N/A vs BOOST

You see in almost every blog or forum about the question, weather to boost or keep it all motor. So I thought its my turn to talk about what I think of the N/A vs Boost conflict. To help name some pros and cons of both setups, and to maybe help you in your decision of weather to keep it all motor, or put boost to it. I'll start out with the naturally-aspirated end. Probably the main reason for most people to stay n/a is cost. The average car guy might not be able to get the funds needed to not only pay for the motor, but also pay for the boost setup, weather its turbo, procharger, or supercharger. So to just have to pay for the motor being either rebuilt or getting a motor built, would be much cheaper then boost. Another pro to n/a is instant power, no need to wait for boost to kick in to get your peak power. Its all there when you need it, mainly low to med range torque an even high end torque for n/a motors. The weight is also a factor of any car. With no boost setup, you save the weight from all the added material that you would need for boost. An the extra weight of the boost setup is over the wurst part for racing, the front end. Also when building a naturally-aspirated motor, there's no need for a more expensive boost friendly cam, or blow through carburetor, if you stay carburetor that is. Now the pros of the boosted side of things. The three main attractions for any boost setup is the amount of power you can make, an when out of boost, its like running on a low compression n/a car. Till the boost does kick in of course. The third is how easy it is to maintain a boost setup, weather its turbo, procharger, or supercharger. The first of three is the amount of power. You could make the same power using a smaller displacment motor with boost, as a larger all motor engine. That could save you costs from having to go to the larger motor setup. The second is that when your out of boost its like driving an all motor car. Until boost does hit then you better hold on. So your basically driving you car around like its n/a, with low compression. That's when you get the fuel sipping motor, with a lot of power, which is one thing I think every car guy wants. An the third is maintenance of your engine with the boost setup of your choice. I will say that a turbo setup will cost more to not only build, but to maintain. But never the less any boost setup will be more to maintain then a naturally-aspirated motor. With any supercharger or procharger system you just put the pulley with the set psi you want to run, an tune the motor to that boost setting. Knowing that you will always have the same boost an know that the tune is good for that boost setting. Not saying that a turbo is bad for boosting a motor, you just have more to worry about when installing and maintaining the system. All in all, weather to stay naturally-aspirated or boost your car is up to you. You gotta go with the setup that nets you the best performance for your car, an best for you event, weather its autocross, drag, drift, time attack, ect.

Fuel Injection

Most of the muscle car community is almost scared to talk about fuel injection. They say that its not what's really supposed to be in older cars, or that modern technology, like fuel injection is almost over rated. An that it is also way overpriced. I will agree with them on one thing, that will be the price. Some kits are selling upwards of $5,000+, then you still have to get it tuned. F.A.S.T has come to the rescue with their EZ-EFI carb to EFI kit. It fits on any 4150 carburetor flanged intake manifold. The best part about this kit is that its pretty much plug an play. You bolt on the throttle body, plug some wires in, set up the programmer an your ready for the streets. A nice feature is if one of the injector wires comes loose or off, the programmer adjusts for it an adds more fuel to compensate for the one less injector.Allowing you to drive your vehicle till you can plug it back in. The single throttle body system is good for 600 hp, the twin kit, which is $800 more, is good for 1000+ hp. The single throttle body system is $2,136.99, if you add the second throttle body, injectors, and linkage, It comes to $3,010.98. A little over $3,000 gets you a fuel injection system good for over 1,000 hp. The system also self tunes itself, no tuning experience or laptop needed for your tune. Another thing that really gives a yes to fuel injection is the gas mileage. You could expect 20+ mpg, with work done to your motor. I'm not saying you can't get good gas mileage from carburetor, you can just get more then with the carb. Because in stead of having like one big injector for all of your cylinders (carburetor), you get 8, one for each cylinder. Letting less fuel needed to get the same power or even more power. More of the fuel gets burned, letting your motor get the most power from your gas. So if it would be up to me, I'd go with fuel injector, simply because of better fuel economy, more power, an easier to tune, then the conventional carburetor.

305 sbc

As all of you car guys and girls may or may not know. The 305 small block chevy is known as the boat anchor motor that chevy produced for economy reasons. The small bore, long stroke design was made mainly for the low gas consumption for better fuel economy. Along with a low cfm 2 barrel carburetor, and extremely large catalytic converter, Chevrolet thought that the 305 was the way of the future for better fuel economy. Although it did get better fuel economy then its big brother, the 350 small block, it still was maybe getting 20 mpg highway. But back when using stock parts, by re-balancing them an using higher compression by milling the cylinder heads and/or milling the block. You were lucky to get over 400 hp with full racing applications. Since then engine technology has greatly advanced to amazing heights. Lightweight pistons, racing connecting rods, and racing crank, along with major advances in fuel delivery with high CFM carburetors, higher gph fuel pumps, and higher octane fuel. The ability to hit 400 hp is the thing of the past for the little 305 in natural aspiration form. Now if your talking forced induction, the only thing that will hold your back now a days is the block. Weather its supercharger, procharger, or turbo, boost is one of the easiest ways to get horsepower. My main preference is procharger, mainly because it helps keep the heat out of the engine bay, an helps keep the air charge cooler. Also that when you put an 18 psi pulley on, its going to be 18 psi. And it won't creep up, like most turbo setups can do. An when you get your car tuned to 18 psi. you know that, that tune is good for that psi setting. But any setup will net you your target horsepower. I've seen a 3rd gen camaro with a 305 sbc bored to 315 ci, with an F-1C procharger bolted to it. I couldn't find out the psi, but he was at 658 rear wheel horsepower, pretty good numbers out of a little 305 small block. So the 305 sbc is becoming a very stout motor in not only the muscle car community, but the rat rod and tuning community as well.

Future Suspension Plans

I'm thinking of some suspension upgrades for the impala. QA1 single adjustable coilovers for the front. And Koni racing shocks, UMI Performance adjustable upper control arms and box lower control arms. And some other replacement parts like ball joint and such. might as well replace that little stuff while its all apart. It will also clean up the excess grease on the front end components.