Here is something neat. First, some of you have probably seen the Novi Paxton CSC (Centrifugal Supercharger setups). I have the old kit that Chibiblacksheep pieced together. If you don't know what one looks like, peek at this thread:
https://montecarloforum.com/forum/en...gration-62814/

I recently was looking at stuff and found that a company in Australia makes a CSC kit for the Australian RWD 3.8 Ecotec (which is the L36 3800 we have here). Check these out! I have been looking at these and thinking "I bet they could be adapted to the FWD car fairly easily".
CAPA Performance
https://www.boostcruising.com/galler...ercharger.html

 

IMO it looks awful expensive relative to the other options out there. Thats like $4k US with no fueling, and may require more work to fit our cars. When a brand new Z3 turbo is $2700 (and a top swap can be done under $1k and could easily make more power with another $3k in mods), itd be awful hard to justify going this route. Id get it if it made more power, but doing the unit conversion from the numbers they posted on their site seems like they're claiming sub 300 wheel.


Personally I'd get the setup less supercharger. The v3si is what comes on the bottom end corvette kits (its what I've got on my C6), so used v3si come up often on those boards used for way cheaper (as people upgrade / outgrow the entry level size). I think I only paid about $1k for mine with very little use on it.

Id also clock the SC some other way so you don't have the giant intake tube running across the top of the engine (if it would even fit there with the FWD mounts / hood profile). Would be better for us to point down / forward as then you could run it through an IC en route to the throttle body.

The things I wonder about:
-the icm seems like it gets pushed too high for a fwd car
-belt wrap looks pretty low, their diagram makes it seem like it barely has 50% wrap which wouldn't be great if you were trying to push it, especially on a 6 rib. I see they mention even running down to a 3.12" pulley on the instructions, I'd be pretty surprised if that could be run slip free. I'm on the edge with my 3.4" on my c6 with the same blower (which maxes blower speed with my crank pulley size) and I've got about as much belt wrap as you can get without butting the belt back into itself and a very strong tensioner.
-I do wonder if a front mount like this was already tried by ZZP back in the day before resorting the the Jack shaft setup they ended up selling? This is a pretty typical CSC mount for rwd V8 stuff and is fairly simple to design - just a couple simple brackets and some standoffs. Id be surprised if this mount style worked as they put so much extra work into doing the setup they settled on.

 

I will also say it's a bit sad to see all of the cool stuff still being offered in AUS for 3800s given how much the US 3800 aftermarket has degraded over the past years / decade. Its too bad the 4t65 is such a crumby transmission (for elevated power levels / harsh use). I really think a solid transmission option would've kept a lot more buzz around this platform in the US given how well the 3800 holds up to modding and how inexpensive the cars are.

 

I did not do a currency conversion, but I agree, the full kit appears to be very expensive. But looking at what they have, I cannot help but think if you had hands on a cheap CSC, fabricating that mounting configuration would be a bit of work but possible (or just buy the bracket part from Australia). There are some questions as you mentioned:
- Does the FWD ICM wiring have enough room to handle the new position?
- Will you have to run with one dog bone? If so, can the bracket be made to connect to the radiator mount (much like the Novi kit I now run)?
- Is the battery, diagonal brace and fuse box in the way?

I already wondered the same idea about the about "could this mounting make putting an intercooler in easier"?
Just a neat concept to see. And the fact that this is still offered for the 3.8 in Australia, yet NO ONE in the US is offering a CSC kit anymore.

 

I guess I'm just soured a bit by the challenges getting my Whipple setup to work right (made even worse by the original kit supposed to be made for our exact cars). Got the whole kit for pretty cheap and it certainly bolted up, but had a bunch of these asterisks for minor things that weren't quite right. Ended up putting way more time and money into it than I'd ever thought to get it working 100%. Granted a CSC is a bit easier as the air connection is simple tubing, but I could see it spiraling into a bunch of work to adapt.

In the end, I'm happy with it as it is different, but I'll admit that I would've been way ahead (and made at least equal power) with a bolt on turbo.

Depends how much its raised. The harness is fairly tight as most of its connections are down by the belt area. The upside is the ICM is a standalone harness so it could be easily removed from the car and extended if needed. Its only a dozen or so wires.

My bigger worry is it bumping the height so much it goes through the hood line as its on the slope down for FWD cars.

On the ones that show the intake on the front (passenger side for us), I think you could redesign the head side mount plate to still run a passenger side mount. Theyve got the whole blower out past the belt line (meaning the dog bone area should still be mostly free). Id bet you could run a thicker plate (with thinner standoffs to compensate) with a fabricated mount to connect back up to the radiator. Probably wouldn't look like a regular dog bone, but Im confident you could still build a replacement that can handle the same load.


Battery is easy as theyre fairly cheap to relocate. I run mine in my spare tire well (and previously ran it off to one side of the trunk).

I forgot about the diagonal brace - I bet you're right, the blower would likely be right in that area. If you designed your own bracket, maybe you could drop it down further - almost to the point where the blower would newrly touch the car body?

If you're serious about it, would probably be best to buy a used blower and physically stick it in that area to figure out exactly what issues you'd have. Theres nothing that can't be overcome (I mean look at the zzp ttgt), but I imagine you're probably looking for something that works with as little modification as possible. Getting a used blower, you could always flip it again for about what you've got into it and not really be out anything if you discover its a huge amount of work.

IMO it would be a lot easier for a traditional big front mount air to air. You can run the outlet either out the fenderwell with a 90 on the outlet or you can run it down under the 'frame' rail if the blower is too low. Coming back from the IC, you could easily just come up the fenderwell on the drivers side.

 

I admit, not overly serious on trying to make this kit work for me. But I just have fun looking at it as another potential CSC option. If I got a head unit for a stupid low price (like $500; and I know that is NOT a realistic expectation, hence why I said stupid low lol), I might consider the idea of tinkering with fabricating this myself.
I really wanted to share this for others here who might want to dabble. For those who think the Novi Paxton setup is rare, imagine custom fabricating something like this!

It also intrigues me that a company in Australia is offering a CSC kit when the only kit in the US was discontinued in favor of turbos.

 

Its amazing how popular the 3800 still is over there. From time to time I'll poke my head in over on L67Torque to see what big builds they've got going lately. I don't regularly follow the group as I don't care much for the usual bolt on L67 builds as there's plenty of those to be seen on the US forums - but I do love seeing the really crazy stuff that would never happen on the US boards these days.

A few I recall seeing over the last year or two:
-A 2.9L TVS blower (I don't think I'd ever seen anytbing bigger than the usual 2.3/2.4 whipple / KB)
-Multiple chopped down Holley Hi/Mid ram LS intakes (for turbo builds) - they look clean enough you'd think it was an actual offering from Holley
-Air to Air IC'd whipple (seems to be a direct buy option from Yello Terra now, not that I'd ever consider giving up my custom water to air as Ive got so much into it at this point).

Like you showed above, I love saving pictures of some of the neat stuff.