Vortech Questions

97woodward · Mar 18, 2008

I am trying to make a decision about what to do with my car at this point. I cant decide whether to purchase a vortech kit or something similar or stay n/a. The price is obviously the biggest hold up for me at this point. I dumped around three grand into my car over the last month as it is just to get all maintenance done, several suspension mods, 4.10s, etc..

I will be recieving a nice tax refund soon though and have pretty much all my finances in order (besides insane college debt) so I was thinking of looking into a blower.

I have read countless threads on blowers and different setups. My car is a 97 Gt thats gonna have 90k on it very soon. The car is an automatic. If I could get a great supercharger kit with intercooler and installation all for around $3500, I may be able to do it. I cant install it myself, Im in the city with no access to anything.

Does anyone know any good places to look for cheap vortech kits or anything else similar for this price? Ive looked on some site classifieds but I want to know any other good places people have found cheap kits. Thanks for you help!

Jrgunn5150 · Mar 18, 2008

I got my first Vortech off Ebay for 1200 bucks.

For 3500 installed and intercooled, you'll have to go used, and intercooling really isn't needed anyway.

justinschmidt1 · Mar 18, 2008

J.R. said:
I got my first Vortech off Ebay for 1200 bucks.

For 3500 installed and intercooled, you'll have to go used, and intercooling really isn't needed anyway.

speaking of intercooling..

whats the benefits of intercooling a centri blowr?

allows you to run more boost, safer, more power?

why dont some people like intercoolers?

Jrgunn5150 · Mar 18, 2008

justinschmidt1 said:
J.R. said:

I got my first Vortech off Ebay for 1200 bucks.

For 3500 installed and intercooled, you'll have to go used, and intercooling really isn't needed anyway.

Click to expand...

speaking of intercooling..

whats the benefits of intercooling a centri blowr?

allows you to run more boost, safer, more power?

why dont some people like intercoolers?

Benefits are, a cooler air charge, so less detonation, more timing can be used, better throttle response and power follow. The more boost you run, the more you should do it. People running 8-12 PSi, aren't really heating the air much with higher end blower's. If you are blowing past the compressor's efficiency range, it becomes more critical.

Downsides are, cost, difficulty in install, added complexity, another place for a leak to spring up if you are using a draw through MAF, and boost drop of at least 2 psi acrossed the core.

97woodward · Mar 18, 2008

So if I decided to get a blower without the intercooler used what would you suggest in that price range? I want something that is high quality but it needs affordable. I have to get it professionally installed and I cant spend more than $3500 on the whole package (blower+ install). Are there any good clasified websites that have used blowers for sale often? Thanks for the help!

Brian95SVT · Mar 18, 2008

Corral.net has a HUGE classifieds
Most blower setups alone will cost you 3500+ (new)
Used ones either Corral or ebay
I'm sure you can find them for decent prices but the install is what's killing you.
If you could do it yourself then you would save SOOO much money.
Also remember, if you put a blower you on, you HAVE to get a tune... unless you wanna blow your motor....

Jrgunn5150 · Mar 18, 2008

Corral.net always has something floating around for pretty cheap, although this time of year everyone has income tax money, so prices are higher.

A Vortech S-trim is pretty standard, 100k+ mile reliability and 400+ rwhp capability is hard to beat. You will probably spend around 1k on install labor and tune, so try to keep your kit price to 2k, unless it comes with MAF and injectors.

Johnny Langton · Mar 18, 2008

97woodward said:
I will be recieving a nice tax refund soon though and have pretty much all my finances in order (besides insane college debt) so I was thinking of looking into a blower.

A few questions.
Can you afford a completely new engine if you break that one?
If not,is this car your primary and only transportation?
Can you be without it long enough to repair it if you break it?

Those are the most important questions to ask yourself. A power adder on a stock engine is asking for a financial nightmare.
JL

97woodward · Mar 18, 2008

Yes this car is my daily driver. It is my only car. I can not afford to buy a new motor, but why would a blower be a financial nightmare? I do all the required maintenance on my car, and I am not that hard on the car. Although, I have read that without an intercooler a supercharger can have negative effects as mileage gets higher.

Brian95SVT · Mar 18, 2008

He's just sayin be careful. It's very possible to blow a motor when you add a FI onto it.
There are people who run their setups for YEARS upon YEARS with 0 problems
then there are others who run them fine then throw it on a dyno and blow it
or blow it racing (street or strip)

anything is possible so factor that in...

jmystic · Mar 18, 2008

As long as you don't beat the living piss out of your car, you should be fine putting an s-trim on your car. Just be sure to get a good/safe tune. As someone stated earlier, it would be nice if someone sold everything needed (injectors, fuel pump, etc.). I'd say $3500 is doable, but another grand and your set. Good luck!

cmher18 · Mar 18, 2008

PROCHARGER OR NOTHING :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

justinschmidt1 · Mar 18, 2008

cmher18 said:
PROCHARGER OR NOTHING :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

haha...prochargers seem to be used by the faster guys...vortechs used for street cars with stock motors.

Im goin pro charger...

I really dont think you can go bad with any blower out there...except maybe those powerdynes haha

little things add up when you buy a blower....

300 for injectors, 100 for fuel pump, 300 for MAF setup...thats 700 right there+ another 100 bucks in MISC. for install, Oil, punch, tap, sparkplugs)

basically another grand for crap and I need a tune still.

just things to think about after you buy a kit.

cmher18 · Mar 18, 2008

Procharger you dont need a tap so u save $5 bucks...... :hammer:

If u need 60lb injectors i can get them for 199 shipped

justinschmidt1 · Mar 18, 2008

cmher18 said:
Procharger you dont need a tap so u save $5 bucks...... :hammer:

If u need 60lb injectors i can get them for 199 shipped

ha..my pro charger needs to be tapped...p600b

spent like 50 bucks on the tap and special punch...gotta do this right the first time...so im not doing any ghetto shit.

arent 60lb injectors overkill unless your running like 500+ rwhp?

96PonyGT · Mar 18, 2008

yeah man, 3500 should be doable, even tho I spent 4200 on my complete non ic vortech kit lol at least it comes with all the stuff I need. the bad thing is install and tune!! I hate living in canada, everything is so expensive!!

justinschmidt1 · Mar 18, 2008

3500 is easy if you buy a used blower.

Jrgunn5150 · Mar 18, 2008

3500 isn't easy, you need to shop very carefully. And I never heard of a special punch for the oil pan, does it come with a free quart of synthetic blinker fluid? :hammer:

Shocker98GT · Mar 18, 2008

For $3500 you could buy a low mileage P.I. engine, send the heads off to be ported and assembled by someone like Fox Lake, get Comp or VT cams installed and you're right in the neighborhood of what a supercharged NPI engine would produce with a LOT more room to grow in the future, not to mention you'd have a newer engine.

Jrgunn5150 · Mar 18, 2008

Shocker98GT said:
For $3500 you could buy a low mileage P.I. engine, send the heads off to be ported and assembled by someone like Fox Lake, get Comp or VT cams installed and you're right in the neighborhood of what a supercharged NPI engine would produce with a LOT more room to grow in the future, not to mention you'd have a newer engine.

Fail. For 3500 bucks, let's break it down.

Say you get the engine for 1k.
Cams are 500-600
Head porting is 2k oops, already broke the bank, for a final number (with a free tune) of around 300. Room to grow? Nope sorry, you're done, where are you going to grow to? I have yet to see a 2v over 350 rwhp, and those don't resemble something you would drive daily.

What are we making on faily stock NPI's with PI intakes and blower's? Right around 350... ROom to grow? I grew to 500 rwhp, other's grow even more.

You wanna play with the big boy's N/A, you better have some magical Wheaties to eat.