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supercharger on daily driver?

14K views 19 replies 5 participants last post by  Bad Rat 
#1 ·
Im trying to plan out what im going to do with my car. I know im getting a 68-74 nova, and a 350ci chevy. Im going to be driving this as a daily driver and sometimes mabey once a month on anywhere from 7-13 hr trips. I would like to get around 450hp out of this engine, and dont know what would be a more reliable and more econimic choice. Should i get a 144 weiand supercharger, what ever cam i need, and heads (not sure what ones i need with a supercharger), or should i do it with out a supercharger. With the 144 would i be able to have the scoop all the way out of the hood? And if i run it in the rain will water go thrugh the air filter and into the engine?
 
#4 ·
you can easlily get 15 MPG if you stick with a small cam- as said the CAM determines a lot about hte milage. Infact I would even say that you can expect 20+ MPG on the highway if you have a decent cam and about 8:1 static compression with about 7 pounds of boost and keep the cruise RPM's at about 2000 or a little under. If you want hydraulic (which I recomend for smaller durations) I would go with a cam in the 205/212 range (+- 5 degrees depending on your tastes) with a 114 LSA installed advanced 4 degrees or so. BTW your torque curve will leave a mile wide smile on your face.

You may need EFI to get the last few MPG's though as it can be tuned a lot better than a carb (even though I'm an admitted carb guy because of the costs and simplicity).
 
#5 ·
I think you need to slow down. right now, you don't have the car, and you want 450 HP, now this is all well and dooable with a supercharger but, why, daily driver will never need 450 HP, playing that game is only bragging rights. 350 HP is more than sufficent to push a '68-'74 nova around. build a mild 350 engine, low compression, around 8.5:1 or so, then add your 144 supercharger run 5 PSI, you'll make about 350 HP, it will be tame enough for the street, but fun enough also. personally, I'm a turbo guy. I like the fact, they only boost when you want them, so they have excelent street manors, not to mention they actully produce more HP than superchargers, by approx 20%
 
#8 ·
ap72 said:
turbo's don't make boost when I want it- off idle...

Though I have a te04h I'm putting on my 2.8L s10- it'll max out at like 5000 RPM, but it will have amost off idle boost.
get the right turbo and it will spool right off the line. it's all in the exhaust housing sizes. just if you want early boost, get an exhaust housing a couple sizes smaller than the reccomended, will boost up a lot quicker. this is why Garret made the T3/ T4 Hybrids, T3 exhaust, with a T4 Compressor, what you get is a quick spool up.
 
#9 ·
james22n said:
how much horsepower will i gain w/ EFI? I would like at least 400hp. To get good gas mileage, adn hp, what cam should i get? should i still get the same pistons, and Dart 72cc 200cc iron heads?
your not going to gain much of anything by going EFI, except efficency. won't effect power too much. if you go N/A, your going to want to have a motor that you can drive daily, you'll probably want to run 87 or 89 octane, which with a Turbo/ Supercharger, is out of the question, with them 91 might be enough. build a 350, 9.0:1 get AFR heads, the small 1's, there 165 or 163 cc I belive, this will get you the low end torque. for a cam, you need to understand that they do not make power, they make power available ( kinda like a super tuner programmer ), and they effect when your engine will make power, they need to match your compression ratio and what RPM's you want your motor to live in, call a cam grinder and get what you need, don't go above .500 lift and make shure your heads/ valve springs can take the lift you get. you will get 300-350 HP out of this combo, but it will be reliable everyday, and you can pump the cheap gas in it, and it's not going to hurt anything. 400 hp, on the street is just bragging rights, not to mention, you seem pretty young- you don't need it
 
#11 ·
matt167 said:
your not going to gain much of anything by going EFI, except efficency. won't effect power too much. if you go N/A, your going to want to have a motor that you can drive daily, you'll probably want to run 87 or 89 octane, which with a Turbo/ Supercharger, is out of the question, with them 91 might be enough. build a 350, 9.0:1 get AFR heads, the small 1's, there 165 or 163 cc I belive, this will get you the low end torque. for a cam, you need to understand that they do not make power, they make power available ( kinda like a super tuner programmer ), and they effect when your engine will make power, they need to match your compression ratio and what RPM's you want your motor to live in, call a cam grinder and get what you need, don't go above .500 lift and make shure your heads/ valve springs can take the lift you get. you will get 300-350 HP out of this combo, but it will be reliable everyday, and you can pump the cheap gas in it, and it's not going to hurt anything. 400 hp, on the street is just bragging rights, not to mention, you seem pretty young- you don't need it
you cna run a supercharger and octane as low as 87- its all in how you build it. It won't be the most efficent engine, but it will run and drive just fine.
 
#13 ·
ap72 said:
you cna run a supercharger and octane as low as 87- its all in how you build it. It won't be the most efficent engine, but it will run and drive just fine.
I deffinetly wouldn't be comfterble running 87, as boost comes up, dynamic compression comes up, running 7 pounds on 8.5:1 static, will be somewhere around 11:1, retard the timing 10* under boost to make 91 octane work, I guess timing could go to 15* retarded, but even then, it's questionable.
 
#14 ·
I was thinking more like 7:1 comnpression with about 7psi boost- yea the compression is still a little high for 87 but with good combustion chambers its entirely doable. It also wouldn't be much in terms of a power producer, but it would be a blown street motor- and probably get some decent gas milage.
 
#17 ·
F-BIRD'88 said:
Ya on a supercharged motor you really don;t want to have to depend on a lot of retard to avoid pinging, longterm like cruising onthe hiway. The retarded timing reduces fuel effiecentcy and tends to heat up the cylinder walls and exhaust ports. Its ok for short quarter mile blasts but better to lower the boost or run better fuel.
You can probabily plan on needing to run the best available pump gas you can get.

Takes some tuning to find that happy medium between boost, timing. power and easy cruising. Don't expect much from 87 octane fuel.
you almost always cut about 10* out of a street driven boosted vehicle, some people do it diffrently. for my Turbo 200 engine ( yet to be finished ) will use a MSD 6 BTM that can retard 1-3* per pound of boost up to 15*, so if I run 8 psi like I'm planning, run 1* per pound, so I'll have 8* of retard. some people just lock out 10* and call it good.
 
#18 ·
would a turbocharger be better that a supercharger for what im doing with it?
I was looking around on ebay, and i found this thing http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Make...005QQitemZ150111021868QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

i was going to put this on my dads truck just for fun (kinda a joke, and he'll probably make me take it off), but will you lose power with this thing, or is it bad for the engine have\ing this much of a restriction? My dads truck is a 5.3 liter 1500 silverado
 
#19 ·
would a turbocharger be better that a supercharger for what im doing with it?
I was looking around on ebay, and i found this thing http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Make...005QQitemZ150111021868QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

i was going to put this on my dads truck just for fun (kinda a joke, and he'll probably make me take it off), but will you lose power with this thing, or is it bad for the engine haveing this much of a restriction? My dads truck is a 5.3 liter 1500 silverado
 
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