Where does one go from here? (Sorry kind of long)

Hey all,

I haven't posted much lately, been busy starting my own business, as well, dare I say it, my current project is a CHEBBIE!!! Yikes! I have taken the year off, for these reasons, as well as, I hate to say it, but I am bored with my car. I will sell my house before I will ever sell the Aspen, I have heard too many people talk about the car they should have never sold. I have owned the Aspen since my 15th birthday, when my parents bought it for me for the handsome sum of $200. (That's Canadian dollars, so like $80 USD LOL)



Taking the year off, and attending the events locally that have caught my interest the most, no prep events. Now, I have been an all motor guy with my car from day one, have even said it will never have a power adder on it. (Never say never) But my mid 10 second w2 pump gas street car just don't cut it no more! If I start attending the events that interest me with my car, a small tire all motor car, I will be blowing the tires off off the hit, and I don't have near the power needed to get the car down the track that everyone seems to be running. Further more, if I were to run with my original plan, and do a high winding big cube small block with W9 heads and lighten everything up, the car is going to go what? 9.20's on a good day? That is a tall order in my books, and it STILL isn't enough to run what I want to run, AND I still am lacking the ability to seriously power manage the combo like a nitrous, turbo, or Procharger deal.

I have thought, let's go the nitrous route, a few of my local buddies are doing well with relatively simple, on point, nitrous tune ups. The current guy that no one can get around on the street (oops I mean no prep events) is a nitrous deal. My platform is a 48 degree tall deck R3 big bore deal (4.185"). I have a lot of money into just the block before assembly. They are as most know, discontinued. What happens if my tune is off? Or a noid sticks open? What if the the thing chucks a rod? my combo is DONE. I would need to go to a modern hemi build or a big block deal, which big block race blocks are just as hard to find, BASICALLY start over completely. I have a lot of small block stuff to work with already, and probably the most desirable R3 block to work with. I really like the idea of nitrous, just not a huge fan of the chance of chucking a rod more so than other power adder options. However, nitrous has made some pretty impressive advances, not only in the power end of things over the years, but the management and dependability.

SO, on the other hand, what about a turbo deal? Like I said, my current project is a CHEBBIE, and it has been a ton of fun, its a bit of a different approach, especially for this all motor mopar guy, it is a 2001 Silverado and was an 80mm Borg Warner turbo deal on the stock 5.3L. Unfortunetly, had some oiling issues (I think it sucked air past the recalled o ring on the oil pick up tube) BUT, wit that 80mm on the basically stock 5.3L on 12psi felt like it pulled as hard as my car! The truck is 4500lbs! I am building a cnc headed 408ci for it right now, it is a TH400 deal with a brake and what not. Hoping to run it into the 9's somewhere and cruise it around with AC and power everything still. Again, not fast enough for the no prep stuff around here. BUT, I am leaning toward building a single turbo deal on the car, de-stroking it down to maybe a 4" crank, and run it in the 440ci area. It would be a fairly mild mannered street car I would imagine, with the capability to whip it pretty hard if need be, and put down some serious passes once again. I would probably go to the W9 stuff still as I have half the stuff laying around collecting dust.







Regardless, I would need to do it over time, as like I said, I am in the first year of business for myself, and the business is a sign shop, not going to be making fist full of cash off stickers LOL. For now, most of the money is spent to put the truck together, so that could keep me busy learning that better, and I can make the mistakes on the LS engine which is cheaper to fix, and the parts are always close by.

SO, sorry for such a long post, but this is what I have been thinking over the past year. I would love to hear what everyone's thoughts are, maybe some of you are in the same boat?

-Kenny

Well, I tuned you out right there. Sorry...

Big blocks aren't hard to find. You can probably have an Indy block on your doorstep in a week or two (go through a dealer, not Indy direct) and a KB in about a year if you order one now.
With the small block parts availability issue, I'd sell your sb stuff and go big block. Nothing against small blocks, it's just the issue of the parts not being there.
The new hemi stuff is nice, but there's still a parts/block availability issue w/ them too.

As far as a poweradder, all 3 (nitrous, turbo, or supercharged) will make stupid power. I like nitrous personally.

I like your current project. I used to have a '00 RCSB 2wd Silverado, 5.3 w/ a custom cam, all the boltons, nitrous, built 4L60E (junk) that I grenaded twice, custom converter, etc. I had a LOT of fun driving that back and forth to work for several years. I put a lot of bottles through that motor and never had any trouble w/ it. Wish I'd kept it.

I would run 2 67mm snails on the SB. Get an intake welded up for injectors and call Holley.

Spray what you have.

And gear it to trap another 20mph than it does now....

Power is power, the motor doesn't know the diff if the power is N/A, nitrous, blown, turbo, whatever. You tune any of them correctly, they run fast. You tune any of then incorrectly, they break parts, period, end of story. Guys that think they simply bolt turbos on, make tons of power, go fast and never break anything are in for a rude awakening.

Now which is the best, mostly depends on what you want to do. Will turbos or a pro-charger, make more power per inch than nitrous, yes it will.......BUT, most race orgs will tag the boosted combos with more weight than nitrous cars for that very reason.

Even at "no prep" or "street" races, you run enough cars down the road, with guys doing long, "pimp juice" burnouts, the road WILL get good early. This means that the road becomes favorable to nitrous combos, as they are always about make all you can, as soon as you can. Boosted combos are the opposite........as out a ways, where you really need it to make some steam and drive around the nitrous cars, the road likely won't hold it.

Thanks for chiming in Monte, and I agree with you the tune has to be spot on or any of them can make a mess on the road. I DO currently have a busted turbo truck LOL. It wasn't a tune issue, but still, everything has a lifespan which not many of us can zero in on. LOL.

I have seen what you mean with the road coming around quickly in the front half. No Prep events are nail bitters first round even just watching LOL.

-Kenny

Thanks for the input 72Swinger, I think I am sold on a single larger unit if I was to go turbo route.(The truck may go twin 80's) At smallest I would probably run a 94mm turbine with an 80mm inducer wheel. biggest would probably be 91mm inducer with the same exhaust side.

-Kenny

Yeah, it is hard not to be a fan of these trucks, SUPER easy to work with.

-Kenny

All stock ford and chevy"s can handle tons of nos stock. Put a nos 500 hp system {at least} and have fun!!!!

The turbo stuff can be pretty forgiving on parts as long as you don’t detonate it/get greedy with the tuneup.

My stock block/cast crank 800+hp 360 is proof of that.

If I had a R3 block, mine would make over 1000hp as fast as I could type the new boost numbers into the controller.

Regardless of which power adder you chose… You have a bunch of good parts. We’re not talking about rare hemi parts here that should be in a museum. Use what you have, keep the tune safe, and let it rip!

ahem....mostly stock LQ4, S475/83, Isky 218/218/112, glide, yank 3400....
Stock48's low 8's, 3400lb, DragWeek 2014 SRSBPA winning setup.

I totally agree they aren't rare, just not easily replaceable if busted... If that makes sense haha. They are parts meant to make some good power.



True, I will leave the LSx stuff for my Silverado though. P.S. That 1967 Valiant I bought off you years ago is caged, and getting a W8 468ci deal in it we are building! Should be another sweet street car on the Canadian streets.

-Kenny

But rest assured if you break an R3 block, you are well past the threshold of breaking whatever other block you could pick.

Isn't that backwards thinking?

You have one of the strongest blocks you can buy, but you don't want to use it because it's hard to replace if you break it?

So you're thinking of using a weaker block (which is more likely to break), just so it's easier to replace?

If you look at it the other way, you should be using a stock 318 short block for this since they are the cheapest most readily available short block you can find. That way when you blow it up, you can replace it easily.

Obviously that doesn't make sense because the likelihood of a stock 318 short block holding 1000hp is pretty low.

Don't over think it. If you have good parts... use them.

dizuster, I think we might be misunderstanding each other a little bit. I have no plans really of changing my platform. And yes, my plan is to shoot for a ton of power out of the combo. Where I am worried, is which route of power adder should I go with to have the least chance of breaking the block, not because of power, but because I made a mistake, and chucked a rod through a block I can't replace easily.

I am leaning toward doing the turbo route, because I have some experience with it, as well as there are some great turbo guys in our local community to work with. There are some great guys running nitrous successfully as well, however it seems the turbo stuff is a little more forgiving when building the tune. I think if there was a poll taken between turbo guys and nitrous guys to see who has grenaded the most parts/engines, there would be more nitrous guys with their hand up. Atleast locally, (can't think of any nitrous guys locally that haven't blown up an engine bad while sorting out how to tune their systems)

So, I am not trying to preserve my R3 block so that it will never break, but sort out my best chance at making big power, and good passes, with minimal "knowledge bumps" along the way. If the thing goes BANG! I then would have to look into changing platforms, which likely would leave me in a position with a weaker block.

-Kenny

I am excited to see what you do because many people have yet to push those blocks to their potential IMO. Those things should take 1500hp easily I would think.

I hear ya. I wouldn't expect to see anything earth shattering out of my car soon. The truck needs to be bolted back together, which is close, and then move forward with the car. All while running my new business LOL. SOOOOO.. 2025 should just about be right! My R3 deal will be the equivalent age to an X block of today? LOL. Who knows, if business keeps steadily growing that might change.

-Kenny