[95TA - The Beast]

AZ2.0LTG, that is unfortunate.

Honestly, I would have to believe the biggest issue was the E85 and tune.

These combinations were never offered from the factory with E85 (flex fuel) capability, and that is because they knew the non-forged rods and non-forged pistons were the limiting factor.

With the easy HP bump you get with E85 it was just beyond the limit.

Personally I went with a K&N drop in filter for the stock airbox (I did NOT want the turbo noise of an aftermarket CAI) and a ZZP Big Wheel turbo upgrade. I did NOT do the E85 upgrade.

I did a tune through Trifecta and have been VERY happy with it so far. Great bump in power, the turbo is not overly stressed (like a stock one with E85 ends up) which means cooler temps compared to a spun-out stock turbo, thus no aftermarket intercooler is needed. The rest are all "placebo" mods (throttlebody, air intake) outside of the plugs (if you need colder you need colder) and E85 change, as they all can be done via tune without hard parts. The stock setups are also cold air from the factory and a K&N does nicely there (yeah, yeah, if you want the turbo noise you have to go aftermarket, but again I did not). Oh, and the strut tower brace I have no clue if it helps or not. I heard the Alpha platform was much more rigid than the previous generations. My 4th Gen Z28 and Trans-Am both benefit from them, but I need to custom fab those because those cars are aftercooled/supercharged.

The catch cans are only viable in warm climates. I am in Wisconsin, so we get cold here in winter, so with the associated problems of condensation the catch cans are not viable here. If mine was a warm-weather only car I would install them in a heartbeat.

But, back to the original commentary, yes I fully agree. Forged rods and pistons only make sense if you want to go crazy with mods.

Personally if I run into issues I will end up buying a core engine (probably a 2018/2019 vintage as they have improvements my 2014 does not, especially in the PCV system and upper-end oiling) and doing pistons/rods along with a properly balanced rotating assembly (I am still too "old-school" to accept that aftermarket pistons/rods can be put in without any sort of balancing). I mean espcially seeing how these engines have balance shafts to reduce harmonics from the factory, which means you NEED to make sure the rotating assembly is matched to as close to factory specs as possible.

I still have not found a reference to which piston/rod combinations can be setup "as close to stock as possible". I mean you have JE pistons, the ZZP version of JE pistons and CP Forged pistons available. For rods you have ZZP rods, Molnar rods, MAXPEEDING rods (ebay) along with another I can't remember.

If you wanted all-out max power, then go for a zero balanced rotating assembly with flexplate/flywheel and clutch setup and then go with the balance shaft deletes and be done with it. At that point I would also put on a SFI approved racing damper as well as new cams/springs, bigger fuel pump and a bigly turbo for max power output.

Hmm, I wonder if anyone considering doing a twin-turbo setup on these... That way you get the off-the-line immediate power of the small turbo and then bypass that when the big turbo kicks in... A shot of nitrous to get off the line and you would have one hell of a all-purpose setup.