Hey guys,
I know this topic has probably been brought up a lot through the years, but I haven't really made up my mind regarding supercharging my MC (2004 Monte Carlo SS NA). I was looking to do a top swap, but I live in an area that doesn't really have any auto part graveyards. Anyways, I stumbled upon 3800 Supercharger Conversion Kit | Super Charger Kits | 3800 Supercharger Kit . and I saw the reviews which were mostly positive, but not enough to give me comfort. Anyone have experience with this kit? I just want something that is going to give me some extra power besides jumping to a turbo. I want to keep the horsepower in or around 300-350~.

I have a pretty limited automotive background when it comes to working on them. Besides changing out the rotors, brakes and oil, i've changed the serpentine belt, lights all around, soldered on new stepper motors for my car and put in a CAI. Will adding a supercharger be above my experience?

I have 44,XXX miles on the vehicle and was wondering if I should take it in to flush out the fluids (transmission, oil, etc) before I start on the project, any thoughts?

If I do go with the ZZP supercharger kit, should I be looking at the stage 2 or will I be fine with the current kit? I am looking into headers / Cam and possibly an intercooler down the road.

 

its junk......for that price you can get a full topswap shipped from mexico with cash left over(location is just random place mentioned lol) at best youll make same power as a stock l67 with oddball parts to switch out if you wanna upgrade later

 

Here is a link to member selling basically all of the parts needed for a top swap and for an extra price he is willing to include a pcm that is tuned for the top swap. Give you something to think about anyways

https://montecarloforum.com/forum/pr...t-parts-52044/

 

How about this kit? 3800 L36 to L67 "Top Swap" - Milzy Motorsports

 

Thanks for linking my ad, appreciate it.


To the op, I have done exactly what you are looking at doing. It is FAR cheaper to source your own parts than by these kits your listing to.

You can easily make this happen for well under $1000. You just have to look.

The parts I have listed are about 80% of what you need (and most expensive items), the rest can be bought online for cheap and in your local auto parts store.

My items shipped to your door would be around $300 or less total (I don't have a tune for a 2004 but I could easily make you a drivable tune and PCM for another $50 until you can get a tuner or a better tuned pcm). You're then looking at another $200-$300 in gaskets, bolts, pulleys, and brackets. Maybe less if you're a savvy online shopper.

If you don't want to buy my stuff, at least look at www.car-part.com for the majority of your engine parts. You might be surprised at what is local to you and what the prices of these items are at junkyards. All of these places ship and charge a reasonable price in my experience.

Save yourself some money and do not buy a kit, they are just to overpriced and do the same thing I told you to do. All of their engine parts came off junked cars or as a core from another customer.

 

Also, for an additional pro tip.....

Look on that site I mentioned for full gtp and other l67 cars CORE engine. Typically, the issues with these are the bearings are spun in the crank, a crack in the block from the accident, etc. Specifically look for one that had a bad bottom end or cracked block, not one that was over heated, which means the top end end should still be good, plus you get all the brackets and pulleys you need. Most junkyards won't charge more than $200-$300 for the entire engine, leaving you to only buy head, lower intake, and super charger gaskets and head bolts. And those can be found cheap on www.rockauto.com or eBay. The downside to this is you take the risk of having a bad part, plus the engine is typically dirty as hell and would to be thoroughly cleaned. The upside is that you would save yourself about $1000-$1300 to spend on other things.

With the money you save you could easily upgrade the heads with valve springs, retainers, rockers (if you have the money) and valves. While you're in there Headers are under $200 shipped on eBay and easy to install if you're that deep in the engine. I would recommend doing these now since you wouldn't want to do this process a second time when you get the urge to get more power.

For the money you can save by going diy, you can get all these upgraded parts for the same price of the base kits from the vendors you linked to and still have money left over.