zrc3john

You see so many cars running superchargers today...
I mean I hear these things adding over a hundred usable horsepower..

A typical LS1 Corvette motor is rated if I'm not mistaken at 350 horse..
Add a supercharger and I'm guessing 450-475.....With gains like that, how come none for the LT-5? Or is there?

Crabs

The big reason you don't see supercharged LT5's is compression.
The stock LT5 has 11:1 compression.
One little hiccup and BOOM!
The cost of reducing compression is quite high, will involve new rods/pistons at the very least.
Another limiting factor is that there's not a lot of room under the hood for plumbing or the blower.
Nobody has ever made a roots style blower that would fit in place of the plenum, and you couldn't ever sell enough to offset the cost of designing/building one.

That being said, there have been a few supercharged LT5's built.

Boring and stroking will do the job nicely without a blower.
A suitably prepped 415 or 427ci LT5 stroker will produce well north of 600hp naturally aspirated howling fury.
Hopefully the Doc or Bryan will chime in here, both these guys have big stroker power.
Let them tell the story.


'Crabs

Hib Halverson

I've been in the ZR-1 hobby since the mid-90s and the only supercharged LT5s I've ever seen used. turbochargers.

There's no way to package a Roots or a centrifugal blower on an LT5.

Crabs

Hib:

shhhhh.....
It's been done.
http://www.zr1products.com/#!

'Crabs

zrc3john

Totally true but, to do a 415,427 package the cost must be considerable..
I live in the northeast and went on Vette doctors website, there located on Long Island....If I remember correctly for a ZR1 package they wanted in the neighborhood of like 21,000 to do the motor work.....I'm like WTF? That's more than what I paid for the car...

billy mild

Nitrous seems to be the only way to get "cheap" power out of this engine.

Supercharger would be possible with a cowl hood. Try and modify one of those new Edelbrock or Eaton blowers that goes in between the V.

Tom400CFI

^Really? I thought people were having great success w/home porting the top end, LT headers and tuning? That is pretty cheap, I'd think.




I have a hard time believing that a positive displacement 'charger wouldn't fit where the plenum/intake is. That thing is big, and there are some pretty compact pos disp blowers.

The bottom line is ROI. 5k LT5's made...how many of those owners are going to spend $$$ on a 'Charger? 100? Maybe? No one is going to cast aluminum intakes for that limited application. Only way to make it happen economically is a centrifugal unit. And I agree, w/others that it's not necessary. W/the other options available for the LT5, IDK why you'd ever need a space taking, weight adding, heat building, supercharger.

Dominic Sorresso

Porting the top end and a port match on the heads gets u close to 475 chp w headers. That can pretty much be done DIY. Pretty cheap power.
Cams, heads, w top end could run 5-6k and puts you into the 530-540chp
Area. Nice car, all NA. With some more $,u up the displacement and could be in the 700chp area. And very reliable.

zrc3john

I had the plenum and injector housings ported by Pete, gave it a nice all around power adder......Would like to port the heads but it's not like removing the heads like on a SBC.....I would think it would be easier to pull the motor to take the heads off from what I see..

With that,how much does a good port job cost on the LT-5?
Not taking into account the labor involved in getting the heads off...

Hib Halverson

That crow was pretty tasty.

I tried to look at those videos on the web site but, when you go to you tube it says they are "private". I wonder what the big secret is?

zrc3john

I'm sure it's been done...I tried to look at those you tube videos but it would not allow me acces...
One of the members made a good point before,with roughly six thousand ZR1s produced in its run maybe the manufacturers felt it would not be profitable to produce superchargers to the owners of ZR1s...
I guess my point being is that if you take a standard LS2 Corvette (which used, cost about the same as a good quality used ZR1 and you add headers and a supercharger I believe you would be in the neighborhood of 525-535 horsepower maybe even more plus more torque.....Those are nice numbers.....I feel anything more for the street and your car would probably not hook up well....

Rkreigh

packaging is super tight on the LT5

the rotex system looked good and is designed for mild boost on a stocker and worked well flow on that blower is probably limited to aroound 700 hp

I favor TT for the ZR-1 and quite a few of those have been done and Raptor rear mount solution is an affordable approach.

the LT5 is an expesnive engine to build and the blowers and turbos so popular in the LS world are very scarce on an LT5

if I can ever manage to wear out some of John L's finest, I hope to someday build a TT ZR-1

I have to admit, I like th TT Z06 C5 alot, but it's no ZR-1 in look, feel, or comfort

if you are serious about a forced induction LT5 be ye not faint of heart of light of wallet

the LPE TT cars (4 in total) were 54k and many of the other builds were north of that.

that included the engine build cost. Maybe Ron can chime in on what's cookin with the Raptor, I've seen that setup and it's a great way to go and much more affordable.

I'm partial to the front mount turbos, and the manifold and plumbing fabrication is not trivial.

USAFPILOT

I still think the easiest way to boost an LT5 has to be a rear mounted turbo setup, but the lag on that must be horrid.

Dominic Sorresso

Even 5-8psi boost would be nice in an LT-5. Audi is supposed to have electric turbos. That would be the trick.

zrc3john

Maybe easier and cheaper just to find an 06 used Z06 with
Headers and an exhaust..

Tom400CFI

I think that is fairly obvious. The "LS" engine is the bang-for-the-buck king and the C5 Z06 is the king of those kings, for performance/$. Tough to beat that car in numbers produced for $$ spent.

I don't think people buy the ZR-1/LT5 for it's bang-for-the-buck qualities...they buy it for the experience that it provides and the engineering effort that represents.

G8nightman

People must realize that the Z in the years it was made was king of the hill but that was two decades ago you can not compare to cars of today power wise yes you can beef it up but anything over 400RWHP is going to be big bucks no short cuts to be taken. Want I big HP car go with something newer that has many more go fast options.

zrc3john

Yes that's true...It seems like it can cost big bucks if you want big horsepower from the LT-5..I would love to port the heads on this thing but the labor involved plus the machine would run a lot of money.....I'm guessing around the same price as a supercharger alone..Just guessing now, I could be wrong ...

Then again as far as mods and seat of the pants feel anything done to whatever motor is going to cost some coin..Probably the biggest bang for the buck is a nitrous system but you can't " spray" all day..
It's crazy to think that back in the day these cars were sold for that amount of money...Fastest Corvette ever built was music to a lot of people's ears..

Today a good quality ZR-1 would cost you maybe a third of the original sticker price.....Imagine picking up a good quality 69-70 C3 for a third of it's price? Would cost us around 1,800 dollars....

Rkreigh

checkh out the haibeck top end pacakages as a good guide for pricing best bang for the buck but not a cheap LS head / cam package price as it's an engine out service

Rkreigh

not nearly as bad as I thought. I have a ttix c5 with front mount turbos and I didn't think the sts rear mount systems would do all that well

while certainly not "optimal" the juggling of the pipe taper, compressor AR and setting it up provides a package that will produce 1k hp and not have all that much lag

with the torq swell you'll not be disappointed. you have a big v8 and the exh gas velocity at full throttle even when "cooled off" still have enough velocity to spool pretty well

think 3400 to 3600 vs 3200 for the ttix

I rode around with Ron H. Raptor protype zr1 and honestly the tune was good and throttle response just felt like a healthy stroker and the turbo exh note was completely seductive

don't discount the approach, it might not be perfect from the engineering stand point but it works and solves some major packaging problems and puts the turbo system at a more affordable price point

I'd love to hack up some stock 93 manifolds and do a front mount build, but for sure it's much more difficult and expensive

ALL the TT ZR-1s done by the tunes were baller expensive for my budget. my tt z06 complete car cost less than the LPE package.

and now a tt c5 is avaialbe for about half of that.