More power with LT1 rebuild
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 2,112
Likes: 2
From: Peoria IL
Re: More power with LT1 rebuild (Bradley33)
Hotcam and 1.6 roller rockers are obvious. On a reasonable budget I'd try to copy an LT4 setup. Have your heads and intake ported to match GM intake gasket 12777, I could be way wrong on that, but I'm pretty sure it had a lot of sevens in it. Anyway that is the intake gasket GM would have originally put on the LT4, but when it made too much power they restricted the intake some with smaller gaskets, took out the hotcam, and replaced the 52mm TB with a 48mm. The LT4 has better heads and intake than the LT1, once they are ported, run all of the afformentioned parts with 1 3/4" headers and good exhaust. 400hp shouldn't be out of the question.
Pro
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 697
Likes: 0
From: College Station Tx
Re: More power with LT1 rebuild (Bradley33)
The majority of the power is going to be in the heads - more displacement will give you a higher potential, but the heads themselves will still be the primary factor in what you make.
There really isn't a whole lot you can do (or would want to anyway) in a street motor to pick up power in regards to the shortblock (excepting added displacement). The best thing to do is build it with good parts and have a good machinist. Build it to stand up to your intended power level. I would go for as many cubes as you can get reasonably (and within your budget). Stuff like zero gap rings, etc. never really show any benefit in real life (at least from what I have seen). I would just stay with a good set of plasma moly rings.
With a well built bottom end focus on the heads and cam to try and reach whatever hp goal you have.
There really isn't a whole lot you can do (or would want to anyway) in a street motor to pick up power in regards to the shortblock (excepting added displacement). The best thing to do is build it with good parts and have a good machinist. Build it to stand up to your intended power level. I would go for as many cubes as you can get reasonably (and within your budget). Stuff like zero gap rings, etc. never really show any benefit in real life (at least from what I have seen). I would just stay with a good set of plasma moly rings.
With a well built bottom end focus on the heads and cam to try and reach whatever hp goal you have.
