awalp

I'm planning on going turbo or supercharger this winter.

First question:
Since ZR1 gauge clusters already have a boost gauge, is it possible to swap a boost gauge from a ZR1 cluster onto a standard cluster, therefore achieving the goal of keeping a very clean look.

Second question:
How much boost/pressure can a stock LS2 motor handle? How many psi can I run safely and reliably, this is my daily driver most of the year.

Third question:
Which supercharger? I'm thinking I want the edlebrock e-charger that claims 615hp, Is this 615hp on an LS2, is this a good supercharger?

Also, they have two kits, a 550hp, and a 615hp E-Charger kit, one uses a stock fuel pump and one upgrades it. Is the higher power kit too much for a daily driver and should I settle for the lower kit, or go with the higher kit?

Four question:
Or should I do another setup? Can I get short length turbo headers and fit a turbo on each side of the motor without any modifications? Also how easily would then a dual intake intercooler fit on the front of the car with one exit port flowing into the stock throttle body? That is my second idea. Also with this setup, if I could use short length turbo headers, they would need a waste-gate port, can the waste-gate dump tube be routed into the down-pipe for an internal waste-gate not an external waste-gate setup, or is it better to use external?

Fourth and a half question? If a twin turbo setup fits under the hood without modification with short length turbo headers, could I bolt the downpipes up to a Z06 X-pipe with factory or high flow cats?, and use an NPP Z06 axle back portion? And would a Z06 NPP exhaust have enough flow with a wastegate that dumps into the exhaust downpipe not to cause extra turbo pressure?

Finally..
So which would be the easier cheaper, and more reliable solution for a warm part of the year daily driver, an E-Charger, or a custom twin turbo setup using a Z06 X-pipe w/ catalytic converters, and a Z06 NPP axle-back exhaust either way.

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Either way, I want to have no reduction in low end torque. This is a street setup, daily driver, which currently in its stock form, early sees above 2000rpm. I want to be able to be going uphill at 1200rpm and still be pushed back in my seat a little, or by adding force induction, a lot more. So whatever I do, I want no reduction in low in power. The low end power is what I love about my car in the first place. I just want to run 10s in the 1/4 mile.

Another possibility, maybe I would be happier going N/A route? but I doubt it, I figure the only way to keep low end power is going forced induction.

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My old car was a 109bwhp (150hp) 4cyl mitsubishi eclipse n/a. That I have had running reliably enough for a daily driver for 7 years. I took this car from dynoed at 109bwhp, to 320bwhp, with less than $10,000 using 15psi and my custom turbo setup. If I got the same gains out of the Corvette on the stock motor it would be 1000bwhp, or 1200hp flywheel. I tripled the power of my old car an ran it like that for 6 years. Looking to do the same on this car, though I highly doubt an LS2 is going to handle as much boost pressure as a 4G64 motor built off of a 4G63 which was designed for a turbo. So If I end doubling the bwhp I'll be happy enough since the engine isn't small enough to need the horsepower tripled.

PowerLabs

Flooring your car, up a hill, at 1200RPM is called "lugging" the engine. This is not proper driving and is a great way to destroy an engine, specially with forced induction. You are generating massive cylinder pressures and holding them there for as long as possible. Most vehicles (any brand) actually carry a warning in the manual about not doing that. Want to be pushed back in your seat? Downshift.

Other than that, the E-Force (that's what it is called) is a good choice for a street car.

awalp

Obviously uphill I'd be over 2000rpm, but it's nice to be in 5th gear going 25mph, and it still have more go when I press the accelerator than most cars do in 2nd gear. My point was, it's really easy to barely press the gas and never go above 2000rpm for 95% of a non-aggressive trip, and still be ahead of traffic.

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The first main question though is can I slip a ZR1 boost gauge into my cluster for a stock like and clean look?

PowerLabs

No. Your car does not have a 3 BAR map sensor like the ZR-1, your PCM does not communicate boost to the gauge cluster, and your gauge cluster wiring harness does not have any wire to carry that information.

Also I will re-iterate this because it is important: do not drive your car around by flooring it at high loads and low RPMs. This is not the proper way to drive a vehicle and can cause engine damage. If you really want to be flooring your vehicle below 2000RPM all the time, sell your Corvette and buy a Diesel powered vehicle like a Jetta or a truck: it will be much better suited for that style of driving, will last longer, net better fuel economy, and accelerate harder in your desired RPM range.
Incidentally, 25MPH in 5th gear equals 750RPM on your 2005 Z-51 manual car (as per your profile). I have absolutely no idea why you'd want to drive your car like that, but if it is because of some bizarre perceived benefit in fuel economy you may be interested in knowing that that is not where your engine is most efficient.

eboggs_jkvl

We don't have hills in Florida and I run 6th gear all the time in the city. If I need to accelerate with any degree of vigor, I down shift otherwise a soft pressure on the pedal will accelerate with traffic conditions. I know this to be true as I've run EFILive scan on the car while I drive and the KR is 0. Most city driving in Jax is 45 with some smaller streets at 35. With 45 MPH it is relatively easy to run in 6th gear.


Hills (actually bridges) require me to actually be doing 45+ to make stronger acceleration without KR or to downshift.

Shoot, I'm getting 32+ MPG in 6th at 45 MPH! It truly takes a gentle touch but it can be done. In a town like Cincinnati, fuhgedaboudit! Too many hills! Different people; different driving styles.

Elmer

PowerLabs

I've gotten 35MPG before doing 60MPH in 6th back when my car was N/A... .
You are fine gently accelerating at low RPMs, the OP was talking about flooring his car. Basically you have the oil pump running at very low speeds while the engine is producing very large cylinder pressures, and the pressure remains high for a very long period of time since the piston velocity is so low, creating huge stresses on everything. It is very likely to produce knock, but even if there is no knock it is also very likely to cause bearing wear since you have limited lubrication and high load. To each their own but threads like this kind of make me understand why automatic transmissions are gaining in popularity

awalp

Thanks for completely running this thread way off topic, obviously you can't drive your thoughts or a forum or understand what i was saying about a corvette having more torque than a turbo 4cyl. Find something better to do than telling everyone how to drive, obviously you're going around driving 3 grand like an idiot wasting gas. Gm would not have put a1-4 light which i usually put into third. And obviously the car has no wiring or vacuum/boost pressure sensors.

Don't talk down to me like I an idiot and post pointless stuff and act like god.

Again question one.
Can a boost gauge from a ZR1 be swapped into my cluster as the display for an electronic vacuum/boost pressure sending unit of some kind? I know electronic is not the way to go, that i should use a mechanical gauge but the trade off for having a stock gauge in the cluster would be worth it. So how can I use a stock gauge and what is way to go as far as adding an electronic sensor/sending unit. Should a gm be used or can I somehow interface the gauge to an afterket sending unit? Has this been done before or is there already an afterarket (autometer or siimilar) style gauge that will fit onto the cluster?

PowerLabs

Don't say stupid things like "I want to supercharge my car so I can floor it up a hill doing 25 miles an hour in 5th gear" and the quality of your feedback may improve considerably I wasn't aware that offering basic mechanical advice was "acting like a god". I should hang out at your church, sounds like I'd be a real hit there!


The ZR1 "boost gauge" is not a boost gauge in the conventional sense: It doesn't have a vacuum line or two little wires on the back that you can hook up a sending unit to and make it work: Every single gauge on a GM gauge cluster is just a stepper motor and the entire gauge cluster is driven by the PCM itself via a specific language called CAN (Controller Area Network) BUS. The cluster decodes a bit stream of digital data into information that it uses to drive the gauges. Making that gauge work on a car that doesn't have a ZR-1 PCM would be far more trouble than its worth.

But what do I know... I'm just a condenscending A-hole right?

d.medic

Wow you sure showed him. Oh, and the "him" you showed just happens to be one of the most helpful guys on this forum. I hope I understand 1% of what he does with all things mechanical.

FIREC6

Does anyone know the specs on the ZR1 stock supercharger..,IE
Lbs. of boost
single or dual screws
liters
straight or reverse flow
intercooled?
I'm sure there are other sources...this one just seemed to be the quickest and most current.

Thanks

mr. e

Jersey is in the house.........