I have had nitrous on every car have have owed and have not complains. But, I am little older now and not the weekend warrior anymore. I get in quite a few races going and coming from work and over the weekend. So I want to get the Z alittle more competitive. You can't win them all and there is always someone faster. But I can narrow the playing field down. They way I look at it is. If I can trap between 120-125 I should have most cars covered {z06 not the 06 Z06,c6,03-04 cobras,ls1's,fox bodies..etc} and that will depend on there mods. But most I see don't run much over that and if they do well.... you can't win them all.

So my break down I figure full bolt-ons and nitrous will set me back $2500.00 and if my car is a strong runner I will trap 109/111 na and 120/124 on a 150 shot. If I go sts I will spend with front mount and fuel about $5500. for new or dyi about $3000.00. On 8psi it should trap 118/121.

Now the pro's and con's

Bolt-on's
PROS:
1.Never messing with the car.Once it's on that is it not tuning or worring about the weather changing. running good sometimes and bad others. 2.Chance of parts breaking are less because you won't spray all the time.
CONS:
1.Filling the bottle.
2.Having good bottle pressure.
3.Sizing up the race before the race so you don't motor them when you should have sprayed.

Turbo
PROS:
1.Power all the time.
2.Unlimited power{future purposes, built motor, larger turbo}
3. turbo lt1 common on need I stay more!!!

CONS:
1. TUNING,TUNING,TUNING
2. COST
3. Breaking parts , i mean come on lets face it if you have 420 rwhp and 500rwtq you will be on it all the time.


So what you think I should do? It takes time to built anything so Time to save money does not bother me. But I would hate to blow money and regret the decision. So what is your opinion? Pro's con's whatever.

 

im in the same boat man.... throwing up all the pros and cons myself... personally i think im going with bolt ons and spray. i wanna make good power N/A then know i can hook up the spray and make it a killer.

 

I would go for nitrous before I threw on one of those junk STS systems....I have never been a fan of those type of turbo systems at all.......niutrous is a very cheap alternative to horse power, I jsut bought a kit last night actually

 

I have talked to a few pepople with them on there car and believe or not they really like them. They now have a air box that is mounted out back that the filter is in. And the oil pump system is a two speed setup for long life. Most people don't like the rear mount because of the lag but in really who needs 500 foot pounds at 2400 rpm on the street. They come on at 3k which is good if you are on a dr. and it adds weight to the back of the car . At jlturbo.com the guy had a lt1 z that put down 280/314 with a cai,exhaust,pulley and ran 14.01/101. At 5 psi he made 360/400 and ran 12.8's 112 with high 2.2 60ft. Then on 7 psi he made 408/447 and was running 115/116. Now with a built shortblock,stock heads port matched and a turbo cam on 14 psi with water/meth he put down 524/633 and ran on 315's and stock rear end 12.1/126.4. Stock manifolds,stock tb.

But at the same time you could run emission legal hc package from ai or elliot and make 360/380 rwhp trapping 114/115 and spray 126/128 also.


those damn pro's and cons

 

Im soo sick of ppl talking **** o what they know nothing about.so let me guess you had it on your car and you didnt like it right?....WRONG. like ive said before not many ppl have that system on thier LT1 so how the hell would you know .a turbo is power that is there whenever but nitrous is is only when you hit it.for a good track time nitrous is cool but if you want a fast fun car go with turbo/supercharger

 

my vote is for the bolt-ons+nitrous, you dont need 500+ hp all the time, just some of the time, and payin for the tuning would get bad (?) after a while.

 

I Dont liek STS systems because what about wet season, if you live in south florida half the year its jsut abour raigin and flooding espically with hurricanes......a turbo system is supposed to be an efficent system and for real world driving I wouldnt get a crap *** STS system......but thats just my opinion.....that or pay joe shmoe to make the exact same turbo system for abotu a 1/4 of the price they rip you off for.

 

it has a pretty good splash gaurd on it so the only way it would be effected is if your driving throught big *** puddles and if you do that you should prolly get a truck.plus you get a drycharger over the filter that is water proof which is made of the same material that the use to protect race boat engine filters its one think to say you dont like it everyone has a right to a opinion but to call it a p.o.s is rediculous

 

Actually if you look at most turbo systems for the lt1 all of the air filters still low to the ground. PTK AND TTI both put them in the same place your cai filter is. So they can take on water just as easy as your cai or the rear mount can. They air box they make now keeps the filter away from weather not like the orginal system. The down side to the turbo being up front in the lt1 is room. To put a turbo up front you either have to remove smog pump or place the turbo behind the radiator which can cause the car to run hot.

Really the only downside to the rear mount turbo aside from cost{boosting in general} is the lag. full boost at 2800/3000 vs 2300/2500 which gives you asmaler power range and the oiling return system.

 

tru tru.....I guess who ever I saw did theirs at a car show removed that pump now that I think of it they mucst have cause the turbo was mounted about the same height as the valve covers were.

 

It may sound like I am defending the turbo setup but I am just giving info if yall do not know.





On the other side I thought about putting a 1 gallon fuel cell up front with a t-rex pump and fuel pressure regulator so I could jet the nitrous for a 200 or 225 shot but have the fuel side spraying 108 octane. I figure that would get me from stay 110 na to 125/127 range or more depending on how the car would respond. I had a friend of mine who owned a 95 a4 z28 that had shorties,cai,muffler,3.73's with a 225 shot. The car ran a 13.4/103 na and a 11.93/122 spraying. Just a thought!

 

Not To Many Turbo Fans I See...

 

The big deal about turbos (boost in general) and LT1's is that a stock shortblock has too much compression to be able to run very much boost. That along with the hypercrap pistons means that you will be rebuilding the bottomend with the slightest detonation problem you run into. On the other hand LT1's with decent exhaust and a few other boltons like a torque converter and tires can run deep 11's on a 150shot and live for along time. My T/A ran 10.80's@125mph on my stock shortblock along with ported LT1 heads, small cam, converter, longtubes, stock rear with 3.42's, ET streets and a 150shot (Maybe 5k total in mods). It's alot easier and cheaper with N2o but I would like to build a low compression LT1 then install a STS kit with 14-16psi boost. Later Clint

 

Clint good point! But what if you run some cometic head gaskets to drop the compression down.


How small was the cam when you ran the 10.80 at 125.

 

Bolt Ons & Sprayyyy!!!

 

Cometic heads gaskets would help. I was running a custom 226/234@50 camshaft. Later Clint

 

Ive read alot on both... I started wanted to go with a blown/turbo car, but have finally decided to go with the bolt on/spray. I have a built 383 short block (thanks to Golen engine) sitting in a box at home that I will put in when I make it back from the sand box. What ended up changeing my mind was watchin the sprayed cars beat or keep up with the blown/turbo cars, and they are spending alot less cash.

just my .02

 

i've had both in two different cars and i think i prefered the turbo

i just reciently desided to combine the two though i'm soon to have a full bolt on, turbo, lt1 with a 50 shot

ether way it's going to be a fun car so enjoy it

thanks
robbie

 

Yeah thats the way to go, Turbo+Bolt-Ons+Spray. Best of both worlds lol

 

I would go bolt-ons and spray. Because that you will have the ground work layed if you plan on running a turbo in the future, plus you won't have to deal with the hassle of having to tune a turbo etc. If it was Me, I would do full bolt ons and a ProCharger, but I've always been a big fan of superchargers.