I haven't blown my engine (yet), and don't plan on it. However, I do plan on getting very creative and trying to create a freak motor. I'm new to the whole concept of tuning, and the LSJ has been my trial and error car.

I was talking to friend who is a Honda tuner, but has some experience with the Ecotec's too. Somehow we started talking about the advantage of VVT. I mentioned the LSJ doesn't have it, but the LE5 does. He advised looking into it. That was a week ago. Tonight I was looking for head gasket options to avoid using Cometic when I stumbled across a thread on SolticeForum. Somebody said that all of the Ecotec heads were interchangeable with the Ecotec blocks. They also said the LE5 allows for much better airflow than the LSJ head. So, I was thinking, and please correct me if I'm wrong...

The LE5 stroke is 94mm, the LSJ stroke is 86mm. What type of problems am I looking at here?

I'm assuming a solution to the prior question would be to install a crank for a larger stroke, thereby allowing for more torque. Thereby, matched with the proper supercharger (yes, I'm staying with an sc) and the LS4 TB, I could see some good power in the bottom-end. How might I get past the intake manifold problem of being too small which is causing the air to heat up when compressed? I assume either a ported and polished manifold, or a more efficient way to cool.

What about a stroker? I've heard mention of possibly doing 104mm stroke. How would this come into play with forged pistons?

I know that in order to wind the motor up to 8k I would need valves, springs, and very likely cams that would lift the valves higher for more air intake. What are peoples thoughts on this?

After reading the Magnuson 1900 article, I can see where some of the problems lie. Instead of just pointing to the failures, what are some plausible solutions to overcome those problems?

Anybody know of a good head gasket that I could utilize? Cometic is out of the question.

What am I forgetting, or should I be aware of, when it comes to building and tuning engines? I'm slow and deliberate when it comes to doing stuff. I want to be sure that I am doing it right before/while I am doing it. Any advice/help would be appreciated. My goal is 500hp (brake or wheel). I know that I need to build beyond that due to parasitic loss from the supercharger.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

If you want VVT you must use a VVT block /discussion.

The LE5 has a 98mm stroke, and 2.4L "LSJs" have been tried before, its all just a matter of tuning.

Youd need new harnesses and PCM etc, to go VVT, along with the VVT Longblock.

 

i thought the bore x stroke for a LE5 was 88mm x 98mm?

The biggest issue you will run into is that the electronics wont be too happy, but just so you know, the LE5 head doesn't really outflow the LSJ head. All ecotec heads are within 10% of each other in flow rates from what I have seen (I haven't seen the LNF flow rates though, so the LNF head may be different)

edit: maven beat me to it. Hey maven...i think you should respond to my PM

 

GM refers to the VVT Ecotec variations as the "Gen 2 Ecotec", and what I read from that is that there may be small differences between the VVT and non-VVT Ecotecs that could be potential roadblocks. But I have no data on that; perhaps that is what Maven is referring to in his post (#2). If you could find one, maybe starting from an LAP (2.2 VVT) and using the internals of the LSJ would work? Dunno...

Of course, as mentioned above, you'd have to have an ECU that can work the VVT hardware and make the appropriate air/fuel compensations. The E67 from the LE5 could possibly do this and operate the supercharger controls; I recently started this thread exploring that very idea. It's not much more than a "thought exercise" at the moment, but do let me know if you want to explore it further.

 

Your biggest problem would be electronics. You could probably manage to get it bolted up but you would have to get a new computer and tune it. It would be an absolute nightmare.

 

All things being equal, I would agree. However, I recently did some research and put together enough "intel" that I could actually tune just such an application. I have built a Mathcad worksheet that will allow me to tune speed density values for the 2.4 VVT using the E67. I just wanted to see if I could do it.

I'm even looking into getting an E67 to run my LSJ with just for kicks. Without VVT you don't even need something as powerful as Mathcad to process the log data and tune it.