and 1.6s. Then rebuild your short block with stock pieces and good pistons. This could keep you under $2k and with the 400whp mark you sould be good to go and pretty safe too.

Ask Robert on az about jareds turbo build. I think he did It the same way you are going. But he got about 200whp more than your goal.

duh

iTrader: (16)

I say stick to the 355 route. stock crank and rods with a set of forged pistons. pistons will run $400-500 max, machine work can be kept to a minimum, since it's really just a cleaning, bore and hone. Get some good bearings since you may only be .010 under on them, then if you want to do a hot cam go ahead. add some decent valve springs on stock heads and 1.6 rockers and then you're done. Car should easily make 400 hp to the tires with the right tune. Keep it conservative and you will break less parts. And you're bottom end will be 100K mile reliable as long as the tune is in the ball park.

Clayton Racing

Your money is best spent on a good set of pistons and rods.

merim123

iTrader: (11)

i forgot about this thread. https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...de-1500-a.html you should be able to do a 5.3 for 2k. the toughest addl cost is all the accessories and the fbody oil pan.

not sure what you do about the trans

boostedlt1

iTrader: (2)

good info to know! thanks man!

by SS piston rings do you mean stainless steel? any recommendation where to get these? i'll look around and see what i can find


so to recap...


i dont have to go crazy on the cam, hotcam will work or another mild cam will work fine, need stiffer springs to compensate for boost, 1.6rr's, good bearings, ss top piston rings (what should i do on the others? does it matter? dont want to cheap out on those), forged pistons (i'll throw down the extra cash for the safety) and possibly forged rods (i'll go look up how much those are gonna run me :/ )

boostedlt1

iTrader: (2)

another question...

i was planning on getting arp rod bolts. should i try to get arp head bolts as well?

nitrous2fast

iTrader: (2)

get the head studs. much better clamping force and equal force as well across the head.

If you are buying a set of forged rods, most of them come with the arp 8740's which is a very good rod bolt and doesn't really need to be upgraded to the 2000 like a lot of people will tell you. my machinist that does circle track cars that run at 8000 rpms nearly all the time only uses 8740's.

as for the SS rings yes by SS i mean stainless. this is really only for the top ring. you should be able to find a set that comes with a SS top ring.

on piston choices.. if you are planning on changing to a forged set you can either get a piston made with 2618 aluminum, which has the ability to flex more and incur much more abuse, or 4032 which has less flex but can withstand tons of power if used properly. Most 4032's can withstand 600-650 hp at ~6500 rpms. 4032's also tend to be a little cheaper than the 2618's. But hell a forged 2618 for a sbc is cheap anyway. but for cost/budget concerns you have a choice. oops forgot the 4032's can be run at much tighter clearances which allow for less piston slap and less initial blow-by.

also something to think about.. most boosted vehicles LOVE tons of exhaust flow. and port work on the intake side of the head is much less critical, meaning that flow is greatly determined by pressure and port shape is less detrimental to performance. also the exhaust side of the heads can be opened up a lot more than with N/A applications. Boosted vehicles head porting is not a totally different than n/a but it is different.

might as well get some main studs while you are at it.

boostedlt1

iTrader: (2)

how much would you guys expect for the a machine shop to get my block ready to be rebuilt?

bore, hone, hot tank, deck, r&r cam bearings and freeze plugs, and whatever else i would need done for a rebuild.

also to do just a valve job on the heads?

i got quoted $1,300 for just the machine work, and i would be assembling the engine. this same shop is doing all the machine work on my brother's engine, complete rebuild and clearancing for a 383 stroker, but they're only charging him $5XX..

where does the $800 price difference come from? i was expecting like 6-700

nitrous2fast

iTrader: (2)

Did you tell the machinist that they are only charging your brother $5XX for something similar?