Synacks

If any of us bought a bone stock C7 Z51 right now and wanted the most power out of a centrifugal supercharger kit, just running on plain old 93 pump gas, which one would it be? What power will it reasonably make?

If it helps, toss any intake, pulley, exhaust mods you want in there. Just needs to be all stock motor on only 93 pump gas.

BlueDevilZ51

I’m sure any PD or centrifugal blower can max out the fuel system of an LT1 on 93 octane pretty easily depending on pulley size.

Synacks

Yes but which centrifugal creates the most power when doing that?

irapilot

I have a C7 Z51 (automatic) and put a ECS supercharger on it along with LG 2'" tube headers, LG X-pipe and hi flow cats. ECS told me that on their dyno they normally see about 365 (stock) and I should expect in the 540-560 range. I installed it over the last winter and have driven it since spring, but have not gotten down to ECS to refine the tune on the dyno yet so I don't have actual numbers.

I can say that it is strong, the installation is "pretty" straight forward (I did it in my garage), almost everyone who see's the installation comments how clean it is and it looks like it was done by the factory. ECS is super responsive to any questions.you have during the process and I did have a couple.

I don't think there is going to be any significant variation in power between any of the different packages out there because there are only a couple of different head units being used, and with the same boost (8-9 being the safe limit) you really can't expect much difference. The variation is more in the engineering, completeness and ease of the installation package and with that regard ECS has to be near the top of the list.

I will say after removing the stock exhaust, I was impressed by the factory design and now understand why headers on these cars don't give the big HP bang that they did on many of the older cars. Maybe 25-30 HP over stock until you start adding bigger cam, more boost, etc.

Synacks

Thank you for that information. Assuming upper 500's is the limit, what is the next modification that can be done to allow another 100whp?

irapilot

That's upper 500's at the rear wheels. Meth injection & tune will probably come close to giving you another 100, and it is probably a little safer than some of the other things you might do i.e. it is cooling the mixture and temperatures in the cylinder/cylinder heads. That will help keep the pistons cooler which will "put off" the ring gap closing up due to the higher temperatures under boost, which results in piston failure at the top ring land. To safely go up in power you need to replace the pistons with forged pistons and open up the ring gaps. From my understanding you are then reasonably safe up to the 800-850 HP area. Then the next weak link after that is the connecting rods, and the north side of 1000-1000 HP its the crank, in the area of a couple of hundred HP more and you hit the engine blocks limits.

Synacks

Right, I have over 600whp right now on my C7Z but I'm trying to learn more about the LT1.

Keeping meth out of the equation, E85 is an alternative but would need fueling upgrades to flow more correct?

If that's correct, what sort of cost would it take to increase another 100whp (upper 600's) using E85 and the fuel upgrades?

irapilot

E85 has about 30% less BTU per gallon compared to gas. So basically you need to increase the by that amount to break even, not taking into account you will get some power gain as a result of the cooling and being able to tune more aggressively. With that said though with where you are at already you will probably have to upgrade the pump and injectors before you see much gain. The following link is a typical E85 Conversion kit; https://www.corvettemods.com/C7-Corv...t_p_15814.html . And that doesn't address the need for more fuel at higher HP numbers. Why do you want to avoid meth?

Synacks

I was moreso asking about what the fuel upgrades are needed since E85 flows a lot more than 93 and the stock fuel system is restricted from flowing that much. I'm interested to know what parts are needed to allow E85 to flow enough to produce 700whp.

I have had meth on previous cars and don't care to use it again. I've used both E85 and meth separately and found the E85 experience to be better overall. So I'd like to see what can be done without meth, even if E85 is required to be used.

DOUG @ ECS

Thanks for your nice write up! One thing not mentioned is the TQ difference the ECS kit makes over any other centrifugal kit on the market due to our restrictor plate design. There is a thread on here with dyno graphs from each major supercharger company showing this, I should have saved it.

Bruce_K

i was at about 660whp on E85 and a Z06 blower.

I have meth now. Mostly for safety

Synacks

What fuel modifications did you install to allow for the extra power?

Just reminding everyone that I am talking about a stock C7 Z51 with a stock LT1. I am not inquiring about doing anything to my C7 Z06. This post is purely for learning and getting information on how to get close to 700whp on a C7 Z51 LT1 only using 93 or E85 with stock motor.

At this point the only thing I am missing are the parts that need to be bought to allow for E85 to properly flow through the fuel lines at this power level. I'm not talking about the E85 conversion kit, I'm talking about all of the other parts needed like fuel pumps etc.

Bruce_K

Z06 injectors, HPFP, and a low side fuel pump. And the flez fuel sensor if you wanna count that.

Synacks

Thank you.

And going back to the meth thing. Basically every kit I've seen for this car in the last 24 hours has the tank in the storage compartment in the trunk. Are there any that people are running successfully under the hood?

Bruce_K

I'm running washer tank 50/50

123sugey

^^^ this is one reason I just bought a meth kit. Much less expensive to get the hp goal. If I were going to do the above I would do pistons and turn it up. And if I did pistons ... then a cam and then.....

Bruce_K

That's next for sure. I want to open it only once.

FYREANT

Not sure what threads your reading, but by FAR almost everyone uses the washer fluid tank under the hood. I did a full “how to” walkthrough on the install and documented it here on the forums. Simplest solution to get the fuel needed for anything up to about 700HP.

Synacks

Link?

robert miller