398 stroker Build

[Neil350]

Be forewarned don’t expect regular updates. With work and time away from home, this build is going to take a few months to finish. We got the car torn down this weekend. The heads are going to the machine shop and the roller will go to paint next week. I have wanted to build a 396 stroker since I was 16. I grew up about 5 minutes from Motor Sport Technologies in Houston, Texas, so I would go there for dyno days and on my Saturdays to watch some of the nastiest street LT1s in Texas roll out of there. Two in particular were Nick K’s old C4, it was a 396 solid roller LT4 with a hidden direct port under the intake. The car was making 700+ back in ’00 and was street raced quite a bit. When they sold the stroker from that car I printed out the for sale add and knew I wanted to build something like that someday. Another car was Dave Lewis’ old Firehawk, it’s now is the LMR Radial car and runs 6s. Back then it was a nasty stroker LT4 with a T-trim, the car was making 900+ and at the time one of the, if not the fastest six speed car in Houston. It wasn’t until a lot of the Supra guys started making over a 1000rwhp that the Firehawk got beat. My Fikses, seats and hood came from that car.

I couldn't do any of this without the help of my friend Tiago at Force Fed Fabrications. He remembers those cars to and a big part of this is doing it is for the nostalgia. Same reason why the car had a CC306 in the past, making power is the side part of it, the whole point of my doing any of this is to do the things I couldn’t afford to when I was younger. I’ve had this car since I was 16 so my goal is to build the set up I would have wanted to back then. That’s a big reason why this car is still an LT1. This short block was originally built by Dave Diluca and I had it refreshed by Erik K at HKE. Two engine builders I always looked up to since I was young. Erik was the guy building Rick Intrau’s motor. Any case enough walking down memory lane.

Short Block 398 LT1: Dragon Slayer Crank, Compstar rods, Ross pistons with hell fire rings. 4 Bolt splayed mains. Stef’s Custom Pan.
Heads: LT1 Dart Pro-1s
Valve Train: Crower Rockers, Morel 5044 Link Bar hydraulic lifters, Manley Nextek Springs, Custpm A.I spec cam (24x/25x/110/6xx/6xx) Not trying to be secretive, I would have to look at the cam sheet to see the exact specs.
Intake: Motown Single Plane with a Nitrous Outlet Spay bar set up.
Exhaust: Kooks 1 3/4 to 1 7/8 stepped Long Tubes, Custom Y by Force Fed Fabrication, Borla.
Engine Management: EFI Connection 24X
Vacuum Pump: GZ Motor sports





Stock short block set up coming out










Getting car ready for paint



LT1 died on the floor








Thanks to the following people:
Tiago @ Force Fed Inductions
Erik @ HKE
Josh @ BDB Racing
GZ Motor Sports
West Side Machine & Performance
Tony S & even Kyle M, yes even Kyle M for answering stupid questions and not beating me up.
LT1 People for putting up with me for the last 14+ years.

[dawdaw]

Sweet! Looking forward to the progress!

[firebird_1995]

This is image for image how this just went at home for me....

[Soxxpuppet]

LMFAO! Firebird that was hysterical!

That sounds like its going to be one Serious engine OP... What compression is it going to be?

[JPack]

Someone is gonna have some fun hitting the go peddle.

[Neil350]

LMAO Chris. Just dropped the heads off at the Machine Shop this morning. Aiming to pick them up next time I am back in Texas around the 12th of next Month. Compression should be mid 12:1 range, 12.4-12.6, Erik at HKE did the math when he ordered the Cometics for it. If all goes well next month the new motor will become a long block. Unfortunately Ill be off shore for this years shoot out.

[Fastbird]

@firebird_1995 -- That was EPIC!!!!!

Neil, really happy to see you sticking with the LT goodness. Your car has always been one of my favorites and is gonna be a baaaaaad mofo when done.

[Flyinz]

Subscribing! I wasn't sure if Erik was still building engines or not. Thats good to know.

[myltwon]

damn looks to be good

[Neil350]

Thanks Sean.

Erik's primarily trying to get caught up on what he has, he mentioned building some more LT1s in the future. Just majority of what comes in is all LSX based combos which is plenty of work as is.