Well I know the general consensious is if you put a supercharger on an lt1 it will blow up. Period. I didn't find much while searching about running a 4.5psi kit though. Seems mostly it's the 6psi and above kits blowing things up, correct? So what I'm trying to get at is how safe would a 4.5psi powerdyne (any other 4.5psi kits?) be on a bolt on (full exhaust, ram air) car with 77k on it be? I don't really beat on the car at all. I will floor it for a couple seconds here and there (30-50mph), but don't go full tilt 0-100 blasts with it often (if ever). I also don't go to the track either. I'm basically looking for a good 75ish rwhp gain and don't want to go h/c route. I've done it before and since it's a daily driver I like the super smooth idle, gas mileage, and also it's easier for me to drop in a blower. And also easier to just swap whole motors if it comes down to it (plus I just like FI I guess ). But thing is I don't want to put on 300 miles and need to do it already. I know it comes down to a bunch of variables and such, but in general terms. Any help is appreciated. BTW, what actually kills our pistons so much with FI? Detonation?

 

man... h/c would be soooo much cheaper and faster (on a stock shortblock).... please... for what you are looking for please go h/c..

just giving you real advice...

the compression is too high for boost and the hyper pistons just dont take the boost and any ping at all...

for what you will gain from the 4.5 psi you could gain from a small cam/head setup.... and it would idle nice still...

 

I know h/c would be cheaper and more power. That's not really why I started the post. I wanted to know how they held up with such low boost levels. I thought a LOT about h/c combos and to be honest I was selling my car because I miss FI so much. I've had a 95 in the past with h/c/supercharger, and I miss it. I also owned 2 turbo buicks. I've had nitrous on my last 95 too and to be honest I didn't like it. I know the compression is on the high side for boost. And I know we have hyper pistons, which suck. But I've had hyper pistons in one of my buicks and was boosting 20psi with that one and had KR while tuning. 5.0 mustangs also seem to last forever with blowers (and no means of retarding timing while knocking). I know, I know, they both have lower compression, and the earlier 5.0's were even forged. But the later 5.0's have hyper pistons as do a lot of the buick guys after a rebuild. Buick has the lowest compression out of the trio, most boost. Mustang has middle of the road (they seem to get around 8psi kits no intercooler), and the lt1 has the highest compression. Is it just the piston design that we have? Weak ringlands or something? It's just I'm really looking to get back into the FI world, and if the lt1 can't take it I'll just sell it and go a different route. No biggie. Thanks!

 

Forgot, I also had a gtp too. Factory blower (most inefficient, roots), and hyper pistons stock. I was running ~12psi (3.4" pulley) and hit KR before I tuned it out. Of course you can get away with more psi on them, but would need more supporting mods and seriously consider an intercooler or some type of alky/water injection. When some of those guys blow up they swap to N/A shortblocks and run more compression. Of course they lower the boost, and off hand I wanna say the compression is in the 9's, but even they can run ~12 with them and no intercooler. I'm not trying to be a dick or anything, just trying to figure out why such low boost levels are going to kill an lt1.

 

I put the 4.5 on my car, it was nice. but i'm now running 7psi and head and cam. No problems yet. Stock block and i beat on it all the time. Put it on and have someone tune it, and tell them it's you DD and you want it reliable so he doesn't try to squeeze every horse out of it. I ran mine forever at 4.5 with no tune. 95k and still going strong. When it blows i'll just build it stronger!!

 

You will find quickly that you will want more. The 4.5 is not enough of a gain for the cost or time involved. I would have not done mine if i know now what i do about the Powerdyne unit.

 

Well i never said 4.5 will hurt the lt1... im going to be running 8 on a stock lt1 (for awhile)... im saying for the amount of power for the money... heads/cam would be cheaper to make something jsut as fast... if not faster if you want

Now you want to keep it liek a stock car with more power.. so small h/c...

 

I know it's a lot of $$ and work for the power increase, but if I wanted all out horsepower I would just get nitrous. It's cheap (well around 1k for a very nice setup), and very easy to install. Who knows what will happen I guess. I might eventually go the h/c route, might sell the car and get something with a manual tranny, might do the blower, etc I guess I was just trying to figure out what actually kills our pistons. I really want to get another blower, but maybe it isn't the time for one So to get back on subject, and forget that I even want one, could 4.5 actually be run safely? Why/why not. Whether it's worth it or not