Blowzilla or a good H/C/I swap?

[TrophyHead]

I'll have to convert to mass-air for either or and I'd like to match my injectors to suit whatever I decide. What would you do?? My engine is bone stock. I got about 2.500 to burn....so I'll have to save up another month or so for the Blowzilla and supporting hardware. I was thinking 8lbs of boost and a good dyno tune. Or AFR 165's, Performer RPM, custom cam....which i can probably order tomorrow.

I got 3.73's down in my basement so I can dump the 4.10's if I you guys tell my to keep saving up for the Kenne Bell.

Any other suggestions are welcomed. Thanks guys

 

[Mavrick]

Kb...

 

[TrophyHead]

Cool....The KB will be able to grow in the future when I upgrade my block and heads. Right guys?

Kinda a newbie question but how exactely do you up the boost? Just a pulley change or is there more to it.

 

[Xterminator03]

KB better Hp for money ratio.

 

[Drew_Carroll]

Could you run the KB on a stock engine? I was looking into one but am kinda if'y when it comes to forced induction on a stock engine.

 

[TrophyHead]

If you run a moderate amout of boost and a really good tune you will be alright.

Just make sure your engine is getting enough fuel. ie. right sized injectors, bigger fuel pump, MAF calibrated for your injectors, bigger fuel rails.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

This is a two sided question....either way you look at it, you're going to make power for similar prices. Personally, i'd rather build the motor first and then add the KB, that way i don't have to rip apart the engine after the KB is already on. Plus the KB will show better gains from an H/C/I motor than a stocker anyways.

 

[TheUser]

If you run a moderate amout of boost and a really good tune you will be alright.

Just make sure your engine is getting enough fuel. ie. right sized injectors, bigger fuel pump, MAF calibrated for your injectors, bigger fuel rails.

First and foremost, I would suggest a compression test and/or leakdown test to make sure your motor is ready for boost. If it's not, you should fix the problems first, obviously.

Stock rails support upwards of 500hp so I'm told, so you can keep your stock rails either way you go. Many guys run forced induction on a stock motor. As long as you don't get greedy, provided you have a good tune, you should be alright.

As long as your motor is strong and no problems already, I'd guess the KB would offer less room for problems (don't have to make sure the cam is installed right, mess w/ rockers, possible leaking gaskets, etc) that sometimes accompany H/C/I swaps. Neither are foolproof. I'd definately make sure to get bigger injectors (24's or 30's?) w/ the appropriate MAF and maybe even a Tweecer/PMS unit w/ datalogging capabilities if you wanna play w/ it yourself and make sure your A/F ratios are good on a regular basis.

Of course, those are just my opinions...

Good Luck

 

[Daggar]

A Blowzilla install will eat any H/C/I swap to a stock motor that I can think of. Once the KB is installed then there's always the potential to make it better. There's even the potential to take your time to build a motor specifically suited to maximizing the output the Blowzilla is capable of while you enjoy all the new power it gives your stock block.

TheUser's post is 100% correct.


Edit:
As a side note:

Building a motor that will produce the power that a Blowzilla over a healthy stock motor would produce, would take it's cam specs and compression ratio out of the range where you could reasonably add boost.

 

[ms93gt]

So daggar your saying the kenne bell would eat afr's, custom cam, and performer intake? How would the afr's be on the street vs the kenne?

 

[willys1]

Im thinking about doing the same thing.Mines a 93LX and unfortuneitly it has hypter.... pistons,so I would need to stay around 6psi's of boost. Im having a tuff time spending all that money for 6psi's of boost..3999.00 for the KB,figure another 1000 for supporting parts of labor.Thats 5 grand for 6psi's of boost That same 5 grand will get me a 460hp crate motor But then I thought about just getting a DSS short block,put my Thumpers and stock cam on it,THEN getting a KB..LOL,,,back to your thread,What year 5.0 do you have? 8 pounds of boost will be nice!! Although the stock heads are very restrictive and will limit your motors potential..Ive seen people putting KB's on a stock motor but dont know there power gains, or 1/4 mile times

 

[Daggar]

So daggar your saying the kenne bell would eat afr's, custom cam, and performer intake? How would the afr's be on the street vs the kenne?

Yep... by the time you got all the supporting items onto the motor to support the AFRs, custom cam, and Performer intake, then we're not talking about just an H/C/I anymore. We're also talking injectors, MAF, and exhaust system, at the very least to get it to run. Even with the addition of those things, I'd be putting my betting money down on the KB. Iv'e seen a healthy 302 with stock E7s, stock exhaust, stock injectors, stock everything put down a little over 300 HP and almost 400 ft lbs of torque with no other mods. Keep in mind that the 400 ft lbs of torque started at just 2300 RPM. Peak HP occured at roughly 5000 RPM.

I should also note that a cam that's perfect for maximizing power on an N/A car may not be ideal for a blown application. The point being, that optimizing the motor for N/A prior to adding forced induction may not be the best path to take if you've decided to eventually supercharge the combination anyway whereas, the Blowzilla will give you room to grow.

If I had to complain about something with the KB setup, it would be that the torque comes on early and fast. So fast that traction becomes a problem at low RPM. The wheels are going to move whether the car is or not. hehe

 

[Daggar]

Hey Willy... would it suprise you to know that you could run between 8 and 11 lbs of boost on your hyper pistons with a good tune???? Don't waste your time on the smaller KB. The larger blower is more effecient and air discharge tempuratures are lower at a given boost level. The bypass valve is also built in.

 

[tjm73]

You can run 8-10 psi on hypereutectic pistons....with a proper tune. Alternative Auto has done it. Longevitiy is in the tune.

If you freshened the engine with new bearing and rings you could drop a set of low compression forged pistons in the block. If you did all the work yourself it'd cost no more than $600-$800 pistons and gaskets included. Replacing all eight pistons would not adversly effect your engine balence.

 

[tjm73]

If I had to complain about something with the KB setup, it would be that the torque comes on early and fast. So fast that traction becomes a problem at low RPM. The wheels are going to move whether the car is or not. hehe

So true!! At my local track there is a guy from Buffalo NY that has a notch that was running high 9's with a KB. At one point he was (may still be) the fastest KB car in the Country. I talked with him one night about the car after he switched to a Pro-Charger and why he switched.

Very simply he said the more boost he added for hp, the KB gave him more torque on the bottom end. He said it was such a violent launch that he was having a very hard time controlling the traction at launch. The Pro-Charger, with it's softer torque hit in the low end let him get off the line easier and that allowed him to hook better and more controllably. He went 9.06 @ 154 recently. He went on to say for a street car the KB can't be beat.

 

[Daggar]

He went on to say for a street car the KB can't be beat.

Yep... I have suprised many a better and more power car from the stop light. It was within the last twoo weeks that I see a Euro nose weaving iin and out of traffic to catch up with me at the light. His Vortech singing away like a jet engine. Once the light turned we started off fairly spirited but not crazy. Then he stomped on it. I returned the favor and pulled about 3 cars on him immediately while his blower began it's wind-up. I shut it down at around 90 MPH and we pulled over to the quicky mart to have a chat. He admitted getting caught with his pants down thinking he's just been eaten by what he intiially thought was a stocker. Pretty kewl dude. The Blowzila at 8 lbs doesn't make much noise. What little it did make was drowned out by his centrifugal. A longer run where he'd had time to get ontop of his boost may have turned out differently. I'm reasonably certain that I'd have had him to about 113 MPH where I top out third gear with my 273s. He'd said that he was winding 4th when we shut it down. His rear end was either 355 or 373 (I don't remember exactly).

 

[ms93gt]

Ok well if I get the kenne bell then will I have trouble hooking the street? Theres no need for me get this torque monster if I will just lose races because of spinning. I have lakewood 50/50's and traction bars and I'm putting on lakewood 70/30's and some coil overs. Also will the kenne bell make my exhaust louder? And should I get 3:55 gears or keep my 3:27's?

 

[Daggar]

If I were you, I'd keep what rear end gears you've got until you get a feel for it and can decide for yourself. As far as the torque goes.... You will have to relearn your launch. INstead of launching at an elevated RPM, you're going to launch from idle basically and easy into first gear then bang away at the rest. It's all kinds of fun. hehe Especially when that rice rocket pulls up next to you at the light and revs to like 6 grand whle he's waiting for the light to change. Meanwhile, you just idle, ignor him, the whoop his ass at the light change. LOL

I haven't really noticed too much of a change in the exhaust noise level. I'm always inside the car though. I've never heard my car in boost from outside.

It sounds as if your car is better setup to hook from a stop than mine is. You will just have to see how well it does once everything is installed.

 

[ms93gt]

Man is such a tough decision! The kenne bell is the ultimate sleeper but I really love the way a cam lopes and how your car just screams from heads. Maybe I'll just get the kenne bell off ebay or something.

 

[Daggar]

Man is such a tough decision! The kenne bell is the ultimate sleeper but I really love the way a cam lopes and how your car just screams from heads. Maybe I'll just get the kenne bell off ebay or something.

Good luck finding a Blowzilla off of ebay. It happens occationally but for the most part, when folks get one, they hold onto them.