advice on the LT1

**markwaterman** · 12-25-2009, 01:23 PM

Hey guys I am going to pull my motor i dont want to over do it on the motor. I am going to bore the block 30 over and mill the heads a little. an advice on the cam, lifters and springs?

**JaycenK** · 12-25-2009, 09:16 PM

If your going to bore it have it check for alignment on the mains, crank and rods checked and polish the crank and have the machine guy size it for main and rod bearings. Piston cc is going to determine a lot. If you’re going with stock heads, crank, and rods, You want a piston, head, and cam setup that fits your usage of the car. This will determine compression. Lots of good cams out there for daily drivers that make good power and retain drivability. If your looking for power you can make 350 to even 400+ at the crank with a good reworked stock head and the right cam and tune. Other than that, you can ask guys in the LT1 section what combo's they have done for emissions, none emissions, supercharged, normally aspirated, or even NOS. All of these factors will have a big impact on the size and types of parts you put in the long block and even into the injection system and plenum. Supporting Boltons will greatly aid the changes you make in the long block on an LT1. Headers, shorts or long, stock cats, high flow cats, cold air intake, throttle body, emissions retainment or elimination, ect. Other parts to keep in mind are the trans and rear. If you make more power you may need to build up those parts or in case of the rear you may want to change to a 12 bolt or 9inch. They don't have to be done all at once but there are weak links that may need to be addressed.
Post back some more info on what you want this car to do as far as street car, track time it will see, power you want to make, if you need to pass emissions, if you drive it daily or a weekend worrier.

**markwaterman** · 12-26-2009, 03:35 AM

its a daily driver and i am looking for no real horsepower i want either 10:1 or 11:1. I was thinking of puting a 400 rank in there and six inch rods. also having the block and pistons matched to each other. it will have long tube headders and a tune as well.does that help much.

**JaycenK** · 12-26-2009, 07:16 AM

stay with a stock crank and rods if your not out for HP. Stock compression is around 10.25 to 1. so you should really stay at that or above. Detonation is not as much of a problem on an LT1 as it is on a gen 1 SBC. Spend the money on the heads and not the rotating parts. stock crank and rods are better than most of the shit you can buy out there. you could run 400+hp to them with no problem. Heads and cam are were the power comes from. You need to find a machinist that can guid you through what needs to be done for the bottom end. Then you need to find a head guy. This may end up being the same guy, IDK. You have to design it on paper before you start going and having work done to anything. come up with a bottom end setup, heads, cam, intake, injectors, TB, and headers. Find part numbers and figure out all the parts you need to put this thing together. Other wise you start having work done and, new parts don't fit, need more work to fit, ect.
Personally if all of you bottom end parts are in good shape I would use them and get a flat top piston with valve releifs, a set of worked stock heads with a custom grind cam, bigger TB, bigger injectors, full roller valve train and a custom dyno tune. Should be able to make 400 rear wheel HP.