On the 'mildly' Cheap SS Monte Carlo chasing a 9.0___

[64nailhead]

Since they rocked like that, are the cylinders OK or do you need to punch it out?

Those rods aren't bent enough to make pistons contact the crank.

The ol 5.3 right now.....

#1 just touched the crank (love rub) and it didn't do the bore any favors eithers. Nothing tragic, but yes Supercharged111 , I'm going to bore it. .0030 2ill do it according to my bore gauge.




I'm sure I could get away another set of rods and one piston from the junkyard. But.........................sigh......................I might be done with that program and be aiming for a little more.



The question of the moment, and the next 25.5 hours is what to order. I'm resigned to a Summit kit. For a couple of obvious reasons - they are budget with excellent reviews, and a set of the Summit Pro forged should get me where I want to go. Especially with a stock block and my little cam. But the time crunch is that we got a discount from Summit for being in DW and it expires tomorrow.

So the two questions, should I go with a 9.5:1 or 10.4:1 compression? It would be a no brainer if it didn't get driven much, but the street miles and pump gas are pushing me towards the lower compression despite it will be at least a 50hp sacrifice at 25+ psi. And should I go with the ARP 8740 or 2000 studs - $130 price difference? The 8740 will probably be fine, but I think I should go with the 2000 series. Help me make up my mind.

 

[Supercharged111]

Don't go gettin' too fancy now.

 

[Built6spdMCSS]

There are soooooooo many editions of that video...this one was great.. 🤣 🤣🤣

 

[81cutlass]

So how many rods did you not bend?

For sure more carnage than I thought.

I'd go 10.5 unless you know you know your not going to have the availability to have at least some ethanol available. Even e10 is fine if you stay out of the throttle on cruise. It's only going to help and you're past the a ability of doing street pulls on 87 with any boost.

 

[64nailhead]

So how many rods did you not bend?

For sure more carnage than I thought.

I'd go 10.5 unless you know you know your not going to have the availability to have at least some ethanol available. Even e10 is fine if you stay out of the throttle on cruise. It's only going to help and you're past the a ability of doing street pulls on 87 with any boost.

7 out of 8 are bent. Edit : maybe I exaggerated - there might be two straight ones - one looks funky. But 6 for sure.

I want to do the 10.5, but pulling trailer is what as me concerned in case I get stuck running gas somewhere. I probably should just go with the higher compression and be done with it.

 

[Supercharged111]

7 out of 8 are bent. Edit : maybe I exaggerated - there might be two straight ones - one looks funky. But 6 for sure.

I want to do the 10.5, but pulling trailer is what as me concerned in case I get stuck running gas somewhere. I probably should just go with the higher compression and be done with it.

Do you have some sort of timing retard function you could hook to a toggle switch for trailer mode or crap gas mode?

 

[64nailhead]

One downside to putting any money this is I'll feel the need to run real oil rather than the cheapest garbage I can find n Amazon for $18/5 gallons - Castrol 20W50 GTX.

I have to say though, my bearings and lifters look so good, that I might be concerned about running anything different. I don't want to start an oil debate, but I change the oil twice on the same filter when I take it to the track because the ethanol dilutes the oil so badly.

Do you have some sort of timing retard function you could hook to a toggle switch for trailer mode or crap gas mode?

Yes sir. It’s called Holley. It takes care of all of that based on ethanol content. I have 3 tables that adjust fuel, timing and target AFR depending on ethanol content. On gas I never let it get over 12 psi. That’s 400ish wheel HP which is plenty on the street. I never, repeat never, run it hard on gas.

This last summer I ran the car for almost two months on straight 87 to get those tables tuned correctly. It takes some time,
data logging and tuning to get it straight, but there is never a bad reason to have to drive the car for days straight (all I need is a reason.) The sloppy guy has a very informational video or two about doing this with a Holley.

 

[Supercharged111]

I figured you did, so why do you need to be sweet talked into high compression after all that prep there cupcake? You already know the answer to your question.

Minus spending top dollar of course.

 

[81cutlass]

I never realized '10G's and the Keys' meant $10,000 and the car keys until now. Well the budget might be blown but 9's for 11k is still damn good!


What IAT are you running on the pass it bent all the rods?
Is the deck of the block torched?

I agree putting forged rods/pistons in your setup makes sense. The ring lands aren't toast, the fuel & spark is OK, boost isn't going nuts, you have proven to yourself you are capable of tuning where you aren't going to send your decent bottom end into bits.

325 cubic inch at 30 psi should make north of 1000hp, which pencils out to your trap speed.

BUT- what are you going to do? Try to turn it to 35 PSI or something? Are you going to keep the heads glued on with any studs when they have stock thickness decks? I get the drive to run 8.50's but you are at the low 9's now, another .60 second isn't going to be easy. More boost might do it but stock heads and low cubes with decent weight might be a stretch.

I knew a few guys I know who were doing the 5.3 with big boost game a few years ago and managed high 7's on a full weight 80e street car with a 5.3 and mid 30psi with forged rotating parts BUT he had TFS 220 heads. And he still had issues with the heads lifting regardless of the super fancy head studs. It made a few high 7 second passes before the heads would lift even on a good tune.

Just random musings but I think getting the other .5 seconds through lowering IAT's, better head flow, less weight or more cubes is a better call than more boost. The forged pistons/rods will for sure make it more resilient & the better studs will help keep the heads down but from what I have seen in a small sample size is in a heavy, small cube, ethanol car is the challenge.

 

[64nailhead]

So we were given discounts from Summit during DW and guess when they expire - 10/18. I've been hammering to determine what was needed in terms of parts to save some bucks before 10/18. Keep in mind I describe myself as frugal rather than cheap, but both can be accurate adjectives haha.

The Summit discounts yielded a piston/rod deal with rings, then some new Pac 1219's, ARP2000 head studs, and some little stuff like crank bolt, cam plate/seal, etc. Yesterday I had buyer's remorse, but I'm over that. And yes new springs - Northernregal - in case your misfire concern is true. I'm sending out the injectors as well - just to be sure.

Discussion with others locally and in other interweb places is that too much cylinder pressure got me. Basically, leaning on it too hard with the parts that I was using. Pretty much - I knew that, but the question is what to do to alleviate that. One mistake I clearly made was rpm - I needed more. Some discussion with my converter guy came up with the same conclusion. I need to be closer 8000rpm's on the shifts rather than 7400 maximize to what I've got. I was targeting 7700......... 🙁...and I missed. Better parts would've put a bandaid on that part of my tune and gotten me by. So, live and learn as always 😉


Supercharged111 , 81cutlass - I missed your posts until today - too busy at work, too busy trying to think too hard about what both of you guys are asking (before you asked it haha) and too busy scattering my 5.3 to determine a parts list. What are the goals now? How much more can I get out of a home built 3600-3700lb car on a budget, self tuned, etc, and be reliable and fun without dropping $5-10k in a motor and another $3-5K in chassis to have a full blown race car? 35psi? Maybe. 8's? Maybe. Realistically, low 9's (9.4__) average through a DnD event. I'm not sure when enough is enough, but at this moment in my life, that's where I'm at. I've mentioned a couple of times that I'm trying to not have any regrets when I'm 70 (or whatever age) and won't be able to pull off the driving & building. Jake has met me, I'm sure he knows that I'm not a kid, and I'm not an expert and I'm not a dumbass. I've chosen to have fun, and at 55 I'm going to do what I wanted to do when I was 25 - NO REGRETS. So to answer both of your questions and anyone else's - go faster and have fun doing it in a G-body!! 🙂


edit - Jake - IAT's are under control, less than 175 with the meth. I'm looking to put in a Treadstone IC before Sick Week and hopefully be able to turn off the meth.