Quote:
Originally Posted by Shownomercy
The internet is a confusing place.
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Sorry, but I feel the need to give one of my typical long (winded) responses ,,,,
Well understand on a subject like this all you're going to get is opinions and general info. You can certainly "ball park" the parts you think will work. But if your looking for definite part numbers and pricing now, I think you need to take a different approach.
If you are going with a 150 shot you better pick pistons AND rings meant to be used with nitris, make sure you aren't getting a N/A designed piston in the kit!
For your final decision what you really want is to talk with the person that will be doing the machining and assembly, with them you can decide on brand and parts to get.
You're likely to find that builders tend to have preferences and experiences with certain brands and parts: such as Josh or Johnny, I'm more a racer more then a builder, I've just been around the game allot longer then most of the people here.
The builder will be able to give you allot more insight into the parts and why they choose them as they will have far more experience. I've used Callies for years, so I tend to go towards then as opposed to others manufactures.
As an example, sometimes what you think is a "cheaper" priced crank, could end up costing you more if the builder has to spend more time and material balancing it. In this case you could have gone to a slight more expensive (and high quality) part and end up paying about the same proce? But this something the machinist will know.
Likewise, with picking your CR. You really don't want to start looking at pistons/CR until you know how the block specs out. Another reason I don't like kits if you don't have a block ready before hand. This is a really good reason to use a spare block!
When I first talked to my builder, I was thinking 5.85 rods and a certain crank ( forget the model), but after talking with him allot, I went with a higher quality crank, stronger and told was better balanced from the manufactor, so less cost to me to balance. Also his advise was 6.0 for my plan to run high boost. So we had a plan and quote on the parts to get that were designed for the HP I planned. We actually built stronger, so if I ever wanted more I could turn up the boost and still have the bottom end to handle it.
So I sent my block to the builder, and during the machining, to get the block right they had to do more decking then originally planned. With the block near 0 deck, and a .40 bore JE didn't have off-the-shelf piston to yield the CR I needed. I opt'd to go with custom order pistons instead of another block. This also resulted in the piston~to~valve clearance being a bit closer then we targeted so I had to switch to thicker head gaskets; I originally planned on Felpro .39, but needed a bit more which = Commetics gaskets that were over $100 each. The custom piston and gaskets put me over the original price quote as well. So if I bought a kit it might have been worthless?
One last thing, I personally don't care who you choose, I know allot of people think we pimp our sponsors, but there is allot to be said for using a local builder! I used a local machinist for many years on allot of different engines I built. But for my LT1 I went to someone else that wasn't close, but was suppose to be the best! Many magizine articals praised his work and also allot of people on the major boards were using his engines with great success. Well for me, it took way too long to build the engine (almost a full year from the day I shipped the bare block to the day it returned to me completed), and it had bearing failure within 400 miles. On top of which the machinist closed his shop and dropped on the face of the earth.
I won't use a shop I can't drive to every again!