Since I got the monte coilover project finished (other than picking up some new wheels/tires), I decided to jump into the blower install on the vette since I still had a week to go on break.

Even with all of my tools and wrenching time, this sure has been a massive pain of an install! I've probably got 25 hours into it so far, and I'm just to the point of bolting up the supercharger bracket (which isn't fitting right either due to all of the factory lines running through the area).

The engine bay is actually rather open from the top compared to a C5 or fbody, but the stock crank isn't keyed like the 3800, so you have to drill/pin it to run a supercharger. Of course the steering rack has to come out since it is only an inch or so in front of the crank pulley. I also decided to upgrade to the ATI while it was all apart since a lot of people have problems with the stock balancers coming apart even without a blower.


Anyways, at this point I've got the crank drilled and pinned, the ATI balancer on, the new plugs/wires on, the intercooler mounted, and the supercharger about 90% in place. Installed the air dams for the intecooler and relocated the horns. I also have the headlight housings separated to install the new lenses (unrelated project, but it's a good time to do it with the front end off).

Left to go is:
-Relocate/move a few lines to allow the supercharger bracket and outlet to fit properly.
-Connect the SC outlet to the intercooler (the tubing is all molded for this application, so it should be a simple plug and play)
-Install the meth kit (need to remove the passenger fender to do this)
-Install BAP and run the racetronix harness up to the alternator.
-Install new headlight lenses and remount the headlights in the car.

Here are a couple of pics of the progress - one with the car stripped down and ready for work, the other with the blower in place for a mock up.

 

#goals


Love it!

 

Chad-- good to see you're still wrenching, I was wondering what you were up to these days looks like I have a lot of catching up to do!

Hope all is well (as it looks to be!)

 

It's been busy lately for sure! Between the monte, the vette, work, and some big things going on in life, it's been an exciting last month or so.

I have another thread going in the suspension section about the montes custom front coilovers. That project is done, and she just needs some new wheels and tires so I can start into tuning.

The vette project hit a snag. The kit took far longer to install than I could've imagined. A few things popped up in life, and I ended up down to the wire the morning of the tune trying to hurry to finish it up.

Unfortunately, I didnt make it. I took off the drain plug for the blower, and while it was draining, I went to check the injectors to make sure they'd fit. Of course, as luck would have it, I found out the injectors have the older ev1 style plugs where the car has uscar wiring. It's an easy fix with some adapters, but a crushing blow just 5 hours before a tuning appointment.

To make matters worse, I went to put the drain plug back in to at least finish that project, and it was gone. I spent almost 2 hours looking for it, and it's nowhere to be found. At that point, I called the tuner, apologized a ton and cancelled the appointment.

Things are looking better now, a replacement drain plug and injector adapters are on their way. I still need to install the meth kit and the boost a pump, and then put the body back together, but it's definitely on the home stretch. I just hope the tuner isn't booked too far out once it's all ready.

Here are a couple updated work in progress pics:

 

MONSTER!

Awesome man. And I think we need to have some kind of party when the Monte is finally done. Invite all the old MyMonte people haha.

 

That's one of the few things I miss about living in the midwest. Between all of the various wbody forums having their yearly meets, there were usually a few close enough for me to drive to (even if I couldn't bring my monte). Out here in the southwest, there aren't hardly any wbodys at all, much less any real get togethers. Even the local gp chapter is down to a less than 10 members, half of which don't even own a gp anymore.

Would definitely be cool to find out what ended up happening to some of the old mymonte people, and what cars they ended up in.

 

Got the car tuned and dyno'd saturday. She did pretty well - ended up with 525 whp, 490 wtq sae.

The tune is very conservative (since we'll still pick up another 30-40 degrees F before summer), I'm on 50/50 meth instead of 100% (91 is our premium fuel, so straight meth would've helped crank more timing into it), and I've got the second to largest supercharger pulley (3.8"), so there's plenty of room to grow without doing any more big mods.

The car is an absolute blast to drive, you almost have to learn how to drive it again. Definitely will need some wider, more sticky tires soon since the stock run flats just don't stick.

Edit- for reference, most the ls3 a6/c6s out here tend to make about 365-375 whp stock on this dyno, so that's a solid 150 whp gain from headers and a blower.

 

Sweet gains and nice work man, that's a beast for sure

 

Thanks. I put some more mileage on it cruising a bit Monday night, and it sure is a different feeling. This is the first csc car I've driven, and it's crazy how different the experience is to a pd blower or turbo.

I think it's really the best choice for a vette at this power level IMO. The thing still drives totally stock at lower rpm (the car has plenty of torque to dd even NA), and still seems to be averaging close to stock fuel mileage (it's a little low, but it also had a handful of long dyno pulls and me beating on it later that night).

I will admit, the bov takes some getting used to. It's a tial 50 and it's open whenever you're going easy on it. At low speeds, you can't even hear it inside the car (you can feel it if you put your hand down by the fender opening though). By about 2000 rpm, you cam start to hear the woosh sound, especially if you're close to a sound reflective surface. By 3000 rpm, it starts to sound like a street sweeper, lol. I haven't taken it over 3k out of boost though. Once you step on the pedal harder, the rushing air noise instantly stops and the power picks up noticeably (especially if you're getting into it at 3k). It's kinda neat, but a little hard to hear over the exhaust.

On that note, I was shocked how loud the car was from behind on the dyno. I've never been outside the car at WOT, but in the higher rpm, it really screams.

Definitely will be fun to play with for awhile! Then I'll look into straight meth and a smaller pulley!

Here's a cool wip picture of them together:



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