As little as possible

GRN-WGN, If I was chasing 250rwkw with a vortech I wouldnt be going hardcore on the bottom end. It certainly wont hurt and will give you room to move in the future, but from what I have seen (but not what Ive done) bottom end strength wont be the issue on the I6. At 250rwkw I would be more worried about the gearbox holding up in the long run and getting a good tune.

yer i realise that it should be fine but i need to do an engine anyways, and want to have a little project if you get what i mean. just want a nice strong engine with as you say some room to move. if you guys could recommend what parts etc you would use if building an engine for these purposes that would help alot.

Well, id still be going with the balanced ACL bottom end. The pistons will set you back $400 with moly rings, add $175 to have it all balanced, bit over $100 for good bearings and the bottom end is probably good for 300rwkw.

The next step up would be forged pistons.

The next step up from there would be to prep the rods (polishing, shotpenning, ARP bolts, etc)

The next step would be aftermarket I or H beam rods.

As for the model you start with, I dont think it makes SFA difference but you may as well go for AU.

Oh, and the main reason why I would go hardcore unless I had to:

Forged Pistons, XR6 and XR6 Turbo $ 1,395.00
Billet Conrods, XR6 and XR6 Turbo $ 1,690.00

(you could find them cheaper, but still not cheap)

ok i know how to polish the rods myself but what exactly is shotpeening? will already be getting arp rodbolts fitted.

Sure there are some out there doing fine in hi kw applications but don't believe everything you read on the inter-web forums. I'm not being a smart a** about this but just read the warranty info supplied by ACL. I know of instances where the Race-Series have not held up to the task and ACL just point back to their warranty disclaimer which would suggest its not intended to be used in a boosted application. They are only a cast hyper piston and comparatively a forged set will take a lot more punishment.



point taken, i've only ever dismantled EF blocks to date. My point remains that its worth considering the EF block for this reason.



Off boost it does Depends how laggy your set up is to begin with.



As for the whole vortech kit... well you do realise that costs $ 7,995.00 from CAPA?

only here to help

shotpeening is one of many ways to treat rods to increase strength. Its kind of like sand blasting but they use different materials.

Good points, but at 1/4 the price of forged your not going to expect them to be as good. Sometimes you have to go forged, but often the ACL's will be good enough. But yeah if you have the $ and dont mind spending it the forgies will handle just about anything you can throw at them (within reason).



Isnt the BBM mechanism disabled on all factory turbo setups?

and no offence taken, but im not just going by what I have read on the net. I have worked on forced induction engines (vortech'ed windsor) and spoken to engine builders with a lot of background knowledge on I6's.

seeing as how i'm about to do mine in the next 2 weeks, would you throw oversize pistons in? (aiming 160rwkw N/A setup - block is very clean as-is)

yer i realise the kit is that expensive but i dont need most of it. so are the stock BA egas rods much stronger that stock ed rods? by the way guys i will say it again- all this is helping me make my decisions alot easier so thankyou

Have you measured the bores up yet?

I wouldnt go oversized pistons for performance, there is little to gain.

will all be measured up when it goes into the workshop, just confirming that oversize isn't worth the $$$ if it doesn't need it!