Improve Horsepower and Torque: High-Performance Tips For LS Engines - Engine Power S7, E16

i'm mike galley thanks for watching if you want to stay connected for more engine power just click the subscribe button below there's nothing like building big power and whether it's a boneyard build or a special high performance project there's nothing like going from mild to wild so strap in and hang on because it's about to get all ls today the focus is on the ls we're going from mild to wild on some of our favorite performance builds we're going to take a little break from the action on our 440 camaro engine build to do something different and i'm going to call it takeout tech and what that refers to is going to a salvage yard or a donor vehicle and getting a running engine for your vehicle and that can be anything from a daily driver to a hot rod or even something that you'll take off road and a very popular engine for that is this an lq4 truck engine there's a lot of parts that are available for it and it's easy to get running out of the box one question we always get asked is why don't you dyno the engine with some of the stock parts on it well that's a good point so today we're going to take and get this engine running with the minimal amount of parts we have to to get it on the dyno the easiest and cheapest way to get this bullet making steam is to carburete it so we'll start there wd-40 is used around the intake port so the o-rings in the manifold seal properly doing this dry can damage the seals this is holley's dual plane manifold for ls1 2 and 6 engines which have a cathedral style port the stock cam sensor is installed followed by the crankshaft sensor [Music] next the oem coil pack setups go on this is typically what you would get with a donor engine [Music] with the engine on the dyno stand it's rolling into the chamber we'll run it with a one inch carb spacer and a trusty little 650 cfm classic hp from holley [Music] all right we're starting this up we're going to be running it on 93 octane pump gas and the timing is going to be conservative 24 degrees total because we don't know really what's going to happen so it's going to be run from 3 000 to 6 000 rpm on the poles ready how's boring ready [Music] oh that was uh very smooth very clean this thing does have a restriction a ton of manifold vacuum let's go jammie that uh that 950 on there there's a little boost in power 414 pound feet of torque 364 horse this is literally a a donor bone stock lq4 takeout that we did the absolute minimum if you were going to put it in a hot rod or something we stuffed a carburetor on it our standalone ignition system and it makes respectable numbers the factory rockers do have a needle bearing fulcrum but not a roller tip they are a 1 7 ratio just like what we're putting on these summit rocker arms use their own pedestal stands and alignment bars they have a full roller tip and this design will improve the rocker's geometry so we shall see some decent results that was a nice looking rocker for the price too that's a yeah it's a summit rocker summit brand nice little piece everything's the same sweet timing 29 yards give her the raspberries here we go wow how about them apples not too bad 375 horse 419 pound feet and that's nine horses nine nine horse from actually about 20 minutes work yeah the stock heads come off along with a 51 000 composite head gasket since the heads are off new trick flow lifters will go back in the stock trays comedic mls steel head gaskets with a 36 000 compressed thickness are placed on the decks that makes way for one of our favorite bolt-ons the cylinder heads try 35 to 6 500 so [Music] [Music] 416 horse 440 pound feet of torque that's literally with a with a stock cam which is a little baby cam oh yeah so now you know what the next step is cam chef cam motion has been making horsepower for 40 years they're always on the cutting edge of lobe design for street cars all the way up to full-blown race applications all right the only thing we have swapped out is the cam and the timing set so everything else being the same we should see a significant increase in power with this one this is gonna be good [Music] that uh that did exactly what i was supposed to do right now 511 horse 454 pound feet of torque that is absolutely incredible this is actually pretty incredible and as far as engine building is concerned with with just literally bolting stuff on anybody can do this up next we've got the real horsepower recipe for the working man's bullet there you go when it comes down to it we're normal gear heads just like all of you now in the shop today we're gonna be assembling an engine that you've either heard or seen a lot about the 6 liter ls truck short block known as the lq4 has proven itself time and time again these short blocks can be purchased as takeouts for a little less than a thousand bucks with plenty of life left in them or you can find them remand or in basically new form for a little under 2 grand but either way you go you have a great platform for reliability and impressive power the recipe for that impressive power statement pat mentioned is fairly easy to come up with we have a stout bottom end from the factory that is ready for a killer induction package this 6 liter has a 4 inch bore and a 3 6 22 stroke which comes out to 364 cubic inches now in factory trim they were rated at 300 horsepower and 360 pound-feet of torque we're using that remand short block so we don't have to touch the rotating assembly now we're going to start off with the camshaft which is the brain of the engine and it affects several different things now it precisely controls when the valves open and close which directly influences how much power is made and at what rpm this is a trick flow hydraulic roller with a three thousand to 7000 rpm range the timing chain is also from trick flow and has nine keyway positions to help dial in the cam exactly where you want it now the oil pump hub is slid on since the timing chain is a thicker double row these spacers are used to position the pump accordingly with the shims in for proper alignment the pump is torqued into place we painted the timing cover with vht wrinkle plus for a cool look now the stock windage tray is laid in place and the oil pickup is positioned and tightened down to cap off the bottom end the pan is seated on the gasket and snug down as well these gen x 255's are known for making great power trick flow did a ton of development work on the ports so you don't have to touch them now the push rods can drop in these are trick flow pieces that measure seven 750 and have an 80 000 wall thickness these heads use a tfs rocker stand specific to this head now they require an offset intake rocker and the exhaust rockers are in line supplied fasteners will secure them they're both a factory 1.7 ratio this is holley's mid-rise ls3 carbureted manifold it has an operating range from 2500 to 7000 rpm and a 4150 square bore flange up top our trusty quick fuel technologies black diamond 950 cfm four barrel carburetor will feed at 93 octane pump gas this classy looking working man's bullet will be mated to the dyno and ready for completion all right the working man's bullet is all hooked up and ready to run on the dyno now the components we use made for super simple installation and heck we expect some pretty decent power out of this thing now we're gonna get it fired up and let it run to break in for about 15 minutes to make sure everything is doing what it's supposed to be doing and then on to some power poles few things run as smooth as a well-built ls all right that is not uh too bad why everything's time we haven't found any peaks yet but uh 455 at 5 000 and 478 pound feet of torque so we'll increase the sweep and go from 3 500 to 6 500 rpm [Applause] nice and smooth right there 540 horse 483 pound feet this thing has not found peak yet at 65. we'll drop a one inch spacer on to see how it affects our power curve and pat has a theory it's going to do one of three things it's going to make more power less power or it'll stay the same i guarantee you'll do one of those three all right here we go the spacer increases plenum volume and helps the air make a smoother transition into the intake runner oh i don't know let's see what she cranked hey there you go there it is 553 not bad not bad 487 pound feet of torque these two graphs show the runs before and after the one inch spacer it was worth 10 horsepower uh definite improvement picked up on both sides yep definite improvement let's see what the fuel looks like the fuel was affected a little bit as far as its air fuel ratio but it put it in a nice range uh it's got great oil pressure boy how's that for a bolt together engine man i'll tell you what this was the working man's bullet and right now it's making 1.49 horsepower per cube on a bone stock bottom and a little over 10 to 1. up next from the bone yard to big power we're building power on the cheap [Music] now this is a vortec 5300 lm7 ls engine it has an iron block aluminum heads and it was introduced in 1999 now this engine is known as the garden variety of the gen 3s this engine was pulled out of a silverado that met its end with a hard front end collision we were told it was a good runner with no known issues instead of just cleaning it up and dropping it in a project wouldn't you want to know its condition especially if you wanted to run efficiently for any amount of time this project is getting the badge name low buck vortec and it's for good reason we're going to tear this engine down thoroughly clean all the parts do some block upgrades and spice up the oiling system including the oil pump then the entire engine is going back together with minimal new parts when this engine was pulled pretty much everything was left intact we won't need several parts and pieces like the wiring harness so it will go first [Music] the exhaust manifolds are cast iron we will be using a set of dyno headers later so these go in the scrap bin there is some truth to the saying it's all in the pan well for as many miles as they say it's on it typical ls pan any high mileage well-used engine is going to be a little dirty you can never really tell what's going on until you tear into it man see the corrosion down in here that one looks brand new okay this is the exact reason why you tear an engine apart very slowly and look at everything because this will tell you that you have an issue it's crucial to label parts as you're disassembling any engine this is what i'm very interested in seeing yes this is the go-to moment dude look at that what the heck high mileage ls and the bearings look good wow a thorough cleaning in the jet washer will knock off years worth of grime we'll give the engine another pass in the jet washer and begin assembly one of the few new parts we're installing on this engine is a set of main bearings before installing the rod and piston assemblies lube the cylinders with break-in oil we'll also lube the wrist pins as well as the rings using a ring compressor they are gently tapped into place the fasteners are torqued to 15 pound feet then 85 degrees on our matco half inch drive digital torque and angle meter we replaced the stock cam with a cam motion ls1 stage 3 hydraulic roller this is a mild performance cam that still works with stock components the cylinder heads were installed with new stock torque to yield fasteners and torque to 22 pound feet initially then we used a torque angle meter to tighten the fasteners two rounds of 90 degrees [Music] finishing out the build is the valve train oil pan and one more aftermarket piece a holley dual plane intake manifold we're almost ready to fire up the vortec but first we need to install some electronic components first is the coolant temperature sensor followed by the cam sensor all right on our budget extravaganza here this engine requires zero break in so uh go from three to six and make a hit here we go [Applause] look at that that is used rings used rod bearings used rod bolts 337 horse 351 pound-feet of torque so now here's the thing we did this to show everybody how they could get a junkyard engine do a little tech to it and put a power adder on right again i guess the power adder is nitrous and again you know how i am a naturally aspirated guy this is a good way to do it though it really is because this is the cheapest you can do it to make the most power you can bang for the buck so uh stick that plate up do it we're running a holley sniper nitrous system which has a range of 150 to 250 horsepower depending on the size of the jet i'm arming it all right everybody all right holy crap 724 pound-feet of torque 564 horsepower for 150 shot so on our 150 000 mile we reuse pretty much everything engine i think we flirted with disaster right there but we won we wanted it this time we won all right nice nice job nice nice up next it's time to get wicked and wild with our test sled bullets we are getting ready to experience one heck of a ride around 1300 horsepower and a finished weight of just under 2 000 pounds makes for one wicked power to weight ratio and we've been getting some things ready for the engine build so now it's time to get dyno ready this is lme's highly proven 2 000 horsepower capable lsx extreme crate engine this one has a 58x reluctor wheel a wet sump boiling system and you can order this engine with a nine and a half to a ten and a half to one compression ratio just specify what you need the heads are lme's custom ls7 6 bolt cnc ported design victory dlc coated two 250 titanium intake valves and 1 600 in canal exhaust valves were specced for our application psi dr424 dual valve springs are good to 800 000 lift they use titanium retainers and machined locks the heads are located on the smaller arp outer studs and then massive arp half inch head studs are torqued in sequence to 120 pound feet using arp's ultra torque lube the stand is bolted to the head and torqued to 45 pound feet heavy duty manly 3 8 diameter push rods with a 135 thousandths wall handle the valve lifting duties stability and durability are important in the valve train lme sent us this crawler shaft rocker setup that utilizes stainless steel bodies with roller tips and trunnions the lme valve covers are machined in-house from a block of billet another block of billet is carved into lme's signature ls7 intake the intake is designed and built entirely by lme with a touch of light oil on the o-rings the manifold is installed finishing off the assembly is an ati super damper now we can roll this 427 inch lme race crate xtreme ls engine into the cell the turbo is a precision 8685 gen 2 with sportsman v bands on the inlet and outlet the 86 millimeter compressor wheel is machined from a 2618 aluminum forging this turbo has a 1 500 horsepower rating and is perfect for the street or the strip kenny dutweiler is more than just a turbo guru he is a pioneer in the performance turbo charging industry from setting records at the bonneville salt flats to having his engines burn up the streets and tracks during drag week kenny is someone everyone looks up to and trusts due to the innovation and durability of his work we're going for big horsepower and kenny is the guy to have here in 1981 kenny built his first turbo system for an underpowered stock truck the gmc dealer had a whole bunch of half tons they were all six cylinders well i would really prefer to have a 350 v8 but i needed a truck so i took the six cylinder and promptly turbocharged it well this is the moment we've all been waiting for we got kenny at the controls on the computer we've got mike on the dyno controls and i'm just here for moral support the engine has been fired up i have set the valve lash and we are ready to rock so we're going to make a baseline pull to see where we are now kenny i think we we're we're going to be it's a safe tune so we're going to make a poll and see what happens absolutely yeah it'll only get better from here he's got 92 pounds oil pressure man thank you through the run 1080 1080 horsepower 883 pound-feet of torque wow for the next run on our 427 inch lme extreme crate engine we increased the timing one and a half degrees for a total of 25 and a half we chilled the inner cooler and put our butts back in the seats for another pull and it couldn't be any cooler [Music] she did it our booth picked back up too yep 12 10. about 10. 1210 horse 993. oh my goodness gracious yes that thing made 993 at 6200 and and our power look how nice levels off oh my goodness that's beautiful 1202 1206 1206 1208 1210 1207. up to 7000. it's a good wide good wide over the top deal isn't it yes great job kenny this is awesome we hope you enjoyed these builds as much as we did and as always if you want to find out more about anything you've seen today head on over to powernationtv.com

Channel: POWERNATION

Views: 322,833

Rating: 4.9221482 out of 5

Keywords: Car, PowerNation, howto, how-to, diy, automotive, cars, trucks, automobile, do it yourself, automobiles, auto, engine build, horsepower, high performance, Tips And Techniques, engine power, ls engine, lsx, lq4, lq4 build, lm7, lm7 build, vortec, vortec lm7, junkyard vortec, ls engine build, ls, chevy

Id: U74X2MNoQLc

Length: 21min 41sec (1301 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 08 2020