I want to supercharge but I'm a little concerned about how many mods I'll have to do. What is the minimum PSI to run without changing pistons and stuff. What kind of power can I expect out of this kind of mod?

 

frankly you dont need any mods. you could just slap it on there
but to get the most out of a s/c, exhaust, fuel pump, injectors, fpr, a tuner(preferebly access to a dyno), and intercooler. thats just for power, if u have a t56, a clutch. Then suspension mods and sticky tires to get it to hook.
and by u saying minimum, ill take it as maximum. It is safe to run 6 psi (non charge cooled), 8 psi (w/ a charge cooler) imo.

 

6 psi seems pretty safe with a rich tune and timing taken out. Doesn't make that much hp on an LT1 however. Headers make a much bigger difference on a blower car than on a relatively stock motor. A 6psi blower might gain you 60-75rwhp but a good set of headers will add another 25-30rwhp with no additional stress on the motor.

The weak point are the pistons - they need to be upgraded to run more than ~6psi reliably. However, with water injection you can an additional 2psi or so safely.

Rich

 

I ran my P600B for 2 years with the 9 lb pully on there with out a problem, car ran strong, it went from a 13.7@ 103 MPH to a 12.26 @ 115 MPH with just the blower, it already had bolt ons like headers and 1.6 rockers LT4 valve springs, where I ran into problems is I liked to run the hell out of it, i had my rev limiter set to 6500 and I took it there on a normal basis, the LT4 springs didnt like those RPMs and I got valve float and dropped a valve when a retainer broke. if I wouldnt have ran the RPMs up that high to get more boost out of it and pull harder on the top end it would probably still be running.

 

Besides the SC unit you will need to get more fuel from a bigger pump or additional pump. A msd box is a good idea and an fmu or good tune. Headers are a big plus and different plugs with different gap. If you go 5-6 psi that should be no problem on a stock engine but if you run it hard and go with a bigger pulley you could be playing with fire. Keep the rpm's around 6K and make sure ever thing is mechanically good and your set. Most packages come with everthing you need but the plugs and tune.

 

Thanks for the info. I had been reading about guys with pistons troubles and stuff so that is what prompted this question. Does this harm the reliability, assuming that continue to run within the normal rev range? I keep reading about these nightmare mods that cause all sorts of trouble after the mod.

 

I ran a powerdyne 4.5psi kit on my Z28 for about a year. Only mods were the supercharger, 1'3/4" coated longtubes, catback, walboro 255 in tank, and a dyno tune. The motor had about 170k miles on it when the blower went in and died just shy of 180k. I pulled the heads off last night to find my head gaskets in bad shape. It put 360/435 to the wheels and was a lot of fun to drive, but I wouldn't expect a supercharged stock engine to run much longer than a year or two without the "right stuff" in it. IE forged pistons, rings gapped for forced induction, and a good set of head gaskets. And while its apart, why not cam it too?

-Pete-

 

In my book there is no really "cheep" way to do a supercharged setup. At least if you do, it won't be worth it I think.

Even if you get a killer deal on a blower head unit, and spend only a couple thousand dollars, and run low boost to keep it safe, you are still out a couple grand, and won't see much of a HP increase.

The only way it is worth it IMO, is if you can afford to spend the big $ in order to have all the correct supporting mods so you can run at least a moderate amount of boost safely and see some nice gains power wise.

Otherwise, you are better off spending the money elsewhere in other mods that will give you more, for less $ (Heads/Cam/Intake for example, or even Nitrous).