Built motor considerations

[Vashthe3rd]

I'm thinking about strengthening the motor but I don't have the time/money/desire presently to pick up a fully forged shortblock, the main interest is just giving the engine a safer ceiling in power by swapping the crappy toothbrush rods for good ones and in turn probably turn up boost to 11/12 psi.
I understand it's not very cost effective to tear down the block to change individual parts but I'd rather just save my money from fully building a motor and buy a Z06 later on and/or look into picking up a 5.4L or some other swap work for another car (RB26->240SX)
Anyway, to the point:
What are some problems I might run into in only swapping the rods, would I be better off swapping rods + pistons, what are the disadvantages of not having a blueprinted + fully balanced motor like a shortblock from Livernois.
HPP has said they could get my motor to the people who built some of their race motors which will include balancing, etc.
Would it be better to just continue as I've been doing and driving around on 6-8 psi and not getting on it on 10 psi except for once a week or every other week?
Or swap the rods and maybe pistons and just beat the car like it owes me alot of money?
The tune on the car is nice and safe with a nice even 11-11.4 A/F so I'm not extremely worried, I'm just trying to see what would be more cost effective in a long run. I'd rather not save myself the couple grand now and end up paying for a brand new shortblock.

 

[Hawgman]

HPP meaning who?

If you are going to go to the trouble to tear it down common logic would dictate replacing pistons, rings, etc along with the rods. But I do understand where you are coming from. Also, if you swap pistons, you are going to want to have the cylinders cleaned up before putting it back together. You shouldn't (I mean, you can, but you SHOULDN'T) just pull your factory pistons out and put new ones in.

 

[Vashthe3rd]

HPP racing to clarify

and yea, I'd clean up the engine during the tear down and I can see how picking up pistons, etc. on top of rods would be a good thing. I just feel like the stock pistons would be fine for leaving the car where it is or an adding extra pound or two of boost worth of power.
What if any problems would there be with giving the stock pistons stronger rods? Other than the fact that it's just asinine to swap 1 component of the rotating assembly.

 

[Dex]

Dont keep the stock pistons. those suck just as much as the rods. I would just spend the extra 6-900 on a new forged crank if you taking the motor out.

 

[05yellowgt]

The factory pistons only have a top ringland thinkness of like 0.125 where the valve reliefs are cut. NOT what you want for a boosted application. Just save up your pennies for a set of forged pistons while you are tearing it apart and you will be just fine with the stock crank up into the 600rwhp range.

 

[MexGT]

you will end up buying an entire new shortblock ....

 

[don_w]

IMO, don't try to go cheap. It will cost you more in the long run. Like the saying goes: Why is there never enough money to do it right, but always enough to do it twice?

 

[Hawgman]

I'm thinking about strengthening the motor but I don't have the time.......

HPP racing to clarify

I got nothing but love for Manny, Scott, and crew. But you do realize that wanting something done in a reasonable amount of time and HPP do not go in the same sentence together, right?

 

[Wyld]

I got nothing but love for Manny, Scott, and crew. But you do realize that wanting something done in a reasonable amount of time and HPP do not go in the same sentence together, right?

LOL That is the truth... they are busy

 

[KIMMER]

If you don't ever plan on going over 600rwhp, the stock crank is very strong and will work fine, but you will need pistons and connecting rods. Most people will go ahead and do the crank anyways to be on the safe side. I don't think i've seen any cranks break under 650rwhp so far, but most at that power have a forged crank too. If someone's got some crank carnage pics, I guess we could start that carnage pics thread...lol.

 

[jsawyer]

Just like the otheres said stock crank is good past 600