Capable of being built? Let's say I found a great deal on a 97 T/A and wanted to build a nice 383 stroker using an Eagle rotating assembly. How strong is the LT1 block? In other words, what hp levels is it capable of holding before going the way of the dodo bird?

 

Mine is rated at 850 HP

 

Very!

 

The block will certainly out-live the Eagle crap

 

Lingenfelter Performance told me that their LT-1 program ended with a little over 800 HP without any problem's. Of course your 2 bolt block will need the 4 bolt splayed main conversion to be able to support that kind HP.

 

I will second that.

 

I had always thought eagle made good stuff? If not them then who do u reccomend then?

 

from what i hear they make great budget stuff but they can never compare to something like callies, or oliver. But if you talk to some people that have actually pushed eagle stuff (stenoide) comes to mind, he was at 800+ hp before he started having problems with eagle stuff.

 

lmao, that just sounds funny (I mean funny haha funny)

I'd worry about the internals before the block
the LT1 block bottom end is classic SBC and we all know a SBC can handle it when done right

so get good bearings and rod bolts
find a quality machine shop
and build away

 

who said I had stock internals??????? LMAO. I wasn't talking about the block...I was talking about my setup...there is a typeo 750 hp

 

IMO the hands down best value out there is the Compstar packages from Callies. They admit that it is select off shore forgings(cranks and rods) but then Callies does the machining in house and match it too Mahle pistons complete rotating assemblies with bearing and all fully balanced go for about $2100. Eagle's balance SUCKS so compare their forged kits at what $1800 and figure a few hundred in balancing and you are at the price of much better parts in the Compstar package.

Eagle is CHEAP and therfore popular, not popular based on quality. Granted their stuff is not weak but the machining is lacking in quality which makes for more cost at the machineshop trying to get clearances right and rebalancing etc..

Howard's has some nice "all american" stuff at reasonable prices too.

 

AAhhh.....$2100 is along the lines I was shooting for. I was more or less concerned about the stock block/main caps being stout enough to handle 500ish rwhp. I'm thinking of going with a Procharger D1-SC setup on a boost friendly 383. I know the old school SBC can handle about 650hp before the block becomes an issue. What about heads? What all is out there for the Gen2 engines?

 

Splay the block to a 4 bolt for a few hundred bucks, get some billet caps, and a good rotating assembly(all forged, well balanced/clearanced), and you will easily stay together up to near 1000 crank HP. Like somebody else said, Eagle assembly will likely be a problem before the block, as long as you step up to a 4 bolt with some strong caps.

 

when did I say you had stock internals?
R.I.F. . . . reading is fundamental

like I said funny haha, not funny as in not believable

my advice (fwiw) about internals was aimed at Gbody as he started the thread
and what good is a 750hp rating? you making 750? if you make 751 will it implode? (I like implosion better, less mess) (sharp bird btw, where are the et/mph? have you sprayed it?)

GBod - the LT1 head market is plenty strong (edelbrock, AFR for example) and several talented porters out there

 

At just 500rwhp hell I think studded 2 bolt would be fine, but while in the machineshop I would say spend the few hundred on splayed 4 bolt.

There are 500+rwhp NA LT1s out there admittedly race cars, just saying 500rwhp is not all that wild a number especially not for a blower.

Look into that Compstar package, ultimately it is what I want to build from. I just believe that the combination of quality and price is hard to touch.

The heads are the single biggest piece of the power puzzle. My personal pick is Advanced Induction, with your moderate goal I think a set of their CNC'd GM castings would do the trick, or maybe their ported Trickflows if you need the bigger chamber.

To give you some perspective here my car makes around 400rwhp through the automatic on a stock unmolested shortblock, never even pulled a bearing cap and it peaking at just 6100rpms. This is with the Advanced Induction 190cc ported GM heads, shortly after I bought they came out with the 200cc package with better springs and is an evolution of the 190cc . Oh well at least companies are still developing stuff. The only way to always have the latest and greatest would be to constantly buy parts and have the car forever down for modification. So I will just have to keep it in mind for if and when I ever build a shortblock .

 

Look at Big Rick's car when it had an LT1, ran 8.0@174 on a filled LT1 Block, the block never broke in that car. So long as it's built right, shouldn't be an issue. Back in the "day," when LT1s were in their prime, there was a ton of guys who daily drove 383/396 LT1s, a lot of NA cars and a lot with power adders making good power. GMHTP put 50K miles on a MTI 396 before they pulled to freshen it and it still looked fine. You wont break the block, from what I have seen a broken or messed up block is a by product of some thing else, like a rod breaking.

 

sorry my bad.... I haven't been able to get a good run out of it. My best was 11.80 @ 117 with a 1.8 60'. Keep breaking that 7.5 and the M/T Drag Radials don't help much. Still not bad for a small off the shelf cam and unported intake with stock compression.

No spray yet

 

any hp number youve ever seen from a lt1 is how far the block can go, theres no aftermarket ones so id say about 1600 hp for the block...its the internals that are weak

 

I do not know the diffrence between a LT-1 and a LT-4 block but I know a buddie had a LT-4 block laying just over 900 HP to the ground, but he had Lunati crank and I think rods to go with the hybread 85 or 88mm turbo @ 15 or so psi of boost on 387.-- cid and never did any harm to the block. the S.O.B. ran 9.26 in the 1/4 mi at like 150 or 160 MPH.

 

that's a pretty good 'bad' run, get that title change, good luck, you've got a lot in there n/a getting that 60' down, on the bottle you're gonna be nasty

as for the LT4 block, it's a 4-bolt main LT1 block (a 'vette block)