Daily Driver Mods for Supercharged Engines

Well I have a supercharger on the way guys and a shop I went to the guy was telling me that internal engines mods aren't worth the money when using forced induction. It did make sense of him saying port and polishing can cause you to lose boost, but would a cam swap damage my engine in any way? I have borla headers sitting on the side so don't worry bout that. But really I want more opinions on this. Also he said some mods would be useless because of the altitude I live at?????

 

[kabukie]

Recently theres been some discussion on mod for a supercharged engine. check out this thread hopefully that will help you out a bit. Hell if you know anything feel free to chip in. trying to get my supercharged sport to not want to "blow up"
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165728

 

[Mbrooks420]

Anyone who claims internal engine mods aren't worth it with forced induction wouldn't be doing and work to my motor. A port and polish will cause better flow which is what you want. If all you are concerned about it boost, go down to a 1 inch intake. That'll build some serious boost. A new cam won't hurt the motor as long as the cam isn't overly aggressive. Altitude causes a power loss due to thinner air, but they won't negate a mod. I'd find a new guy who knows as little more. Unless the work is being done for free, and then I would do some research and make sure I ok'ed everything he wanted to do.

 

[Jakee]

I feel the "internal engine upgrades" benefit you in a WHOLE lot of ways. One being you can run more boost. Two being you can feel confident you're not gonna blow it up. I don't really think porting and polishing your heads will drop boost that much if any. It really all depends on what you're goals are and how much work you want to do here.

Determine and state you're goals first. Then people here can help you get to where you need to be.

 

[Makahveli]

actually he said for the altitude here in denver that I really won't feel the benefit of an intercooler, and he said try to stay away from a racing cam. He also told me that there is a point that I still need some resistance so a complete port and polish will kind of void it which kills the idea of doing it in the first place for the cost. So as you can see I have all the bolt-ons besides a throttle body spacer, the thing is whatever I do i still want my engine to be as maintanence free as it was b4 as far(as in nothing need I have to tend to on the regular) I read that the smallest bottle neck was the exhaust ports for the 4.0, so is it possible to port or polish those ports without removing the heads? I have a spare lower intake I can experiment on from a local junkyard. As far as the heads go I lost interest in romoving them due to the looks that I can screw some things up easy. Whats the 411?

 

[spindlecone]

Determine and state you're goals first. Then people here can help you get to where you need to be.

so true

 

[Mbrooks420]

Any time you cool the intake charge you make power. And there is a lot of difference in a longer duration cam and a race cam. A race cam only makes power in the top rpm's, because thats where a race motor lives. There are several cams that will boost midrange power and torque, and would work well with a charger.

 

[rocket 5979]

Well I have a supercharger on the way guys and a shop I went to the guy was telling me that internal engines mods aren't worth the money when using forced induction. It did make sense of him saying port and polishing can cause you to lose boost, but would a cam swap damage my engine in any way? I have borla headers sitting on the side so don't worry bout that. But really I want more opinions on this. Also he said some mods would be useless because of the altitude I live at?????

That guy doesn't know what he is talking about. Run away from him as fast as you can!

The reason I say this is that further mods such as porting and polishing, and blower cams when coupled with forced induction make your combination that much more potent. To give you an example... My truck will be putting down VERY close to 600 rwhp with my new combo. If I were running ported heads, with cams I would be pushing close to 675 at the wheels. Big difference.

Also, you will not lose boost when going to better flowing heads/cams. Your boost gauge will READ less boost, but your supercharger will still be pushing the same amount of air. The engine will just be able to use it more effectively which will lower your read boost on the boost gauge but still increase power above a non-ported head combo.

If you have not switched to forged internals then you will want to do that soon as well, if you plan to go much bigger.

While altitude will proportionately affect power a vehicle's engine makes, mods will still gain power. It will just be proportionally less than if you were at sea level. Nevertheless there will still be a gain.

 

[au01st]

The reason I say this is that further mods such as porting and polishing, and blower cams when coupled with forced induction make your combination that much more potent. To give you an example... My truck will be putting down VERY close to 600 rwhp with my new combo. If I were running ported heads, with cams I would be pushing close to 675 at the wheels. Big difference.

This begs the question, why aren't you running ported heads with cams?

 

[rocket 5979]

This begs the question, why aren't you running ported heads with cams?

Working on a sponsorship for the heads/cams. With the way the rear end is setup right now my combo will severely overpower it anyways. If I have even more power then it will be even harder to launch at the dragstrip. Launching 600rwhp on IRS gets tricky and leads to some dangerous stuff happening sometimes... Let alone when that IRS is stock for now.

 

[Jakee]

I can imagine. If I could only get my slow x to lunch without spinning the tires I bet I could get even better times. I've let the air out of the backs as well as feather foot. Still haven't figured the best way to get off the line. The thing is, every mod you do, things change and you have to learn all over again. I feel that a lot of the race depends off the line. Especially with motors that are the same, and modded the same. If you can get off the line without burning the tires you'll be running better than someone with the exact mods but spins when going off the line. I have a lot of experience with loosing races because of spinning off the line so...

 

[Makahveli]

4:56 with 33's I'll be o.k. I think, So again to get back to the original title question. Whats the mods to do and ones to stay away from for an supercharged daily driver? Will a 422 cam plus a supercharger help pass emisions or worsen my chances of passing? Not being such a ford enthusiest (had an 87 taurus wagon in high school and college) what car models and years features the 24# injectors that will work for my engine, just give it to me straight before I make a big mistake. Rocket thanks for the advice but forged internals sounds more timely and costly than I'm expecting, like I said a looking into it as a daily driver not a dragster.

 

[rocket 5979]

4:56 with 33's I'll be o.k. I think, So again to get back to the original title question. Whats the mods to do and ones to stay away from for an supercharged daily driver? Will a 422 cam plus a supercharger help pass emisions or worsen my chances of passing? Not being such a ford enthusiest (had an 87 taurus wagon in high school and college) what car models and years features the 24# injectors that will work for my engine, just give it to me straight before I make a big mistake. Rocket thanks for the advice but forged internals sounds more timely and costly than I'm expecting, like I said a looking into it as a daily driver not a dragster.

That is why I reccomended forged internals to play it safe, not to turn the boost way up. That is unless you plan to run less than 8 lbs boost. Running any type of un-natural aspiration on a daily driver complicates things further than if it were a Sunday driver; especially when the engine in question is 14 years old. The reason is that you have to overbuild the DD so that you don't take much of a chance of hurting or messing up things. If a person is cautious building a dragcar, then they will be EXTRA cautious building a FI daily driver to be reliable. I know I was extra extra cautious when doing the nitrous installation and tuning on my daily driver. Just a thought. If you don't want to play it safe then that is ok, but don't be too shocked if something goes wrong because you chose not to plan for it. Either way it is your choice. Good luck.

 

[Makahveli]

I forgot to mention my engine was rebuilt back in 2002 and has less than 15k miles since then

 

[Jakee]

Supercharge it! Don't worry about the port and polish. Don't run too much boost without forged internals.

What size injectors are you gonna run? Fuel pump upgrade? I guess this guy is tuning for you eh? Is this a mud slinger?

 

[Makahveli]

Another question for you all, do superchargers help at all for emissions? Would it aid me of the install of a 422 cam? And what kinda things are there to do or avoid to help pass emissions with this cam? Or a 422 cam a no-no for me since I have no such thing as an EGR here.