How much nitrous?

Blackwizard22

Frequent Racer
Feb 26, 2007
453
0
0
NJ
How much nitrous can my engine and combo safely handle?

350 one piece
4 bolt mains
Cast steel crank
LT1 powder rods
LT1 Hyper pistons with moly rings
Vortec bowtie heads
hydraulic roller cam - 108lsa [email protected] .530/.530 lift
rpm air gap
holley 650 dp
Hei
SFI flexplate
3000 TCI converter (no anti-ballooning)
Th350 with kevlar bands, hardened sprag race, kolene steels, alto red clutches

Lets not take the rear into account
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Personally I don't like spraying any engine w/ Hyper pistons. I wouldn't go over 150..........
 

ProJunk

Dragway Regular
Sep 12, 2006
902
0
0
Glendale, AZ
The short block itself can safely handle 150-175 h.p. without any problems provided your tune-up is correct and your fuel system will keep up. I've seen 300 h.p. sprayed a stock bottom-end LT-1 and hang in there for a surprising amount of time, but I wouldn't recommend it. Ring end gap is one of the biggest factors when spraying on hypereutectic pistons. Hypereutectic pistons retain a lot of heat, and require wider-than-normal ring gaps when used with nitrous because of the heat/expansion factor. Also, detonation on the bottle will quickly destroy hypereutectic pistons, so make sure you use plenty of fuel octane and remove a generous amount of timing to keep it safe.

Here's your other limiting factors with your specific combination:

1) The 1-piece rear main seal block is generally reliable up to the 550-600 h.p. range, maybe a bit more with billet caps and proper block prep. With nitrous, you're going to be right on the edge of the long-term reliability of that block. I've seen many crack in the lifter valley area as the casting is typically very thin there compared to earlier blocks.

2) The RPM Air Gap is a great intake, but you generally don't want to go much over 150 h.p. of N2O with a dual-plane manifold. You can run into distribution issues between cylinders with a large plate system on a dual plane intake.

3) The cam isn't a nitrous grind with it's 108 lobe separation. That's not a big problem, as 150 h.p. systems work really well with a cam on a 108, but you'll find that you'll usually gain very little in actual performance if you spray much over 150-175 h.p. with a 108 cam. It also looks like you have a single-pattern grind, which will limit performance improvements with nitrous. Nitrous likes everything bigger on the exhaust side of the engine, typically with a 10-14 degree spread between the intake and exhaust duration.

I'm not knocking your combo... your car should run very well on the motor and respond well to a 150 h.p. system. Just stay conservative on the tune-up and don't get greedy with the h.p. setting in the plate and you'll be fine.
 

Blackwizard22

Frequent Racer
Thread starter
Feb 26, 2007
453
0
0
NJ
I went with a single pattern cam because the heads were ported on the exhaust side and flowed 253 intake/ 205 ex. @ .525.

Anyway I am looking more into just breaking into the 12s with the car. I runs great now but I haven't taken it down the strip yet. The max nitrous I would ever put to it would probably be a 100 shot so now I know it can handle it. It wasn't built for nitrous so the ring gaps aren't wide and the cam is a single pattern.

I figure a 100 shot should put me in the 12s easy.
 

ProJunk

Dragway Regular
Sep 12, 2006
902
0
0
Glendale, AZ
With the right rear gear ratio and a decent 60-foot time, that combo should probably put your car in the high 12's on the motor. 100 h.p. worth of nitrous should get you in the high 11's if you can get the car in the 12's on the motor. You've got a good combo.
 

Blackwizard22

Frequent Racer
Thread starter
Feb 26, 2007
453
0
0
NJ
It has a 3.73 posi with 27" tires. It pulls real hard. Like I said it hasn't been to the track yet, Im hoping for high 12s but I'll see what she does.
 

ProJunk

Dragway Regular
Sep 12, 2006
902
0
0
Glendale, AZ
If you have the hood clearance for it, your engine might like a 1" open carb spacer. The RPM intake usually responds well to this type of spacer on an engine such as yours.
 

Blackwizard22

Frequent Racer
Thread starter
Feb 26, 2007
453
0
0
NJ
ProJunk said:
If you have the hood clearance for it, your engine might like a 1" open carb spacer. The RPM intake usually responds well to this type of spacer on an engine such as yours.

Thanks, using the stock hood right now though and it barely fits. Ill keep it in mind though!
 

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