Buying pistons & rods, need help

[HGturboT]

I'm rebuilding a LC2 and was wondering if anyone could recommend any good distributors. This is what I came up with so far- JE Pistons .030 over with 8:5:1 and are full floaters for $511.00 and moly rings for $104 ( sounds ok)- Carillo (I think thats how you spell it) Rods that are H beam full floaters that cost $337 ea.

Would 8:5:1 pistons with the two steel head gaskets and resurfaced head & deck be a problem? Is 8:5:1 to much? This is gonna be a daily driver/ track car

If anyone has any suggestions on either that would be great Thanks, Danny

 

[postal]

I think your looking at spending big $$'s in the wrong places.
Stock rods seam to work good.
Relatively inexpensive TRW pistons seam to work good.
Billet caps or a girdle is money spent wisely.

Stock 109 block
Stock Crank .01 rods .02 mains balanced at 50% on bobs.
+.030 TRW pistons with light weight JE wristpins
Stock Rods with ARP bolts.
Stock Main caps
RJC Racing Girdle
Total seal rings
Comp 218/218 flat tappet hyd cam. (off the shelf)

Click on turbobuick.com's home page and read Jason Cramers cover story. Thats a 9.9 second car. Now if you get stupid with it even a full stage motor wont hold up. If you stay up on your tunning and avoid detonation then the list of exotic parts pretty much disapears.

Now here are a few pistons Ive found in recent seaches:
j&e pistons part#JEp-131556....$85 ea. from summit

trw: trw-L2481F-30.... $46.70 ea. from summit

ross pistons #31-32, $461

Dont blindly order pistons off of these part numbers. Verify them first. But as you can see those TRW's are only $280 a set from summit racing ( www.summitracing.com)

HTH: Jason

 

[postal]

Forgot to mention that RJC racing is one of the sponsors for this site. They have a link to his page on the home page here. He makes a couple parts for our cars including a nice looking head gasket set up.

Jason

 

[HGturboT]

I wanted to use the stock rods but my machine shop guy was scaring me. he recommended that I just spend the little extra on better quality parts I told him about RJC's set up and right now I plan on being a low 11 sec car but I want the moter to be good enough to maybe put a fast system on in the future and take a sec 1/2 or so off my et. I plan on doing a lot more reserch before I buy.

Thanks, Danny

 

[Chris McDade]

Hey Danny,
What postal said is about right. The setup that he recommended has proven to go fast and be reliable. I've had that same setup on my car for 4 years now without any major problems. I don't know if your machine shop guy has a Buick ,but we do and we know what works without buying those high dollar parts.

Stock rods are good to low 10's. You can use the rods I sold you. Just get them resized and usa ARP bolts and they will be fine for what you want to do.

Good Luck

 

[1320]

who is your machine shop guy?

 

[Nick Micale]

Originally posted by Chris McDade
............. I don't know if your machine shop guy has a Buick ,but we do and we know what works without buying those high dollar parts. ........

Since Chris brought this up, you should talk with some of the local Las Vegas GN owners [like Jon, 1320!] about who, or what shop, to do your machine work.

We have seen a few motors from Las Vegas that were done there and only lasted a few runs. As we re-did them, we can verify the machine work was not done properly.

You can save yourself some trouble by discussing this with the local guys who to recommend or which shop will do a proper job.

 

[86brick]

Personally I think the JE pistons are worth the extra $$$ over the TRWs, but as it has been said the stock rods with ARP bolts will work fine into the low 10's....

Make sure your machine shop guy has a LOT of experience with these motors and not just small block Chevy's/Ford's!!!!

 

[HGturboT]

ya you guys are probably right about him not being a buick guy but he has helped us a lot with previous buick work and hasnt let us down, its just now we are going in a bit deeper with the motor work and we really trust the guy. But here is one of the problems is a buddy of mine mixed up his caps on his rods and was told that he cant use them and get them reconditioned and shot peen because of the mix up and im not really sure if my rods are all matched with the caps(just bought from outastate) plus i was thinking of the full floating set up and i wouldnt mind paying extra to be safer.



hey 1320 My machine shop guy is mike at action machine

And for my buddy, is buying trw rods the only other option cause of the mix up
suggestion please

 

[HGturboT]

Originally posted by 1320
who is your machine shop guy?

hey 1320 we are they 2 guys with the GN that raced, I almost hit the wall against you If you have time give me a call

218-7092

Danny

 

[49-blues]

You can also look into Diamond pistons and CP pistons. Also being that close to Nick Micale s shop, thats where i d be going for great engine work- very knowledgeable!

 

[GNVAIR]

Go Wiseco! You can get a set of 6 in any over size with tool steel wrist pins, rings, etc for between $450 and $475.
Quality is every bit as good as J&E for over $100 less.

 

[broke1]

Unless youve got $$$ to burn go with the stock rods and TRW pistons.You could get away with hypers if you wanted too.Sevaral run into the 10s with hypers.

Just my $.02

ps GNVAIR did we not like my quote under my username??Wah,wah,wah

 

[HGturboT]

thanks for the suggestions on the pistions guys, but I really want to know about RODS and it seems like nobody can answer me or knows. I know the stock rods can take you far (low 10's & high 9's) but I don't want to use them, looking for something lighter, stronger, not a press fit rod,etc. I kinda gave up on asking technical questions on here, seems like you'll always get bashed for wanting to do something else

 

[86brick]

Oliver makes a nice set of rods..... I know a lot of the TSM guys are using them like Roy Garcia.....

 

[Nick Micale]

An aftermarket rod will run about $150 each from the various makers. Even if you use a good SBC rod it will cost about that much after it is modified to fit your motor.

 

[postal]

Well if your set on the rods then maybe call ATR. They used to sell carrillo rods for like $700 to $800 a set I believe. They are stock size so you dont have to oreder custom pistons or nothing.

Jason

 

[1320]

Originally posted by HGturboT
thanks for the suggestions on the pistions guys, but I really want to know about RODS and it seems like nobody can answer me or knows. I know the stock rods can take you far (low 10's & high 9's) but I don't want to use them, looking for something lighter, stronger, not a press fit rod,etc. I kinda gave up on asking technical questions on here, seems like you'll always get bashed for wanting to do something else

I don t think its bashing, these guys are indeed different then most car people you will run across. Try to remeber that these guys have been doing this along time, these questions have been asked a hundred times, tried, tested, the outcome noted, and conclusions drawn. You may not want to use em, thats fine, butwhen the majority has an opinion esspecially in this forum its not ussually unfounded. This question was asked in 1988.....the basic reason most use stock rods.....because these cars go fast for very little, and putting 700 $ rods in a 300 $ block just isn t at the top of the priorities for most of these guys. TR people are not a young group persay (like import owners) most own houses, have families etc....so they commonly do what they can with what they have, and that is one of the things that made the buick so attractive in the first place.

when you get it back together maybe we can run again.

 

[87gnNV]

Originally posted by 1320
when you get it back together maybe we can run again.

Yea, maybe next time away from walls!!