Need a honest opinion.....

[GNguy]

Alot of my friends are car guys, they know a good amount on a variety of cars but they dont know much about our engines. They make me worry alot though, I have the normal upgrades that alot of people here have (bigger everything) but its a stock block. they all tell me that I am going to blow my motor. I told them without detonation this motors fine. neverless I am worried, how long does it take to go through stock blocks? how long did it take you guys until you needed a rebuild? IT will probably be an 11 sec car..... please let me know what you guys think. thanks

 

[Randy Greenoe]

I have been running mine in the 12.0s mid 11.s for over seven years and never had to remove the valve covers. Build it to go faster than your goal and run it soft. A scantool is a must to keep an eye on that dreaded knock.
It seems to me the guys that have probems are the ones that get boost happy and crank it up because a buddy of buddy is running more boost with almost the same receipe. Take small steps and sneak up on it instead of looking for that one killer run. Let it live to race another day. To me it is amazing at what some will do to pickup a extra tenth or so and kill the motor in the process.

 

[72firebird]

a little better idea of what your setup is turbo and injector wise would help. If you're only making enough power to go like mid 11s your stock block should be perfectly fine.

 

[Grumpy]

my daughter's limited had 180k on it and well over 600 11 sec runs ... POS broke a crank in half while I was getting on the highway one day :biggrin:

 

[GNguy]

I have a PT54 and #50 injectors and all the other usual mods. I am going to a 61 soon though, maybe......well thanks for the replies so far, anyone else?

 

[John Larkin]

They're psyching you out so you won't show them up. The board is full of tuning knowledge. Follow it an you'll be fine. You cannot predict the future. Sometimes cars break for no apparent reason.

 

[GNguy]

Yeah, I have told them it should hold up pretty good but they all just laugh. we will see......

 

[Turbo Indian]

I had 100+ passes with at least 30psi on one car I had, it did have good valve springs, but it still had the stock timing chain. but this was a lower milage car, under 50k. it did go the best of 10.96.

 

[Brer Rabbit]

Take all precautions...Trust me!

I'm in the process of an expensive re-build because I beat the piss out of the hybrid cutlass (see sig below). I was always running 18-19 pounds of boost on 93 octane. It eventually caught up to me when I hurt the motor racing a buddy at only 17# of boost. every once and a while I would pull a data log of the DFI laptop to check the tune, but I never had a Knock sensor on the car. I know I learned my lesson, I just wish I had listened to others befor it was too late. Funny how Ive been sayin that all my life .

 

[GNguy]

well the car has 70,6XX miles on it, I have a scanmaster and I plan to run #20-#25 of boost with razors kit and a TT chip.

 

[pacecarta]

on the 87 , over 150 track passes and lots of on road WOT pulls to over 100 all at over 25psi on a 132K mi unopened block with only valve springs and timing chain .and lord knows what kind of punishment it got in the 127K mi before i owned it

with boltons the car is a consistent 12.0 and usually gets a run into the 11s before the night is out .

on the 86 , im sure it has over 100 passes in the 10s on a stock short block with two steel main caps .

like you said detonation will kill it and you can break them at stock HP levels , as grumpy pointed out this things have a way of letting go at times that defy reason .

bigger issue is the tranny , you dont need to ditch the 200r4 but a good rebuild like a Hi-pro should be done if your plans are 11's .

 

[salvageV6]

What they all said and more.

My car was totalled in 1995 and still runs 11's on pump gas and alky.

Daily drivers, 120K on the GN and 160K on the WE4.

Both stock longblocks, get a good tranny rebuild, Schertz/Dynotech Hi-Pro is great.

By the way what do all your friends drive that we can comment on?

 

[GNguy]

Well my friends have pretty nice cars, highly modded vw T gulf, 97 twin turbo porsche, TT RX-7, and 2 projects almost done LS1 into an s10 and a 240sx with silvia motor(rice stuff, dont know much) and there are some other but they all just hate because they know I am going to take them.

 

[c&cgn]

I have a PT54 and #50 injectors and all the other usual mods. I am going to a 61 soon though, maybe......well thanks for the replies so far, anyone else?

FYI, A PT54 and a TE61 are the same thing. A PT61 is slightly different but will not likely make any noticeable difference in power for you. Stick with the 54, it is a good turbo. If you get it tuned right in the 22 psi range it will really start to come alive.