ok guys heres the deal. i love my camaro and have tons of fun in it. i'm looking for more power! i know the whole engine swap idea is always a good solution. yet i have been trying to do my homework on supercharging. i just know that here we are on the brink of a 2010 camaro 3.6 v6 with 304hp while my 3.8 v6 has a measly 200hp maybe...i'm sure thats not all really getting to the wheels.

so...with all that being said if i go with a supercharger do i need to change any of the gears? engine internals? or drivetrain? not to mention suspension?

from what i have seen on the net it looks like powerdyne is a good solution, no need to go to the oilpan as it it is a self serving unit.

finally is the supercharger the answer? or a v8 swap? if i do the swap what else needs to be done?

desperate need of thought, comments, suggestions.

by the way i have a 2002 5 speed with the 3.8 and roughly 74,000 on her.

 

The easiest, cheapest, and most satisfying way is to sell your car and buy a V8 car.

There's a hell of a lot more work that goes into a supercharged/swap build than you think and it quickly adds up to MORE than the value of the car.

 

see thats the problem. i got the car at a bargain basement price lol. for instance my car books at roughly $4900 (according to kbb.com) in just good condition. so if i dump say $2000-$3000 into it then i'm just then meeting what the private party sale price calls for. now if i spend all this money do i expect someone to come and give me what kbb says? no, not at all. i'm sure i'm going to be talked down, yet going and buying another car with lord knows what for headaches...i just can't see the sense in that. i know what i have with this car, knock on wood so far no problems.

ok if i get a say 98-02 camaro z28 or ss what am i going to get for hp and tq?

if i supercharge, what should i see in gains over my car in hp and tq?

 

Well I think the highest hp for a ss with all the slp mods is 345. I love my car (except for the V6) but what I haved looked into is gettin a GTO with the LS2... If I ever have the money. Just my opinion. But the f-bodies do look good.

 

No, the Z28's and SS's run about 350 horse and 375 torque or so.

Supercharging on your car stock, you could probably get like 3-4 psi and have about 240 -260 depending on how your car handles the boost. If you put like 1-2 thousand into the engine, you can run at about probably 6-8 psi, and get probably just shy of 300 horse.

Basically unless you do some insane work to your car, your not even gonna catch up to a V8. A swap is just as expensive, you'll need the engine, radiator, tranny, rearend, k member, electronics.. basically a whole new drivetrain. Costing a ton as well, not to mention if you don't put it in yourself.

Like everyone else says, cheapest way is to sell your car and get a V8, that'll net you 150+ horsepower gain right there haha.

 

You can run 6-8 on a stock engine. Hell I've heard of guys putting even more than that to it.

 

still, the internals will not be happy with you under moderate boost. by the time you have spent 4k on the SC setup, 1k on boltons, and maybe 2k on internals to ensure u can match the v8 car in numbers, you could have sold the sixxer and used the money to buy said v8 car and have some left over for some bolton mods.

 

i see what everyone is saying as far as selling the car. i just know that selling the camaro i already have sounds a little nuts to me. im hesitating on doing that to buy another v8 camaro that could have been beat on or possibly i could inherit unseen problems. lets talk money for a sec...

lets say i have $3500 in the car right now including registration and taxes lol.
parts and labor for the supercharger $3000

totals roughly $6500 and im at say 300hp? is that a close idea of where in at? if so what am i looking at for tq? not to mention my car is lighter than the v8...just thinking out loud.

my car is still kinda low on miles too 73k on her. i dont believe i can find a 5 or 6 speed z28 or ss 2002 for $6500 with that many miles in as good shape as my car.

thoughts...

 

what dont you v6 guys ever look into running the Buick GN or T type setup? 1987, the last year for them they made (factory under rated numbers) 245hp and 355lbft

 

Hmm well Stan knows what he's talking about so you can probably run 6-8.. but I wouldn't go any higher than that. Depending on brand and if your car handles it well, you should be at a little under like 270-290's and torque would be like 300-310 (completely educated guessing here haha).

To be on the safe side you might wanna beef up internals for another 2k probably, cuz if your engine goes.. well.. there's more money going out your tail pipe.

Also, I'm not sure what the drivetrain is like on these cars, but under boost with a near 100 horsepower gain you might need to beef up your clutch, rear end and drive shaft which would cost another couple thousand.

But who knows, maybe you can pull it off scott-free? You should probably consider beefing up a little though on some places before running 6-8