rebuilding a 4.9l LU8

[bigsteam]

Does anyone have an idea about mods or a company that would rebuild this dog of a motor?

 

[turbows6]

I'd say that most of the stuff that applies to making power to other engines works just the same. Port the heads, have them flowed, pick a camshaft and induction that works with the heads and make your compression fit the need of the camshaft. Good intake and exhaust setups and you should be making some power.

 

[turbofish38]

How much power do you want to make? I mean the stock parts are probably already at their limits. The cast iron crank doesn't have any throws so that there is the weakest link. I don't think I'd spend to much time modding anything on a 301T. Check out the B4Black forum. The same tricks used on a carb-turbo V-6 work on the 301T. I'm no Pontiac V8 expert but IIRC there aint to much in the line of hard parts that interchange between the 350/400 and the 265/301 V8s. Not even the camshafts.

 

[forcefed3.8's]

301garage.com The crank isn't weak, it is a myth. The cams do interchange. There was a guy that used a turbo crank, turbo block, old Pontiac heads, narrowed Torker intake, and the typical other goodies that made well over 400 horsepower NA, and afew guys with higher boost and bolt ons making just shy of 300rwhp with the turbos. The wheels in the 301's turbo are bigger than a stock 86/87 turbo.
There are alot of people into modding the old 301T's. I have a turbo unit I am getting ready to put on my 301 powered LeSabre, which ran low 19's@70mph as a stock 2bbl, and now has run a best of 16.8@81mph with a 4bbl and a cam as the only mods. It will be interesting how long the non turbo engine holds up.