I'm deciding whether to either supercharge the '95 Max or do a 3.5 swap. While I know the particulars of both, what I don't know are the power upgrades you can get for a supercharged VQ30.

the cost of a supercharger and a 3.5 swap in terms of money aren't far apart, but a gain fron 190-205 to 255 is worth the $ . Again the big ? is what can I expect to gain from a supercharger?


Right now, its whatever mod gets me the most power, and for labor's sake I'm hoping its the supercharged setup.

Thanks. BTW, any cautions or No-No's when buying/installing/operating a SC would be greatly appreciated!

 

In the long run a SC set up will get you more bang for the buck. A basic SC set up and a basic 3.5 swap are probably close in price like you said. But to keep modding NA on top of the 3.5 can get expensive. As opposed to a SC set up you can swap out pullies and do some minor fuel modifications and gain more power fairly cheap

 

That, and you will get owned by SC guys not running much boost anyway, lol.

 

3.5 swap costs around 1000-1200$ if you do it yourself and will take a stock low 15-second 5-speed trapping 91-92 mph and put in in the low 14's, high 13s on street tires at around 101-102 mph. A basic SC setup will do about the same but will cost more initially. At some point the SC will begin being cheaper than the N/A option to mod, but that depends how fast you want to go. I have about 2.5k in mods and I could maybe pull a 13.1 as it stands (no tune).

 

Yeah if you keep modding the car in the long term you will be better off with SC if you want to go fast, but it costs more initially. 3.5 swap costs less initially but if you keep modding to get faster and faster the cost will eventually overtake the SC project. Just depends on how much power you are looking to add.

 

i would definitley consider the s/c platform first, like the guys said initially they cost the same but the more you put towards the s/c the faster you go.

 

I'm looking at somewhere about 290-300+ wheel horsepower with the kind of power output I'm Looking at. I understand that a supercharger is a better setup in the long term,plus the fact that I keep my VQ engine where it belongs, i.e, in the car, but what kind of mods are yall talking about? I assume with an SC the typical bolt-on mods are that much more powerful, i.e., y pipe, intake, etc have bigger effects. But my question is what types of other spectific mods are yall talking about when it comes to SC'd cars?

BTW, thanks for the feedback guys, now I know what I want for my birthday

 

I'm a turbo guy but I'll try to get the parts right. Firtst thing is a y pipe and cat back. with your power goals you should be ok with a 2.5" y and cat back. If you go much more past 300hp you might want to have a custom 3" welded up. Honestly my custom 3" was cheaper than a manufactured 2.5". Depending on whether or not you have to pass emissions, you need a high flow cat, or a test pipe.
The key with the VQ is in fuel and timing. A must is a bigger fuel pump. Some use the Walbro, some use the Vortec extrernal, your choice. That takes care of getting the fuel to the motor, now is the time to decide whether or not you are going to spend some money. You could just use an FMU and an APEXI SAFCII to increase the amount of fuel at full boost, and rough tune. I used this set up for a year and it works, but its a little getto. Every time I would get into partial boost and let off the gas, it would back fire, didn't hurt any thing but it gets annoying and lots of looks.
I finally went a different way. Now I am using Deachwerks 570 injectors, Greaddy E-Manage with the regular harness, additional injection harness, and the timing harness. With this set up I have 3 different 16X16 maps to fine tune all perameters of the fuel system. I can adjust fuel at no boost partial boost, and reduce fuel at cruzing speed to help on fuel economy on the Interstate. The best feature of the E-manage is the ability to retard timing while in boost. That keeps the detonation at bay while making power. I was able to gain 30HP alone from timing. Don't forget the Lap top to tune the E-manage, that is a huge expense, it doesn't need to be fancy, but it still costs cash.
Those are the big choices. Now for the crap that you need but don't want; fuel pressure regulator, Wide band O2, Boost guage, Exhaust temp guage(not a must but I recommend), upgraded clutch, blowoff valve, and better tires.
I'm racking my brain and that all I can think of, it been a long day.

I hope that gives you a better idea of the parts you will need. Now after being boosted I could never go back. One thing I will warn you about is your current motor. If it has a lotof miles tou might want to look at doing a DEK swap first. I'm on my 3rd motor and I think I like the DEK better.

Choray

 

The one nice thing about the 3.5 swap is that you can get one with very low miles, so it would be like having an almost new engine at the same time.

 

Swapping a 3.5l in a 4th gen is not a walk in the park, it may have similar cost to a S/C, but the S/C is much easier to install. Let me guess swapping the 3.5l would take at least a week for the average guy, the S/C
can be install in a week-end. To me the choice is obvious.