Supercharged 350
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Joined: Sep 2000
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From: Bartlett IL
Supercharged 350
I have an '84 Z28 with an LG4 engine that I want to replace with a supercharged 350. I have a 350 block from I believe a 72-74 Camaro of Corvette that came with LT1 heads (I'm not too sure what it originally came out of because I pulled it out of an 80 Olds). I started pulling the engine apart and everything was in good shape, the cylinder walls weren't worn, the cam look new the pistons were in good shape, and all the bearings looked fine. I think the engine had been rebuilt with about 19000 miles on it. What I want to do is completely rebuild the engine to with stand a supercharger and was wondering if anybody had any good suggestions on what parts to use. I want to keep everything emmisions legal, so any suggestions on rebuild kits, cam, heads and anything else would be great, thanks for you help.
Aaron
Aaron
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 798
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From: Richmond, VA
Summit has a good rebuild kit in their catalog. They have a performance rebuild that isn't too expensive. They built it & dynoed it and got around the neighborhood of 450-500 hp.
------------------
--Steve S--
1984 Trans Am 305 LG4, 5 speed Auto
RPO codes point to Recaro version
Daily Driver, Flowmaster 80 Series
------------------
--Steve S--
1984 Trans Am 305 LG4, 5 speed Auto
RPO codes point to Recaro version
Daily Driver, Flowmaster 80 Series
Supreme Member
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 18,457
Likes: 16
From: Loveland, OH, US
Car: 4
Engine: 6
Transmission: 5
What is the head casting #? It does approximately zero good to tell us what brand and age of sheet metal they are claimed to have been wrapped in at various times of their lives. People will tell you anything they think you want to hear about what kind of heads they are selling you, if they think they can get away with it. The casting number doesn't lie like used car & motor sellers often do.
Odds are that if you build a motor that will run really good without a blower, it won't be suitable for use with one because the CR will be too high; likewise, if you set one up for blower use and run it natural, it will be a pig. For best results build it one way or the other, don't kid yourself into thinking that you're going to just slap a blower onto an improperly equipped motor, and get good results.
What's your budget, and your time frame for putting the blower on it? What kind of pistons are in the motor? I wouldn't worry about the cam, if you don't absolutely know for certain exactly what it is, you should just get the right one for what you're doing. They're only $100.
You can get rebuild kits from anywhere, even the parts store down the street, that will work at that level of HP.
------------------
"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
Odds are that if you build a motor that will run really good without a blower, it won't be suitable for use with one because the CR will be too high; likewise, if you set one up for blower use and run it natural, it will be a pig. For best results build it one way or the other, don't kid yourself into thinking that you're going to just slap a blower onto an improperly equipped motor, and get good results.
What's your budget, and your time frame for putting the blower on it? What kind of pistons are in the motor? I wouldn't worry about the cam, if you don't absolutely know for certain exactly what it is, you should just get the right one for what you're doing. They're only $100.
You can get rebuild kits from anywhere, even the parts store down the street, that will work at that level of HP.
------------------
"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
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Joined: Jan 2001
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BairsZ28,
Sounds like a neat project. I recently sold my 1994 Supercharged Vette. I suspect the best thing I can do is give you a baseline by describing how my car was set up. You can make your own choices after seeing what worked and didn't work for me.
When you say supercharged I assume you mean a centrifugal with fuel injection, such as Vortech. In that case 500 Hp is no problem and it can be done with a nearly stock setup... the key is being able to run enough boost. Any kit you buy for a stock Camaro or the like will max out at 6 psi. This just isn't sufficient to make 500 Hp. In my oppinion, running 9 psi to 12 psi is ideal for a street car. Any less and you're giving up serious potential. Any more and you're getting into a high maitenence setup and risk breaking parts or even losing control of the car if you're not careful.
I had a stock cam, stock crank that had been surface hardened and cross drilled, stock rods surface hardened, ARP rod bolts, Original heads that were stage III ported with 2.02/1.6 valves, ported matched and polished intake manifold, 52mm throttle body, high flow MAF sensor, JE forged pistons at 9.3 compression, stock cam with 1.6 roller rockers, stock computer, stock injectors, and a super FMU. The FMU is the unit that boost fuel pressure so you don't lean out your engine. What you will notice about my engine is that it was dang near stock except for having forged pistons at 9.3 compression and throttle body. Of course, I had headers and full exhaust too. The supercharger pulley was swapped for a 9 psi pulley and I could run 9 psi without retarding timing. I could run 12 psi by retarding timing and the power gains were worth it. All told, the car dynoed 420 RWHP (about 500 crank HP) on pump gas with 12 psi of boost and ran 12.2 seconds at 122 mph on the street tires! If I had used a blower cam and tuned the computer it would have easily dynoed over 500 RWHP.
I would recommend a cam swap. The thing about a supercharger is that you definetly want to stick with a mild cam. If you get too radical with the cam you'll have too much overlap and end up blowing your fuel right through the exhaust pipes. A great cam is the TPIS ZZ9. I saw a Vette identical to mine except it had an automatic and the ZZ9 cam (I had a 6-speed manual). He ran 10.80 at 128 mph on slicks. OOFDA!!!!
Now I wouldn't be doing you a favor if I didn't set you on your toes about how much this will all cost. You better lay out $12K to $15K dollars for this project. The rest of your car is going to need serious upgrades too. The total cost is just as important to know as what parts you need.
By the way, keep in mind that I had the LT-1 engine that has much better air flow capacity (read HP potential) than the TPI engine. To fix this, all you need to do is change your intake manifold to a TPIS mini-ram (stick shift car) or Lingenfelter Super-ram (automatic car).
Good Luck!
Sounds like a neat project. I recently sold my 1994 Supercharged Vette. I suspect the best thing I can do is give you a baseline by describing how my car was set up. You can make your own choices after seeing what worked and didn't work for me.
When you say supercharged I assume you mean a centrifugal with fuel injection, such as Vortech. In that case 500 Hp is no problem and it can be done with a nearly stock setup... the key is being able to run enough boost. Any kit you buy for a stock Camaro or the like will max out at 6 psi. This just isn't sufficient to make 500 Hp. In my oppinion, running 9 psi to 12 psi is ideal for a street car. Any less and you're giving up serious potential. Any more and you're getting into a high maitenence setup and risk breaking parts or even losing control of the car if you're not careful.
I had a stock cam, stock crank that had been surface hardened and cross drilled, stock rods surface hardened, ARP rod bolts, Original heads that were stage III ported with 2.02/1.6 valves, ported matched and polished intake manifold, 52mm throttle body, high flow MAF sensor, JE forged pistons at 9.3 compression, stock cam with 1.6 roller rockers, stock computer, stock injectors, and a super FMU. The FMU is the unit that boost fuel pressure so you don't lean out your engine. What you will notice about my engine is that it was dang near stock except for having forged pistons at 9.3 compression and throttle body. Of course, I had headers and full exhaust too. The supercharger pulley was swapped for a 9 psi pulley and I could run 9 psi without retarding timing. I could run 12 psi by retarding timing and the power gains were worth it. All told, the car dynoed 420 RWHP (about 500 crank HP) on pump gas with 12 psi of boost and ran 12.2 seconds at 122 mph on the street tires! If I had used a blower cam and tuned the computer it would have easily dynoed over 500 RWHP.
I would recommend a cam swap. The thing about a supercharger is that you definetly want to stick with a mild cam. If you get too radical with the cam you'll have too much overlap and end up blowing your fuel right through the exhaust pipes. A great cam is the TPIS ZZ9. I saw a Vette identical to mine except it had an automatic and the ZZ9 cam (I had a 6-speed manual). He ran 10.80 at 128 mph on slicks. OOFDA!!!!
Now I wouldn't be doing you a favor if I didn't set you on your toes about how much this will all cost. You better lay out $12K to $15K dollars for this project. The rest of your car is going to need serious upgrades too. The total cost is just as important to know as what parts you need.
By the way, keep in mind that I had the LT-1 engine that has much better air flow capacity (read HP potential) than the TPI engine. To fix this, all you need to do is change your intake manifold to a TPIS mini-ram (stick shift car) or Lingenfelter Super-ram (automatic car).
Good Luck!
Thread Starter
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Joined: Sep 2000
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From: Bartlett IL
Thanks for the responses. My engine is a carb so I'm going to have to use a roots type blower. I'm probably going to use my edelbrock 750cfm carb with a wieand blower. The blocks casting # are 3970010 and I'm not going to use the stock heads. I'll probably go with a set of AFR heads. The rest of my set up I'm not too sure about. I found one place on the web that seems to have a good selection for a reasonble price and with the right combo I think it should be able to handle 500hp. The site is pmeracing.com Any more advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
Aaron
Aaron
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 77
Likes: 0
From: Bartlett IL
Thanks for the responses. My engine is a carb so I'm going to have to use a roots type blower. I'm probably going to use my edelbrock 750cfm carb with a wieand blower. The blocks casting # are 3970010 and I'm not going to use the stock heads. I'll probably go with a set of AFR heads. The rest of my set up I'm not too sure about. I found one place on the web that seems to have a good selection for a reasonble price and with the right combo I think it should be able to handle 500hp. The site is www.pmeracing.com Any more advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
Aaron
Aaron
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