Hey guys,

Im looking for some real world advice from you all who have supercharged their cars. I am wanting to do a build on a 96 lt4 6 speed car. What i have so far:
- 396 stroker fully forged eagle components @ 8:1 compression, splayed 4 bolt block
- lloyd elliot stage 3 lt4 heads and intake with tpus 58mm throttle body
- comp cams xfi 282 cam
- scorpion 1.7 rockers
- exotic muscle 1 3/4 headers
- 80lbs per hour injectors (dont remember brand)
- msd digital 6 ignition module
- tuner cat software tuner
- extra pcm just in case
- will be installing 410 gears at some point

Im sure im forgetting a bunch as this has been a project that took way too long. My dream is to run an f1a head unit, but cant find info if they make something like that and fitment issues. Not opposed to a d1sc, but i dont know the difference in reliability and power output. Also thinking about a coilover conversion but havent researched that yet. This car will be primarily driven on the street with some drag strip use and autocross track days. My questions
1. What kind of headaches am i looking at? Im sure this isnt going to be as simple as installing and enjoying. Beyond a good tune, what kinds of issues have you guys experienced?
2. Is there an f1 series option for a c4?
3. What kind of financial obligation am i looking at? Im not in a 'money no object' but i have a chunk set aside
4. Any regretts going forced induction
5. Planning on a new clutch... either mcleod or centerforce. Thoughts and experiences?
6. I want to drive this pretty regularly so would like to stay on pump gas. A snow meth inject kit is in the works. I have one on a 98 cobra with a wipple blower, but still ended up running 110 octane. Is my pump gas dream reachable
7. The rest of my drivetrain is still stock. While i plan to strengthen the trans and rear at some point, it is not in the cards at this time. How dangerous is my goal against the strength of my drivetrain?

Any advice is welcome! I tried reaching out to greg at blower works, but all i got was 'are you ready to spend at least 10k' i havent heard anything else. If any of you also have part numbers that i can research, that would be awesome too! I have a c4 procharger bracket... but no other parts for that. Please let me know your thoughts

 

I can't provide you much info except on items 4, 5 and 6. I have a stock short block '95 LT1 (ARP main studs and rod bolts) with Advanced Induction 190 heads and a Vortech S1 supercharger with 10 lbs boost. The engine is in a widened MGB not a C4 with a T56 six speed and Dana 44 rear suspension with 3.73 gears

4. Nope
5. I used an ACT single plate clutch and have been very happy with it. It is rated for 630 ft lbs and it is very streetable although it was a little chattery until it was broken in.
6. I have 11:1 compression with stock pistons but the block has been decked and a thin head gasket give a .035 quench. I run it on 91 octane California pump gas and do not have detonation issues. I give a lot of credit to reducing the quench in the combustion chamber as well as the water/meth injection I put together from Devil's Own components. With your reduced compression ratio and potentially higher octane pump gas you should easily be able to run on pump gas. There are others on this site that will likely chime in and tell you the same thing.

I attached a good article from David Vizard that is worth a read

 

Unless you are doing a roots blower. 8:1 seems low. Its gonna be a dog off boost. Though you might be good if your plan is 20+ psi boost (and you can get it without belt slip).

my engine (lt1 stock bottom end) seems ‘happy’ with 15 psi boost d1-sc, e85 , long tube headers, 9.6:1 compression and 224/236 blower cam from lloyd elliot. Also spraying 100% methanol under boost but thats prob overkill with e85. That system was already in place for when i was on pump gas.

Newer corvette (c5/6 ) guys like even higher compression than what i have. Maybe get on their forced induction sub site and ask questions.

for clutch. I have the spec stage 3+ . I am very happy with it. Also got rid of the boat-anchor heavy dual mass flywheel.

The procharger kits have some flaws in them (mainly poor belt-wrap. They use a single belt to drive the blower and accessories - split between both sides of the engine, resulting with poor wrap around the harmonic balancr pulley - and the slip occurs at the dampener. )

however; there is now new belt tech with gates rpm aramid core belts that dont stretch under load. Its possible this has improved that issue. But i would still guess that at best you might get ‘10 psi boost’ whereas your gonna want 20+ psi - with 8:1 conpression

I can tell you on single belt setup (with the old style polyester core gates belt), 6 psi was as good as it got. Sometimes id get 8-9 when belt was new if i put a super tight belt on , but even then it would wear in and drop back down to 6 psi max after a few days.

greg@blowerworks sold me a 6 (stock acc) + 8 (blowet pulley) conversion kit that worked well. It was originally for my p600b blower, but i was able to template out a d1-sc bolt pattern onto the bracket and drill holes for it / fit a d1-sc onto it. I am able to get 14-15 psi out of his setup on my d1-sc. i am also using a grip-tek? textured pulley on my blower.

so belt slip is a big headache.

tuning is easy. I use stock 1993’s computer with a 2 bar map ipo of the stock 1 bar map. I use tunercat to tune and dAtacat to log. Both have an option for 2 bar map tuning. I log widrband afr off of one bank, thru my a/c pressure sensor (just plug it back into the a/c when you are done tuning) . Datacat supports that logging option.

fuel system is built for e85. I have 80 lb/hr injectors in therr and dual pumps for e85. You’ll want at least 60 lb/hr inj and a bigger in tank pump (maybe 2 even - 2nd one comes on with boost).

good luck

 

The stock Vortech belt routing doesn't give much belt wrap on the blower pulley and it requires that you remove the blower to install the belt. The good news is that the blower has a dedicated belt and the accessories are driven from a different belt. To correct both the belt wrap and installation issues, I added another idler pulley which routed the belt away from the riser that supports the blower mounting. I get no slippage at 10 lbs boost and the belt is removable. See the 2 attached diagrams. The green line shows new routing.

 

Greetings from sunny Florida where my toy and I retired 15 years ago.

Among the previous comments, Get a set of C Beam plates. You must strengthen that beam. It does twist.
As was mentioned, Dual fuel pumps are necessary as well as as a set of larger fuel rails. And possibly other fuel system improvements.
Don't forget a water injection system
15 lbs of boost is not a problem. When its all together you should see about 615 rear wheel. hp My 700R4 put out 598 rwhp with no problem.
Except of course, lack of traction.
One other consideration, You will need a larger exhaust system. The stock system is inadequate at about 525 rwhp +/-

Now your problems begin. Making horse power was never a problem. Putting it on the pavement is the difficulty.
Enjoy life, it ends too quick.

RVY

 

IMO a 396 LT1/4 with that kind of boost is going to be a time bomb. I like big inch small blocks but personally big inch build means NA. For big boost 383 or smaller. The power delta between 383 and 396 is miniscule but the reliability of the 383 over the 396 is huge especially at high RPMs and based on the compression you are running it seems like a high build intended for high RPM to get the boost up.