I'm inclined to add a perspective on "power adders". I not only have many, many years of automotive machine shop experience, particularly performance engine building, but, I currently work at The Blower shop, in Boise Idaho. Any engine can be built in various ways, for various purposes, however, lets look at "power adders". Lets keep our conversation to "Cars to be street Driven" first. "Nitrous" is a buzzword that has been bounced around fairly loosely for years, true, it works, but it is the hardest on engine internals of the bunch. It is introduced immeadiately and in doing so, is a severe jolt to those internals. Being that O2 is being introduced, a lot more fuel has to be shot in as well. It may be the quickest thing to add to your car, but that's the best thing I'll say for it. Turbo-charging has been used in everyday American cars to increase power since, I believe, 1962 thereabouts, on the Buick 215. For turbocharging to really show it's stuff, you've got to have the Turbo fairly spooled up. Higher RPM is where the Turbo really pulls, and they are popular in some classes of drag racing. But we have STREET cars. Half of you are looking at ways to add an overdrive to keep the RPMs down, from what I read here on the boards. How much money are you planning to spend, to "have your cake and eat it too" on the street.Now, I haven't even addressed the cost of the all new exhaust plumbing, or any complex designing involved in packaging it under the hood and fender routing. This leads me to the last, and best way to add power to an engine.....Supercharging. First, let's level the playing field......any one of these power adders require the engine to be built for the purpose, so each will require proper pistons, rings, rods, main cap supporting ( at least studding ), so you'd be doing these things no matter what method of adding power you chose, but from here on, supercharging needs the least amount of money spent for the same or greater level of power. Supercharging doesn't require "big cams", and associated components. A blower will fill the chamber 100% and overcomes cylinder head shortcomings.No need to buy high-dollar heads. A Roots supercharger, lets say the 6-71 style, comes on as soon as you depress the gas pedal, no turbo lar, it's right now, and a standard 60 degree rotor 71-series blower is efficient up to around 6000, boost is linear up to that point, where it begins to level off a bit. So a blower's most efficient boost area is EXACTLY where you will ever drive on the street. Torque, as well, is from off idle , on up. We sell "High-Helix", and delta case blower cases for racing that continue to ascend boost as high as you may wind it.........BUT, we are talking street power adders. Blower cams, by comparison use cams with wider lobe centers, and are designed to contain more of the boost in the cylinder, rather than a big overlap cam wasing some of the boost by allowing it to escape out of the exhaust. On the street, those big lift, big event cams are for Naturally Aspirated engines that need all the help they can get. No wiring up of solenoids, no bottles plumbed from the trunk, no special stainless headers and Rube Goldberg plumbing needed, just everyday headers thank you. There's more. Let's get to the bottom line......NOTHING says raw power, or delivers on it's boast, like a big supercharger sticking through your hood. It's top of the line, in your face, serious hot-rodding, the likes of which the Rice-wheezer cars rarely ever can attain. Lets be honest, everyone of us digs that car over there with the blower, like a big-titted girl in a tank top, it's what we're drawn to.
