I started writing this post a few weeks ago and now I’m finally going to finish it. Things have been a bit busy around here lately.
This will be more of a generic “here’s my build” post that I’ll update periodically as I gather more parts and such. If you read the last post about being happy with what you have then you’ll have an understanding of what’s going on in a nutshell. If you didn’t read it then here’s what’s going down.
I figured that if I can do a budget 6.0/L92 setup like how Car Craft Magazine did it would be pretty damn worth it considering the power gains and it would also net me a MUCH faster quarter time. It’s fun right now just messing around with “sorta quick” cars on the street, but why not be able to smoke a new GT or even beat a full bolt-on F-Body? Ultimately I want to spray about a 100-150 shot of nitrous on it, but that’s way down the road just to experiment with nitrous.
The Build:
With the help of TooTall I found a pretty good deal on some L92 heads to go on top of the LQ9. There’s a few different castings out there for L92’s so far, but the castings I ended up with are 823’s
A few days later I somehow stumbled across a smokin’ deal on a complete (intake/injectors/throttle body/fuel rail/sensors/gaskets) L92 truck intake that came off a Hummer H2. All of the L92 truck manifolds are the same no matter what truck they were in. Looking at the manifold ports it seems like we could get a flap disc and smooth out a lot of the intake track going into the heads. Maybe someday soon that would be a good Sunday project. Here’s a pic of the intake manifold when I got it
As of right now I don’t really have a budget to my build since I’m wanting to just do everything the way I want it the first time around. When I initially talked with Matt about doing the build we talked about using a running LQx shortblock just like how Car Craft did, but the more I thought about it I kind of decided on going a different route.
Although machining a block can get pretty expensive I just decided to do it anyways so I can have a little piece of mind especially once I start using nitrous. Through a little dealing with some friends I’ll be getting a LQ9/LQ4 shortblock that needs some machining. I figure that either block will do just fine since I won’t be using the pistons and likely won’t be using the rods either. Forged pistons and forged rods will be solid and give me the strength I need to either throw a blower on it or spray a healthy shot of nitrous too. I haven’t made up my mind yet about what pistons/rods I will be using, but I won’t be taking the cheap route. If I’m going to take my time building this motor I might as well do it right.
For now, this is my “build tally”:
L92 Heads / 823 Casting complete with valves and springs installed, brand new – $580.00
L92 Intake Manifold / Complete with injectors, fuel rail, 90mm throttle body, and all sensors/gaskets – $125.00