WipeOutXXL

What do you guys think would be more tunable, Blower with no other modifications or a CAM and head package. I am looking through both setups and trying to determin what would bring more power. Cam and heads to me would seem like a little less maintenence but then again what would you need to do for the blower. Will NA be better or throw a Blower on......

one wicked element

Go N/A. With a blower you WILL have to do a rebuild....its just a matter of time,so you mine as well start off with the right foot foward. Heads, Cam, Headers, Exahust, intake, will put you at the same, or even more power then a blower would - plus you'll be able to get on your car and not have to worry about the engine letting go on ya.


Just my opinion.

Mikael

I'd have to disagree entirely. There is no head and cam package that can make the power of an ATI or vortech, to make that kind of power the cam would be a monster.

The LS1's are not like the LT1's, they can handle boost well. If you tune it, you can run for a long time.

With a blower it idles and drives and gets the same gas mileage as stock, when you floor it all hell breaks loose.

one wicked element

I thought it was the other way around. The LT1's love boost, and the LS1 don't - they favor the nitrous. <shrug>

stik6shift98

i would do head and cam....more reliable and less chance of something getting f@%!ed up

Mikael

Based on what?

There are plenty of people pushing over 500rwhp on stock shortblocks, the 450 or so he'd get out of a blower would not be an issue. If you do it right, you won't have a reliablity problem. If you have a bad tune, it'll be easy for the motor to go.


With the LT1's its seems no matter how careful you are sooner or later your going to break a ringland.

StylezZ28

blower.. mmm 142 horsepower from the vortech... mmm...

Bone Maro

Blower. More efficient, and easier to install/tune

96SFLZ

Neither motors "like" boost, they both have a CR over 10:1...I believe the the LT1 is 10.5:1 and the LS1 is 10.1:1. IMO, running anything over 6-8psi is asking for it...even with only 6psi, you're still taking a chance, one of my friend's that had a '95 Z will attest to that (his motor only lasted about 3 months before he had a little issue with blow-by).

Blowers are still awesome and I'd put one on my car in a heartbeat...if I had the money for the almost inevitable rebuild.

If you don't have that kinda money laying around, go with a nice H/C combo...and if that doesn't make enough power for ya, you can always spray it.

WipeOutXXL

Ok lets say blower then, right now I have a 2000 SS with 55k miles on it. In general how many pounds of boost can a stock block handle without a rebuild? How much power will that whip up. I was thinking for sure on SLP long tube headers, off road with no cats, then the SLP loudmouth exhaust. But after that I am stuck between the cam or blower. I do lot of highway driving and if I can somewhat acheive the same milage with a blower than a cam, leaning towards that...but hey....who know's what impulse I'll have when I am looking at the bill.......

96SFLZ

Mikael, not arguing here but...it sounds like your saying that the amount of power that you ask the shortblock to handle is what will kill it. Like if somebody makes 550rwhp with H/C and a 150 shot (on the stock internals) that his LS1 can now handle 550rwhp and it doesn't matter how he goes about making that power...N/A, N2O, boost.

Like I said in the above post, the LS1s CR is pretty high to begin with...so adding boost will only raise the final CR. Higher CR = more stress and not to mention you probably wouldn't want to run pump gas either...just to try to be safe.

You can figure out your final CR by: (boost/14.7) + 1, then multiply that by the motor's CR. So...a stock LS1 running 8psi would have a final CR of 15.55:1. That's pretty high.

Mikael

Proof is Proof, and there are plenty of people running 9psi consistantly and reliably on the LS1. Detonation is what will destroy an engine, and it can be avoided with a good tune.

danziger

I had this dilemma for a long time myself, but I chose the heads/cam/nitrous package. The blowers are sweet, but after perusing the FI boards on many F-body and Corvette sites, I saw a lot of negative feedback. Belt slippage, tensioner probs, cars going in and out of tune, MAF woes, leaks, short-lived blower units, etc. I also don't want more weight over the front end, soooo.... I'm going with a fairly mild, streetable setup that is going to be about 420rwhp with only 224 or so duration and moderate lift. Once the warranty on the H/C package expires, I'll be putting 100+ wet nitrous shot on top. The only things that I'll need to address are the clutch and rear. If I'm ever gonna run slicks, I guess I'll need a 10 bolt, or 9 inch. Good luck with your choice. Ben

Mikael

If you don't have a problem w/ driving a cammed car, then that's perfect for you. A lot less involved, and cheaper.

To each their own.

DETROIT_AREA_00_SS

Absolute stage2 LS6 heads mated with LG Motorsports G5X2 cam. After dynotuning expect 450 +RWHP with mild bolt-ons.

Or if you have the $$ for a future rebuild: ATI D1SC @10 lbs