Motor's out, what does one replace?
 

So, after 6500 miles on my car(about 2500 with the LT4 blower) I blew out my front crank seal. I originally thought it was lack of a catch can that caused this, so I ordered a vengeance LS based front crank seal and a catch can about 5 months ago and went through all the BS of pulling the crank pulley off and adding the catch can to drive about three miles down the road before I had my rear crank seal blow. After some diagnostics, we figured it was a bottom end problem, and obviously, pistons/rings seem to be the problem normally so we figured that's where the issue was and I let the car sit as I didn't want to dump money into it.

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago where I towed it over to my buddy's garage and got to work tearing it down. I had decided that I was going to tear it down, determine if the could be honed or if it needed to be bored and replace the pistons with VR drop in LT-1 pistons without pulling the motor from the car if possible.

With the motor now actually coming out, and a machine shop performing the work (complete disassembly, hone, boil & reassembly) I'm wondering if I should have more work done for either longevity or small performance gains that would be worth it.

My current plan was, add Vengeance LT-1 drop in pistons, kook's headers(1 7/8), ARP main bolts, replace the front/rear crank seal & add the E85 sensor as my tuner wanted to see a 50/50 E85 mix.

I'm starting to look into DoD kits, and notice that those mostly recommend swapping cam. Is it possible to swap cam with a bigger fuel lobe and be able to swing more power out of my LT1 HPFP with a higher fuel lobe? or am I going to run out of fuel?

Also with a full disassembly I'm going to need main bearings, does anyone have any recommendations?

Is there anything else I'm missing? Or that I should consider replacing/upgrading while going through this process?

Are you going to stay with the lt4 blower or step up to a Maggie. You will be somewhat limited with the 1700. I would consider porting the heads while you have it all apart or at least cleaning up the ports. I feel pretty fortunate that I haven't had the front seal issue as some have. I've got over 150 runs on mine and over 130 with the Magnuson Heartbeat. I haven't driven mine much on the street, but I do have about 2000 miles on it since installed plus all the runs.

I would call up Race Proven Motorsports for a cam which will increase the fuel lobe. I would suggest doing rods/pistons and all ARP hardware while you are in there. The flex fuel setup is definitely worthwhile..

Good luck bro, you are setting the foundation for consistent & reliable power for sure.

laynlo15..Come on Buddy, don't discount a Whipple blower..lol
You never recommended a cam.
OP, yes blow by (high crank pressure). If the good seals didn't fix it then yes,
You Have some other issues.

I only had the front seal issue likely because of blow by as I have officially found a ring to be at fault in one of my cylinders. I know other people have had the front-seal issue though, and I'll at least have a catch can with breather this time around.

I do not plan on stepping up to the maggie, when I choose the OEM LT4 blower I was originally looking for a ~600RWHP street car. The closest drag strip is a three hours away assuming little traffic(and when is there not traffic heading through NYC) so my track time will be almost non-existent.

Right now I'm really just looking for a fairly reliable 650-700 wheel without popping a motor in another 2500 miles.

Crate LT4 would do that.

Make sure you update the breather hose from the factory oil separator to the TP intake tube. It need to be 5/8" if you're going to run the boost up. Magnuson will have them on their website soon and if you're using the ADM kit I expect that it will probably fit right on.

I would definitely do a cam, not a monster but something that has at least a 6.5mm fuel lobe lift. Look at the Lingenfelter GT35 or something similar from Livernoise. You can go with the bigger 7.5mm lift, but I do have some concerns with the durability of the HP fuel pump if this is your daily and you plan to have it for long term. The 6.5mm lift is plenty for the little 1740 blower.

Not sure how they size the drop in pistons. When we went to the 416, we ordered a standard kit but the stock LT1 bores measured 0.007" over (WTF?). Bought the car new so I know it was never messed with. We ended up going with 0.010" over pistons and honing it to size. Not sure if this is a common thing, but something you should look out for - have the block checked.

Have fun! Love these engines....hard to believe that I was once a "ford guy"

What did you end up doing? I can give you a set up that would put you right under 700 rwhp safely, that can take a beating lol

Still not 100% put back together, hopefully will be running in the next couple of days. Need one more day of work till she runs.

Instead of doing just drop in pistons with the engine in the car I ended up pulling it.

Had my machine shop do a full disassembly, hone, boil, and reassembly.

The added mods go.

Vengeance drop in pistons,
TSP cam, springs, vvt delete and DOD delete kit, timing chain with ARP head studs
ARP main studs
Some other random misc ARP hardware, LT4 head gaskets
LT4 in tank pump, HPFP and injectors
E85 sensor
Kooks 1 7/8 headers
Jannetty tune this time around.

Ideally greater than 700RWHP should be achievable safely.

Sorry Brett, kinda partial. Sounds like a good build with the right parts. Good luck and hope you get it running pretty quickly.

Sounds like a great build bud, not sure if you’ll hit the 7 mark though. Do you still have the LT4 blower? Running that 1700 will limit you from a flow and heat standpoint, but E85 will certainly help!

OH, no problem, Thread (post) was 2 months old. But nice to see it is going to be a nice build. At least someone is enjoying their car.
I think mine is still in the detached garage, haven't seen it in months.

I agree it'll be somewhat of a challenge, although I am at sea level, so at least I have that going for me. I did originally dyno around 610/622 with just the blower and 2.6 pulley, so hopefully a 90rwhp gain is possible with e85, headers and the cam. I have a smaller pulley sitting next to me but I'm not sure if I'll have the fuel for it.

I feel your pain, this car originally blew ring lands in may of last year. It sat around until November until I started pulling it apart to rebuild. I'm due a drive in this thing. I've got to make up for lost time, it's a 2016 with 6500 miles on it & 2500 of those were round trip to FL.

Sea level is a huge help for sure, most guys out my way are posting 580’s with a Whipple which is larger than your LT4 set up.