Khurd94

So I recently picked up a l33 bare block for the trans am. I'm on a decent budget and was wondering how hard I could lean on this little guy with a stock crank, rods and wiesco 3.800 setup. 799 heads, s480, not sure if I'll keep the t56 or go auto yet. Who knows what numbers these take with pretty decent reliability. Car will be on e-85, I have a Holley EFI setup.

Thanks

redtan

iTrader: (5)

It should be pretty stout as you have a good factory crank and rods, forged pistons and thicker liners.

Although I would still put in some basic forged rods in the, even if for the ARP bolts. Those can be had for as little as 3-400 bux which is not much more than the stock rods especially if you do put in ARP bolts on those.

Mercier

iTrader: (15)

Talk to this guy:

(paging JoeNova)

JoeNova

Forged pistons are only needed if you know your tune is going to be bad. The ring lands break from excess heat/detonation, not from power. That's why the methanol guys have been able to make 1200-1400 on the stock pistons and the survive for a few seasons that way. The stock crank is good to about that power level on a turbo setup as well (supercharger puts vertical stress on the snout). Rods start to bend around 1200 hp but won't actually break without detonation. Again, tune must be spot on for them to make it to this power level. Lots of boost and very low timing is the key. Even with the stock ~10:1 compression, I've been able to make mine survive 30+ PSI pulls on pump gas and water/meth.

Upgrading the factory rotating assembly on any of the gen 4 rod aluminum blocks is a crap-shoot. Before you make enough power to break a rod or the crank, you'll probably walk a main cap or lift a head.

So yeah. Right in the 1200 flywheel HP range is where the L33 starts to have issues from power alone.
With detonation, too much timing/heat, too much RPM, etc, things will break much sooner. This is why most recommend not going over ~800-850 wheel on gas. Make a mistake, replace the engine.