Hi i have 96 2 door 5 speed, its had the whole interior torn out from when i was gonna make a circle track car. That was about a year ago and i'm tired of my 12mpg truck, so i figured id get the cavalier up and running. I plan on doing a smoothed engine bay and wire tuck. I want to run a m62 or m90 and use a megasquirt 2 piggy backed off the stock ecu for fuel only. My question is, how much hp can the different parts of the stock rotating assembly handle? I want it to be about 300hp. I'm thinking either A.) keep my crank, get new stock pistons, get the crank and pistons cryo treated, and get forged connecting rods. B.) get new crank and pistons and get them cryo treated and run forged rods. or C.) get forged everything. what do you guys who have built boosted ln2s think?
This is a post from one of my forum questions, I think it will give you great insight to achieve your goals. My original post is under performance titled "LD9 Upgrade" for the the rest of the posts.
-Z Yaaaa-<is the original poster
oh man i hate to do it but i have to disagree. first off on the reliability part.... stock LD9's have a hard enough time staying together even without the added stress of boost. sure there are a handful of LD9's that have stood the test of time. but for the most part, they die often. lol its just a fact. and secondly i dont know how anybody can claim a well built all motor LD9 would not be reliable. to my knowledge there are but three documented builds that hit 13's na. karo (his motor never blew), paul (his 13 second motor never blew), and aj burson, which i dont know if his did or not. i dont think so, though. so the ratio of built reliable 13 second LD9's that have blown up to the ones that have stayed together bodes much better on the side of reliable.
in my book a "well put together" turbo kit is going to run just as much as building a 13 second capable n/a LD9.. if not more, actually. Depending on what you can find in your local junkyard in terms of LG0 parts a 13 second capable LD9 build could really only need forged high compression pistons and some port work to the head to "get there" so-to-speak. i firmly believe that a SBE LD9 is capable of 13's with a 2.3 oil pump swap and a thinner head gasket to bump up the compression some. i doubt anybody will ever prove that possible though, unfortunately.
we wont get into suspension components and tire setups because quite frankly to run 13's in a j-body you need this stuff on lock down anyway so the debate that one posibly doesnt need the setup is moot.
where is this "unless you have deep pockets" stuff come from for an na LD9? far as i know it'd take a set of $600 dollar pistons, a ported head, a good tune, and a bunch of bolt ons in a 2500 pound with driver car to get there. its actually pretty damn easy if you sit down and iron out all the details. its not rocket science. the LD9 loves high compression. the LD9 loves air flow mods.
zwolf guy - if you wanna do custom cams thats up to you but honestly, to run 13s, they are un-needed. a set of HO LG0 cams is all you need to get there. they are a proven mod. have been time and time again, over and over again. they work well with a turbo, they work well with N/A.
recipe for 13s N/A =
high compression pistons (final SCR around 10.5:1 is all that is needed)
2.3 oil pump swap
ported head. the exhaust side needs opened up at least. you can do this yourself if you want to save money.
header. bills/stans 4-2-1 or a ron siebenick 4-1, or hell i bet even a pacesetter would do the trick
3" exhaust. either side exit or all the way to the back. either setup with a good flowing muffler or none at all.
HO cams, valve springs/retainers, lifters
HO intake manifold/tb and an intake of some type with a good flowing air filter or veloscity stack.
TUNED ECU.
thats it. you dont need to waste money on stainless valves or bronze guides. you dont need engine mounts. you dont need coil swap conversions. you dont need gimmicks and other bs.
get the air in and out. allow the computer to work for you, not against you, and get your ass out there and beat the @!#$ piss out of it night after night. impress all the haters. done, done, and done.
Z doesn't mean last, it just lapped A.
