With heads/cam, stall converters, gears, intake, exhaust, etc...... when it seems that all we have to do is bolt on a supercharger and produce in excess of 450 RWHP? I have to admit that I'm a bit frustrated at having modded my car in several stages and spent way more than a supercharger would have cost me and I'm only at the 400 RWHP mark. For $8000 installed, it seems well worth it, especially when you price all of the naturally aspirated mods we do. Even the ads for a blower say that it is best to install it on a non-modified car. I'm confident that nowadays with today's advancements in computer technology the reliability issue isn't as much of a factor as it used to be. It seems that it is very difficult to build a 400+ RWHP A4 street legal car without going the way of a supercharger/turbocharger or nitrous. Why don't we all do it?????

 

why not do both, the bolt on's and the supercharger?

 

Why don't we all do it?????

Because you'd never experience the delights of MOD FEVER.

 

You'd need about 3 foot wide slicks to get any traction!

As for the delights of mod fever. It's like the effects of a short term drug. Once the fever wears off, you need more mods to get the feeling again. Like a drug it becomes a very expensive habit.

 

I've been starting to think the same thing. Some blowers are smog legal, even in the Republick of Kalifornia. Plus, for mod fever, there's still suspension, brakes,etc. Pus, a tougher tranny will be needed, I'll bet.

I may just need to give Andy a call.

 

I bolted on headers and exhaust only to find out that it actually lowered the boost, but in reality , it did help the car run better. I feel a maggie is the best bet for long life as it has lower boost. Big horsepower only helps if you cannot get it down, Heck, my stock a4 could not hook wortha damn, with the boost, it is downright stupid, but fun as hell. Why on earth would you need 650 hp or more,,,You dont need it, you want it.. I want it,, but cant afford it.

 

Because a high boost supercharger is very tough on the whole bottom end of the engine especially the rings. I did not want to put a supercharger on then 20k miles later have to do a rebuild.


Once my present engine wears out, then I will have an engine built so it can take a lot of boost. It is a very good question, one I have asked my self several times. I have spent around 5k to have 385rwhp.

 

I wish that it was "only" $5G's that I had spent. I went from TPIS headers w/stock cats to Kooks headers w/HP cats. Went from 3.42 gears to 3.90 gears w/HD shaft. Had the LS6 intake w/stock TB then I went with the FAST 90mm intake w/90mm TB. Was going to swap the 2400 converter with a bigger one but had to draw the line on how much $$$ I was spending. Etc........you get the picture. All in the name of a few more ponies & better Et's (even though I go to the track maybe once per year)!!! Even though I was able to re-sell my older mods its kind of like re-selling your textbooks back to the college bookstore....pennies on the dollar. Do you think that my mods are any better on the engine than a low boosted blower? Probably not, especially when it comes to valvesprings and such. The debate will go on...................................... ..............

 

Don't get caught up on dyno numbers. If you still had 3.15's, you'd have another 15-20+ RWHP. I ran a 11.1 with only 388RWHP. If you want to measure performance, then take it to the track, those are the only #'s that count. If you're really stuck on dyno numbers, you can take a road trip to TX where dyno numbers seem to be much higher.

 

For some unknown reason I want my Corvette to have just as much horsepower and be as quick as any stock off-the-shelf Corvette. Do I need it? No! Can I really use it except at the track once or twice a year? No! But do I want it? YES!!

I should bite the bullet before I invest in headers and get a Super Charger but I don't want to have to constantly fiddle with belts, pulleys, squeaks, noises that make people think there is something wrong with my Vette, etc. So who knows what one should do!

If you have the answer, I'm all ears!

 

I agree with Face that HP readings for A4's don't tell the whole story. Mine is only making 382 rwhp. My times for the 1/8th are below. I know I can improve those times with MTET's and skinnies. The car is a daily driver, but get's lots of notice and compliments for the way it sounds. I guess we each need to decide what kind of car we want. It's all good.

1.571 7.199 95.790

 

I did it the other way around. I plan to add heads and cam next.

 

I don’t have an A4 but I have a Z06. That was exactly what had gone through my mind. A SC mades more economic sense to me than on h/c, header, intake…… etc combined. I was good in controlling myself not to spend a penny on power mods for about 15 months. That was not easy. Finally in July this year, I spend around $9K on Andy’s Procharger set up and I got 530rwhp. Andy’s kit provides me a turn key solution with not to much more maintenance or problems than a stock motor. I can smoke virtually most vehicles at street without sweat. I am very happy with my decision.

 

JTE is a perfect example. Longtubes + supercharger=490 RWHP!! Fantastic #'s that my heads/cam, intake, & exhaust etc...can't come close to.

 

OK ATZ06 and JTE, can you enlighten us all and let us know what maintenance etc is necessary over a stock engine? Would you go the SC route if there was no experienced SC shop around? Can you give us a general breakout of cost? I've heard someone say that you can expect to pay over $10,000 or more to get to where you need to be. We're dying for the details. One final question, would you do it over again?

 

Better throttle response, smoother running enigine

 

Need vs. Want vs. Cost vs. Retirement.

Hmmm, interesting first post!

- Wisdom

 

if u have the $ why not get it charged. but as far as the FEVER goes i love to do it week by week. if u get all th H.P. now wheres the fun after that exept killing everything in sight on the road, i guess there is always susp. and brakes along with looks rims etc. tough one i would go with all engine i dont need over 500 hp but i would not roll my eyes at it either

 

The spark plugs need to be changed more often. I run NGK TR6's and have changed them twice now in the last 9k miles. The oil in the ATI blower head unit needs to be changed at least every 6k miles. Serpentine belts need to be changed more often.

Probably not depending on how far away the nearest good shop is. The MOST important consideration on a blown car is TUNING.
I am currently 2-1/2 hours away from FLP. The have done an oustanding job on my car. The car was previously tuned by another tuner. Dan Bills @ FLP fixed many issues that I had with the car when he redid my tune this past Spring.


It definatley adds up. I have gradually progressed from just the blower to where I am now and I am still not done. That wouldn't be any fun.
Here is a breakdown in my case
ATI P1SC Procharger (very early kit) $5485
ATI install, pin damper, superchips tune 1100
Lower radiator and change air intake setup 500
Racetronics fuel pump, 42# injectors, install 750
LS6 valvesprings and install 300
LS6 intake manifold and install 500
FLP longtubes and install 1500
FLP level 4 tranny and install 2400
3.42 gears used - sold 3.15 gears 250
Yank 3000 torque converter 800
MMS Procharger bracket (recently removed) 550
A&A Procharger bracket 500
retune by FLP 550
______
$ 15,185

Of course, you would save considerable money now by going with either A&A or the ECS setup.

Hell yes!

 

I recommend making the valve train stronger(chrome molly push rods, rocker rollers and stronger double springs), installing a med lift cam and stage 2 head job. Double roller timing chain, ported blue printed oil pump, under drive pulley, long tube headers with high flow cats and X-pipe. Keep the fac cats or go with the ZO6 tit cats. Now depending what kind of HP you want to reach, ZO6 intake, 90mm throtle body, bigger injectors, reinforcing the trany, torque converter, rear gear change, drag radials. Now if you have some $$$$ left install a supercharger or a turbo system. So yeah do them both. Otherwise leave your vette stock and enjoy it that way. It all depends if it is your daily driver, your track monster or your street/strip vehicle.