I've had my 03 Evo VIII for about two years now but I'm still fairly new with the inside of these engines and have a lot of questions. So far it's all bolt ons with hks 272s running 400whp at 24psi. I plan to keep the car as a weekend warrior and want to know the best way to set up the bottom end. As of now my plans are to just put ACL main and rod bearings and either CP or JE 86mm pistons but that's all i know so far. What do i do for clearances?

I've done a little research and was thinking

piston to wall: .004
mains: .0015-.002
rod bearings: .002-.0025
thrust clearance: .003-.005
rod side clearance: .004-.006

Another thing is I'm taking my A/C out and was wondering what have others done. Do I get a new belt for w/out A/C? Or is there an A/C delete bracket made to go in place of the compressor? and where would i get either?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Provide us with a full list of modifications to begin with.

 

TJ, what are you going to use your car for, mainly?

I will be using my IX pretty much just for track use, Portland International Raceway (PIR) on their 1.9 mile course.

Seems like a lot of Evo users are 1/4 mile guys. So the 2 set-up's are very different.

Dennis

 

and you can get a lot of reliable power out of the stock motor before you need to start tearing down the motor.

 

very true....400tq is when mellon says they want some head studs at a minimum. If you are happy with the 400 you have now then I'd just leave it alone. I know a few guys running about 450+ with stock bottom ends. We'll see how they hold up.


For your AC question yeah you will remove your ac and then get a new belt. It's really easy and there's probably a write up on here. If you run into problems PM me and I know a guy that has done this and can get you in contact with him.

 

my goals for this motor is around 450ish? I have an ACT 6 puck clutch but the rest is OEM drivetrain. Is this still safe?

my mod list is:
K&N intake
AMS headers 3"DP perrin test pipe and Borla cat back
Garrett Gt3076r
Perrin FMIC
MBC
Walbro 255lph
680cc Injectors
HKS 272s
Vishnu Xede

This setup has worked well for me but i began getting noises like rod knock last fall so i decided to do it myself. I've built small block 350s before in school but i wanted to make sure i do this right.

I plan to use the car as a mild road course weekend warrior but still be streetable.
Also with this build i plan on ARP studs and new valve springs but not sure on what kind yet.

 

I'd look to ditch the xede and stick with the capabilities of the stock ecu via open source tuning

the stock motor can handle 450 whp

many members push them much further than that

headstuds wouldn't be a terrible idea

upgrading the valvetrain is only necessary if your cams require it or you are revving over 7600 rpm

 

what he said lol

 

Alright, thanks guys..how's it look as far as clearances go? And i'll leave the tuning stuff go to the guys at CBRD. Anyone looking for an Xede? ha