I was figuring on doing a 400 small block now if I went with trick flow heads instead of AFR 190 and holley stealth ram instead of super ram I could probably save enough money to buy a supercharger now my question is with a supercharger would the heads and intake set up make a really big difference. And what psi would be pretty relable for the street rod. Would like about 500HP and was thinking 15psi?

 

500 at the crank or wheels?

http://www.turbotime.us/gallery/bigtime01/aas

 

you can do 500 hp n/a with a 400 with good heads and cam. With a s/c and 15psi unless you do something wrong you would be way over 500hp.

 

Well 500 at the wheels would be nice. I want the fuel injection for the mileage and respones. I'm pretty much set on taht. This way with the s/c I can probaby run a little smaller cam and stall too.

 

Do you want a positive displacement SC or a centrifugal? If you really want the fuel economy, I wouldn't even bother with a 400 and all the extra headache that goes along with one of those. Even a 383 has some clearance issues with cams and rod bolts. A mild 350 with a decent sized huffer with those heads and intake you mentioned would make 500 hp falling off a log. You could probably even run cheap 'ole cast iron vortec heads at around 10 psi with a blower a little bigger than a 144. Remember that if you put great big heads on a small block the low RPM and part throttle velocity go to hell, wich leads to bad dynamic compression, and fuel atomization, which leads to bad fuel economy. Any kind of blower also acts as a restriction for part throttle driving.

Someone on here did a great before and after with a simple Holley 144 blower, and had fuel economy results too. It's on here somewhere, I'm sure a simple search would find it.

 

I want to run like a vortec think that is SC right not the kind that sit on top of motor, try not to sound dumb. I'm really not concerned with fuel economy but if i can get another 5-10mpg out of it i'll do it, plus I think the fuel injection will add to the response. I want the 400 so I can run little more conservative than pushing a 350 to the limits, i'm getting a dart little M block so not worried about the 400 issues. You talk about part throttle response you think I should go with the trick flow 195cc cnc ported heads or a set of AFR 190 non cnc ported? I like the trick flows cause I can save like 800 bucks and I think with a SC this isn't really as critical.

 

If you're getting the Dart block then you're good to go. I'm not quite familure with the cam arrangement and what not, but you might need a new timing chain and pushrods, but that's neither here nor there. As far as heads go, the AFR 190s actually outflow the TW 195s so take that for whatever it's worth. If you put any kind of decent sized vortech blower on that engine it's going to make all of 500 hp with those heads and intake(might be closer to 6 or 7 when it's all said and done). Also remember that plenty of car mags have made 400 hp NA on a 383 with Vortec heads, mildly ported. Centrifugal blowers also make boost dependent on engine speed, so don't go too whimpy on the cam.

As far as block strength goes, a 350 bottom end is the same as a 400, and a 400 has siamezed bores. For that kind of power if you want to bulletproof the bottom end, get steel splayed mains and drill some extra holes in the 2 bolt block. A 350 will be less expensive to build and require less custom work to get everything to fit, and will make more than enough power. There is porbably off the self software that will put you right on the power number you want with a 350 and a SD fuel/spark delivery system. It's just much more common, is the only reason it's less expensive and easier to do. All up to you.

 

My 355/9lbs supercharged makes 435RWHP on pump gas. If i leaned on it it make a ton more. There is picture and description on my link.