I have a stock 2003 gt with 80k on it. I have been debating on either buying a new stang and taking on a car payment or supercharging my current ride. A couple of questions, Should I even be thinking about supercharging a stock gt with 80k on it? Whould I have to mess with the internals or could I just slap it on and go. I have no experience with supercharging so any input would help a lot.

Matt

 

anyone?

 

Any supercharged car I've had was factory supercharged so I've got no experience in doing it to a factory N/A car. But it seems to me from reading I've done that the 4.6 factory block can handle up 350-400 HP reliably without messing with the internals. Off the top of my head the 03's had around 265 HP, so another 90 or so HP from a reliable, mildly tuned blower would probably be good. Plus if you went that route you'll have a serious weight advantage over the newer stangs on the street now.

 

If the purpose is to have fun at the track, yes. It beats taking a brand new car and beating it up at the track. This is similar to restoring a car, sometimes it makes more sense to look for a restored car than to go through the ordeal of restoring one.
If you want it to last, yes. You need to consider the car's age, mileage, and over all condition.

It might be a good idea to figure the actual costs doing it right before making a decision and investing a vast amount of money.

 

[QUOTE=

If you want it to last, yes. You need to consider the car's age, mileage, and over all condition.

It might be a good idea to figure the actual costs doing it right before making a decision and investing a vast amount of money.[/QUOTE]

This is what I am trying to figure out. I love my car right now but I want more power. It was all the power I need 8 years ago when I was only 17 but now I want more. It is my DD and has never been to the track.

 

If you use a mild tune and relatively low boost, maybe 5 or 6psi, then you shouldn't have anything to worry about. 80k isn't to high mileage so you should be just fine.

 

It will do fine. Do eeeeet!

 

Which S/C should I look at? What kind of money are we talking about start to finish?

 

Vortech and Procharger are always good to start with. Probably looking at close to 5kish

 

Here are some supercharger systems: http://www.vortechsuperchargers.com/product.php?p=133
http://www.paxtonauto.com/product.php?id=105
What about a turbo kit? http://www.hellionpowersystems.com/i...article&id=134

 

Thanks for all the info guys. Now I have to figure if I really want to put 5k into this car or not.

Eduardo, I never gave any thought to a turbo because I heard they take longer to deliver the power due to having to spool up. I could be wrong tho. What are some pros and cons for S/C vs turbo?

 

Here's some of the pro's & cons as my understanding allows.

That would depend on the A/R trim size, the bigger it is, the longer it will take to spool, but be prepared for the power rush! Also turbocharged motors act as N/A engines out of boost, so you'll get the same response and mileage if you keep your right foot from producing boost. Drawback of turbochargers, heat. They heat a lot due to the exhaust side, but for every psi of boost from otherwise wasted energy, it offers the most power. They are also a lot more complex to install.

Superchargers spool up quicker, at least roots type ones. Centrifugal units act as turbos, the higher you rev the engine, the more boost they can deliver, but they fall short to turbos anyway after a given impeller speed or trim size. Also keep in mind that the actual motor is spinning it, so they take power to turn them. And most supercharger kits are easier to bolt on. Even some of them don't need oil feed/return lines bec. they have their oil supply inside the turbine unit.

You should check the turboforums, the corral or other places that have users with both set ups. Sn95forums would be a good place to start.

 

I would not go the turbo route. It's always been my understanding that turbos shortened the life of the engine more than a supercharger, you have to deal with turbo lag, and you don't get the awesome screaming noise from the turbos that supercharger makes. If you were looking to build a 1000 HP monster than maybe go with a twin turbo, but since you are going respectable step up in power route I would go with a blower.

If you are looking for low end power on demand go with a roots type supercharger. My cobra doesn't have a great deal of power on the low end and I just drove my best friends 02 GT and thought the similar thing with that. It'd be a good way to compensate. Plus a roots type just looks real sharp on top of the engine. I've got a Thunderbird back home with a factory roots blower and she moves surprisingly quick right away.

 

Shortening the life of an engine will depend on how much boost you feed it, no matter which method you use for forcing it. And the actual compression of air into an engine causes heat from either method. Heat soak of a turbocharger actually happens after shut down. Also, a supercharger adds more stress to the front crank bearings due to the additional load, while the other uses exhaust gases to run it. As long as you keep your oil & filter changes regularly, more often than usual, both the engine and the FI device will last a long time.

But whatever you choose to do, its a matter of personal preference and what's your end goal with the car.

 

I'd do a compression check and vacuum check to make sure the engine is still fresh. You'll probably want to swap to colder plugs (and new wires) and also get a new fuel filter. Depening on how crazy you go, you'll need bigger injectors. I'd also do transmission, coolant and rearend services. When you start modifying at later mileages, you need to remember all the other typical wear and tear maintenance that goes along with the mileage of the car. Is your GT an auto or manual?

 

Thanks for all the info.

Patrick, my GT is a manual.

 

Cool, how's the clutch doing? I don't mean to throw a lot of info at you, but just trying to make sure you have all your bases covered before you start throwing boost at a car with 80k miles. 80k miles really isn't that much, for a stock car though. There's a lot of stuff you have to make sure are in working order before you start adding power. My buddy with an 02 Lightning is going through a similar situation. The truck has 96k miles on it and all he's done is lower it and add a CAI. He picked up a smaller 6lb pulley and wanted to wake the engine up a little bit. While having the sparkplugs changed, the shop found out he had 2 helicoils, one on each head, from when he originally had the plugs done (the mod motors are notorious or sparkplug problems) and now he's facing a $3-5k repair job just to get the truck back to stock! They have to pull both heads.

I'm just trying to look at for you bud. A lot of guys on an Internet forum will immediately say YEAH!!! Moarrr HPz!!! I hope I'm not discouraging you though, as I think if I were in your situation, I'd still mod the car rather than have a car payment for years. You could completely redo every mechanical part and upgrade it for far less than a brand new stang, and you'll know you made it your way (sorry Burger King ). All I'm saying is, be prepared for other stuff to come up. Throwing the blower on without checking all that stuff may work out fine for another 20k miles (just an arbitrary number, don't take it to heart). Like I said, depends on how crazy you want to go. If anything at least you're thinking about the rest of the mechanicals that are involved here....

 

And I believe Delaware is one of the CA emissions states right? Which means a turbo kit would be out of the question if you want to remain street legal...

 

What he said.

 

Thanks. Still a lot to think about. I'll have my mechanic look it over to see how it looks. I also threw around the idea of dropping a create motor in it but then I think i would have to change a bunch more stuff. I'm all ideas right now.