ScreamingYellow

My understanding is that the cams will be worth 20 - 30 whp. As mentioned above though, no one has done any comparisons or shown me any dyno graphs, so until then I'll be patient. For 1100 dollars you could safely put a 125 shot of Nitrous on... and have enough money to fill your bottle for a long while.

However, I can't imagine 400whp N/A. If you had 4.3's, LT's, o/r X, Intake w/custom tune for 100 Octane, Wild Cams, UDP's, Electric water pump, I would think you might be able to see 340whp... Not sure where that other 60 would come from.

CrazyAl

I think it might be possible to hit 400 RWHP naturally aspirated but it would take the standard bolt-ons, head work, cams, and I think it would require boring/stroking the motor.

By the way, gears such as 4.30's have no affect on your RWHP. All they do is move the torque curve around--they don't change the actual power output of the engine.

QuickShortBus

Actually your torque curve remains unchanged as that is set by the components of the engine. All the rear gears do is change the number of revolutions the motor has to make to turn the rear wheels one time.

CrazyAl

Sorry, I wasn't clear. The torque curve of the ENGINE is unchanged. However, at the rear wheels you are moving it lower down in the RPM range (RPM of the AXLE), becasue the engine is making more revs per turn of the axle.

QuickShortBus

Another thing to consider is the cost to power factor, for heads and cams you are looking at about $2500 plus $300 in gaskets, might as well do head studs while you're there so another $200 so you are already at $3000. $800 for long tubes, $200 for a H/X-pipe, $550 for a cat-back, $350 for an eH2O pump, $300 for a good damper, $250 for a CAI, light weight flywheel and clutch (your going to need it) $1200, an aluminum driveshaft $600 and a custom tune $500.

So we are up to $7750 and you MIGHT see 400rwhp if all of the stars are aligned correctly. This is assuming you can do all of the work yourself and I would strongly reccomend getting a shop to do the heads & cams so that's another $500 (low balling it, probably will be more).

Now you can get a turbo from PowerHouse and make the numbers seen in my signature for $5495 COMPLETE nothing else to buy and you can install it yourself or pay a shop about $1000 to do it for you. That leaves you with enough extra money to do the rear suspension.

CrazyAl

Yeah, the turbo pack (or a SC) definatley seems to be better bang for the buck. However, a few points:

1) You will need the clutch, driveshaft, when you get to that kind of HP level no matter how you do it. I don't think that the Turbo/SC kits come with that, so that is not a fair thing to be including the in the price of the NA buildup, unless you also add it to the Turbo kit.

2) If you build up a motor, with aftermarket head work, new valvetrain components (springs, etc.), studs, and so forth you've got a stronger motor than you would otherwise. (This is especially true if you go the extra mile and do your pistons, rods, and/or crankshaft) A stock engine with a power adder still has the limitations of the stock engine.

QuickShortBus

The primary reasons I included them in the n/a build list is because the lighter weight flywheel and driveshaft will allow more hp to find it's way to the wheels, they are not necessary unless you are going to be running sticky tires at the dragstrip with forced induction.

Yes by upgrading the top end of the motor it will make for a better overall motor, however at 425-450rwhp it is very possible for a stock motor to last a long time and you won't be spinning it as hard as you would with a n/a setup.

N/A would require 7000 rpms to make that kind of power so the stock bottom end is going to give up sooner due to how hard it is being turned.

Tmack

Everyone is talking about the benefits of a cam swap on a N/A motor. What are the benefits on a S/C motor? Are there any? I would like to do a cam swap not for added performance, but for the more aggressive exhaust note. Don't know if it is worth the money though. By fall I should have 475hp at the crank so more hp is not that important too me.

QuickShortBus

Yes, cams help on forced induction also.

05SonicBlue

so funny and so true . . .