LT1-LT4 Modifications 1993-97 Gen II Small Block V8

Calculating Compression Ratio

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Old 01-14-2005, 01:05 PM
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Lightbulb Calculating Compression Ratio

Compression ratio is a term that all of us are familiar with, but very few of us really understand. Whether we are milling down stock heads, swapping for some aftermarket ones, changing the stroke, the pistons or just simply using a thinner head gasket, changes to you engine combo have a profound affect your compression ratio and, consequently, on overall performance and drivability. With that in mind, I developed and easy to use formula to calculate compression ratio.

Compression ratio is defined as "the volume of the cylinder at BDC (bottom dead center) divided by the volume of the cylinder at TDC (top dead center).


CR = (Vbdc/Vtdc)

Without getting into too much detail, we can expand this to the following equation:


CR = [{(B/2)^2 * S*Pi}+Vcc+Vp+{(B/2)^2*Pi*(DH+TG)}]
[{(B/2)^2*Pi*(DH+TG)}+Vcc+Vp]

Where:

CR= Compression Ratio
B = Cylinder bore (Stock LT1 = 4.00in)
S = Stroke (Stock LT1 = 3.48in)
Vcc= Combustion Chamber Volume (Stock LT1 = 58cc = 3.539 in3)
Vp= Piston Volume (Stock LT1 = 4.5cc = 0.274606 in3)
DH = Deck Height (Stock LT1 = 0.015 in)
TG = Head Gasket Crush Thickness (Stock LT1 = 0.05 in)
Pi = 3.1415



As long as all other variables remain constant, you can change a single variable (for example larger/smaller combustion chamber size) to determine your new Compression Ratio.

*Convert Cubic Cenimeters (ccs) to Cubic Inches (in^3) using the following formula

in^3 = (CCs/16.387064)

Last edited by enisguy; 01-17-2005 at 10:33 PM.
Old 01-14-2005, 07:43 PM
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Sticky material.

Nice job Jeff!
Old 01-29-2005, 07:44 PM
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acording to this thing i have 19.4 compression

no wonder why math is my worst subject lol

it took me like an hour to figure out too
Old 01-29-2005, 07:51 PM
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Originally Posted by seal
acording to this thing i have 19.4 compression

no wonder why math is my worst subject lol

it took me like an hour to figure out too

Check your numbers again. The formula works
Old 01-30-2005, 11:48 AM
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http://www.ls2.com/forums/showthread...5&pagenumber=1

a 4 page arguement about this subject, they are argueing bout how wrist pin location can make a diff etc, worth a read
Old 01-30-2005, 02:48 PM
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Originally Posted by seal
http://www.ls2.com/forums/showthread...5&pagenumber=1

a 4 page arguement about this subject, they are argueing bout how wrist pin location can make a diff etc, worth a read
I really wish that Quad Cammer guy had examined the formula. The compression height is what I call Deck Height. Its included in the formula.
Old 02-21-2005, 12:05 PM
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That sucks!
This formula says I have 13.5:1 compression,
and to think I want to run boost.
Old 02-22-2005, 06:13 PM
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Originally Posted by BRENTT94Z
That sucks!
This formula says I have 13.5:1 compression,
and to think I want to run boost.
Must be some numbers wrong that were put in. I know this formula works. And I know you don't have that much compression Brentt. Hmm..I am assuming it is the DH number that might be messing things up. PM me your numbers Brentt and I will work on it tommorrow.

Jeff



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