A small guide to Forced Induction

[GhostofKrypton]

So you want to be a part of the Forced induction world. It is easy to do, all you need is a lot of money. Many people ask how much money does it take to Supercharge or Turbo my car? OR what parts do I need to complete my build. I have started a list and rough prices for a Turbo build. On the very cheap, for just turbo parts and doing all the labor yourself, you can build a car for 3500$. Now most people will disagree, but this is the bare minimum. Start adding in suspension and reliability pieces then the prices start to go up. Originally I felt I could build a Turbo car with about 5 grand. Soon realized that I would need double that, and then found out I needed even more money on top of that.

Starting from a bolt on car, I wanted to build the suspension to handle the power I was going to make. Then I found other parts to help make my build easier. I can list everything I bought suspension wise, but it is the same thing everybody buys to help their car ride better. I decided since I was going to build a car, might as well make it so I wasn’t replacing parts all the time, and I could use the power I was going to make.

First thing I had to do was determine the amount of power I want to make. Now most STOCK LS1’s can handle around 500 horse power. Second thing I asked myself is how much I wanted to spend. A Procharger would cost about 6k, and a friend who recently made his own truck manifold turbo kit, said he made his for 3500$. The pro’s for the supercharger, is that it comes as a kit, so very little left to buy. It can maintain a “stock” appearance, and I wouldn’t have to give up my exhaust system I already had. Con’s was price. Pro’s for the turbo build was cheaper because of the DIY part. You can change the boost level with just a touch of a button. (instead of swapping a pulley) Con’s, removal of amenities.

Here is the part list, I will do a bare minimum list for a cheap turbo build, and a more highly recommended list. You can buy a pieced together turbo kit as well as a supercharger kit and they range from $4,000 to $10,000. Most kits will include the turbo, wastegate, BOV (blow of valve), piping and intercooler. The supercharger kits include head unit, piping, pulleys and intercooler. There are a few kits that include fuel parts as well. (Believe ATI and Vortech are still doing this)

THE PARTS:

TURBO: You can find a Masterpower turbo online for around $750, or a Borgwarner for $600-750. Both are proven turbo’s for at least 500 hp. Also if you want more power you can go with Garret, Precision, Turbonectics ……… ECT.

HEADERS: IF you are going the cheapest route, you can do a truck manifold setup. This setup uses the 6.0L manifolds ($35-$60) that are commonly found on chevy trucks. With or without the EGR holes in them, either will work. To run these, you switch the passenger and driver side manifold, which in turns have them face the front of the car. If you are going to try and keep the Air conditioning, then you will need a C5 (passenger) manifold, and you would route your passenger piping around the rear of the block. Or you can buy tubular turbo manifolds, but then again that is major coin ($700-$1,000)

PIPING: You will need to buy a couple of U bends and some other J pieces to make your merge pipe. This pipe comes from the headers and merges at the T-flange that you bolt the turbo to. You will also need pieces to make your Down pipe\ exhaust system. Depending upon the material you are using these piece can be had for $30 apiece.

WASTEGATE: A wastegate is a valve that diverts exhaust away from the turbine wheel. Diversion of exhaust regulates the turbine speed, which in turn regulates the rotating speed of the compressor. The primary function of the wastegate is to regulate the maximum boost pressure in turbocharger systems, to protect the engine and the turbocharger. This is important because it helps control boost. Prices range from $250 to $400. Tial, Precision, HKS, and many more.

[GhostofKrypton]

INTERCOOLER: This help cool the air from the turbo before it goes into the intake. There are two different types available, Air to Air and Air to Water. Buy the A2A is simplistic and there is a company on Ebay selling them for a decent price ($250 with intercooler Piping) many people have had good results with these. For the A2W it is more expensive and requires a tank for water\ice, hoses and a pump. Also the price is dramatically increased. ($800-$1,500)

BLOW OFF VALVE: BOV’s are made by many companies, and are relatively priced the same. All function the same way, they relieve the pressure in the intake piping when the throttle body is closed. HKS, Tial, Precision ……. ETC ($100-$200)

MISC STUFF: This is the Nickel and Dime stuff that is irritating, because just when you think you have bought everything something else comes up. These include gaskets, fittings, plugs, bungs, oil feed and drain lines……. ETC. I cannot name every little thing you will have to buy, but they are things you will need.
This is all stuff needed to get it done on the cheap and not so reliable. Here is a list of stuff needed to do it properly, and extra stuff that is optional.

GAUGES: You will need gauges to monitor what is going on with your car. You can get several different types depending on how cheap or expensive you want to go. They have mechanical, electrical, digital, and the all in one system. You can get gauges from several different manufacturers. I would recommend Oil Temp, Fuel Pressure, Trans Temp (for auto’s) Wideband, Boost or Boost Controller. You can buy other gauges as well, but these are the most useful ones. Oil, Fuel, and Trans gauges usually range from $45-$100. Widebands will be $200-$300, and Boost gauge will be $50-$100 or a Boost Controller will be $300-$450.

FUEL PUMP: To help make the horsepower, you will need a pump to push all that fuel. You can either buy a single inline system, upgrade you’re in tank pump, or what most people do is run dual Walbro’s. A Racetronix P&P fuel system $250, it is easy to install and gives the required amount of fuel. Dual Walbros will cost about $90-$120 apiece.

INJECTORS: Depending upon the power you want to make, will determine your needed injector size. If you are only going to stay at 500, then 42# $260-$320 will work fine. If you plan to make more power than you will need to go bigger. I first bought 60# $300-$400, and then found they were going to be to small, so had to step them up to 80# $400-$500 (which still might be to small.) Remember if you plan on running E85, then you will always need bigger injectors. You will consume more fuel with E85 then with pump gas. (Meaning bigger injectors and better fuel pumps.)

VALVE SPRINGS: Your engine will see a lot of pressure under boost, and your stock valve springs will not be able to handle it. You can upgrade to a LS6 spring at the bare minimum. Used these things run $50, which is great for a budget build. I would say Comp 918’s $160-$220 or Patriot dual springs $250-$300.

CAMSHAFT: You can get a custom ground Camshaft, or a lot of people are seeing success with a LS6 camshaft $150-$300.

[GhostofKrypton]

TIMING CHAIN: Nothing is made better then a Gm Product. (Except the 10 bolt) when replacing the chain, you can get a double roller, which IMO is a huge pain or you can get a new LS2 chain from GM for $35.

PUSHRODS: Upgrading to a new cam/valve springs the pushrods become a weak link that needs to be upgraded. You can find these from many places. $80-$150

OIL PUMP: Lots of places sell these. I feel that upgrading to a Gm LS6 pump works the same as a ported one from another place. $130-$180

6.0L HEADS: These are great to put on your stock LS1 to help lower compression which allows for more boost (safely). They also flow like the LS6 heads. You can find them used for $85-$300. Remember you want the aluminum heads not the iron.

HEAD BOLTS: If you upgraded your heads, you should replace the bolts. You can either buy a bolt kit, or a stud kit. Bolts are $130, and studs are $250-$300

CLUTCH: For all you that row your own gears. You will need a new clutch to handles the power. These are one of the more expensive things that should be upgraded for reliability. Do it once is what I say. You can buy which ever brand you are most comfortable with. From Gm to Spec. I would recommend a ls7 as the popular choice. $380-$1000

CONVERTER: You can run your stock conveter for a while, but I would high recommend you upgrade it. You must determine the stall size you want, but definetly talk to an experience person from a shop before you buy. $500-$1200

METHANOL INJECTION: There is a lot of information on this subject. A whole bunch of Pro’s and Con’s. I personally won’t run one, due to the fact that I run E85 and don’t need it. (but there are pro’s and con’s to E85 as well.) Methanol is designed to lower your IAT up to 40 degrees and makes your gas the equivalent of some say 110+ octane, thus allowing you to run more boost at a safer level. A meth kit is a standalone pump with a container full of meth/water. When in boost, the meth is sprayed into the charge pipe to cool the IAT’s. Company’s like Snow Performance and Alkycontrol sell these kits, they run from $300-$550.

GOOD TUNE: In my opinion the most important thing on a boosted car is going to be the tune. Without a good tune you will destroy your engine. You can either do it yourself (which isn’t easy) to getting it professionally done $450-$600. For you do it yourselfer’s, you have a couple choices: HP TUNERS, EFIlive, LS1edit $350-$600

If anybody would like to add to this, feel free or if you have question. Please do not clutter this thread up with, this is better than that. I wrote this as a BASIC guide to forced induction. Before anybody builds something they should research it more than just one thread.

[Packy]

The Procharger kits come with a fuel pump unless you buy the tuner kit that costs less since they assume you are going to change a lot of stuff on your own to make more power. The tuner kits are usually around $5300 where as the kits with extras go for well over $6,000 in most instances. The stock P1SC or D1SC kits with the inline fuel pump will boost a stock engine by up to 8 psi with very minimal changes. These set-ups usually make around 450-500 rwhp depending on the application and other mods. Not many people I know have a bone stock LS1 with a Procharger on them though. Matter of fact I have not seen one since 2002 or so.