Why are there so few turbo and blower cars out there? I can understand class rules and such but if you're out there trying to run a street strip car it's much easier to make power and the cars are far more streetable in many cases.

Build a typical 9:1 engine making 450 hp and it'll run forever. Add 7 lbs of boost and you're over 600 hp. Slide that up to 10 lbs of boost and you're crowding 800.
Engines like this do not need exotic parts. They run fine with flat hydraulic cams and stock stamped rockers. There's little need to run them over 6000. Knowing that RPM is what kills engines you can see they lead a relatively easy life as far as internal forces go.

In fact, when rods fail it's usually on the exhaust stroke where the crank throws the piston into the head and the rod can't snatch it back down. In a turbo car there is pressure in the exhaust and that actually helps reduce the force on the rod a wee bit.

Fuel injection is nice but you can get blow through carbs all day long.

Yes, there's a little more plumbing involved but it's not that hard.

Thoughts?

Personally, I like the "on demand" aspect of nitrous.

Mine is 600 hp naturally aspirated and very mild. It runs and drives like a regular 440 with a small cam. Add a 250 shot and it comes alive!

It seems like power adders are poo-poo'd by the Mopar crowd for whatever reason. I've gotten more than a little blowback for running nitrous both on here and locally.

Personally, I do what I want with my car and whatever makes me happy.

For guys like me, its relative cost mostly. Cause good blocks are really tough to get, and spensive, and the power adders themselves are not cheap......I want a Procharger on my car pretty bad, but find a block worthy of 1300hp for $4k...not happening. Procharger $7k, rotating assembly $3-4k....Heads, etc....

You know I have advocated for this for years. Its been ingrained in this forum for years that you must have an aftermarket block and only premium parts to build an engine that makes more than 700 hp. It has limited the people and cars on here for a long time. I gave up.
Spend money on the parts that make the magic happen... EFI, distributorless ignition, and a turbo or two. A 900 hp engine can easily be built for less than 10,000 complete and running if you buy smart.

Or go to a JY, grab any 5.7 Hemi you hit with a dead cat and have a 1000hp + ready block and heads with flow that would make most BB guys giddy. Yeah you need good rods and pistons but so what

Trendz, whaddayou know about boost anyway?

Look at what I got away with for 15 years. Stock block, crank, rods, and even rod bolts. It was several years before I bought good head bolts. Never changed the main bolts. Ran El cheapo Speed Pro pistons. A .480" cam under 12 lbs of boost made 650 at the wheel.
The turbos were pretty cheap, too.
Granted. It was 2001 but I built the thing for $2800.

you know I'm there too, while at the power level of my Fury I'm not really getting the 'economy' out of it, it's been a lot of fun to learn and gets thumbs up everywhere. Building #2 with a 5.7 and a single turbo in my Coronet!
To me, nitrous might be 'instant on' power at the track, but is not 'always available' like a turbo or supercharger.

Are you still running that same old turbo setup or has it evolved over the years?

my deal I have been running big blocks for 40 years. you can find parts easy and cheap. my motor in my satelite i got the eagle crank and rods for 700 and they were new. had a couple engines that I got years ago for nothing just to tow the cars out.throw on a set of sr heads and flat tops.bought nitrous selonoids and plates off people changing over to turbos cheap and my all steel satelite in street trim full exhaust stock interior, radio playing went a 5.96 at 117 with a 200 shot. im going to a daily driver race sunday see if I can go quicker. I would like to try a pro charger but they don.t make anything for old mopars, plenty for new stuff.

Because I bracket race my smallblock so I need some shred of consistency. If I were looking to power added I’d want the pockets to put me within the realm of being competitive, and I don’t ..... so I tweak on my boring N/A combo and try to go rounds and occasionally produce a “new best” in the time slip department

I started with eagle h rods,forged pistons iron heads and built from there as I could.I started with 8lbs for maybe 2 yrs [learninbg curve] and went direct to 14# and upgrade from there.intercooler,cam,carbs,crank n rods,headers then transmission.I do it for the love of having boost and the thrill of the power.[E.T.chaser]
I thnk people feel too much pressure to have the best stuff to make it the best.

Why ?
Besides kids , a mortagage , braces , private schools and this pesky guitar habit , I guess I have no excuses.

Built a roots mega block hemi 20 years ago. Only time it got hurt was me shooting myself in the foot. I have reached my goals and enjoy it.

Track surface prep is never perfect for bracket races as VHT costs money so big power cars usually don't go rounds. The guys that win the track championships at the end of the year usually have a single 4 barrel BB car that doesn't do big wheel stands, break the tires loose halfway down the track and other drama. To win on a regular basis you need repeatability.

The guys with superchargers, twin turbos and such stick with the test + tunes for the most part. It's a whole different group of guys than those who compete in all the races each week.

There are a couple turbo import guys here that are very fast, but they can't race normal events as their cars will NOT do the same thing back to back.

Still loving mine after 10 years. Started with blow through, premium pump gas, and a 180K mile,8:0-1 compression, 383 with up to 15 lbs. Learned a lot with the "expendable" engine.#1 takeaway is to bullet proof your boost control devices. A melted W.G.. reference line, or a stuck wastegate will likely cost you at least a head gasket (or 2).Cheap blue Fel-pro gaskets make a great "Fuse".#2, don't get greedy with the timing. Stock junk will live -IF- you don't rattle it. I'm running 20 degrees total timing. I currently have the Sniper X-flow running pump E-85 on a 10:0-1 470 with two of the "Hong Kong Hurricane" 69 m,m, ebay turbos. Got a home made girdle, B.B.C. Eagle rods ,K.B. Icon pistons ,and haven't hurt the bottom end yet. Had it up to 17 lbs. with E-85 and the blow through carb. Got to the point where it couldn't get enough fuel through the "gas" downleg boosters ,so I decided to go to E.F.I. At just 12 lbs. it's uncontrollable below 60 m.p.h. Has 315-60 M/T drag radials, Cal track bars, Cal track shocks, 90/10 front shocks, and the traction gods don't care, but it is a blast to drive .I should add some safety equipment so i can take it to the track. I believe the old 383 would live forever with a 5500 r.p.m. shift point and 15 lbs. Don't be afraid to lean on the stock parts.

Cause good blocks are really tough to get, and spensive, and the power adders themselves

^^^This right here ^^^it's not so much the price for me but availability i was looking to build a twin turbo 526 deal but couldn't get a block so i back out

Because we don't like to go fast for cheap - same reason we bought Mopars

it is expensive for us mopar guys to run boost, need a good block. crank, rods, pistons ive got a lot in my f-2 procharged hemi , but i did not spend it all at once its been, 10yrs progressing from a no2 car to boosted car still progressing i had a blow thru on it then went to efi like night and day !!!

That is mostly true,I am justa tuna fish.This vid is through the exhaust with 6 lbs of boost.My legal limit is 8.50 and faster than I wish to go with torsion bars & leaf springs @ 3700 pounds!!


https://www.facebook.com/messenger_media?thread_id=1574153124&attachment_id=1303278526686127&message_id=mid.%24cAABa9FzJS5B75K3lkF1s2g08vbZD

You are always going to have a large percentage of the people that want to make horsepower the old school way, NA. Especially us older guys. 600 horsepower NA small blocks are common and 750 horsepower big blocks NA is easily reached. As far as being streetable there again lots of us gave that up years ago. And if we want a high horsepower street car run down to your local Mopar dealer and buy a new one off the lot. Maybe if I was 30 years younger I would think differently