I'll make sure to do as much research as I can, particularly about the engine...though I was hoping to have at least the engine in within the next few months. One of my sergeants in town used to collect and I think even race corvettes, and did a lot of mechanical work...come Tuesday or Wednesday I'll likely go speak with him. Like I said, when it comes to the engine/supercharger, I'm looking for the perfect combination to give me enough power to drag race, but not too much, so that I'm not twisting chassis and breaking suspension/driveline parts, and ruining the general look of the car.

One thing that jumped into my mind about having a roots blower sticking out of the hood would be...wouldn't I be able to not run in any weather except dry? No rain, etc? And wouldn't the engine get dirtier faster?

okay, so I'm thinking...have the original engine rebuilt to run about 550 horsepower. put a roots blower on there...and the SC510 Streep Scoop. Now, my question is...is there a way to rig that scoop so that the butterflies don't open unless I want them to? I was thinking a switch or something, either on the dash or elsewhere, that could be flipped to open the scoop up. I would imagine it would be difficult, but could it be done? That way I could run the car even in the rain/snow, and trust me, it snows a lot in North Dakota.

are you talking 550 before the blower or after..

to get 550 hp out of a small block you have to raise your compression

if you raise your compression to the point where you get 550 without blower then you are going to have detonation problems if you use any significant boost.

you can avoid this by using water/alcohol injection coupled with a good intercooler..

I was thinking 550 horsepower before the blower. I'd like to run anywhere from 700 to 750 HP total. Just a nice amount of power to drag with, and still not require a huge amount of maintenance and work to keep on the road, and will keep the car in nice enough condition to show. I found a 550 HP engine on speedomotive.com...but I don't really know much about differing engines, and I wonder if it wouldn't just be cheaper to have someone rebuild my engine, use some aftermarket parts, and make it 550 HP and ready for a blower. Here's the link.

http://www.speedomotive.com/550hp_sbc_racing_stroker_engine_.htm

another thing is I don't know what addition parts I'd need, or if that engine is ready to just drop in.

Yes A roots blower poking through the hood will definitly limit your drivablity and praticality of the Vette. It would seem like you got some conflicting interest here. A drag car that is barely streetable is something that should ever be attempted to drive in bad weather, let alone snow! With that much power and the kind of tires you will need to put that power to the ground will not be ideal for wet pavement traction. My vette currently has a mild small block making just shy of 400 hp in total power and I dont drive it in heavy rain. You might want make a smaller leap in power for your car and see what it is like and maybe later you can upgrade to your 700hp monster. That ZZ 383 GM motor is an excellent choice for your intial power upgrade. That engine will have excellent power and torque to move your vette into 12's at the strip. But its up to you. Have you considered turbo charging? That subaru has that advantage of getting 11's and still be daily drivable because of that. I am looking at that power adder for exactly that reason. A small block chevy with twin turbos and fuel injection can have enourmous potential and still be very daily drivable. I bet if you had that done to your vette, You would be the only guy at the strip with Twin turbos and +800 hp and be able to drive home 100 miles away and not suck down a ton of gas along the way. May I recommend you google search for "Gale Banks engineering" they sell turn key small block engines that can do exactly what I described. Plus it all fits under the hood so then you can put your stinger hood scoop on, or not and keep it stock looking and be a super sleeper drag racer.

my point is that you should not buy an engine then add a blower as an after thought.

you need to build an engine designed for use with the blower from the get go.

converting my corvette to electronic fuel injection has been a very delicate issue from the start, when someone mentioned it. when I think turbo, I think: rice. how much power/toruqe difference would a turbo really make...how much of the actual muscle car "sound" would be lost in the conversion to EFI, and would it all still be compatible with sidepipes. I haven't really extensively researched carbbed engines vs EFI, but I guess one of the things that has been ingrained in me since my interest in cars started is that EFI and turbo are for ricers, and carbs produce more of the muscle car look/feel/sound.

converting my corvette to electronic fuel injection has been a very delicate issue from the start, when someone mentioned it. when I think turbo, I think: rice. how much power/toruqe difference would a turbo really make...how much of the actual muscle car "sound" would be lost in the conversion to EFI, and would it all still be compatible with sidepipes. I haven't really extensively researched carbbed engines vs EFI, but I guess one of the things that has been ingrained in me since my interest in cars started is that EFI and turbo are for ricers, and carbs produce more of the muscle car look/feel/sound.


hrm...not really sure why that posted twice...anyhow, about the blower, I would definitely rebuild the engine with a blower in mind. the engine would meant to use a blower.

|UPDATED|10/3/2004 9:34:23 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

well I just checked out bankspower.com, and the twin turbo systems are definitely impressive. but once again, how much "muscle car"ness would be lost by converting to EFI, (sound, feel, etc), and how streetable would something like that be, and is it compatible with sidepipes. remember, while I can afford to spend a good amount of money on this vette, I cannot afford a second vette, though I'd like to have one drag and one streetable show. so I'm trying to combine drag/streetable show in this car.

Sounds like a lot of what you're looking into - minus the sidepipes - was accomplished by a guy named Andrew Distad. He converted is '74 into a 1,HP twin Whipple supercharged Vette. And if you're not sure about making these changes to your '77, now you don't have to. He's selling this car in January at auction.

Details, pictures, video: http://www.lateral-g.net/distad/

Looks like you could also get some nice numbers is you went TwinTurbo like this guy did with his '82 sleeper: http://www.montygwilliams.com/

Either way, looks like the gang at www.lateral-g.net could probably give you some excellent advice.