Hi Mike.
I understand if you have your heart set on a supercharger. Personally I prefer the efficiencies of turbines and the greater potential for tuning with a well setup intercooled turbo.
Still superchargers have had alot of development put into them, and there is alot of knowledge and different types of superchargers. There are reliable and well sorted packages for GEN III LS1s / LS6s to be blown. Harrop is working on one package now that should be quite good given Harrops approach to these things.
If you can afford the intercooler, while the intercooler doesnt produce alot more power on its own (apart from the colder air intake benefits upping power) the big gain with the coolers is being able to ramp up the boost and not have the motor detonating. Be careful though, as the intercooler should not loose alot of pressure, and badly matched coolers will actually make the engine worse than having nothing. With the right compressor map Ive seen 22psi used on Optimax fuel with no detonation; and any engine force fed at 22psi is going to move!
Well advised to fit exhaust valves that can operate at higher temperatures - Iconnel sodium filled. Alot of good comes from ceramic coated combustion chambers, valves and pistons. Also forged pistons will take the increased torque of forced induction better than the hyperuetectic cast ones - but in the LS1 there has been alot of problems with cold piston slap so your going to need to be careful with piston to skirt clearances and perhaps try anti friction coating on the piston skirt - this is what the factory are doing now, as well changed skirt to bore clearance and higher tension piston rings. Your
oil cooling and water cooling systems should be upgrade to cope with the increased power sent into these systems. With an intercooler and decent boost you will need to change injectors as they will have maxed the duty cycle and this means an ECU tuning. The LS1 computer can now be editied in real time so no worries there anymore.
The book to buy on turbos is Corky Bells "Maximum Boost". There are other books specifically on supercharging as well.
Im not sure what Im going to do. Naturally aspirated, guys are getting top results with GEN IIIs. Its simple too - higher lift cam and little more duration, work the heads, titanium retainers, heavier valve springs, Holley sell a top manifold, bigger injectors and a big throttle body and mass air sensor.........Ive seen a dyno run of a standard short block with just those head mods and inlet mods, and it pulled 285 rear wheel kws! Thats about 370 flywheel kilowatts.
Oh, the water to air intercooler, it is over 14 times more efficient than an air to air intercooler. It can fit into small places too so your concept of a "clean" look in the engine bay suits that.
One thing is for sure, if you budget allows for it going foced induction is the key to super silly pucker factor power!
