How About a 4.3L V6....

I am seriously considering stroking my car to make her a 4.3L V6. I also want to refit the engine. I am not sure of the price of all of this yet. Why, you may ask, when I can just get a shot of nitrous for $1K to my current set-up and be a beast at the track?

Well, I am not ENTIRELY sure. I think I want to see exactly how much I can get out of the engine without a poweradder or spray. Originally, I was thinking that I could net around 220-230 RWHP before I SC her. But if I refit and stroke, where will I be BEFORE I SC?

I know that it would not be the most cost efficient way, but head work on some other V6s SUPPOSEDLY yields anywhere from 60-90 HP. And that is just head work. On our efficient 4.0s, it may not be that much, but adding .3L to the refitted heads and forged pistons may net that 90 extra HP. IF that is the case, I will be sitting at 300HP before a SC. With a modest 6 psi that has no chance of damaging my newly reinforced engine, is 400 HP a reality? What about 9 psi? Or 12? The engine might be able to take 12, although the driveshaft and axles may be suspect at that HP.

Ladies and gentlemen, those with expertise here, please speak up. I am willing to put down the $ for refitted heads, forged pistons, and a 4.3L V6 IF the gains are right. Adding that to my current set-up plus LT headers, Prochamber, and duals could make my little Jezebel a truly mean machine.

I am just trying to get some other ideas on the table. I at least want to upgrade heads and pistons before adding any kind of major power adder. While researching i ran across the stoker kit. As I founf out today, our cars can be stroked to about 4.4-4.5L. Of course, running an SC might be out of the question due to compression issues. I would then probably stick with nitrous.

Here is the e-mail I sent to Supersix and the response:

The 4.0 crank is not suitable for offset grinding in power adder applications, this means we'd need a custom billet crank, high strength forged rods, and custom forged pistons. We'd shoot for 4.4-4.5L displacement with .060 over bore. The estimated cost of a stroker kit suitable for a power adder would be $3800-$3900 and would include the billet cranks, forged rods, and forged pistons. This crank/rod/piston kit would be capable of well over 500-600 horsepower but of course we really don't know what the upper limit of the block would be. with good preparation, good balancing, the block should tolerate similar power levels.
Tom Yentzer
www.supersixmotorsports.com
478-256-7766

----- Original Message -----
From: rmay3@gmu.edu
To: tyentzer@bellsouth.net
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 11:52 PM
Subject: 4.3L V6


Good Evening,

I posted on the forum as well but wanted to shoot an e-mail out. I want to refit my 4.0 and stroke it to be a 4.3. What do I need? Can I get everything from you? What is the bottom line price for the kit and what will I need? I am assuming cams, heads, pistons, head studs, etc, but what else? Also, will the 4.3L allow me to run a SC? And what kind of HP gains can I expect from upgrading my internals and going to 4.3L? Thank you!

I wrote back and asked what the total dollar price would be for Stage three Superheads and the stroker kit and what were the expected gains of it all.

shooterm1 said:

Why not just up-grade the rods and pistons alone? Forged parts and proper balancing should get you into the high 300hp game.

Click to expand...

Ultimately, I will probably do just that. I just want an open discussion of all of our options. It might be nice to have a stroked 4.5L V6 running a 150 shot of nitrous....

But I wll probably just do some head work and change out the pistons. Then I would feel safe about running 12 psi of boost.

V6 in the 10's...

Poking around on SSM again and was surprised by the following:

They have a 3.8L engine stroked to 4.3L that is running in the 10's with a 125 shot of nitrous. It makes 278 RWHP NA.

If an old 3.8 can get into the 10's, so can we. Yes, it would be expensive, but a 4.0 stroked to 4.4/4.5 at 10.3 CR running a 150 shot of nitrous would be wicked fast. AND driveable daily at around 300 RWHP.

However, that would take a level of commitment I do not think I am ready for.

BUT if someone was willing to shell out $5K for the Stage 3 heads, billet crank, forged rods, and forged pistons, an extra $1,000 for the complete Zex kit, and a couple of grand in labor and tuning, you might be looking at a 10 second pony...

Does anyone have any other ideas for getting into the 10's? or 9's?