ILLS
Dedicated LVC Member
I dont have a number in mind. 400 has always been my magic number. Something about Black Sunshine. If we can solve the compression ratio issue and get closer to 10PSI we should be able to blow 400 away. I'm starting out behind you and Quick do to my 1st gen, but thats no excuse. I should be able to hit the same numbers and same times. I'm curious about some other parts of the bottom end. Head studs, sleeves, valve train etc. If we change the comp ratio with some custom forged rods and pistons, will everything else hold up to the added pressure? Valve train probably wont be an issue unless cam work is done, but every chain has a week link.
Are you talking about 400 hp at the rear tires or 400 hp total? 400 hp at the crank is no problem even without a built bottom end. Quik said he dyno'd at 350rwhp which puts him well over 400 at the crank. My turbo system will also easily and safely exceed that 400 hp at the crank figure once I throw it on the dyno to show some numbers. Getting 400rwhp with a rock solid tune, meth injection and 7 psi on the turbo might be doable but it will not be for the squeamish.
Custom forged rods will not be the way to go here. Forged is only cost affective if large runs are being done. It is extremely unlikely that a large enough contingent of people will be rallied up to get the tooling for the forged rods made which leaves one option. Billet. It is better than forged in allot of ways and from a small run standpoint it is also much more cost affective because the tooling required is primarily in CNC milling which is primarily writing the G-code for the computer.
Hardened head studs should not pose much of a problem at all. I would also not worry about the valvetrain either. With a 4v engine like this it can flow some pretty good numbers in stock form. I would leave the heads and cams alone as that is not the usual failure point when adding power.