Alright, i have been debating this back and forth for a long time now. i have both sitting in my garage micro-polished and ready to go. A year ago i would have no issues running the LS crank, but now im a bit timid. I have had 2 turbo builds on my GSR block im going to use, both using LS cranks, and i ruined both cranks in less then a year due to spinning rod bearings. I have a fear/feeling for some reason the GSR block is not oiling the LS crank correctly so i was going to go back to the GSR crank w/ oil squirters and all the stuff etc. I know w/ the LS crank in my setup i would have 11.79:1 CR and GSR 11.55:1 CR.

Should i try and run it again for a third time and hope it all goes well, or should i not worry about losing a few HP and displacement points and run what i have had success with in the past? Im looking for opinions on this with something to back it up.

Thanks

 

did you use arp rod bolts and new bearing on your two turbo builds?

 

yessir. replaced the oil pump both times as well.

 

What bearings and clearances did u use, what HP were u pushing, and was it a DD?

 

i was using acl bearings and thrust washers and the clearances were within spec of OEM tolerances. I was making 350whp 260tq on a gsr w/ LS internals and b16 head on 14psi.

yes it was a DD, and i babied it most of the time.

 

what rpm were you spinning to? stock rod bolts?

 

No, that was just covered. arp rod bolts, rods shot peened, acl bearings. turned it to 8200rpm. nothing crazy.

 

Its a stumper i know, its so ****ing irritating. its the reason i scrapped my turbo build for now til i get my other block sleeved and all the goods. I have been building motors for 6 years now, hondas and chevys, never had this problem except this one setup. I seriously think it has somehting to do w/ the LS crank in the GSR block. nothin is different other then the deck height, but that shouldnt matter.

 

To b honest the deck height isn't even different (maybe .02"). I'm guessing u was using the ACL race bearings too. I would b interested to know if u would still have a problem using Clevite P-series breaings and set the clearance to .002". I'm also wondering if the timing was just a slight bit to advanced. What exactly happened to the cranks u trashed? Out of round on the sides?

 

You got something else wrong, the GSR block oils the mains just like any other block. The crank is the same darn thing as far as the main journals and thust surfaces, its just the stroke that makes it different and thats only 4mm. You have an issue with something else in your build and it will likely happen again with the GSR crank if not figured out.

 

There is a slight difference in the deck height, but that should not be a problem at all. I used a set of ACL's and a set of Kings, both spun. Timing would also not be the issue, it was dyno tuned and timed. The cranks were trashed cause the nickel coating in the journals was scuffed too badly to polish w/o having to run an oversized bearing of some sort.

See and that my worry, i have NO CLUE what it could be. I have had the line hone checked out by the machine shop more then one once and had the clearances checked as well. I changed the oil pump both times i had it apart for a BRAND NEW one from honda and cleaned out the oil pick-up. Its a huge stumper to me and i never had this problem w/o the turbo. The only thing i can think of is i never got around to installing an oil restricter on the turbo so maybe the oil was moving too quicky, burning through the bearing making them dry at high rpm. once again i dont know for sure.

 

OK, well we don't want to question any tuners timing setting then.. So the journals were all still perfectly round tho? On ur bearings u did use the race series tho (from ACL and King)?

 

I used the ACL race series and the king regular series. The journals were round on the crank, just torn apart too bad to get machined and be usable again.

I get my car tuned by James at Speedfactory here in WA, by far one of the best tuners in thE NW, hint their shop car with 1000+whp he tunes. I know im in good hands there. Im debating whether i should get a different block or not.

 

The thing I was thinking is the embedance on the race bearings suk (that's y they r race bearing). If u get the crank machined it won't hurt to use oversided bearings if ur only wanting 400-500 hp, u can get bearings up to .030" oversided. If u think it's the block, which I really couldn't c it being, and u can get another one for a good price then go with it. Only think I could think of is the caps floating, the rods r out of round, or the clearance is tighter than what it would like.

 

Well this motor is only going to be a poor mans r type build to get my car running til i get my other motor built. I have another GSR block that is being sleeved by GE and bored to 84mm for boost. The build im doing with this block is:
82mm bore
p30 pistons, gsr/ls crank and rods
B16 head w/ ITR cams and S2 gears (light pnp)
and all the other components dont really matter

If it WAS the LS rods then i had 2 separate shops bullshit me for re-rounding them when the arp bolts were put in.

I think im going to do an old school dragger trick (picked up from building small block chevs w/ my pops) and loctite the bearings to the rods. I have heard of this being done on 700+whp cars all the time. Figure it wont hurt.

 

Yeah, it's worth a shot, interested to know how it work for ya.