I am thinkin of putting a supercharger on my otherwise stock 97 Z28. can this car handle the 100-150 hp gain from a $3k supercharger. or is there a better way to put the money into her. unfortuantly my mechanicle ability is not considered great, or even good. so any major work will have to include labor.

 

also, off topic, has anyone considered doors that swing up, instead of out like a lambraguinie.(i never could get that car on the sole count that i cant spell it) interested to know if it can be done, and if anyone wants to do it on my car.

 

Unless you plan on sinking alot of money into your car I would high suggest against a supercharger. I think you will be happier having your heads ported and going with a different cam.

 

Port the heads, upgrade the cam and valvetrain, some decent headers, cold air and a computer tune. It will last a lot longer and have plenty of power. Superchargers are great but there is a lot of impact to the motor when air is forced inside...

 

The compression ratio of the LT1 is around 10.5:1, kinda high for a reliable forced induction engine. Most people will say that 6lbs. of non-intercooled boost is the max safe limit for the stock hyper pistons. I do know of people that have blown the ringlands on their pistons with just 6lbs though. I would recommend getting forged pistons as a minimum for a FI setup. Lower compression would help out also. Post in the FI forum, they have more knowledge of the subject than I do.

 

And after you do all this stuff to the motor and get everything running good and tuned and start trying to use all that new found power you will see that alot more money needs to be spent on the rest of the car to handle the HP.

 

so then what about this lt4 conversion kit, whats the skinny on that.

 

Hot cam, heads, and intake.
Nice combo, but I think a decent cam and porting your heads will give you the same if not better power numbers.
That is my plan next year, forged bottom end and a head/cam package.
I did all my suspension stuff, and tranny this summer and plan on doing the motor some time next year.

 

If you decide to go the LT4 route then I highly recommend getting them ported and also going with a bigger cam.