Allright guys which puts more strain on a motor... a small supercharger say a holley 144 powercharger or a 125 or 150 shot of NOS? Im leaning towards a supercharger because i want the power to always be there and not have to worry about refilling bottles and purging the system and all the other bull**** involved.

 

do you know which supercharger is better for a 1989 350 TPI? i'm not sure what i want to do to my car but a supercharger would never hurt thinkin about..lol...well thanx in advance for replyin..

 

N2O is harder on engines because the pressure rise rates are much faster. N20 generally runs higher cylinder temps too.

 

that is what i was thinking..... how much of a hp gain can i expect from a holley powercharger 144.... i have a 406 small block chevy, 30 cc ketih black dish pistons, comp cams XE268 cam, and by the time the supercharger goes on ill have edelbrock rpm 64 cc heads.. just have cast 64's right now...., and i would like to use a 750 cfm edelbrock carb, i have all accel igniton, stock crank, and eagle sir rods.

 

I have the 142 wiend supercharger and my 350 is going to run about 530hp. I could bump up the compression and run 580hp on pump gas. You can easily get over 600hp with a 400

 

haha i dont know about 600 hp but hopefully before the supercharger around 400 and with around 500 or 550.. that would be nice but i dont know if it will add that much.. i guess i will find out..

 

600hp can be done. I just made 601hp with my desk top dyno using the same specs from my 350 but selected it as a 400 and changed the carb and the cam specs

 

I'll agree that nitrous puts more wear on the engine when in use; HOWEVER, if you have the engine built properly and nitrous installed properly (aka ignition retard switch, upgraded fuel sys, etc) the engine can last for a very long time on nitrous. The guy who built my engine said he knows a guy who goes through bottle after bottle of nitrous and has never had a problem. So if you have a strong motor, and do everything by the book, nitrous could be a good alternative. Also, dont forget that a supercharger places more ongoing wear on an engine, so even daily driving (where the power is not really needed) adds extra wear on the engine. So id say they both wear the engine the same, supercharging just offers a bit more forgiveness in engine strength.

 

I disagree with nitrous being harder on a motor than a supercharger, and I'll explain why.

First of all, nitrous is only used part of the time and only at WOT, a supercharger is always on.

Second, since most superchargers run off a crank pulley, the crank snout is subject to some bad loading due to belt tension keeping slippage to a minimum (prevalent on high psi superchargers).

Third, in terms of a lean condition, both are equally bad: it takes no time to turn a motor into a piece of scrap with either when the fuel poops out.

Fourth, cylinder pressure is the same with either supercharging or nitrous (given the same power level), but nitrous spikes quicker due to the nature of the molecule (vs pressurized air). Then again, blowers explode off motors quite a bit also.


Now the advantages of each

Nitrous
Cools down intake charge temp
Does not have a "lag"
Is not on all the time
Weight of a nitrous kit is 30lbs or so (opposed to 50+)
Easier to hide
Easier to tune

Supercharger
Always on
Impressive looking

 

Where did you buy a 50 lbs. blower?
If my blower is "on" all the time, why does it lag too?

Ok, blowers are not "on" all the time. The throttle impedes air flow and creates a vacuum in the manifold at part throttle, just like a normal engine. Intercooled blowers have relatively low manifold temps. Both have high firing pressure, but the blower maintains that pressure through the power stroke by burning slower increasing the overall work done by the piston on the crank.

What really hurts an engine is the instantaneos loading of the wrist pin, rods, journals, bearings from high pressure rise rates. Detonation is obviously the worst because it is an explosion instead of a burn. Nitrous burns very fast.

If you're worried about your front main seal and crank snout then you're looking at the wrong part. How much force do you think is pushing that crank down when the engine is running?

 

I would argue that a blower puts more strain on an engine than nitrous. I am comparing a 150 hp nitrous shot to a 150 hp blower power addition. Assuming both are done properly.

Since blowers take HP to produce boost (especially an inefficient 142!) the engine must make the HP to produce the boost and then 150 more HP for the gain. So, say the blower takes 35 HP to turn, the engine must actually make 185 HP. This places added strain on the internals.

Now, show me a street engine that makes 150 more HP with a 142 blower and I will be impressed!! I have my money on a good set of heads and nitrous.


THE POST BELOW MINE IS WAY, WAY OFF TOPIC!!!

 

a little off the topic, but i have a q for you power adder experts.

i just got a helluva deal on a zex kit (55-75hp)
thought it might be fun for a `lil extra boost, nothin' crazy.

they say it's safe for stock engines, and my L98 has only 45K miles, think i'm good to go?

(for those that don't know), zex kits are not plate systems, they are dry sys. that operate only at WOT and are regulated by bottle pressure, when you let off the gas, it shuts it off.

 

*hint*


and if that doesn't work..

 

Yah thanks, I've discovered that `lil search button before, you show me where it pulls up someone who's used a zex kit with that low of boost on their stock L98. ..

and as for a new post, i had done that already too if you had read down a bit. Thanks for the help bud.

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=116397

 

(DP)