Spoyld029

We have decided to go ahead and completely replace the nearly stock 117,000 mile motor in the Trans Am. We would like something that will put out at least 400hp/400tq through an A4 at the wheels and we are not willing to spend over $8000. We would also like to stay N/A and no nitrous.

Would it be best to keep the engine and rebuild it rather than sell it? A guy has offered $1500 for the motor as is. Should we stay with stock cubes, or go bigger? What about forged internals? Anyone have some suggestions/advice/ideas on the matter? Thanks.

crazboy99

383's usually put down some good numbers...

schmidt69

i have a stock block with heads/cam and rockers, LS6 intake, headers, true dual exhaust and i dynoed 406 RWHP with a th400 which eats more hp than a 4l60e

Starz T/A 17

iTrader: (6)

It would be cheaper to keep the 346 and build it, but if you have the extra $$$ more cubes never hurt

MillaTK

Who is the "we" you speak of? 117k isn't much at all. Drop a nice healthy cam in there along with full bolt ons, and stall the auto. Put in some suspension mods, get a 12 bolt and you are running mid 11's with decent tires.

300bhp/ton

It all depends what you want to do.

I mean you could simply do a h/c/i swap and leave the bottom end as is and see over 400rwhp easy.

If you plan on doing the bottom end then it may simply be easier to buy a new short block, but you'll still want parts of your old engine to complete the build though, unless you buy them knew as well.

When you say 8k is that just for the engine or for supporting mods. Most likely you will need to be looking at a built tranny, espcially if you up the rpms.

Potentiall for the money you are looking at you could go for a 402/408ci short block some decent heads and cam and supporting mods and make 500+rwhp.

But why stay n/a?

A better bet would be a built 346ci based off of your old engine (new pistons, con rods and rings, if you want the bores reground then there's a bit more work). Add some decent LQ9 heads and a good cam and add FI. A D1SC Procharger or single tubro setup and you could easily have 600-700rwhp.

don't forget things like springs, oil pump, head studs, push rods, timing chain, fuel system and so on.

v8hunter

iTrader: (2)

I am in somewhat of the same boat with 115k on my motor...I figure if I put heads & cam on my existing bottom end I'll probably be out 3-4k in it and gain about 100 hp by the time I'm done. The other option is to add another 3-4k to the heads cam setup above and include a new/rebuilt bottom end and gain the same 100 hp as I would have above.

It's a tough call as I'm still undecided whether I'm going to keep my car long term. Also if I keep the car...the heads & cam setup from above likely wouldn't be the same ones I'd want on a stroker so that complicates things even more. You could probably just put a healty cam in your existing setup and be pretty close to the 400/400 you are looking for.

holley505

iTrader: (1)

What about the SLP 402 block.

Good price... you get a long or short block. Nice cam.

use your old heads and have them ported... you will be way under 8K