[Doublewide]

Guys, my cat is running like a top but after latest rounds of mods, I'm making a hair over 1k whp and realize that at this power level I'm probably on borrowed time. My car stayed stock or near stock for the first 20k miles but has been running 895whp for the last 20k miles until this latest round of mods.. 42k total miles currently on the car.

Once I hit +/-60k miles, I'm thinking I might as well be proactive and look into building the motor. Ultimately, do you think I'd be better off getting pistons and rods for my current block or just going with a new built short block? Will likely do a cam at the same time, maybe heads too. This is not a project I will be doing myself btw as this invasive is outside my wheel house for sure.

 

[ScLeCo]

rods/pistons IS a built shortblock
a cam is a waste of money unless you just want the chop chop
heads will yield minimal gains as well.

 

[Kru510]

Guys, my cat is running like a top but after latest rounds of mods, I'm making a hair over 1k whp and realize that at this power level I'm probably on borrowed time. My car stayed stock or near stock for the first 20k miles but has been running 895whp for the last 20k miles until this latest round of mods.. 42k total miles currently on the car.

Once I hit +/-60k miles, I'm thinking I might as well be proactive and look into building the motor. Ultimately, do you think I'd be better off getting pistons and rods or just going with a built short block? Will likely do a cam at the same time, maybe heads too. This is not a project I will be doing myself btw as this invasive is outside my wheel house for sure.

Just go with a short block with main and head studs and call it the day. Cost-wise it's not going to be any cheaper my opinion unless you do your own machine work.

 

[Doublewide]

rods/pistons IS a built shortblock
a cam is a waste of money unless you just want the chop chop
heads will yield minimal gains as well.

Question is, should I just buy pistons and rods to use for my current block or just build another short block altogether? I'm thinking from a labor/cost standpoint with all the machine work involved, building my current shortblock vs starting with a fresh one that's ready to rock may not be that big of a difference? Probably less headache as well.

 

[Doublewide]

Just go with a short block with main and head studs and call it the day. Cost-wise it's not going to be any cheaper my opinion unless you do your own machine work.

Exactly what I was thinking but haven't had experience with this

 

[ScLeCo]

You shouldn't have to do any machine work. Drop in rods and pistons are super simple. A light dingleball hone and match pistons to bore and drop them in.

 

[SickToo]

Did you measure his bore 18 thousand miles from now?

Happiness is a straight round hole

8 of em even better

8 of em all the same diameter better still

I gotta have the piston in my hand before I know what that diameter needs to be

 

[ScLeCo]

Did you measure his bore 18 thousand miles from now?

Happiness is a straight round hole

8 of em even better

8 of em all the same diameter better still

I gotta have the piston in my hand before I know what that diameter needs to be

Huh?
Drop in pistons.
You send measurements.
They send you the correct size pistons.
You verify measurements.
And then drop them in..
Or am I missing something?

Now he measures and his bores are oval then yeah machine work.
But I thought the whole point of drop in pistons are that you have good bores and don't want or need to do expensive machine work.

 

[Kru510]

Question is, should I just buy pistons and rods to use for my current block or just build another short block altogether? I'm thinking from a labor/cost standpoint with all the machine work involved, building my current shortblock vs starting with a fresh one that's ready to rock may not be that big of a difference? Probably less headache as well.

Just get a short block you can always get a core for your old block if it's still good

 

[SickToo]

Huh?
Drop in pistons.
You send measurements.
They send you the correct size pistons.
You verify measurements.
And then drop them in..
Or am I missing something?

Now he measures and his bores are oval then yeah machine work.
But I thought the whole point of drop in pistons are that you have good bores and don't want or need to do expensive machine work.

Drop in means they fit a std bore

At 60k miles you throw that block in a CK10 and take the taper out of it and it’s not standard anymore

I don’t set piston to wall clearance by demanding piston comes out x.xxxx inches when CP or whoever YOU use makes them. They would never be to whatever tenth of a thou I specified. I get piston in hand and clearance the hole to whatever spec the application calls for

Same way every other experienced machinist does it

 

[Kru510]

You shouldn't have to do any machine work. Drop in rods and pistons are super simple. A light dingleball hone and match pistons to bore and drop them in.

You're crazy if you're not going to do any machine work!.. that is just nuts there's no such thing to me as a drop in piston no matter how they try to advertise it.

 

[Sarna March]

Just get a short block you can always get a core for your old block if it's still good

Will the replacement block be a "numbers matching' block, though?

 

[SickToo]

1000+ hp and yer worried about all original and matching numbers?

 

[Kru510]

Will the replacement block be a "numbers matching' block, though?

Numbers matching??? If you modified your car in anyway numbers matching won't matter. And if you're that hard up on numbers matching just keep your core and all the parts. The only hellcats I believe are worth anything numbers matching wise are the demon,daytona maybe but not sure since its a 4 door charger,super stock and even the 1320 scat pack. Notice they're all challengers. My humble opinion I don't believe the chargers are going to be worth anything much since a true collector sees the charger as a two-door including me. If you don't have any of those that I mentioned then just mod away and enjoy the car. Right now I believe my philosophy is just keeping up with the newer models horsepower wise coming out. I guess pretty much the sweet spot now is a built bottom end and a 3.0 Whipple and call it the day along with supporting mods

 

[HellcatHellYeah]

My 2015 Charger is worth $90K now, if I could only convince everyone else...

 

[Kru510]

My 2015 Charger is worth $90K now, if I could only convince everyone else...
[/QUOTE

My 2015 Charger is worth $90K now, if I could only convince everyone else...

Hahah my stripped down poverty pack base of all base model widebody challenger hellcat is worth 150k. They only made 6 in my trim...now if I could convince people I have the lightest version widebody available..... sarcasm 😀

My 2015 Charger is worth $90K now, if I could only convince everyone else...
[/Q