Progress Thread HeHateMe gets bent

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C'mon man. That thing was going to be badass. I'll sell my wife's wedding ring & whatever else she has :oops:, to help fund the 4-banger. As long as it keeps you from dropping that effing LS turd into that car.:fuss:
Let me send my Paypal address and send me the money when you sell the ring and I'll stay 2.3. I hope it's a 10 carat or bigger, because it's just ridiculously expensive to try and run a for real 2.3.

I'll lay it out:

2.3 complete except accessory drive $350
BoPort Stage 3 head $999 (Black Friday Sale)
BoPort Stage 3 cam, HLA's, roller followers, and springs installed already on head $699 iirc (again Black Friday Sale)
SBF adapter and 10.5 sfi flywheel $400
Stainless turbo header $400
Crower Sportsman Rods $649 (iirc or $599)
Wiseco Forged pistons $495 (iirc)
Now, I probably could have gotten close to the 450 - 500 hp plateau with stock rods and pistons
Ported upper, lower $325
round tooth adjustable cam gear, crank gear, aux gear $247
Stinger Cam Angle Sensor $279

I have a ton of misc bs that's probably another $500- $1000 but let's not count that. Just in hard performance parts: $4793

4.8 LS $550
SS2 Cam $250
Springs $160
Set of head gaskets $80
Set of head bolts $75
VVT Delete $150
Trunion upgrade (maybe) $129

$1394

So if I sell all my 2.3 stuff, I could have 3.4 4.8 setups. :pop:
 
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That's part of the appeal of the 4.8, that doesn't happen often, even when running stock everything internally.
Power greed, enough boost and poor tuning can blow up most anything. Finding out the limits is why he’s going the cheap route, isn’t it? ;-)
As far as the cool factor, LX1993 is right about when the engine is under the hood. But if all they will see are taillights, does it matter what’s under the hood?
 
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Anyone who needs some Desitin about it, can feel free to sponsor the 2.3. Better yet, buy it and put it in YOUR own car and document it for us all. lo
But none have the balls. It's always cooler to see someone ELSE do it.

When I started the 2.3 idea, it was going to be a JY motor, probably even one with cast pistons and just see how much abuse it could take. 500hp is probably reasonable, but it wouldn't survive a season. It might have a lifespan of 50 passes, probably less with cast pistons. But NA 2.3 are cheap or free from guys doing OMG a V8 swap...(how could they ruin the car like that)

But I don't want to get that good at engine changes.

My AJE motor mounts will be here tomorrow. I am off for Good Friday, and I plan to prime and paint (maybe Sat morning) the engine bay and fender wells, then put the motor mounts on, the K member back in, turn the manifolds around backwards, and test fit it. My brother suggested basically cutting the hole front end off and tying the top of the strut mount to a down tube from the cage....but that's more money and time than I want to spend.

If it looks like a can package the turbo, plumbing, radiator, intercooler, and in there as is, I moving on towards the roll cage, floor pans, and mini tubbing. Find a nice used 4L80, add a brake and manual control and I am down to wiring and plumbing. Probably still next year. Maybe. Also depends on how many cents per dollar I get back on the 2.3 stuff. Anyone who wants to be COOL and put this :poo: in their car...I will make a smoking hot deal. Not holding my breath.

So what will you do the .4, 4.8L set up? Is there room in the trunk for the remaining 1.92L so you can drive home after the 4.8 blows chunks from too much boost? :jester:

Take that money and buy Modelo. The appeal of the LS platform, in my case the 4.8 is that it will easily make stupid amounts of power with stupidly safe tunes. I mean 750hp at say 15-17 lbs of boost and maybe 20 degrees of timing. Throw some E-85 in it and barring some weird mechanical failure, It's almost daily driver reliable at 750hp. FOR LESS THAN $1500. And if I somehow manage to blow it up, there's another at the pick n pull for $500 or less. Who knows, on one with 200k, probably don't even need to gap the rings. Just send it. Who knows why GM engineers felt the need to build a SUV engine with a stock bottom end that will live easily at 1200hp, but God Bless their souls.
 
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Since I will have the cherry picker out...I might even want to see how the 455 Buick sits in there. How about a mechanically methanol injected 455 Buford that's good for 600hp NA. Maybe throw 10 lbs of boost at it. Would find the mythical 1000hp threshold that causes 455 blocks to unzip like SBF at 500hp.
 
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I was off yesterday and my brother is already texting Wed night when am I test fitting the LS. I said, well I'm off Friday so I'll prime the engine bay, but then I realized I still had holes to fill on the heater area. So I ground off the 'nipples' sticking out for the heater hoses and made a backer plate. I used my new hole punch/flanging tool. Punch holes, rotate the head make flanges. I figure that will come in handy for the floor pans and if this beotch is getting a 4L80, it's going to have to have tunnel surgery too.

I probably should have made backup pieces for the larger holes that held the blower motor in, but I just used a copper spoon and filled them in. I used a grinder with a flap disc and an air grinder with an 80 grit 2" disc to get in the tight spots, which is still hard because of the ribs and the raised area the blower motor mounts on. It's not perfect....my grinding technique needs more practice, but the air grinder really helps. My Kobalt compressor barely keeps up with it. I may look for either an empty tank or another cheap FB compressor to hook in series to help out.
I finished the night with (maybe more than 1) ice cold draft Modelo Especial!

Today, I plan to put the K member back in and test fit the engine before I prime it. I figure swinging the engine in by myself I may beat the engine bay up, so I'll wait to prime another day...maybe tomorrow.

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Now a Buick? I had to check if the date was 4-1. That will not be cheap.

Not April Fools. My brother and I have the complete engine apart from our 83 Regal. It is easy 600hp on mechanical methanol injection. It is mostly a joke. I'm building the Falcon with the 4.8 LS and my brother is about to build a garage and he wants to find a Skyhawk, Monza, Vega really cheap and build a light car to stick the Buick in. Back in the day we bought a stroker kit, so he is also checking JY in his area for a 430 or 455 block to machine for the stroker kit and the block girdle. Iirc it's either 498 or 508 cubic engine.

But you are correct the Buick is not cheap. I need to see how I can post a couple of videos my brother recorded off of VHS tapes of the Regal. Not great quality but big early 90's style and swag!
 
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If I would stay under 8lbs of boost, this is probably a race engine! But alas, I will turn the boost up...and up...and up...and maybe one day find the mythical limit of the LS. So the heads will have to come off just to open up the top ring gaps. But I've already check and new head gaskets and bolts are less than $100. I'm not super happy with the quality of the AJE engine mounts. Weld spatter everywhere and the holes look cut out with a torch. It being Easter and all my wife wants brunch. And the place we are going is famous for Jameson Slushes. So I MAY or MAY not swing this over the core support later today!

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Damn I thought LS was perfection...God's hand delivered 4 stroke engine. But the damn thing will NOT install itself. I can't use the stock van chassis manifolds for turbo heads mounted backwards...they hit the frame rails. AND...the indignity...I have to cut out the firewall where the heater core was. YES, where I just spent hours welding it all up. Oh well, good training and it's not perfect anyway. But if you look at the pics, there is an area inset into the engine bay that makes room in the car for the heater core. I need to cut it out and fill it back in and try to figure out how to get it to come back out over by the fender apron. I had a few Jameson slushes today, so no power tools were used in the making of these photos...well other than the impact. I already sold enough 2.3 stuff, to fund buying a 12 point thru the dash S&W cage, and if I have to buy turbo header.s, well, I still have a :poo:load of 2.3 stuff to sell.


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During the past 3 weeks while i’ve had an iron mask on, I’ve occasionally looked in on this thread.
My neck hurts from all of the forehead slapping and head shaking i’ve been doing.

How you went from a full tilt t-4 banger that probably would come apart before it ever saw 500 hp, to this thing boggles the mind.
And......despite the few that have went to LS town here before who have testified to the fact that they aren’t as cheap or as durable as you seem to think they are leaves me wondering what you’re smoking.

Id understand if a turbo wasn’t in the mix. I said that before while you were spending money on trying to make that 4 banger fast past the point of consistency instead of just leaving it all 100hp N/A n sht. Just think of how great it would be to actually take home bracket racing glory, trophies and cash prizes in a car that ran a dead repeatable 20 Oh quarter mile?

An opponent could catch up on world news, have a snack, and run a race all while you stood on the gas pedal as hard as you could trying to get the PBF to the eventual end of the quarter.

But nooooo,....you had to go off and try to milk a pig.

* This is my disclaimer where I show that I’m not being inconsiderate, self serving, and an obnoxious prick...

”But it is your car after all,...so you do you.”

* Now,...where was I???.....Oh yeah, busting your balls....I digress.

So,..in mid step, you decide to stop pissing in the wind and buy a more mainstream power plant to power your bracket bomber, and again,...left to its own power curve, and considering that there is no bottom reference standard when campaigning a bracket car, an LS makes for a perfect 350hp/ 4000 stall/TB/PG/12.00 1/4 mile car..

But noooooo,....you think adding a turbo or two will somehow make for a better combo, and ignoring conventional wisdom think it’ll live with stock hyper-eutectic pistons, and stock powdered metal rods. Anndd..if it breaks,..you’ll just buy another JY sweetie and swap it in.

Even that Sloppy Mechanic dude is replacing stuff internally to keep that junk alive, and it’s more than just a set of head gaskets.

You do know that when sht breaks in a turbo combo, whatever woulda went out an exhaust port now went straight into your chinee turbo. If your lucky, maybe the turbo will spit up an impeller blade or two, and may even make it full circle, and get eaten by a valve.

Dude,..for the sake of all things that make sense, if you’re gonna bracket race it doesn’t it make sense that faster equates to unreliable, and unreliable equates to inconsistent. And for those classes that do run faster, doesn’t it make sense that they aren’t expecting that to happen consistently with a chinee turbo slapped on a 100k mile stocker with a set of backwards facing cast iron exhaust manifolds?

If you’re going to run the LS, than more power to ya,..it’ll be an easy 400reliable HP, and you can leave the ring end gap alone. Just don’t lose focus of the greater good.

.02c
 
Gotta agree with the grinch( mike) , if bracket racing is what you want then keep it simple .A few years back,here in Vegas there was a new vw bettlebug that won every bracket race the whole dam season.He left in drive and just floored it every race.
 
During the past 3 weeks while i’ve had an iron mask on, I’ve occasionally looked in on this thread.
My neck hurts from all of the forehead slapping and head shaking i’ve been doing.

How you went from a full tilt t-4 banger that probably would come apart before it ever saw 500 hp, to this thing boggles the mind.
And......despite the few that have went to LS town here before who have testified to the fact that they aren’t as cheap or as durable as you seem to think they are leaves me wondering what you’re smoking.

Id understand if a turbo wasn’t in the mix. I said that before while you were spending money on trying to make that 4 banger fast past the point of consistency instead of just leaving it all 100hp N/A n sht. Just think of how great it would be to actually take home bracket racing glory, trophies and cash prizes in a car that ran a dead repeatable 20 Oh quarter mile?

An opponent could catch up on world news, have a snack, and run a race all while you stood on the gas pedal as hard as you could trying to get the PBF to the eventual end of the quarter.

But nooooo,....you had to go off and try to milk a pig.

* This is my disclaimer where I show that I’m not being inconsiderate, self serving, and an obnoxious prick...

”But it is your car after all,...so you do you.”

* Now,...where was I???.....Oh yeah, busting your balls....I digress.

So,..in mid step, you decide to stop pissing in the wind and buy a more mainstream power plant to power your bracket bomber, and again,...left to its own power curve, and considering that there is no bottom reference standard when campaigning a bracket car, an LS makes for a perfect 350hp/ 4000 stall/TB/PG/12.00 1/4 mile car..

But noooooo,....you think adding a turbo or two will somehow make for a better combo, and ignoring conventional wisdom think it’ll live with stock hyper-eutectic pistons, and stock powdered metal rods. Anndd..if it breaks,..you’ll just buy another JY sweetie and swap it in.

Even that Sloppy Mechanic dude is replacing stuff internally to keep that junk alive, and it’s more than just a set of head gaskets.

You do know that when sht breaks in a turbo combo, whatever woulda went out an exhaust port now went straight into your chinee turbo. If your lucky, maybe the turbo will spit up an impeller blade or two, and may even make it full circle, and get eaten by a valve.

Dude,..for the sake of all things that make sense, if you’re gonna bracket race it doesn’t it make sense that faster equates to unreliable, and unreliable equates to inconsistent. And for those classes that do run faster, doesn’t it make sense that they aren’t expecting that to happen consistently with a chinee turbo slapped on a 100k mile stocker with a set of backwards facing cast iron exhaust manifolds?

If you’re going to run the LS, than more power to ya,..it’ll be an easy 400reliable HP, and you can leave the ring end gap alone. Just don’t lose focus of the greater good.

.02c
He’s going to do what he wants with the build, so why rain on his enthusiasm?