1800hp Twin Turbo 455 LSX

[Bent6]

just outta curiosity Will why did you opt for NRE over someone else? they seem to charge double what others charge. do u feel their motor builds are the best out there? they sure do look purdy tho

Double - really? Based on that comment I would be willing to guess you've never built or priced out the cost to build a high end race engine. I know there are a lot of "crate engines" listed on NREs website but this ain't one of them. I'm not going to say anyone is the "best" but here is why I went with Nelson over the others.

While still in the planning stages, I spoke with several of the best LS builders in the country including LME, Virginia Speed, etc, etc. When you spec out the same combo with each builder they are all very comparable. I bet you've never considered the fact that most of Nelson's setups include custom fabbed headers, turbos, wastegates, intercoolers, injectors, fuel management, ignition, fuel pumps, as well as dyno pulls to sort it all out. When you factor all that in you are looking at NRE actually being less in some cases if you were to compare apples to apples as most shops leave all the fab and tuning stuff up to the end user. Tom is a real knowledgeable builder without the big ego that some others have. The thing I like most about Tom is the fact he was willing to answer all my questions as well as listen to my experience with turbo engines and racing and implementing some of my ideas on this combination - in his words "we learned from each other". Another thing with Nelson is the lengths he goes to make it not only run good but look good at the same time. The craftsmanship and attention to detail can't be appreciated unless you see it in person. He knew the caliber of car I was building and the intended use of it - a real STREET car that can kick ass on the track. I told him up front that I plan to beat the living crap out of it. Anyone can hang a tag on a race car that won't idle, loads up and leaks like the titanic and call it a "street" car. Mine should be the REAL deal thanks a lot in part to NRE.

 

[Bent6]

btw...what type of fuel delivery are you going to run on this setup?

Electromotive TEC3r with dual injectors per cylinder. It's a staged sequential setup meaning it runs on one row of smaller injectors and brings in the second row of larger injectors as the boost/fuel demand rises. There will be two separate fuel systems so it can be operated with pump gas in the primary system and race fuel in the staged system for what's essentially "octane on demand".

Love it. That's great. Is there a LS event in BG this year?

We were referring to the Buick BG event but there is the Holley LS Fest in September I believe.

 

[2toneNV]

Will, I envy you more than words can say! BTW, the gauge panel you built for me has yet to be put into the Buick, but it is a great looking piece and I hope the tagged wires help out with the install....Whenever that happens.

Double - really? Based on that comment I would be willing to guess you've never built or priced out the cost to build a high end race engine. I know there are a lot of "crate engines" listed on NREs website but this ain't one of them. I'm not going to say anyone is the "best" but here is why I went with Nelson over the others.

While still in the planning stages, I spoke with several of the best LS builders in the country including LME, Virginia Speed, etc, etc. When you spec out the same combo with each builder they are all very comparable. I bet you've never considered the fact that most of Nelson's setups include custom fabbed headers, turbos, wastegates, intercoolers, injectors, fuel management, ignition, fuel pumps, as well as dyno pulls to sort it all out. When you factor all that in you are looking at NRE actually being less in some cases if you were to compare apples to apples as most shops leave all the fab and tuning stuff up to the end user. Tom is a real knowledgeable builder without the big ego that some others have. The thing I like most about Tom is the fact he was willing to answer all my questions as well as listen to my experience with turbo engines and racing and implementing some of my ideas on this combination - in his words "we learned from each other". Another thing with Nelson is the lengths he goes to make it not only run good but look good at the same time. The craftsmanship and attention to detail can't be appreciated unless you see it in person. He knew the caliber of car I was building and the intended use of it - a real STREET car that can kick ass on the track. I told him up front that I plan to beat the living crap out of it. Anyone can hang a tag on a race car that won't idle, loads up and leaks like the titanic and call it a "street" car. Mine should be the REAL deal thanks a lot in part to NRE.

 

[Phoneguy]

Thanks for the kind words. No BG this year. Still lots of fab work to do. I don't know that it will ever be at BG unless some things change cause as it sits now I would just be chastised and treated like some kind of second rate citizen due to the LS engine. Not worth it just to make "exhibition" passes. They need to wake up before the whole event goes south - too many purists and VIN sniffers.

Understood. As far as the purist thing goes, just tell them you are a purest as well, you built it purely for your enjoyment. :biggrin:

My street car doesn't fit into any of the classes except TAI due to the turbo being too big (compressor size and cover size) so I am left out of THS and TSR unless I wanted to put some street radials on. I built it as a street car with AC not a class racing car.

Good luck with the car! Please shoot some video when you get to the track with it, I am sure we all want to see this.

Bryan

 

[SGRIM]

Double - really? Based on that comment I would be willing to guess you've never built or priced out the cost to build a high end race engine. I know there are a lot of "crate engines" listed on NREs website but this ain't one of them. I'm not going to say anyone is the "best" but here is why I went with Nelson over the others.

While still in the planning stages, I spoke with several of the best LS builders in the country including LME, Virginia Speed, etc, etc. When you spec out the same combo with each builder they are all very comparable. I bet you've never considered the fact that most of Nelson's setups include custom fabbed headers, turbos, wastegates, intercoolers, injectors, fuel management, ignition, fuel pumps, as well as dyno pulls to sort it all out. When you factor all that in you are looking at NRE actually being less in some cases if you were to compare apples to apples as most shops leave all the fab and tuning stuff up to the end user. Tom is a real knowledgeable builder without the big ego that some others have. The thing I like most about Tom is the fact he was willing to answer all my questions as well as listen to my experience with turbo engines and racing and implementing some of my ideas on this combination - in his words "we learned from each other". Another thing with Nelson is the lengths he goes to make it not only run good but look good at the same time. The craftsmanship and attention to detail can't be appreciated unless you see it in person. He knew the caliber of car I was building and the intended use of it - a real STREET car that can kick ass on the track. I told him up front that I plan to beat the living crap out of it. Anyone can hang a tag on a race car that won't idle, loads up and leaks like the titanic and call it a "street" car. Mine should be the REAL deal thanks a lot in part to NRE.

I just looked at site. I looked at the 6.0 twin turbo street deal. I have more than that in a 109 longblock Stupid, I know, I live and learn Paid for a lot of R&D that turned out a waste...

You can't beat price for the power with all the stuff... Pretty good deal IMO!

If you are going to play with the bigdogs, you have to get off the porch

 

[GNBRETT]

Double - really? Based on that comment I would be willing to guess you've never built or priced out the cost to build a high end race engine. I know there are a lot of "crate engines" listed on NREs website but this ain't one of them. I'm not going to say anyone is the "best" but here is why I went with Nelson over the others.

While still in the planning stages, I spoke with several of the best LS builders in the country including LME, Virginia Speed, etc, etc. When you spec out the same combo with each builder they are all very comparable. I bet you've never considered the fact that most of Nelson's setups include custom fabbed headers, turbos, wastegates, intercoolers, injectors, fuel management, ignition, fuel pumps, as well as dyno pulls to sort it all out. When you factor all that in you are looking at NRE actually being less in some cases if you were to compare apples to apples as most shops leave all the fab and tuning stuff up to the end user. Tom is a real knowledgeable builder without the big ego that some others have. The thing I like most about Tom is the fact he was willing to answer all my questions as well as listen to my experience with turbo engines and racing and implementing some of my ideas on this combination - in his words "we learned from each other". Another thing with Nelson is the lengths he goes to make it not only run good but look good at the same time. The craftsmanship and attention to detail can't be appreciated unless you see it in person. He knew the caliber of car I was building and the intended use of it - a real STREET car that can kick ass on the track. I told him up front that I plan to beat the living crap out of it. Anyone can hang a tag on a race car that won't idle, loads up and leaks like the titanic and call it a "street" car. Mine should be the REAL deal thanks a lot in part to NRE.

so this is one of their STREET setups? so ur saying its cheaper to buy a NRE engine then to have it built by someone else?

their builds are truly art work. no doubt about that but when I looked at their motors a couple years ago they were close to $40k complete and went up from there depending on what options you wanted.

what would it cost to build something similar to your setup? those intakes are just awesome! I like how everything is hidden inside.

 

[Bent6]

so this is one of their STREET setups? so ur saying its cheaper to buy a NRE engine then to have it built by someone else?

their builds are truly art work. no doubt about that but when I looked at their motors a couple years ago they were close to $40k complete and went up from there depending on what options you wanted.

what would it cost to build something similar to your setup? those intakes are just awesome! I like how everything is hidden inside.

This is not one of their street setups - it's custom. I would say it would fall somewhere between his "hot rod" or middle of the road setups and "warrior" series which is his all out race setup.

I never said anything about NRE being cheaper. I do think Tom gets a bad rap by some as being expensive but he's really not if you know how these types of builds go. For comparisons sake, if you were to spec a complete engine from intake to oil pan from any reputable builder and then add the cost of supporting hardware ie - turbos, injectors, headers, ecm, etc, etc PLUS custom fab work for headers, intercoolers and such PLUS dyno time to get the tune down then the cost will usually be relatively close. There are plenty of guys with as much or more than what I have invested in this in a max effort Stage 2 engine.

Quality is never cheap and you always get what you pay for.

 

[GNBRETT]

This is not one of their street setups - it's custom. I would say it would fall somewhere between his "hot rod" or middle of the road setups and "warrior" series which is his all out race setup.

I never said anything about NRE being cheaper. I do think Tom gets a bad rap by some as being expensive but he's really not if you know how these types of builds go. For comparisons sake, if you were to spec a complete engine from intake to oil pan from any reputable builder and then add the cost of supporting hardware ie - turbos, injectors, headers, ecm, etc, etc PLUS custom fab work for headers, intercoolers and such PLUS dyno time to get the tune down then the cost will usually be relatively close. There are plenty of guys with as much or more than what I have invested in this in a max effort Stage 2 engine.

Quality is never cheap and you always get what you pay for.

im not sure he has such a bad rep any longer. I think he has proved himself with the many builds they have completed.

the GT 500 "Code Red" is amazing and very sophisticated to boot. I guess when you piece everything together and the fact that its a proven combo time and time its a good investment.

I would think one could still go very fast cheaper but I doubt anyone could put together an engine that looks as beautiful as he does. its more like art work then engine building.

I like the all black look. and ur probably right about the money some have spent on their SII motors.

I sure hope ur car makes it into some magazines after its completed. it will surely be worthy.

 

[JT'sV6]

Electromotive TEC3r with dual injectors per cylinder. It's a staged sequential setup meaning it runs on one row of smaller injectors and brings in the second row of larger injectors as the boost/fuel demand rises. There will be two separate fuel systems so it can be operated with pump gas in the primary system and race fuel in the staged system for what's essentially "octane on demand".

Ohhh, ok. This is the same setup nelson designed and built for the shelby code red. Awesome setup! What fuel are you going to use as the kicker

On a side note, I had a simialr idea with a dual injection setup as nelsons oct on demand. I had a blown 331 ford stroker in a fox body running dual nozzle methanol injection and started to convert that setup to direct port injection using a vic jr intake with custom fabricated dual injector bosses per cyl. That project never took flight as I changed paths with the car.

Good luck!