My buddy just bought a 2000 WS6 ram air firebird w/ a powerdyne supercharger(yeah i know they suck). the only upgrade to the car was a Diablo hand-held tuner. This car is just slow for what it is, he can't get away from my 95' z28. I'm thinking he needs to get an exhaust system to let it breathe, since it still has stock exhaust on it. But I'm looking for opinions who know more than me. where would be a good place to start or should he just take the charger off and sell it, then just put that money back into the car. Thanks Mike

 

a crappy SCer on top of bone stock setup...serious choking of the engine.

with longtubes and a good exhaust alone you'd probably pick up 30rwhp

not to mention handheld tunners arent designed for tuning supercharged applications. although i think you can order better tunes.

you could pick up huge power with a good tune

 

Although a supercharger is in a way a "bolt on" mod, it should never be treated as such. The world of Forced Induction changes a lot about a car not only from a perfomance aspect, but in setup, maintenance and dynamics as well.

First things first - he added a lot more air, he also needs to add fuel. Does he know anything about the injectors and fuel pump on the car? I would be terrified if those were not changed when the SC was installed. This should be the first thing to sort out, or that motor is going to run into problems fast.... or it already could be. What does the exhaust look like? oil pressure good? Anything out of the ordinary? Do you know what boost he is running? What size pulley?

Next step would be to get that thing dyno tuned. This will tell you a great deal about what is going on with the car. You can gauge power, and more importantly, clean up the AFR.

exhaust will open things up and help the boost and provide more power, but it sounds like you should do some more diagnostic work first to make sure everything is running properly.

A supercharged car does require a bit of work, so as long as he understands that and accepts that, I would keep it. It is a great mod once you get all the assisting mods taken care of. An LS1 can handle a decent amount of boost with decent reliability on a stock motor. Just make sure you keep in mind the supporting systems.

 

the charger has 6psi pulleys, and theres a good possibility that the injectors are stock. If they wasnt i'm sure the seller would have told him. Oil pressure is good and motor sounds good. The engine runs great it just doesn't have the power it should have. What would be a good exhaust to run on this car. Should he get the whole system with headers and everything to run dual the whole way or just get headers and a catback. Where could he get a tune at. I dont know of any one to dyno the car around here. the only dynos I know of are engine dynos.

 

I had a Powerdyne on my car. I didn't think it was that bad - it had some serious belt slip issues, and some serious coolant temp issues because of the fans. My car made 390 with it on a mostly stock setup, and 460 with mild heads, cam, and headers. Non-intercooled boost is only going to get you 10 hp/psi, so that blower is only worth 60 horsepower on a 350 horsepower engine.

I would go with your gut and just sell it. My super mild heads and cam made 385 (stage 1 heads with LPE GT2-3 cam), and was way more fun to drive with zero belt issues too.

-Geoff

p.s. Is the tune for a blower? My setup would only take 9 degrees of timing at 6 psi.

 

I have a 01 with a 6 psi Powerdyne. It goes into terrible tire spin if you push it in second gear. First gear-forget about it. All I have done is add a SLP Y-pipe, and Borla catback. Some of the things I did with the install was put a 255 ltr hour pump in the tank, 42 lb Ford motor sports injectors, Kaytech manual belt tensioner, and PCM for Less mail order tune. I am seeing 5 psi on the boost gauge.
Does he have a boost gauge? And, what amount of boost is he making? Does the aux fuel pump kick in under boost? Does the boost level stay constant through out the pull? There is an internal belt on the Powerdyne and this can break.

 

there is no boost gauge on the car

 

You should be able to hear the supercharger moving air just driving around. But, he needs to sort out this system and the first thing I would do is get a boost gauge. Then make sure the aux fuel pump and FMC? Are working properly. Good luck

 

whats the aux fuel pump?

 

The kit comes with a FMU that in effect backs up return line pressure and increases fuel flow through the injectors. There is also a fuel pump that usually mounts in line with the fuel line from the tank to the fuel rails on the motor. So the pump increases the flow and the FMU increases the output of the stock injectors

 

Here is a website dedicated to Powerdyne installs. It includes the full install manual and individual installs.
http://www.bocchicchio.com/powerdyne/powerdyne.htm