[KingLT1]

Originally Posted by Drsagacity

That's hilarious. Did you read what you wrote?

Let me recap.

1. You can do things cheaper.
2. In the long run you want to do all of the "expensive stuff".

You wrote, "I would rather keep the stock motor in tact for now with a little less power, then build a motor when the time comes and do rods, pistons, cam, and stud the mains. Jmo"

In other words, you want to do everything I suggested, but you want to do it in chunks...because you would rather spend the money over time instead of doing it all at one time. We are in agreement.

You do realize:
1. the cheapest labor option is to do it all at once.
2. Your math doesn't account for risk of running the stock engine under boost. When you run the engine with a less optimal setup (no pistons, no cam, no strengthened rods, springs, etc.) there is increased risk that your expense will be much higher than just doing it right to begin with.
3. You don't account for the cheapest path to 850whp...just adding alky to either 93octane or e85. Others have already done this...without running the big bore pump.


In other words, you want to do it your way because it's cheaper up front. Ok. Because I came to the same conclusion, I did everything at one time so that it would be cheaper over the long run.

I believe you took my last post the wrong way. I am not shooting to make 800whp or 700whp. The comment about building a motor was if I ever need to with all intentions of the SBE holding up for a long time which I believe it will on 8psi with E85. Not trying to set the world on fire.

Fwiw my prior posts were not in regards to how you did things, they were directed towards Tjay.. he was looking to make the necessary changes to the fuel system to support the power he wants to make without tearing into the motor. He mentioned that he don't want to go above 650whp. I was theoretically posting solutions and talking about my plan of attack at the same time.

Again, I just want to run low boost and E85. I believe E85 is better for the LT1 due to it's cooler burn rate and resistance to detonation over 93. So If I have to spend a little more money to run it then so be it....It should help the engine live. I was just saying for my goals, I don't need a cam. LPE big bore and LT4 injectors should cover my needs. I wasn't implying a cam was the wrong choice.

If I was going for big power I would do ported heads/cam/pistons/rods/studs and probably just pony up for the full LPE fuel system.

I think your build is solid...wasn't implying otherwise.

[KingLT1]

Originally Posted by oldman

Would seem about right. I would add and this is IMO, cost insensitive since I do my own work. Ported heads and cam will make the 680 WHP as will the (stock cam and LPE big bore) but with less boost. To my mind the least amount of boost with the MOST octane headroom for any HP target is the more robust / dependable setup. It is hard to put a price on this. So while I agree on what you have posted and it has been well thought out and supported over the last 6 months or so on fuel system. I think for me and people like me will always error on the side of robust and dependable. That is why I went to the ported heads and cam route and the IMO more efficient blower with the most headroom (stage II intercooler, D1X). So yes my setup absolutely fails the price / performance equation. but it does follow the minimum boost, max available octane to achieve target HP formula perfectly and is STILL way cheaper than a ZL1. Heck I'm I have the biggest pulley they make for the D1X (slowest turning least boost).... don't need anymore till I get wider rims a 888R tires for the rear.. don't worry I go through a set of rear tires every 5000 miles.. it will be soon... LOL

True but its only going to take 8psi of boost with E85 to make the power I want. ADM did it with a LT4 blower, wouldn't be surprised if the Whipple can get there with less boost. Remember the Whipple makes 585whp on 91 octane with the stock pulley on a stock car. Add just e85 alone will add 60-70whp. I just want to have enough fuel system for that and I am good.

Heads/Cam would come into play if I was trying to go over 700. I would definitely shoot for the most power on motor and use less boost. That is the great thing about e85, it basically allows the same thing. I agree about putting power to the ground. No point in making more until you can use what you got.

[Drsagacity]

Originally Posted by KingLT1

True but its only going to take 8psi of boost with E85 to make the power I want. ADM did it with a LT4 blower, wouldn't be surprised if the Whipple can get there with less boost. Remember the Whipple makes 585whp on 91 octane with the stock pulley on a stock car. Add just e85 alone will add 60-70whp. I just want to have enough fuel system for that and I am good.

Heads/Cam would come into play if I was trying to go over 700. I would definitely shoot for the most power on motor and use less boost. That is the great thing about e85, it basically allows the same thing. I agree about putting power to the ground. No point in making more until you can use what you got.

Sounds right. With my stock pulley running 7psi, we were at 570whp in 5th...meaning 600whp or very close (with an a8). Personally, that was as far as I was willing to push the stock pistons. In fact, I think we actually dialed mine back to 550 or 560whp only to be extra safe since I was gonna have more goodies coming...

Above 600whp, I wanted pistons so that means cam, pistons and fuel all together. I was also doing some appearance mods at the same time...so I did get to save pretty considerably on labor. In fact, doing the work together pretty much meant I got the pistons for free (labor savings offset price for pistons).

Once I added the cam, I was over 700whp on 8psi with straight pump e85. I think that is actually the most reasonable setup because there are no worries about anything from a fuel perspective (e85 or 93)...it is about all you can handle in the street and it is a blast. That is 830hp to the crank...how sick is that?

On 10 psi, it added about 30whp and at 12 psi, it was another 30whp. We know that if we were out for a dyno number, we could have easily added another degree of timing on mine and got 780 or so...but it just isn’t worth it.

The important thing here was, I could go to 12 psi with absolutely no concerns running pump e85. That was gonna be beautiful and I suspect enough to run into the 9’s with a vert.

I got the pulley for 14-15psi, but I had belt slipping...combined with tires spinning as the weather broke...out of time. I think that I will probably just add alky over the winter so that I can use it in my 12 psi setup...not for more power, but for more cooling/safety.

Then I will go ahead and have a track tune where we will run into the 800’s with nothing but swapping a tune.

Whipple cars definitely look good on a dyno.

Looking forward to your results.