Beefing up motor?

[khc3]

What's a ballpark figure of what it would take to beef up the internals to handle higher boost levels than the stock motor can handle? What all would need to be changed beyond crank, rods, pistons, and, I assume, bearings?

Am I looking at around $5K? Much more? Much less?

And am I correct in assuming that the stock valvetrain can handle the stress of higher-boost forced induction, or would that need to be upgraded, as well.

Thanks!

[TAF]

What's a ballpark figure of what it would take to beef up the internals to handle higher boost levels than the stock motor can handle? What all would need to be changed beyond crank, rods, pistons, and, I assume, bearings?

Am I looking at around $5K? Much more? Much less?

And am I correct in assuming that the stock valvetrain can handle the stress of higher-boost forced induction, or would that need to be upgraded, as well.

Thanks!
I can get you an exact price and the best wrenches anywhere to do it right here in Atlanta. My guess is you are not too far off...but as with anything...speed cost $s.

Let me know if you want me to get you hooked-up.:up:

[khc3]

I can get you an exact price and the best wrenches anywhere to do it right here in Atlanta. My guess is you are not too far off...but as with anything...speed cost $s.

Let me know if you want me to get you hooked-up.:up:

Thanks, Todd. I'll probably hit you up for contacts eventually, but right now I'm only in the planning (dreaming) stage. I've got another tricycle motor on order, set to be delivered in about a month, so any big-money mods will have to wait.

I am thinking of doing all the bolt-ons soon, butam still thinking about whether to S/C at the stock boost levels first and then, awhile later, beef up the internals/trans/brakes/etc. and pump up the boost. Or wait longer and do everything at once.

I recall reading somewhere that the stock Cobra blower is pretty much maxed out on boost, duee to heat/friction losses. Is that ccorrect? Can the Vortech blower put out more boost than Dennis' kit has it making now?

[BillyGman]

Please allow me to add my 2 cents......... You can get an idea of everything you'll need in the way of engine internals by looking at any high performance parts catalogue that also sells engine rebuilding kits, such as Speed-O-Motive, Jegs, Summit Racing, PAW(Performance Automotive Warehouse). Just find the pages where they sell engine kits for Blower engines, and you'll notice that everything those kits include, are what you've listed. And BTW, I don't know of any reason why you would have to change anything in the valvetrain due to durability issues. In general, the top end of the engine is usually in question only when there needs to be a performance upgrade, whereas it's usually the bottom end that is in question w/stock engines when it comes to durability issues.

If you don't have those catalogues, then you can use a good search engine to find their websites. I like to use www.dogpile.com because unlike some other search engines, it is very specific, and only gives you what you've asked for so you don't have to go sifting through thousands of hits in order to find what you've typed in the search window.

As far as going w/more boost than the Cobra supercharger offers, here's some food for thought for you. If you do that, then count on spending a significant amount of $$ to get your car to hook up, because w/the kind of power that you're talking about, your Marauder will be spinning the tires so much that every time you mash the throttle to the floor, the car will be fishtailing all over the place w/the stock suspension and tires.

[jfclancy]

[QUOTE=BillyGman]Please allow me to add my 2 cents......... You can get an idea of everything you'll need in the way of engine internals by looking at any high performance parts catalogue that also sells engine rebuilding kits, such as Speed-O-Motive, Jegs, Summit Racing, PAW(Performance Automotive Wharehouse). Just find the pages where they sell engine kits for Blower engines, and you'll notice that everything those kits include, are what you've listed.

Wow great info but for that kind of money seems like going to a 5.0 makes more sense. Already have many kits engines for the 5.0 and you get added benefit of more torque down low. JMHO


Joe Clancy

[SergntMac]

I recall reading somewhere that the stock Cobra blower is pretty much maxed out on boost, duee to heat/friction losses. Is that ccorrect? Can the Vortech blower put out more boost than Dennis' kit has it making now?

I don't know much about the Cobra blower, other than it does suffer some limitation due to heat. Because it nests in the valley between the intake manifold and the block, I imagine there are probably some other limitations due to size and space available.

DR and KB use V-2 Vortech blowers. There are literally hundreds of combinations available and you can fine tune a Vortech to your specific application. Generally speaking, an "S Trim" maxes out at 20 lbs of boost/1,000 CFM of charge, producing 680 HP. The "T-Trim" will max out at 26 lbs/1,200 CFM of charge producing 825 HP. Again, there is so much variety, a catalogue would help you alot here.

With a bone stock MM bottom end at 10:1 compression, my advice is to limit your boost to 10 lbs. This will make between 425 and 450 RWHP. I suppose you could tune and tweak a bit more, but you're better off planning an upgrade to the stock block and lowering the compression, IMHO. Check out www.karkraft.com too, they often come up with some neat offers and options. I've seen whole Marauder engines for 2900 bucks there.

[khc3]

Thanks for the advice guys! Especially the catalogs; I'll check them out.

Being new to this, I always seem to leave one part out of the equation, which BillyGMan pointedd out. Beyond having the rear wheels widenedd and going with some kinnd of drag tire, what sort of things can be done to improve traction? Does TC in the 300Bs help at all? I don't suppose that can be retrofitted into an "A" car? Custom rear suspension pieces? That's probably farther than I want to go, especially since I love the way the car rides and wouldn't want to mess that up at all.

You gents have given me plenty to ponder, as usual, but the traction probleem is probably enough to keep me with the stock motor.

[BillyGman]

With that much power, first and foremost you would absolutely need some type of traction bars. I'm not sure if anyone offers them yet for Marauders. My guess is that somebody will soon offer them in the near future. The more guys that supercharge their Marauders, the more of a need that there will be for traction bars on these cars, and as you know the market availability of most hi-pef car parts all has to do w/supply and demand. But there will be no supply unless there is first a demand.

[SergntMac]

Does TC in the 300Bs help at all? I don't suppose that can be retrofitted into an "A" car? Custom rear suspension pieces? That's probably farther than I want to go, especially since I love the way the car rides and wouldn't want to mess that up at all.

Ummm...You're slightly mixed up, but it happens to all of us once in a while. The '03 MM has an 11" TC, the '04 has an 11.25" TC. With regards to the suspension, traction bars would be helpful in curing wheel hop, but would not necessarilly provide any benefit right now. If only they could make my tires hook up.

[BillyGman]

Mac, I can't say that I completely agree w/you on that. One of the reasons why many stock rearends don't provide enough traction is because they're unstable especially when you're putting more power into the equation than the stock set-up provided. I thought you and I had a previous telephone conversation in which we both agreed on that theory. have you overlooked that, or have you found something else out specifically about the Marauder that you didn't get to share w/me yet?

And I think that what Khc3 meant by "TC" was Traction control rather than what you were talking about which obviously was Torque converter. I guess that's what happens when we start using too many abreviations around here.

But for the benefit of Kh3, let me also add that IMO, using traction control to hook-up to the pavement w/a torque monster of an engine created by a supercharger is a waste. It's kinda like building a high compression engine w/a compression ratio of 13:1 for the street use w/pump gas of 93 octane, only to have to extremely retard the ingnition timing in order to avoid severe knocking. it would be a waste of power.

[SergntMac]

Yeah, we're getting like the government, Billy, too many shortcuts to keep in mind. If he meant traction control, then nevermind. Sorry I hijacked the thread.