So to make this thing breathe a little better, and to compliment the CAI; I've got shorty headers, a high flow cat, and a Hipotek 52mm throttle body sitting at the house waiting to be put on. Also on the way is a SCT tuner by FRP, and a nitrous kit with 125 and 175 shots. Anyone run nitrous on stock internals? How big of a shot?

 

Uh there are a few things that go into nitrous motors. Like making the end gap on the piston rings bigger. How are you going to supply the extra fuel? You should also do some research on plugs.

 

I'll be running NGK plugs. Talked to quite a few guys that spray using factory bottom ends, general consensus is that it'll take 225-250 shots no problem, but I'm only going to 175 max for now.

 

Just about doubling output with 'no problem'? Once or twice maybe, but, beyond that, I am thinkin' you would have a really nice shrapnel generator.....

 

75 max you can run continuous. 125 twice before your engine blows. I have 650 horses without nitrous

 

Are you the guy that wanted to turn a 4021 lb. truck into a "mustang hunter"? Ok, glossing over the facts that the car you intend to hunt weighs approximately 1000 lb. less than your truck and has a fairly decent coefficient of drag while your truck has the aerodynamics of a barn. . . a high HP truck could be a lot of fun.

Unless you intend to strip the engine down, and do a ground up build specifically for nitrous, you are going to blow your engine up sooner or later if you try to run any amount of nitrous that would give you a decent performance boost. If you absolutely must run nitrous, then build the engine for it from the ground up. If you can't do that, send the nitrous back -there's another way to make the same amount of horsepower without sacrificing engine life.

You've got some good mods so far. I would make the following recommendations in order of greatest gains to least:
*Get a custom grind camshaft (which will give you a huge performance increase by itself).
*Have your heads ported and polished and a 5-angle valve job (can be good for 40 HP or more, depending on the state of tune of the rest of the engine).
*Increase your compression ratio with taller pistons. Make sure you use ARP head studs instead of head bolts if your CR is over 10:1 or your HP is over 400.
*Reduce your quench to .035" -good for only about 1.5% of total HP, but it is "mechanical octane". For every .010" reduction below .055" it simulates 1 point of octane, in other words, you can run higher compression ratio than you normally could on a certain octane, or you can run lower octane than you normally could with a certain compression ratio.
*Get current generation Bosch disk-type 4-hole fuel injectors with a higher flow rate. They atomize all the fuel (droplets between 30 and 75 microns) instead of squirting a stream of fuel. In addition to supporting a higher fuel rate, it will result in faster, better combustion that will burn more of the fuel air charge.
*Run a true-dual exhaust with an x-pipe crossover, and mufflers with "straight-through" construction design such as those made by Corsa, Borla, or Magnaflow. Dual 2.5" pipes are good for up to 463 HP, dual 2.75" is good for 566, dual 3" is good for 679.
http://www.exhaustvideos.com/faq/how...pipe-diameter/
*Get a performance intake manifold.
*Get an overkill ignition system such as an MSD. I can't remember exactly how much spark energy is generated by the stock system, but I want to say it's 38 millijoules per spark. The MSD Digital 6A i put in my truck has 135 per spark, and it sparks 6 times about 1 millisecond apart instead of a single spark. This allows you to step your spark plug gap from .040" up to .060". All other things being equal, it will burn more of the fuel air charge which of course means more power extracted per unit of fuel.
*Switch to an electric fan. Good for 10-15 HP and the engine will stay cooler than with the mechanical fan.
*Ceramic coat the inside of your headers. Eastwood makes a really nifty ceramic internal exhaust coating in an aerosol can with a 2 foot long flexible nozzle for like $30. It will allow less heat to be absorbed by the headers, which means lower under hood temperatures and higher initial exhaust gas velocity -both of which add very slightly to power.

There are millions of other little things but I'm getting sleepy. I hope these help or at least are interesting. Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

In a way I wouldn't be surprised if the engine or tranny turn into a grenade. I've been talking to a semi local machine shop about a 408 build. This particular guy happens to be a mopar fan, which is a plus. So far my "parts list" is over $6k... Not including the transmission.


donor block

machine work

hughes intake manifold

Hipotek 52mm TB

36# injectors ACL 150836

ported EQ heads (.625+ lift, +.100 stems)

push rods

~594/ .595 -- .251/ .260 cam & lifters(not set on it)

forged, H beam rotating assembly ~-28 cc dish(depends)

gasket set

What I didn't mention in the OP about the exhaust was the electrics cutouts. I actually can't wait to get those on.

Years ago I had a buddy that had a guy in his "car club" that had a beat up Dakota R/T. Looked like hell, dented and rusted. Under the hood was another story. 410 CI, supercharged, nitrous, tubbed out wheel wells, awesome tranny... Kinda what I'm going for. Since I don't have a wife blowing all my money anymore; I feel like a teenager with more money than sense when it comes to truck parts lol. Seems easy to throw money at truck parts, yet also easy to bitch about the price per pound for chicken. Why I'm interested in seeing moparfanatic21's build sheet. And also interested in talking to more people that have used nitrous on stock internals. Can talk to a thousand people about the theory, still not as good as talking those with practical application experience.

 

Teach me your ways, oh master. 650 had a nice ring to it.

 

Thanks for the input.

 

Those talking shrapnel must be unaware of the Dakota R/T guys that have been running as high as 300shots on factory bottom end for years.