Heads and cam with turbo upgrade but stock pistons. opinons needed
 

Hello first a little back story so you know what I'm working with. I'm an amateur mechanic on my best day and my buddy that ill be working with is a wyotech grad. I have a 2001 monte carlo ss with a n/a L36 series 2 3800 car is 100% stock at this point and upgrades will be done on a crate n/a L36 series 2 3800 due to mileage concerns. originally we wanted to stick in JE forged pistons with a ceramic coating and ZZP H beam connecting rods, ported heads with 140# springs, a COMP-3306/3308-112+0-NIC cam, and a
Stattama T67 turbo. also upgraded trans, exhaust, and a suspension work over. After doing some research we couldn't find any one close with a crank shaft balance so we decided that even though we would lose power to just leave the pistons and connecting roads stock. Is this mechanically an okay idea I say mechanically because really the only thing im worryed about is shattering a piston or bending/braking a rod. I'd appreciate every ones opinion on this. Thanks in advance everyone, skyler

Do not touch the bottom end. People make crazy power on a stock short block with no issues, if you install forged pistons IMO you wasted your money on things you didn't need.

Everything else sounds good, look into the turbo cams as well as they are very nice also.

You won't chip a piston or bend/break a rod if its tuned right (not lean and no knock)

Thanks for the reply turbo monte glad to hear that the stock pistons and connecting rods will handle the added power. As for the turbo cams have you worked with them before?

Agree with turbomonte, and that's coming from a guy with forged pistons / modified bottom end.

If you're worried about reliability, your #1 goal should be to upgrade the trans. Take all of the money you were going to spend modifying the engine, and get the best of the best for trans hard parts (input shaft, chain, etc). On big power builds, IMO, that is the #1 thing that drives people to demod and move on to another platform. They underestimate what kind of trans work is needed and make a half hearted attempt at a trans build. It holds up fine in the short term, until they get tired of having a car that spins the tires at 50 mph. So the next easy step is slicks for the track or some sticky DRs for the street, and trans carnage ensues.

Why would you lose power from stock pistons? Between the L67 and L36 bottom end options, you have your choice of 9.4:1 compression or 8.5:1 compression- both of which are great for boosting. I certainly wouldn't want to go lower than 8.5 (especially not once you add the price of pistons + a rebuild) since it'll be really doggy off-boost. The way these engines are designed, I wouldn't want to go much over 9.4:1 either on a big boost turbo setup.

I agree with bumpin on the trans info and also piston info.

Best thing to do is search for gm racing trans parts. There the best of the best but are expensive and also hard to find because there discontinued. I got lucky and found all of the gm racing hard parts for my trans but it took a few years to find them all and also cost my left foot and right arm lol

As far as turbo cams I have the stage 5 turbo cam and love it. Idles fine, sounds awesome and makes great power.