I’ve been thinking about building a new engine for the C5 and was wondering what some good set ups would be.
Goals: 550/500 whp/wtq na… 250-300 N20
I was initially thinking a 414 LS3 based engine set up.
Now I have stumbled across a guy with a A.R.E. 4.100" Big Bore Aluminum LS6 Block (422).
What would give me the best reliability(#1), a budget minded build(#2), and some good power still(#3).
Forged internals are a must, stock heads will be considered.
4.000" is the largest stroke you want to use when talking about nitrous oxide use in a Gen III/IV engine. With the 4.100" stroke the compression height of the piston is too small for nitrous oxide. The only time I would ever recommend a 4.100" stroke would be an LSX block or a sleeved factory block. The stock sleeves aren’t long enough to support that long of a stroke for a daily driver/street engine.
Best reliability is have someone who know what they are doing build it and use good parts. For nitrous stick to a 4.000" stroke. Budget would be using a 6.0L iron block but lots of Vette guys complain it upsets the balance of the car. Next best thing would be the LS2 block, but for another $300-$400 you can purchase the LS3 block and grab a decent amount of cubes and a stronger block. I would recommend the LS3 block torque plate honed to 4.070" with a 4.000" stroke. This gives you 416 cu.in and will make great power with the AFR heads you already have.
I should have been more clear, it is a 4.100" Bore, not stroke.
Do you think my afr205s would work ok on a 416 ls3 motor? They are 59cc cambers for a 3.9" bore.
I’ll probably have a shop build me a short block and install the rest myself and slap it in the hog.
It sucks when you see 800hp cars for sale for 25K…
New Era did a very similar build on a 408 for Brandon’s blue Z06 a couple years back. He drives the shit out of the car and, as far as I know, it’s held together great. Might want to talk to them about the cost to do a similar setup.
About halfway down:
I’m not looking to do this immediately, but I’ve come across this block, which I’m thinking about buying. So this is more of an open discussion. I was really set on a LS3 at about a 416, but now with this block up for grabs I’m thinking about that.
The 4.1" big bore ls6 with a 4.0" stroke will net me 422 cubes. At a 3.9" stroke it would net me 412 cubes.
When i was considering staying NA, i was going to do a 416cid LS3. I read a couple of articles in GM high tech, one guy with a 2001 SS, full weight was running mid 9’s with a 6 speed with a 416+ spray. I would never put an Iron block in a corvette.
Iron blocks are out of the question. I’d sleeve an aluminum block before going iron.
I really just want a solid 10s na / 9s n20 car, that I can drive across the country.
<3 brandon’s car. It sounds so fucking bad ass.
Sorry you did mention 4.100" bore in the thread but I missed it and/or it had been a busy morning and I overlooked it. You AFR 205s will work but you could probably do better with a larger cylinder head. If you are interested in a short block PM me. I could always ship one to you in Texas. For a build on a semi-budget a new LS3 would be the way to go. If you have a little more cash to throw at it the LS7 block is around $2800 and has a bore of 4.125" and gets you 427 cu.in with a 4.000" stroke. For around the same price you can sleeve an LS2 block with a darton dry sleeve setup. With the longer sleeves you could run a 4.100 or 4.125" stroke crankshaft and larger bore and make anywhere from 440 cu.in to 454 cu.in in an LS “small” block
What are the details on the block? Is it a new sleeve job that was never built? The LS1 and LS6 blocks were only MID sleeved which is very expensive and very durable. If the sleeve length is correct I would not think twice about using a 4.100 or 4.125" crankshaft and grabbing more than 422 cubes
Is that block local to you, you need to check it out. Whats some more info on it. what sleeves, who did them, when, how many miles… how bad have them dropped 
The guy purchased the car had a shop build him the egine. I think he said the shop was A.R.E, have you ever heard of this shop? He said it had way too much power, so he pulled the engine and put in a 408 iron block in it. He gave the shop the internals to pay for the swap. He said the sleeved engine only had dyno time on it. Yes the block is local, the guy lives 1 block from me.
The only A.R.E. I can think of would be Agostino Racing Engines. It was a shop that went out of business. They were located in Pickering, Ontario and were pretty much the first shop building and sleeving GM GEN III engines while working with Darton on the MID/wet sleeves. Their engine builder the late Dave Diluca later moved on to open his open shop called Canadian Performance. If this was an Agostino sleeve job it is probably top notch. The only thing you have to do different with the MID sleeved block is run a waterless coolant like Evans and also use the Cometic MID specific headgaskets. It usually costs $2500-$3000 to have a block MID sleeved with your core block. They are good to over 2000 hp
I’ll have to talk to him about it, all I know if that he lived in Michigan when he had the car done, so it very well could have been done in Canada. Guy has more money then car knowledge, so I could see him spending big bucks on this.
Edit:
Just talked to the guy and he confirms the block was built in Canada by Dave Diluca.
If this really costs 2500-3K you’ll shit a brick at what he said he’ll sell it to me for. :naughty:
It was most likely Agostino then. Not a bad drive through Canada from MI. They did charge some big dollars, but they did great work and at the time it was either MTI or Agostino
Good, have it checked out. Call Bryan at LME in Houston too, Tim might answer the phone too? Tell him I send you, he knows me, your from NY, newera Mike tunes your car all that stuff.
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Pecos (@ LME) did the sleeves back in the day at MTi. So he know about them dropping, probably the best person to check this block for you. Your really lucky that he is close to you. If you can get this cheap, and its sound. you could build a killer NA motor. 
BTW brandons car made 550 NA with a nitrous setup (up to 400hp I belive) iron 6L 408, with darts that Bryan ported. He also went to SAM so knows how to make POWER with a cathedral port. hydraulic cam, fast90/90 ( I think mike ported it?), 85mm MAF, small 1 3/4 headers, heavy dual disk clutch. But with some better parts thouse heads, and the shortblock could make 585-maybe 600NA, wist some more headwork for a real inake.
That was one the the highest NA, if not the highest NA street motor on the dyno at newera. More then some 420+ cubes with, bigger CNC ported heads, TF ,AFR , anything.
picked up the engine today
Next step is to ship it to me :mpd: