96 WS6 is correct - if you don't beat it unnecessarily, the lifetime of everything concerned will be dramatically extended. Save the Boost for those "showing off" rides you give co-workers, and those handful of Stangs and C5's that insist on racing you even when they know you are going to hand them their ***!

Mike M

 

Now with the rebuild coming, I spoke with my guy who does the installs on these superchargers. He says he wants to set up the motor, then run 20lbs of boost on race gas and detune it for 15lbs on the pump. OMG, I'm in trouble.

 

Unfortunately, 100hp gain from a centrifugal SC will not produce as dramatic a reduction in ET as a 100hp nitrous shot. Look at the torque curves of the two combos and you will see why. The "area under the curve" is much greater with the nitrous shot. Centrifugal boost is very rpm dependent. OTOH, the nitrous gives the same hp gain at low rpm as at high. A small nitrous shot and a centrifugal is a dynamite combo, if you have the deep pockets needed to make it work

Rich Krause

 

I see what you are saying...Will I get more power for freeway races with a blower though? It seems Boost is better for high speed runs....My nitrous dies off the longer I am spraying...thats what I hate.

 

OK, well ....that sounds very atypical to me. The first thing that comes to mind is that you had a significant amount of knock retard before you put the intercooler on. Did you scan for knock any before you put the intercooler on? I would be willing to bet that is what happened because there's almost no way intercooling alone would give that kind of power increase in and of itself. Especially when you're not even pulleying up to bring the boost level back up to what it was before installation.

The numbers I gave for power gains to expect are based on using the FMU provided in most kits and no special tuning, on an LT1 engine. I feel it is realistic to expect 90 flywheel from 6 PSI non-intercooled given the fact that most kits use an FMU that makes you run very rich and it is necessary to retard timing as well. Once you are dialed in then you can expect 90 RWHP or more......maybe 100+ RWHP if it's really dialed in right (@ 6 PSI). That is my opinion from observing countless examples .....not the "exceptions".

Also, correct me if I'm wrong but I believe for every 10 degree drop in IAT you generally get a 1% power gain. So the gains from an intercooler are not what they are cracked up to be, especially at the lower boost levels. Now, at the higher boost levels where the IAT's are really inflated and intercooling can allow significant amounts of timing to be added .... then intercooling makes a huge difference. FWIW this is what I have learned. It is best to go into this with the attitude that you shouldn't expect much from 6 PSI alone.....because generally it will only feel like a mild punch in top end performance. Like rskrause said, a similar-HP shot of N20 will pack a much bigger low/mid range punch.....in fact, when you have a "100-shot" of N2O it is generally worth nearly 200 extra lbs of torque (broken parts).

For the last poster ......I can't see a logical reason N2O would feel weaker at the top end though. N2O has a cooling effect, whereas boost has a heating effect .....so I would think the longer you stay in it the more power you'll lose with boost compared to N2O. Many people I know locally say the nitrous cars seem to pull harder at the higher speeds as well. It's all in what you like though, I like the novelty of a blower and the fact that the power is smooth and always there.

 

Yes, the SC is great at high speeds, depending upon how it is setup, your cam, heads, etc. But the main hp gain with a typical centrifugal setup is from 3,000-4,000rpm and up and max hp gain is only at the top of the rev range for the particular combo.

Rich Krause

 

you can't just say for every psi you'll get x hp. Power gained from boost is not liniar, for every additional pound you get a little less power then you got from the previous one.

That being said, I don’t believe that you ever clarified where you’re at now, what kind of blower and if it’s intercooled, so making a guess, lets say you’re making 300rwhp on a 90* day, with a compressor at 75% adiabatic efficiency you could expect about 75hp gain, add an intercooler that’s at about 75% efficiency it becomes 105hp gain.

 

I ran nitrous for a year before I installed the blower. I do love the sound and attention of the blower, and I love the way it pulls at high rpm's. But is my car faster than it was running a 125 shot of nitrous? I don't think so, and I know I do miss the KICK of nitrous when it came on at about 3K rpms.

That jammed in your seat feeling with nitrous is great fun, but I did get tired of messing with that stupid bottle and finding refill stations.

And yes, temperature does play a huge role in supercharger cars, even intercooled ones. I know my car runs well in 100 degrees, but it is extra wicked in 40-50 degrees. It just eats that up!!

Mike M

 

Go turbo . You get the torque of N20 and top end of the blower and then some....hehe

Jose

 

gotta love the turbo or turbos

 

I would love if a Twin Turbo Kit existed for a camaro

 

most twin turbo kits have to be custom made. If you can get some headers made to fit your car, the rest is pretty basic. Most newer cars are tight on room, though, but anything is possible for enough money.

 

That is the point.. its a lot of money...

 

turbo lag is like a sluggish auto transmission - u stomp the gas n u get the power (downshift) 2 seconds after u wanted the power. i dont like turbo's, I also don't like sloppy auto tranny's, I like nitrous, superchargers and manual valve body tranny's ofcourse, ive never driven nitrous + turbo combined, NOS say it eliminates turbo lag, but thats not something u wanna do on the street all the time just to pass someone.

 

Nitromethane-
with a properly sized turbo there is basically no lag.

my turbo is kinda bigish(950hp) but it makes 8psi by 2500, and any rpm above that the boost is basically instant.

its like nitrous, all the time!