Best bang for buck: SC or heads?

I agree with the guys who say go h/c/i first. At the least i would put on a better flowing U/L intake before supercharging it. The stock e7 heads and intake are fairly restrictive units. Adding boost will definately make some power, but imagine how much more power that supercharger will make with better heads/intake and a more aggressive cam.

go with h/c/i first, then the blower. just get a good set of head gaskets, maybe even get the o-ringed heads with matching gaskets, then you won't ever have to worry about head gaskets blowing. the h/c/i combo will put a smile on your face, then when you add the blower and it winds up, you will melt.

I have been there dont that i had an 87 lx that had a Custom cam, ported heads from FTI and intake. Made 310 rwhp but that was with lots of tuning. Out of the box it madE 266 rwhp. With an S-trim i made over 450 rwhp. If i had the car back i would have done the S-trim 1st and if i wanted more then start the H/C/I. My car was down for 2 days for the S-trim and weeks for the H/C/I. But then again i love blown cars i have a SC F150 that makes 390+ rwhp and my newest toy a GT 500 that in the coming weeks should meake some big number..

In the end its up to you and what you goals are, I once built a motor with low comp. pistons H/c/i all the bells for when i got a supercharge for it but in two years it never came, guess what i had more money then all my friends in the slowest mustang in town. They would al brag that they pulled on a H/C/I car because i had an 8:1 comp motor. That was a big dumb ass move dont build something planing for tomarrow because it might not come.

sirr0bin said:

Or turbo it and run 10's like Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords Project Hooligan Hot Rod

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Or now in the 9's

Supercharger will give you more power, but when you want to put h/c/i on you are going to have to take it off, so why not do the heads first.

Holy old thread batman!

Just my .02....ready for the lame saying........

You cannot build a good house without a good foundation. Work the motor over first then boost it. Once you put the SC on you will be tempted to continuously up the boost....result...blown head gasket or worse. Then you get to tear it all down and rebuild it.....doesn't sound like a good time to me?

It's an old thread and an old topic in general, but it's fun to speculate so here goes:

Realistically, there isn't any reason you can't get away with 10-12 psi on a good stock shortblock and a blower. If you're stone stock at around 190 rwhp, and you put on a blower at 12psi, you will not see more than 345 rwhp. That is the ideal increase in power at 100% efficiency 190 rwhp * (12/14.7). If you don't understand that formula research atmospheric pressure and the effects on boost on power - it's a rule of thumb, but is pretty accurate.

Of course, blowers are no where near 100% efficient, and also your average centrifugal blower will not make it's peak boost of 12psi at the same RPM as your engine's power peak. In fact, your centrifugal blower will not make much power at low rpm because the boost rises linearly with rpm. I think you'll find, in that case, that the H/C/I engine will make better low end and the blower might* come out on top on the high end.

My money in this race would be on the well thought out H/C/I combo in a heads up race. I'd figure the cost is a wash. Ease of installation definitely favors the blower.

Here's something that would bother me, though. The guy with the 11 second na 302 car is going to impress a hell of a lot of people (ask me how I know ), whereas the guy with the blower is going to get mixed reactions. A lot of people will expect a supercharged mustang to be a monster. A lot of people will have much higher expectations of a supercharged car. My turbo car, for example, only made 420 rwhp, but my far more impressive to people na 302 made a fantastic 320 rwhp. Which was more fun?... Pretty close decision. I sure always liked being the under dog, and outran at least 3 different supercharged 5.0s with that car... I had people like them asking me to show my non-existant nitrous bottle. 420 rwhp just isn't enough power to meet the expectations of people who think turbochargers are the end-all of performance.

Realistically, I think that if you put in the work, you can H/C/I it for the same price you can blow it. It comes down to what you want more: ease of installation and the impression having a "supercharged" car will bring, or sleeper, more reliable, and probably slightly quicker.

Good luck however you may choose. I think you'll be happy either way.

Chris

Oh and ps. the best bang for the buck is clearly nitrous.

johnt785 said:

SC under the hood with chicks around will defintley get you that bang for the buck!

Pun intended.

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haha - well said.

DEAD THREAD

Install the SC, and build the motor on the side. When and if it blows you have a well built side motor then slap the SC onto that..

OR "Harry, I need NOS... 2 of the big ones, my car topped out at 140mph" blah blah blah fast and the furious 1!

Good Luck