396 or?
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396 or? I went through the price that it would cost to build a 4 bolt main 396 LT1 with AFR heads and custom cam that revs to 6500 but is still streetable. And honistly after buying a 4 bolt main block and doing all of that work and all the aftermarket parts, im trying to justify it. To me it just would seem that i need to drop an extra 5 grand and get a 572 crate motor and just run that. Its hard to see how spending 6500 dollard on a motor like that for about 500 fwhp is worth it. Maybe im smokin crack i dunno lol. Gimme any ideas on how i could do this better or make it cheaper if u got em.
Originally Posted by 93LT1
I went through the price that it would cost to build a 4 bolt main 396 LT1 with AFR heads and custom cam that revs to 6500 but is still streetable. And honistly after buying a 4 bolt main block and doing all of that work and all the aftermarket parts, im trying to justify it. To me it just would seem that i need to drop an extra 5 grand and get a 572 crate motor and just run that. Its hard to see how spending 6500 dollard on a motor like that for about 500 fwhp is worth it. Maybe im smokin crack i dunno lol. Gimme any ideas on how i could do this better or make it cheaper if u got em.
It cost to play. W/ AFR heads you'll get more than 500fwhp. My 396 put down close to 440rwhp w/ LT1 ported castings.
How soon are you looking to build? I'm parting out my 396 around the beginnng of May. Lunati Race Series crank w/ under 10K miles along w/ Lunati Pro mod rods 5.85" w/ the same mileage.
honestly, anyone could by a crate engine imo, i respect people who work with the cars factory (well kinda factory) motor, and a 396 with those heads should make atleast 550 fwhp, if not more
Originally Posted by SRZ
It cost to play. W/ AFR heads you'll get more than 500fwhp. My 396 put down close to 440rwhp w/ LT1 ported castings.
How soon are you looking to build? I'm parting out my 396 around the beginnng of May. Lunati Race Series crank w/ under 10K miles along w/ Lunati Pro mod rods 5.85" w/ the same mileage.
How soon are you looking to build? I'm parting out my 396 around the beginnng of May. Lunati Race Series crank w/ under 10K miles along w/ Lunati Pro mod rods 5.85" w/ the same mileage.
This is why I will say you are jumping the gun in saying you want AFRs. People are FAR too fast to want to dump the stock castings.
AFR has a better marketting department than engineering anyway what the likes of Advanced Induction, Lloyd Elliot, Lingenfelter etc. manage with STOCK castings impresses me a whole hell of a lot more than the mediocre results people get with AFRs. Seems like the only people who can get AFRs to work well also end up putting a fair amount of work into them after the purchase and still end up barely ahead of the guys who used stock castings if at all.
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Originally Posted by SRZ
It cost to play. W/ AFR heads you'll get more than 500fwhp. My 396 put down close to 440rwhp w/ LT1 ported castings.
How soon are you looking to build? I'm parting out my 396 around the beginnng of May. Lunati Race Series crank w/ under 10K miles along w/ Lunati Pro mod rods 5.85" w/ the same mileage.
How soon are you looking to build? I'm parting out my 396 around the beginnng of May. Lunati Race Series crank w/ under 10K miles along w/ Lunati Pro mod rods 5.85" w/ the same mileage.
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Sorry to say but i understand your point of view on the LTx casting's vs. the AFR's on a 350 based motor.. I.E stock short, rebuilt short w/ 355-370 or so... IMO the stock casting can and will make power on a larger cubed motor.. but... They're is so much more potential locked in the motor w/ a larger head combo.. Yes AFR's are mediocre at best.. Most 23*heads are just that.. If your looking to do somthing big w/ a stock casting.. don't waste your $$ in that large of a bottom end.. just stay in the 355 range put some nice AI/LE's on there w/ a decent cam and make 400-450rwhp.. But your only choking a 396 w/ a ported set of stocker's..
Originally Posted by TAEnvy
Ive always heard really good thinks about AIs ported trickflows. How do you guys thinks these kind aheads would fare on a simialar setup and maybe with a little boost
Originally Posted by 93LT1
I went through the price that it would cost to build a 4 bolt main 396 LT1 with AFR heads and custom cam that revs to 6500 but is still streetable. And honistly after buying a 4 bolt main block and doing all of that work and all the aftermarket parts, im trying to justify it. To me it just would seem that i need to drop an extra 5 grand and get a 572 crate motor and just run that. Its hard to see how spending 6500 dollard on a motor like that for about 500 fwhp is worth it. Maybe im smokin crack i dunno lol. Gimme any ideas on how i could do this better or make it cheaper if u got em.
I'll reply your inquisition, first I like you thought about the same thing, stroker 572 BB....until I got it down in paper what the cost would be 
...yeah not cheap and honestly imo not worth the effort involved in the engine mounted, tranny hooked up, electronics, carb'ing most likely if you do this, header fitup, list goes on, lot of custom work that doesn't come cheap. Back to 500rwhp 396's, it's been done, will continute to be done, being done to mine, & is totally worth it. THE END
....ok now ya'll can go back to your AFR Bashing Concert
Last edited by BRETTINATOR; Mar 20, 2006 at 05:42 PM.
I'm not going to argue which is better but I do feel that there is a purpose for stock castings and a purpose for aftermarket castings. I am running a streetable solid roller 383 with AFR castings (220's) with no additional port work done and an LT4 intake. No fancy headers, just hooker longtubes and a stock pcm with dyno tune and factory MAF. My numbers are in the sig. I will have a single plane from BRE on the car in the next couple weeks and will hopefully have even better numbers. My HP peak was at 6,500rpm. I don't consider my results mediocre.
Originally Posted by Turbo_6
I'm not going to argue which is better but I do feel that there is a purpose for stock castings and a purpose for aftermarket castings. I am running a streetable solid roller 383 with AFR castings (220's) with no additional port work done and an LT4 intake. No fancy headers, just hooker longtubes and a stock pcm with dyno tune and factory MAF. My numbers are in the sig. I will have a single plane from BRE on the car in the next couple weeks and will hopefully have even better numbers. My HP peak was at 6,500rpm. I don't consider my results mediocre.
...anyway 747 yrs old isn't old 
I spoke to both Phil (and his father) at AI as well as Lloyd Elliot about additional portwork before this motor was assembled but elected to stick with what I had which was competition ported AFR 220's with no additional work done. If and when the motor is in need of a rebuild down the road I'd consider some additional work. Lloyd thought that he could get another 20+cfm out of them at mid and high lift numbers and Phil said he'd like to take a look at them and go from there but for right now, I think the car will make that *magical* 500rwhp number with the single plane and some more tuning. (I'm being sarcastic about the magical comment) These numbers are through a 6spd and a 60# steel FW street twin clutch assembly and steel driveshaft (single disk steel FW clutch assemblies are ~38#).
Originally Posted by Turbo_6
I spoke to both Phil (and his father) at AI as well as Lloyd Elliot about additional portwork before this motor was assembled but elected to stick with what I had which was competition ported AFR 220's with no additional work done. If and when the motor is in need of a rebuild down the road I'd consider some additional work. Lloyd thought that he could get another 20+cfm out of them at mid and high lift numbers and Phil said he'd like to take a look at them and go from there but for right now, I think the car will make that *magical* 500rwhp number with the single plane and some more tuning. (I'm being sarcastic about the magical comment) These numbers are through a 6spd and a 60# steel FW street twin clutch assembly and steel driveshaft (single disk steel FW clutch assemblies are ~38#).
Magical is right.. not to many LTx doing that.. N/A which is what i'm trying to accomplish.. Although i'm looking for quite a bit more than 500 through a m6 w/ a twin and a steel flywheel, and a 9" but it put down 309/354 w/ those so 200 hp from heads cam is not that unreasonable.. Larry Meaux Does some nice stuff that's for sure.. But you'll be paying for it.. that's why it's taking me sooo long to get this stuff done.. it's costing ton's of $$$ to do it right.. I should sell it all and start a winston cup team.. Brett wanna drive? Tired of the young punk's in cup.. need some senior citizen's in there..