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I'm running 40s but before that fit 38s will just a leveling kit on my 2500

 

Ice road by Inuvik.

 

Good looking truck!

 

wow Inuvik, that like crazy north. Sweet looking truck, I thought that Fort Mac was north.

I saw this on FI tech website, comes with a 3 bar map sensor. AKA boost friendly

https://fitechefi.com/products/70051/

You can find a cheap LQ4/4L80E (cheap LS 6.0 Litre and cheap bullet proof trans, out a 2005 ish chevy 2500) and run a turbo. Probably 400-500rwhp depending on how you set-up the tune or what fuel you run, as is.

 

Thanks!

Fort Mac as the crow flies is not too much farther than where I live. That trip was the last year for the ice road to Tuktoyaktuk, as they were finishing an overland route. So almost spur of the moment I decided to take the trip, see a little of the Yukon and North West Territories, so I went to Tuk and Aklavik among other places. I figured I wouldn't get another chance to say that I drove on the Bering Sea. And the truck was ready for a good trip with chance of adventure.

I like what you're saying about the 6 litre, but around here, a lot of the 2005 Chev/GM trucks will be around 300 000 km or close to 200 000 miles. Getting miled out, and guys will still want too much. Then a turbo set up, would probably set me back $3500.

​​​​​​Getting a lower mileage engine, freshening one up, and adapting it would have to be pretty close to a built 408.

 

Somehow all the talk of GM drive trains seems to be getting away from the "Budget" part of the thread.

 

Skimmed the thread quick. Couple things I want to throw my $0.02 on.

Budget: you really need to think about a dollar amount you would like to spend. If you're wanting a 408 build, yeah you'll need the whole shebang. Crank, rods, pistons. You COULD get away with swapping stock rods over to new pistons but being they're pressed, the labor to do that will likely run higher than the cost of new rods. Now, looking at MAGNUM specific stroker kits you have 2 options: Eagle with cast crank and Eagle with forged crank. The Eagle cast cranks have issues breaking so don't even consider one an option. The forged kit is about $2200. That's before machine work. I just got my block back from the machine shop for my build and it cost a pretty penny for about the same level of work or even slightly less. Stroker will need bored, honed, line honed, assembly balanced. On top of that, depending on the compression level you're shooting for you'll need to measure how far in the hole the pistons are and machine the deck surface accordingly.

My build I'm using a stock crank, forged H-beams and forged flat-tops, converted to 4 bolt main, bored 0.030 over and decked the block 0.045 to have my pistons 0.006 in the hole. I'm going to come out to about 11.1:1 365ci. I got a pretty good deal on some of the work but so far I've paid $1825. Now, that includes having the heads gone through and checked, valve job and new valves. And I need to have my rotating assembly re-balanced because I had a part mixup and it was balanced with Eagle I-beams that are 500hp/6000rpm rated instead of the Scat H-beams I need. Sucks but that's the kind of crap that happens when the machine shop owners fire their machinist and you have to find another shop mid-machining (it's been a nightmare but I found a good one now lol). If you buy an assembly for an LA you'll just need to make sure everything gets balanced with the flexplate and balancer you're going to use but those kits run anywhere from about $1200 to $3000 or so.

Heads: you mentioned using Edelbrocks. That's going to cost another $2000 AT LEAST. You can buy the heads pre-assembled but you really shouldn't ever use an out of the box head without having them inspected so plan on paying for at least a tear-down, inspection and re-assembly. I'm using Edelbrocks as well because of my compression and future boost plans. Along with that inspection, include a bowl CC check. They're advertised at 58cc chambers but many often come out to as high as 61-64cc. Maybe Edelbrock does this intentionally so when machine shops shave them for true-ness they come out to 58 but yeah, something to be considered. Mine came out to 57.6cc but I bought them used from a guy that used to work in a machine shop so who knows on mine. The EQs and valve guide issues is a pretty isolated thing. That comes back to people using out of the box heads which tend to have tight guides and some well known machine shops not using a brass guide and instead just machining the head so it doesn't use a guide, just steel valve on iron walls. Tends to gall. If you purchase a bare set of heads and have the machine shop work them the right way you won't have any issues.

For an intake manifold I would just go straight to a Hughes Airgap. Thing is available new and well proven as a good piece. For the talked about application of a torque heavy but good smooth driving engine it would be perfect. The 2bbl m1 wouldn't be a bad option either but I wouldn't bother. The Airgap tends to make a little more low-mid range torque vs the 2bbl making a little more hp on the top end. Neither is anything significant over the other but the big reason I would go Airgap is cost and options. Airgap is $600 new. 2bbl M1 is only available used and good luck finding one for less than $625-650 before shipping and none of the install hardware. As for the options thing, the Airgap offers you the ability to run a carb setup, a 4bbl throttlebody for EFI or a factory style 2bbl throttlebody for EFI. It's really your preference there. My recommendation would be tuning from FlyinRyan and either 4bbl or 2bbl throttlebody setup. For ease of install and tuning, probably the 2bbl. The 4bbl stuff can be a pain in the *** if you don't have a few hard to find parts. Tuning wise you'd need to consult further with him or whoever you choose but you'll need a wideband 02 sensor and probably about a #30 injector. Fuel pump should be fine below about 500whp. If your tuner says that you won't need a wideband...you'll need a new tuner. Your superchips will only do for a very very mild build and by very very mild I mean a tiny camshaft and stock heads. A cam so small that displacement makes it lazier than the stocker. Which brings me to my next novel.

Camshaft and compression. The cam you choose is also going to play a large role in what you need tuning wise and what you can get away with compression wise. They're super complicated but to put it plainly and simply, the more overlap you have the more compression you can get away with. Overlap will actually tend to bleed off cylinder pressure which is the big problem with high compression or crap gas. That in conjunction with cylinder head material will make a huge difference. Generally as an example, 10:1 with aluminum is like 9:1 with iron because of the way they dissipate heat between firings. Cam choice would best be decided with advice from a tuner or cam manufacturer based on your truck's weight, usage, etc.

There's a ton of different ways to go about things. Heads, cams, intakes, displacements, aspiration, engine make. You need to decide which is the best route for you and how much you're willing to spend and do for it.

 

Maybe on an all out high HP build or one where I need to swap a transmission also the GM might make sense. But I see savings quickly eaten up by having to rebuild a GM, adapting to the transmission, or shelving my built transmission, then building driveshafts and motor mounts.

But all suggestions welcome.

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I don't think I'll be able to run the stock rods, as they'll be too long for a stroker crank.

I've heard that guys have had issues with cast cranks breaking, but then I've also heard of stock cast cranks supporting 700 HP.

Granted with a stroker, it'll be more force on the crank given the same rpm. I will likely follow the builder's suggestion(s) on what I'll need for that. With Eagle recommending forged cranks at over 500 HP for their stroker cranks, I feel that I should be safe with a 450 HP engine. Not sure where it will turn out. Might be a bit over, or might not even break 400. Going for an overall torque curve than peak numbers.

Probably fall a bit under 10:1 compression. EQ aluminum heads sound like they'd make the most sense after having the machine shop go through them. I don't think there is any advantage to messing around with stock iron heads, and don't recall any aftermarket iron heads.

Cam profile again would be more or less decided by a builder or cam shop after plugging in the numbers. Since it's not going to operate at very high rpm 98% of the time, I'll favour a higher lift, short duration.

Budget is hard, and the numbers are always moving. Want to maximize my value without scrimping. So far if I have my shop here install the engine, and pull the old one, that alone would be about $2000. Might do that part myself, or more likely enlist a friend to assist. The build looks like somewhere around $7000-$8000 for what I am after. The goal of the thread is paring down the 2nd cost.
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