[Zaph]

Some of you guys with high power builds... at about what level did your truck stop getting more fun on the street and started becoming more of a handful? Doing some long term dreaming about my stock 02 Harley, wondering whether a pulley and a port puts you at (or close to) that level. Maybe I'm out to lunch, but I know a guy with a beautiful old blown ford pickup he hasn't driven in 15yrs and I strongly suspect it's because it scared him good... how much instant torque is managable, how much is usable?

Also, greetings! New to the forum.

 

[Dusten]

Some of you guys with high power builds... at about what level did your truck stop getting more fun on the street and started becoming more of a handful? Doing some long term dreaming about my stock 02 Harley, wondering whether a pulley and a port puts you at (or close to) that level. Maybe I'm out to lunch, but I know a guy with a beautiful old blown ford pickup he hasn't driven in 15yrs and I strongly suspect it's because it scared him good... how much instant torque is managable, how much is usable?

Also, greetings! New to the forum.

Mines not fun for a few reasons.

1) the power is completely unusable. Anytime I try to play on the streets it gets squirrelly as soon as I hit it. Sure it's fun for a second, but there's no chance to play with another car. I can blow the tires off at will at any speed under freeway speeds.

2) failure is always in the back of my mind. And unlike popping a stock motor, popping this shitstick is expensive.


I used to make around 550hp. 17lbs on a conservative pulley ratio on a 2.3 kenne bell. 92 octane. Truck ran 11.40 and was fun as fuck.

Now I make well north of 700. Trucks gone 10.60s at 4800lbs on e85.

 

[93snake]

Some of you guys with high power builds... at about what level did your truck stop getting more fun on the street and started becoming more of a handful? Doing some long term dreaming about my stock 02 Harley, wondering whether a pulley and a port puts you at (or close to) that level. Maybe I'm out to lunch, but I know a guy with a beautiful old blown ford pickup he hasn't driven in 15yrs and I strongly suspect it's because it scared him good... how much instant torque is managable, how much is usable?

Also, greetings! New to the forum.

I’m in the process of a mild( built block and TF heads) stock cams and blower 14#ish build. Should still be fun. I think and have seen some guys that start going with bigger blowers to make big power is when the street fun kinda goes away. So I say as long as you stay within limitations of the stock blower it stays fun. But that just my opinion. Dustin has a great point on spending big money on the built stuff, will make you think differently.

 

[Dusten]

I’m in the process of a mild( built block and TF heads) stock cams and blower 14#ish build. Should still be fun. I think and have seen some guys that start going with bigger blowers to make big power is when the street fun kinda goes away. So I say as long as you stay within limitations of the stock blower it stays fun. But that just my opinion. Dustin has a great point on spending big money on the built stuff, will make you think differently.

When I had a stock blower with a 6lb lower and tf heads with cams I made ~475. It was pretty good fun.

 

[Zaph]

Mines not fun for a few reasons.

1) the power is completely unusable. Anytime I try to play on the streets it gets squirrelly as fun. I can blow the tires off at will at any speed under freeway speeds.

2) failure is always in the back of my mind. And unlike popping a stock motor, popping this shit stick is expensive.


I used to make around 550hp. 17lbs on a conservative pulley ratio on a 2.3 kenne bell. 92 octane. Truck ran 11.40 and was fun as fuck.

Now I make well north of 700. Trucks gone 10.60s at 4800lbs on e85.

Thanks for the response. This is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for.

 

[Zaph]

I’m in the process of a mild( built block and TF heads) stock cams and blower 14#ish build. Should still be fun. I think and have seen some guys that start going with bigger blowers to make big power is when the street fun kinda goes away. So I say as long as you stay within limitations of the stock blower it stays fun. But that just my opinion. Dustin has a great point on spending big money on the built stuff, will make you think differently.

You may be onto a good rule of thumb there.

 

[SleviN]

Constantly being worried about breaking is when its not fun, or when something goes wrong every time you drive it.
Like an o2 sensor falling out when driving it for the first time in months, or finding a freeze plug leaking, or finding a new oil leak that won't be easy to fix.
up to 600 rwhp is what I'd still consider fun and usable, but idk since I've never dynoed mine, but estimated ~500+ hp / ~600+ tq (based on other trucks)

 

[cbxer55]

Never dynoed mine. Mine is great fun. Running 10 pounds and no more than that. And even at only 10 pounds, it still lights up a set of M & H 345's on 12.5 rims.

 

[Certified Drunk]

It's all fun, till it breaks and the fun starts all over. 🤣

Some of you guys set yourself up for failure, built engine and stock trans... what could possibly go wrong.

 

[Ct.TOPGUN]

Fast is fun. I got caught up in the "how fast can we get it to go?" camp. Cost a fortune. Risk is high if I turn it up on "Kill". But it was great fun setting personal best 12 out of 13 times to the track. And breaking into the tens and then the nines. But it is less fun on the streets now. Won't pass smog. So I drive it very little with repair plates on it. It was much more fun with the basics. Pulley. Open intake. Valve body. Tune. Long bars and sticky tires. Also a DS loop for safety. That combo with both Eaton and MP blowers where very fun. Built long block gave a step of increased performance (not any extra on the streets) but started my chase of numbers.


Jim

 

[Zaph]

Fast is fun. I got caught up in the "how fast can we get it to go?" camp. Cost a fortune. Risk is high if I turn it up on "Kill". But it was great fun setting personal best 12 out of 13 times to the track. And breaking into the tens and then the nines. But it is less fun on the streets now. Won't pass smog. So I drive it very little with repair plates on it. It was much more fun with the basics. Pulley. Open intake. Valve body. Tune. Long bars and sticky tires. Also a DS loop for safety.


Jim

That's the thing, never been to the track and I'm not planning to start. I sort of wondered whether the nature of a positive displacement blower made it easy to turn things white knuckle on the street... mostly I'm hearing that I'm unlikely to have anything to worry about unless I get the bug to chase max effort.

 

[DebtLife Projects]

For me, it kinda stopped being fun when I blew up my stock block, spent 12k on a JDM built longblock, for that to lift a head and detonate to shit after only 8k miles (not JDM's fault, long story), to then spend another 10k fixing shit, and now I'm scared to push anything hard, as I can't afford it to happen again. So now I'm paranoid as hell every time I get on it lol. It is still fun though, i've taken my truck from 13.8 bone stock, to 11.7 with built motor/eaton, and now im finishing my gt500 tvs swap, most likely to be in the 10's. So it's came a long way, but yeah, still paranoid, lol. Would I do it all again? Probably, but damn it's expensive lol...all just to run what modern sedans can run fresh off the lot now 😩 lol

 

[Zaph]

Wow.... that longblock would be a pretty good kick in the nuts. I've looked at their website a bunch of times and always thought that dropping that dime would at least give you the warm fuzzies about reliability. Not so much I guess.

Great channel btw

 

[DebtLife Projects]

Wow.... that longblock would be a pretty good kick in the nuts. I've looked at their website a bunch of times and always thought that dropping that dime would at least give you the warm fuzzies about reliability. Not so much I guess.

Great channel btw

Thanks! It's no fault of JDM, it ran great at first, solid for that 8k miles. I don't wanna say much about exactly what happened or throw shade at anyone, but I will say, it's alllll in the tune.

 

[Jamie R]

Mine was a lot of fun and no issues, just crank up and enjoy when I had the stock engine/ported Eaton/pulley/exhaust/converter, left the truck like that for prolly 10years. In 2019 I decided to go built engine/tfs heads/cams/whipple and man it’s been nothing but issues off and on since, small things here and there that I never had before and I never thought I’d be that guy that said I liked mine better stock but now I’m that guy. I wish you all the luck in whichever route you take and I guess there’s a reason I’d always read about guys that went built and then said they liked their truck better stock and I’ll admit I thought I’d be the exception but I’m not. My stock engine sitting in my shop is looking more attractive to me everytime I walk in the shop and see it. Again, I wish you all the luck cause these trucks can be a nightmare at times and then all the joy at times.

Jamie R.
03 Dsg Gen2

 

[cbxer55]

That's why I don't go crazy with mine. Some people here say I should. No thanks. Leaving it just as it is now. Starts first turn, runs great. It's a weekend toy. That's all. If I feel the need for speed, I have three motorcycles t hat can blow any built Lightning in the weeds. One of them was a low 10 second bike from the factory, and it ain't stock.

 

[Zaph]

Mine was a lot of fun and no issues, just crank up and enjoy when I had the stock engine/ported Eaton/pulley/exhaust/converter, left the truck like that for prolly 10years. In 2019 I decided to go built engine/tfs heads/cams/whipple and man it’s been nothing but issues off and on since, small things here and there that I never had before and I never thought I’d be that guy that said I liked mine better stock but now I’m that guy. I wish you all the luck in whichever route you take and I guess there’s a reason I’d always read about guys that went built and then said they liked their truck better stock and I’ll admit I thought I’d be the exception but I’m not. My stock engine sitting in my shop is looking more attractive to me everytime I walk in the shop and see it. Again, I wish you all the luck cause these trucks can be a nightmare at times and then all the joy at times.

Jamie R.
03 Dsg Gen2

The more I think about it the more I think I'm just gonna enjoy my truck "stock" for another season and let my head work on it in the background. Nowadays you can just go buy an 11 second trackhawk with factory manners, awd, and some remaining warranty. I don't see wanting to go a lot faster than that... certainly not a cheaper route, but it gets you to the same thrilling ride without any headaches at all.

 

[ilaybrk]

My 2002 HD with stock block and a 2.3 KB and a few other bolt on mod I could run 11.90 all day long with some 16 inch slicks and went a fastest of 11.42 @ 119.7 AC worked prefect. I drove 50 thousand miles and enjoyed it very much. Now I have gone built and every bolt on none to man and totally lost interest. I just finished my last hurrah with a JLP trans and new intercooler plugs and injectors and new tune is coming later this month. I will try it for the summer and hope to bring the fun back or I will sell what I have and look into getting a 2018 mustang and start having fun again. I love my truck but now that it is 21 years old and I have had it for 20 it needs a paint job also and that is a lot of money if it doesn't bring some of the fun back I wont be having it painted. Sorry for long post but leave it stockish and enjoy it if I had it to do over again.

 

[svt-BansheeMan]

it's alllll in the tune.

What does this even mean? A correct tune is a must just like the many other mechanical things in a vehicle. A correct tune doesn't make up for bad fuel, an injector getting plugged or many other mechanical issues that could cause an engine to get hurt.

My stock block went with an Amazon tune, I hurt a head gasket on my MMR block with Randy's tune beating the rev limiter like Chris Brown beat Rhianna on the 3-4 shift at the track. I hurt a plug another time racing because of my IC cooling issues I caused. To show how safe that tune was, my IC line got cut out of state and I putt putted home with 265°+ charge temps without an issue. I finished the head gasket off with Korn's tune many years later. (I didn't realize it was hurt in the first place).

None of that was the tuners' fault. Every issue I ever had was caused either bad judgment on my part or taking bad info from other people. A lot of "unknown people" have tuned my truck or trucks I know of and they have been fine for years. But what do I know, I don't tune.

 

[Uncle Franks Racing]

unless you want to race it at the track in competition and take it to it’s limit to see how fast she can go if not I would not touch it*

when I was racing my (Secretariat) (2002 Black Lightning) with a (JDM) built motor she was making 597.91 hp to the tire and 658.20 TQ
she ran her personal best of 10.602 @127.03 mph with a 1.449 (60) FT*with VP 103 unleaded race fuel

she is no longer a racer but a weekend toy*

she is now on a street tune on 93/pump gas

making around 480 hp to the tires*

and I can tell you she is a monster on the street *

that’s more than enough power to have fun on the street*

not to mention a lot cheaper *

as the old saying goes keep it simple *

what you have is enough power for the street to have fun*

Good luck in anyway you choose to go*

just have fun and stay safe at all times*