jw how hard and how much it would cost to sc a 5.4 lariat? is it worth it?

 

not too hard. but expensive as hell. for what you'd typically spend to buy a supercharger you could build a completely nasty big block from the block up with more ponys than a supercharged 5.4 is gonna have anyways. but your best bets probaly gonna be to find a wrecked lightning and see if you can get the SC off of it for a decent price. modular motors got SOME benefits

 

^^^ has no clue, ignore what he said


#1 do you have a 3 or 2 valve 5.4? since you have an '04 I am going to assume you have a 3 valve

#2 a lightning supercharger by itself can be purchased for fairly cheap, but there's alot more to making it work

#3 a lightning supercharger will not work on a 3 valve motor without a lot of custom parts being made

#4 there's a nice vortech supercharger for a great price in the classifieds (fatherford is selling it) he made 450/450 with it.

#5 brand new superchargers can be expensive if you don't buy from the right places

#6 you will have to run 91 octane at the very minimum when you go to forced induction, it's like an extra $5 per tank but that's a budget breaker for many people

#7 supporting mods and a good tune will make or break your motor

 

^^^^I like this man for reason #4

He is also correct on every point.

What is your intention on supercharging? Do you have a goal with the new added power.

 

My $.02 : SC = $5K or so.
Built Motor with power equal to SC'ed = $10K / $15K+ and drivability/reliability will suffer. Unless the displacement is considerably increased all the HP/TQ will be high in the power band. You'll still have to run high octane fuel too.

 

 

Damn why isn't there a smiley spitting out his milk from laughter?
Forced induction is the way to go. The Mod motors respond very well to it and you won't be disappointed. 5k will get you blown and a box tune from Roush or Whipple. And it will be a daily driver. I'm partial to the Whipple cause twin screw technology is much better and cooler. Plus instant full boost.

 

you'd be suprised what a waste gate does for a centrufigal set up...

 

Yep...

I almost wish I went that route with my setup now. Put on a BIG 4-6lb lower pulley to my addition of the 12lb I had, set the waste gate at 12lbs...

My centrifugal was just so much more efficient then my twin screw and got no where near the heat soak. I know on my centrifugal when I hit the throttle I had an instant 6-7lbs of boost. I would imagine with a 4-6 lb lower I would have an instant 9-11lbs of boost. That would be equal or greater then the twin screws. I could probably tune for a VERY flat torque/HP curve, with no where near the heat soak, and much better consistency at the track.

 

So if its that great why not switch back? Just curious.

 

well id be nice to have some more torque like the disels do, would a throttle body make a noticeable improvement? what are some easy hp add ons sides exhust n intake already have

 

well, your intake will be up for sale if you with a supercharger...


long tubes and true 2.5 inch duals...

 

I want to see what this Twin Screw will do as I never really had a chance to mess with a Twin Screw. I've messed with lots of root, centrifugal, and turbo configurations before.

My father is picking up an 06 F-150 here in a month or two it looks like. I might install it on his truck and try the waste gate setup.

Ultimately I'm going turbo.

I have said though, time and time again, my old Vortech kit IS faster then my current Saleen setup. The only limiting factor was the off idle torque with the standard traditional roots/twin/turbo setup.

It had no where near the heat soak and just pulled like crazy up top. I could make back to back runs with pretty much the same result. Where as my Saleen kit I would have to at least have a 30 minute cool down period. On my vortech 3500rpm I had 6lbs, 4000rpm I was knocking on the door of 9lbs(more or at most of what your Whipple guys are running at full boost). By 5300-5400 I was at full 12lbs+....

I made 450rwhp/450rwtq on my "cold" tune. On my 2nd/3rd pass I pulled slightly over 500rwhp and I told the tuner to back it down to safe levels for my short block/transmission. I was running 10.5:1 a/f and very low timing on stock exhaust manifolds and cats! This was all back when people were amazed if someone was hitting 390+rwhp. Knowing what I know now, I would have left it at or near that 500rwhp level.

Now, with the addition of the waste gate(which is something I never really looked into before the Saleen setup) I could put on a 4-6lb lower pulley to the upper I already have and greatly increase my off idle torque. I would be equal or beat that of twin/roots in power all throughout the power curve while being more efficient, less heat soak, and yes even better MPG.

Now that I have experienced all what boost has to offer. I will say that I don't think I'll ever invest in a twinscrew/roots setup again. Centrifugal or Turbo is the only way to go IMO.

 

Just curious, but by turning a centrifugal faster to bleed off boost at higher rpm, wouldn't it generate more heat?

 

The compressing of the air is what creates the heat. So yes there would be slightly more heat at the lower RPM levels where there is more boost, BUT there are several other factors on why the centrifugal blowers don't create the heat. How they compress just creates less heat, the position of the blower over a typical roots/twin screw cools the blower off faster. The position of the after-cooler of the centri' unit is better then that of the twin/roots. The fact that neither of these are directed connected to the engine for heat transfer. The fact you still use the factory "plastic" intake that helps keep the charge cooler.

There are more reasons I'm sure if I think some more.

This is why in the centri crowd you see a lot of high boost applications in the 1/4 mile racing see with no inter-coolers at all. They can get away with it. It wasn't until these past 10 years or so that people started putting inter-coolers/after-coolers/water-meth injection on centri kits.