I had a good read through a few of the 500+rwkw and 600+rwkw threads and I was amazed to see some familiar names involved back in 2009, also some impressive builds, but not many giving details of engine build

Anyway, I'm just looking to see what Piston and rod combos people are using these days? In terms of noise, strength, and obviously cost.

There's quite a few around these days with various prices, I'm happy to pay for quality.

Looking to max out the gtx3582 for now and it will be quite a regular drive, hopefully not just a weekend warrior.

While were here, opinions on oil pumps, girdles, head studs? 12mm or 14.3mm?

Head gasket options? To cam or not to cam? Valve options?

Thanks in advance

I cheaped out completely when I built my own motor. I'm running a Spool kit with Ross pistons and They rattle a fair bit on cold start. Other then that there fine so far.

As for a girdle , atomics 698 motor does not have one. As the sump is cross bolted I would find it hard to believe the mains will walk once you have arp studs installed.

Atomics website is pretty helpful at what parts they replace and at what power level

I seen an atomic motor with 14mm head studs and it was pretty impressive bit if gear. But again I've heard you will crush the head before you will break a 12mm stud.

Nice input mate, thanks..

The spool kits are very fair prices, I was interested in the kit with CP pistons, just seeing what everyone's using

What did you do as far as oil pump?

Yea I had a good look through it last night, from everything I priced up I came up with like $15k including cams, vernier cam gears, all the top gear really haha... But I'm sure it can be done for alot less!

Also tbre is the man at the moment in building these motors. Also a very nice guy to talk to which is good.

I went with spool pump gears. I couldn't really see the difference between them and atomic gears.

I'll second Tony Bellert. He's done plenty of R&D on the barras and has a few tricks up his sleeve in regards to component combos

I have heard of his success, so I doubt he will give me information on his combinations, especially if I will be completing the build myself, not to mention I'm in sydney

From everything iv read and everyone iv spoke to they reccomend keeping the standard cams unless your chasing dyno power or a true drag car as they cause too much lag. Plus the fuel system has to be way bigger!

Thanks for that

At the moment it's all up in the air, I will be doing my research before going ahead with anything.

The vct system is great, but the right cams are better, the rest of the car will be up to the task

I think Joe at CMS has been getting great results with cam upgrades.

TBRE seems to be producing more barras than ford