Quote:
Originally Posted by Ericdared
I thought the bottom end was the same on the lt1 and lt4, just the heads,supercharger, and fueling are different?
|
The heads, cam, pistons, rods, crank, compression and fuel system are different.
The biggest thing that limits the LT1 with boost is the tight piston ring gap. And it varies quite a bit from one engine to the next. I have seen reports of .007 to .011 gap which is very tight. Every heard of guys pulling an engine apart and gapping the rings for boost? If you did that on a LT1 it would go a lot further. Almost nobody does because if you are going that far you might as well do drop in pistons and rods.
That being said ethanol fuel is our savior. It's ability to pull heat out of the cylinders allows the LT1 to go a lot further on boost vs pump gas. 700-750whp on E60 is where I would draw the line vs 550whp on pump gas.
So, Yes, the LT4 is stronger, but you can still make good power on a SBE LT1 if you do things the right way. It starts with forgetting about running pump gas.