I'm thinking about upgrading my pistons and rods and boosting about 15lbs -18lbs. Will the stock LS head be strong enough or will I have to upgrade it? Someone told me the LS head is only good fo 14psi and then I'm asking for trouble. My shop wants me to do ls/vtec with b16 head and upgraded pistons and rods but that is a lot of cash at one time. I just need to know how strong is the stock ls head for boosting. This will be for LS integra turbo. thanks

 

i dont think its a strength issue with the LS head. Its more how well the head flows. For 14-16lbs the stock head will be fine... assuming you are keeping a factory rev limiter. But headwork will definitley yield beter results. do some searching on this site there is some good info to be found

 

would I be able to boost more than 16 lbs? How would I make the head flow more? are you referring to doing an Ls vtec or do you mean get a better intake manifold (like skunk 2). If you are talking about intake manifold I thought those only make power/ tq after 7000 rpm and up? If so, how would that help me if I need my stock ls rev at 7K?

 

sure you can get 150 psi in the intake manifold, but if the head wont flow that into the combustion chambers, than you wont make power. This is why head porting on the LS heads(and stock Vtec heads) will make ALOT more power

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mr.DC2TurBo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">would I be able to boost more than 16 lbs? How would I make the head flow more? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually, if the port & polish is done correctly it will allow you to make more power at lower boost levels. Remember boost is a measure of restriction, so you'll be getting more airflow through the motor and less restriction causing higher boost numbers. So with a better flowing head (emphasis on properly done) it's possible to make more power at 12psi than you were previously at 16+ psi.

Ryan P.