Hello, I'm new to the forum, and I got my camaro for free from a friend the only downside is that its an auto, the engine is apart, needs new piston bearing, needs a camshaft, crankshaft is rusted...

the block is reman, the heads are new still in the package, pistons are used, valvetrain i want to replace that, and idk

my power goals are 400+ whp and 400+ ft/lb
i want to do it under 3000
i want it to be street legal and semi-reliable but it wont be my DD













my thought is to make a track car
get comp cams with new valvetrain ~600
buy a new crank or get mine machined new crank ~300
turbo piping, IC, BOV, wastegate, and exhaust ~1000
lsd ~400
MTX swap just guessing around ~500
i have a t3/toe4 turbo and a haltech FMU

how much whp can a stock motor make safely? how much hp can the tranny take and how much work will this be?

i did an engine and tranny swap and did a custom wiring job and had only a few fitment issues with little things like throttle cable, hoses, etc. but the engine and tranny bolted right up

 

400whp is not going to happen with a v6 and $3000; 300 whp would probably be a stretch as well.

LS1 cars are blowing up the rear ends under stock power; ~320ish whp. You will need at least a 9" or 12 bolt. The 4L60E will also need to be built to handle that power. With just those two things alone, your $3000 budget is gone. Even on a LS1 car, it takes a couple grand to break 400whp reliably.

Best get in contact with MusicMan as he has a built V6 and can fill you in

 

thanks man, 400 is optimistic if i have to go forged the price will start climbing up

i have a 2.0l boosted pushing close to 250 whp
so i was hoping a 3.8l boosted would be close to 400

 

Failed Devices pretty much said it all, but since you're shooting for a track car, instead of working strictly on increasing horsepower, look into cutting weight on the car too. Power to weight ratio is the biggest thing when it comes to racing. Anything you can do without, get rid of.

 

In order to reliably boost your 3.8L, and boost it more than a few pounds, forged internals will be a requirement. Add in the cost of that, the cost of custom fabbing an FI setup, and all the other requirements (the trans and rear being the biggest two) your budget is gone.

Take some weight out as Coconuts said, do some bolt ons and do some suspension work to make it handle better; these cars are great fun when they really stick to the road well.

 

I know your car may be a slightly different platform than mine, but save yourself the hassle and get a v8. I love my v6 but I've seen fully built v6 f-bodies only making like 265-280hp. A stock lt1 is making that much power. Starting with a v8 is going to save you a TON of money in the long run. Trust me. I know... I've sunk over a grand into making my v6 fast and it's no faster than it was when I started. Not significantly at least. You can find a wrecked lt1 car for cheap. Hell I've even seen wrecked LS cars going for $2000. That's EVERYTHING you'll need to do a ls/lt swap. I plan on doing my v8 swap in fall when i get some more money rolling. I wish you the best of luck

 

Thanks for the input guys

I'm still doing research on turbo builds though

 

A nice turbo build is always way more impressive than a bolt on v8 IMO. Yeah it may still not be as fast but it's a lot more work and love you have to put into it. If you do a turbo build, plan on doubling your $3000 budget.

 

if i can craiglists some forged internals i think i could keep a 3000 budget

i read that the MAF tops out around 15-18 psi is that right? and do you need a FMU if you stay under that range?

 

I don't know much about building turbo systems. You'll want to pm music man for those questions. He's built a very successful 3800 turbo car.