My winter 3400 build

[silvergtjrad]

I bought a cam back in august, with the intent of dropping it in my current motor, and keeping the car N/A. Finding someone I could trust to install it was proving to be difficult, and very expensive too. After much debate, I decided to build an engine on a stand then drop in an entire motor, rather than pulling it just for the cam and paying a crazy amount of labor costs.

Ive changed my mind a few times already on which direction to take the build. My plans were to make a higher compression N/A motor with a healthy shot of nitrous for the strip via direct port, making somewhere in the neighborhood of 300whp on spray. Since finding a decent deal on a full set of forged, stock compression pistons in the for sale section here, and a little inspiration from a number of recently turbocharged grand ams, Im leaning towards a turbo now.

Here are the plans for the motor so far:
Stock 3400 block (sitting on my engine stand currently)
Ported 3500 heads (got em, waiting for felpro gaskets to get them ported)
Ported 3500 LIM (coming off of current engine)
Ported 3400 UIM (coming off of current engine)
Stock 3400 crank (already have)
Shot peened 3400 rods (already have, need shot peening)
Arias stock comp ratio forged pistons (already have)
Comp Cams 26986 valve springs (already have)
60*v6 crank scraper (in the mail)
Custom ground cam, not sure what Im going to go with
custom pusrhods, see above.
ARP head studs (in the mail)
ARP rod bolts (in the mail)

I'll add pictures later on. Gotta get to work right now!

[IsaacHayes]

Turbo? The 3500 heads will lower compression some so that will work out well. But Ben said there is more potential for boost with the 3400 heads ported out over the 3500 ones.. that the 3500 is better for N/A... ahh so many variables...

[El_Diablo]

yes, but that may change once the new gaskets come out... the 3500 gaskets are the limiting factor so far from what it seems (feel free to correct me ben)

[silvergtjrad]

yes, but that may change once the new gaskets come out... the 3500 gaskets are the limiting factor so far from what it seems (feel free to correct me ben)

Thats what Im waiting on, the felpro gaskets.

[El_Diablo]

aren't we all....

[Superdave]

Turbo? The 3500 heads will lower compression some so that will work out well. But Ben said there is more potential for boost with the 3400 heads ported out over the 3500 ones.. that the 3500 is better for N/A... ahh so many variables...

I'm planning on getting my heads flowbenched locally as soon as i get them cleaned up, That should give a final answer on how good they flow after porting. Maybe sometime in the next 2 weeks..

[silvergtjrad]

I'm planning on getting my heads flowbenched locally as soon as i get them cleaned up, That should give a final answer on how good they flow after porting. Maybe sometime in the next 2 weeks..

Excellent, i may just use the gm gaskets to gasket match them, depending on your results.

[SappySE107]

Why don't you let me flow them so we have something constant?

[silvergtjrad]

[Superdave]

Why don't you let me flow them so we have something constant?

Just something about sending a head through the mail during the holiday season.. with my luck it would arrive in pieces.


This place is like 5 miles from me: http://stealyperformance.net/

[silvergtjrad]

I had some new parts come in during the week. Its getting closer to being "complete". The engine wont be assembled for a while still. I need to pick up some injectors, another cam, all new engine bearings, gaskets, shot peen the rods, and get the crank journals polished. I plan on honing the block myself, as well as doing all of the assembly. Im going to stick the 3500 heads on the motor unported for now. Its studded, and ive got 2 pairs of 3500 heads, so it wont be a big deal to swap them out once the felpro gaskets come ou,t so proper porting can be done.

Plenum Spacers

Head Studs

Rod Bolts

Crank Scraper

[Chris88CL]

So far it looks very very similar to my build. Should be interesting to see the results! Keep the pics coming!