I'm trying to make my final decision whether to go with a HC pkg or a supercharger for my 97 LT1. The motor's internals are completely stock and the car has 53K miles. The cost factor isn't a big deal, I would have HC pkg professional installed and would do the supercharger myself, so in the end the supercharger may even be cheaper. I don't drag the car but take it a couple of times a year to road courses for track days where the car sees a good amount of hard driving. Will the motor last long with a supercharger? I would pick the procharger with an intercooler. Looking for some input, what would be my best choice?

Thanks.

 

I'd run with the supercharger.... you will retain much of your gas mileage and make a bit more power. Plus.... you can always add a budget heads/cam package and make more power.

 

If this is your daily driver/weekend race car, go with the heads and cam. If you keep the cam choice on the smaller side, it won't affect your mileage much, and you'll have plenty of low end grunt to get around the corners. If it's just a toy, go with the blower, but make sure you realize that the stock internals will not like the blower for long on the road course. Long periods of boost plus the intercooler heat soaking will take their toll.

 

Thanks for the advice. Using the supercharger on the road course with my stock internals was my ultimate concern. The front straight is around a mile long, so I have my foot into it for a decent amount of time. With a supercharger, what can I expect the car to last? Is it completely a gamble? It would be nice to put another 5 years on the motor before I do a complete re-build. At that point I will be going the FI route.

 

I'd wait to do the FI until after the complete rebuild. A good set of heads and a mild cam will perk your car right up. Plus, you'll spend less, which means you'll be able to afford that rebuild sooner.

The longevity of a stock engine under boost is going to depend a lot on how much boost. You could run 4-5psi for a long time without worrying much (note that I am NOT saying you would never have a problem). A lot of people run 6-7 on stock motors, but that's right on the edge of what's safe for these engines.

FWIW, most race leagues that run FI (Formula 1, for instance) use turbochargers (drag racing is the only exception I know of), and the fastest LS1 is a turbo car.

 

I was going to say SC before I read your last post saying you wanted your motor to last 5 years before a rebuild. If you really want it to last that long then you should go H/C, normally a SC with any kind of racing abuse will not last long.

 

5 years? Well you aren't going to see 5 years with a supercharger OR a heads and cam package if you are road racing it.... I'd say that if you hit a few hard races a year you might need to think rebuilding it in the next 3.

 

So if the motor won't make 3 years either way, which I guess I can live with. I just don't want to put on a supercharger and wipe the motor out in a year. I like the idea of the supercharger because one I'll do the work myself and two the cost is less in the end. If you have seen my other post between the head/cam and installation puts me at ~$5500. I think the avg supercharger kit is ~$4000. I want to finalize my purchase today but I just can't get past the $5500 for a head cam setup. Both of these shops are known tuners in MN. The one I got the $5500 quote from is really well known for Vettes. Been in a few magazines and such. The other shop was $5900 with everything.

 

They both have their advantages. Ideally I'd want FI with appropriate components (which would also include a cam). FI isn't quite as well suited to the road racing mission IMO.

If put together by someone who doesn't know what they're doing, the heads/cam car will drive poorly and be down on power, the supercharged engine will break

 

Which ever one you pick is going to require a tune so there's no way around that. The supercharger, in this case, is somewhat misleading. For a road course car, you're going to have to upgrade the fuel pump and injectors, ditch the FMU, and have it tuned really well.

Also, since most tuners are going to tune the car to run rich, you're going to be replacing plugs much sooner than even the 15,000 miles that the manufacturer recommends for street driven supercharged cars.

Just more to think about.

 

OTOH you could install your heads/cam yourself. If you are willing to plunk down the 8-10 hourse for a supercharger w/intercooler install, why are you scared of doing a H/C swap? You could make more power with a good H/C swap or have your stock heads ported + cam for like $1800 supporting mods would probably cost another $600. Add some $$$ just because it always costs more than you think, and you could probably get and LE2 package and rockers, chromemoly PRs, gaskets, and a E-WP for around $3000. That would make more power than 4-5 psi of boost, without pounding the ringlands quite so bad. Not to say that it won't be harder on the engine than stock but still.

 

My concern with the head/cam install is really just the cam portion of it. How hard is it really? I never done it before so it makes me nervous. I did a LT header install myself but that seems pretty mild compared to head/cam.

 

F1 cars have been N/A for about 10 years now...

 

Well, do you have the following things:

1) The tools required

2) A clean indoor area to do the work at

3) Ability to follow directions EXPLICITLY from a manual

4) Ability to be VERY meticulous during work

5) and patience, patience, and more patience.

If you have those things then I think you should be able to do it yourself. I shawep my cam before I decided to do a different heads/cam stroker engine, and it wasn't really hard. I did it straight out of a haynes manual, and had never really worked on the car before. IMO it would be easier to drop the engine and do it out of the car. I think you would be able to keep it cleaner, and be able to do an all around better job if you have never done it before. Plus it is SOOOOO much easier with the engine out of the car. It will make it easy to get your headers back on and properly torqued, switch plugs, everything will be easier, plus you won't have to drop the radiator.

 

How easy is it to drop the motor from the bottom with out a lift?