Should I Supercharge?

[vettestr]

Boost is boost but how it is created carries its own baggage. A roots or mechanical driven compressor is for me the best because of its linear output. A turbo is off then rapidly turns on, a belt driven turbo or the paxton and vortechs are also less linear than roots design but all take about 2 to 4 pounds to overcome their own consumption of being driven under boost to start with and go way up with boost levels. HP is heat and all create heat or HP loss. A rule of thumb is == a 300 cubic inch engine normally aspirated has an output of 1X horsepower the same engine with a boost equal to a second atmosphere will think it is double the cubic inches or now 600 cubes and HP will be 2X.
Cam selection is key to boost efficiency and everything we learned for normally aspirated engines is wrong now. Valve spring selection is very important as well. Intake to exhaust Go Fast lessons we learned are not very important either. Intake is under pressure and will happen, exhaust must just be NON restrictive becuse that extra % we looked for at aspirated RPM no longer matters as much at lower boost and RPM levels.
Carbs are designed to respond to changes in vac signals seen at its baseplate. In a boost world (suck or blow through) there is no changing vac signal so it becomes a on to off metering devise. Electronic Injection gives back all the fine control of changing engine needs under boost via sensor feedback.
Boost levels are in very general terms as follows on the conservative side : start adding to the prior level part list
0-6 pounds OK for bone stock nothing changed ,live long time
6 to 8 LBS start thinking about solid lifter cam and springs
8 to 12 , solid cam, springs, valve girdles, rod bolts, - timing
12 to 14 forged crank, o-ringed block or heads, good HP parts
15+ check book in hand