Curious to see the most horsepower someone has on their daily-driven stock block evo? Also, how long have they had this set-up and what mods? Any issues they have ran into?
Yes, I've used the search and only found stuff pertaining to the evo's internals max horsepower where people are asking for a stock block limit. I am more asking for their experiences.
Thank you

 

So what exactly are you looking for then? lol People run FP reds and 35R's all the time on daily drivers, i would guess 450whp. You should be good for a while but at that point i would be saving for a built motor.

 

+1. I have been curious about the same thing. Not weather the motor can handle it, but more about personal experiences and specifically reliability issues that have been encountered. For example, how long was that 35R run until you had to rebuild the motor? You have been running the green for how many miles? What has maintenance been like? More wear and tear? What parts? and how severe? I realize this varies from individual to individual, and that is what I curious about! Personal experiences with these setups, reliability, maintenance, and how did you use the car, beat it up bad, or baby it?

 

450 is pretty safe daily and beating on it too if the tune is in check.. 500 can last a while as well if you dont race every car at every light.. I can usually tell which of my customers can make a 500+ HP motor last and the ones that wont be happy til they push it and it blows..

Mike

 

450 seems like a good safe limit for a reliable and safe daily driver. This is particularly the case if you are using E85 or alcohol injection on top of pump gas.

We have seen many customers making 500 on the stock bottom end but I would feel less confortable about doing so over long term use.

At anything over 500 whp - a set of drop in pistons and rods should be something that customers seriously consider.

Al

 

why dont alot of people like to do drop in pistons with out honing the cylinder???? ^^

 

Hmm interested in this topic too trying to get 375 whp without sacrificing realibilty, want a vehicle that will travel distance same as stock but with the extra kick.

 

Look at STM's "ricer". They went 142 mph, so they were pushing a lot more than 500 whp, and they had like 4 seasons of use on that car, at least 2 of which were 35r seasons. When taken care of, these motors will last.

On my neon (stock motor SRT4), I made 400 whp on a dynojet, and 500 on nitrous, and that motor never let go on me. I believe its all in the tune, and the preventative maintenance. If Emery had ARP rod bolts, or didn't miss that shift, I would bet that motor would still be good today!

--mark

 

Any other high horsepower daily driven stock block evos?

 

at this time most people just end up building there bottom end.so there really no point. i wouldnt do drop in pistons. mind as well just build the block while u got the head off. makes it that much easier. thats my opinion tho!

but im going for my tune real soon. soo keep any eye open ill post up what i put down with my set up on stock block hoping close to or even 500 on stock block! thats my goal. but i dont daily my car. drive it on nice days. and take good care of my car.

 

We have done dozens of successful drop in builds

If the car is low mileage and no scoring on the bores you can use a light hand hone and get great results from many of the good quality drop in pistons like Buschur (JE), Weisco and Ross, etc

By just dropping in the pistons you save the labor to R & R the trans and short block which can add a significant amount to the job not to mention machine shop charges etc

While the ideal and best route is to take out the block and have the pistons matched to the bores and use a deck plate, there are many customers who want the strength of a built bottom end and also who do not have the funds to invest in a total engine build and R & R

While the drop in method is not the best or ideal approach it has shown great results in many cases

In only ONE expample we have seen one customer did not have a satisfactory result with drop in pistons due to excessive noise and we have to remove the engine and go oversize and have the bores machined

IMHO - it is far worse to leave the stock pistons and have them break - and possibly destroy the entire block and crank in the process - than to do the drop ins

I guess what I am saying is that drop ins may be well suited to the customer with a more limited modification budget

Hope that makes sense

 

thxs AL^^ makes good sense

 

Is anyone concerned with piston/wall clearance with drop in pistons? I mean the stock piston/wall clearance is a bit tighter then they should be for forged aluminum pistons I would think. Most forged pistons require .003-.004" wall clearance for the expanding aluminum forged pistons. I would be a bit nervous about doing "just drop ins with a hone job" Unless you are measuring the bores with a bore gauge during the hone process, but even at that it's nearly impossible to get the bores perfectly straight with just a ball hone.
I dunno, maybe I'm just rambling but I would never feel comfortable just dropping in a set of JE's or Ross pistons without setting the wall clearance correctly.

On topic I don't have dyno numbers on my new setup, but prior to the new setup I did 431whp and 457wtq with the stock turbo, 14k miles like that and no problems. Now I am pushing a tad over 500whp since the car has gone 10.95 @130mph with the new setup, so far it's been good and I've beat the **** out of it. Do I recommend it? Not really as every car is different, I've seen 420whp evo's spit rods while 550whp hold up, it's a toss up, and really depends on how it's tuned really and how it's setup.

 

I always assumed that the pistons termed "drop in" pistons were built slightly undersized so that the clearance would be okay with a stock bore. People seem to differentiate "drop in" pistons from "stock bore" pistons.

I have seen a case of someone installing stock bore pistons in a block that was honed with a ball hone and it dragged the pistons.

 

Even on e85 we've seen a few stock bottom ends destroyed by faulty stock rods at or around 460 whp. Personally I wouldn't go much past 450 whp without cringing everytime I hit peak boost, especially if I had a 9 turbo, or an FP turbo. Like Al mentioned above there's some guys who can destroy a stock block on 400 whp and others who can make 500+ and be okay. We've got one Evo here in Colorado that's at 550 whp on the stock bottom end. Then again the car's only got 15K miles on it. So really for you guys looking to push it past 450 whp on a stock bottom end I'd be cautious, especially if the car's already got a lot of miles on it. My only advice to anyone looking to really push the stock bottom end is that I'd make damn sure you've got a good tune. And I'd tune it to make more whp than torque since it's the torque that ends up breaking these rods and rod bolts. And if you're planning on goin the Nitrous route all I can say is you better order your replacement block from Buschur right now.

Currently I stand around 390 whp on my stock 8 turbo. Planning on putting in my M2 cams and BC Valve Springs here in the next month. I'm looking to be right around 420 whp when it's all said and done. I won't be replacing my 8 turbo until I get the bottom end built, period.

Lastly don't forget to let your car warm up before you hit peak boost. I've heard and seen too many guys that wanted to show off to their friends and didn't give the car enough time to warm up. Hence why the stock ecu won't let you boost till you hit full operating temp.

Good luck guys