LT5 Upgrade
 

I would appreciate any info on who would be the best to send my 1992 LT5 engine to for a rebuild and increase in power to aprox 500 hp I have to ship it from Australia so I thought CA woul be easiest for me your thoughts much appreciated on this subject.

Hi there,first of all when you send your engine so far a distance to someone you have never met and just talked to by phone you need to feel really confident.i used http://www.acsvette.com/ and sent most of my engine parts out to Mike who is a forum member on here aswell as having his own forum here http://eesvette.hyperboards.com/index.cgi where you can catch up on R&D and other LT5 subjects.
My parts are all back now and refitted and am very pleased with the work i also found EES to be very honest with no hidden charges while being very reasonable and helpfull at the same time,all mikes R&D which has set new bench marks gos into his own car which is probably one of the fastest na motors on the scene.
Hope this helps as you need to feel confident when dealing with someone from so far a distance.

I would send it to Aaron Scott at South Georgia Corvette in Thomasville Ga. Aaron has always done great work for me, and reasonably priced. His number is 229-226-4447. Not a sales pitch, just one guys observation.

Jason

Your choices are limited to Corey Henderson (Texas), Mike Ebbert (lousianna), Marc Haibeck (Illinois), LPE ( Indiana), and Aaron Scott (Georgia).

You'll pay a premium for LPE and Aaron Scott to do the work. I just had Corey Henderson do this work to my car and I'm very happy with his work. None of these guys have a quick turn around. Expect to be down 6-12 months.

If you want the best CnC'd ported heads in the market for a reasonable price e-mail me,since i have the fastest 350 LT5 in the country.

If i had to choose from all the LT5 builders i would choose Marc Haibeck.

Thats funny didn't see that at B.G. this year or the last, I must have missed those runs??? :bs

As much as I have been complaining about Lurker having my car for so long I would send it to Milstead. He took the time to remove the heads to make shure everything was right instead of just installing the engine and after he found the scratch and decided to have a new sleeve put in it he took the engine to another expert and they decided that the scratch was insignificant. Milstead takes the extra steps. He needs to have a deck plate made though so he wont have to send the sort block to Kirtchhoffer

does someone have to show up at BG to prove they are the fastest?

Don't forget Rod Dewild (Colorado), he has built ALOT of fast cars, including Lt5's. You can't argue the fact about his performance numbers at the track!(i.e. fastest Z at B.G. 04,05)and I here he's working on 9 second daily driver package's for less than most stroker builders are doing them for..... I just went to his shop on sunday and checked out his 427 build up, had some copper head gasket issues but was quickly resolved. The hard cromed stroker crank looked like a work of art. I saw a sweet STICK tranny on the floor, it would be sweet if it went Z. If your ever in Colorado you should check out his shop, it will blow your mind!!!!!

Yes, that is what it's all about at the end of day!!!! AND YOU KNOW THAT!!!! :iagree:

The engine builders I listed do LT5 engines "full time" for a living. Personally, I would not send my LT-5 to anyone that did engines part time. It's a priority issue.

:iagree:

Does Mike do Lt5's full time, "NO" but yet he was one of the fastest at B.G. this year. Looks to me like the part time guys are the fastest, Tyler what do you consider full and part time to be???? The funny thing is Rod and his dad have been building and racing engine's for many years, why do think Lingenfelter's engines ran so hard (i.e. race experiance)? I'll tell ya one thing, it's not because they worked on broken TV's or computers!!!! :nono:

Man, sign me up for the part time builder!!!!!!! Money spent is money spent, but I would rather go fast for my money. Pete, does something click in your brain when your 350LT5 is running faster then Haibeck's big dog/big money stroker's :rolleyes:

What can I add to this discussion? Nothing. Oh yeah - build an LS1 instead.............or buy a Z06! :thumbs:

Seriously - building the LT5 has not been kind to A LOT of people. Having the car out of commission for months on end - not unusual. I now know enough that I'd feel comfortable doing a top end port job - but building an LSx motor is a joke compared to the bs involved with an LT5. Open deck...................... :leaving:

Screw the LS1, the LS2 is where it's at now. No Resleeve for a 402 stroker.

I'm not saying anything else :leaving:

I guess I'm lucky, I have bought LPEs that are DONE and haven't had the pain.

LPE, SGC, EES (Mike Ebert), ZR-1 Spec (Haibeck), Mistead, Kirchoffer, Corey, so many choices and many others not mentioned.

the stigma is that the LT-5 is so hard to work on yet any punk honda engine is way more complex as is the northstar on others.

true, the LT5 is "no small block chebby" but it's a pretty solid and straight forward design.

as far as the ls thing, go LS7 !!!

the heads on that beast make the LS1/2 look puny in comparison and the LS7 I feel has some pretty big potential.

of these engines are extremely high tech, the LT5 is more costly to be sure but as sheena E says "you got the look!!"

I already listed Mike Ebbert as an good engine builder. Try reading my first post.

Rod is in the trucking business. So what if he assembled his own engine from parts that he subbed out from EES or others. Do you think some guy from austrailia is going to be Rod's highest priority when there is a trucking business for him to focus on. Lots of folks build their own engines successfully. That doesn't mean **** for a guy that is halfway around the world. Rod doesn't build engines for a living, it's his hobby.

What is your experience with modified ZR-1's, anyway?

Dwight gives good advice here. Don't mod this car unless you are very patient and have the money to get it done twice.

couldn't agree more ratracer

An lt5 isn't that hard to build. If you have any experience with engines and are a dairyfarmer, well then a dairyfarmer can build them.

All that matters is the outcome, and if that person is happy with what they had done, well than thats awesome!