Cadillac CTS-V Forum banner

What gains from ported / polished blower snout?

90K views 83 replies 25 participants last post by  Rubber Duck  
#1 ·
Hey Guys,

I've got a 2013 ZL1 but unfortunately I cannot find these answers on the Camaro forums. What kind of gains can be had from porting / polishing the LSA blower snout? The company I work for has a machine shop that does a lot of hand porting & polishing for engineering projects and I'm going to have them work on my snout while I'm replacing the upper pulley / isolator.

Also has anyone seen what gains are like from porting the entire blower itself?
 
#2 ·
Contact G-Force in Texas. I know they did this for a good price. I'm thinking about 40hp.
 
#3 ·
My machine shop will be doing the work. I'm just curious about the gains. I'm assuming 40 is for the entire blower, not just the snout?
 
#5 ·
Depends on supporting mods. On a great day porting the snout to 102mm and the blower case in conjunction with a 102mm tb and a good flowing motor (cam, exhaust,4.5 intake, and possibly headwork) I can see the 40hp. With just a stock ish setup maybe a 10 hp bump.
 
#6 ·
Welcome! We're all LSA brothers!
Just tell your boys not to flip we off when I dust em :p

What 04chase says.

The shop I'm working with now-who BTW has tuned my car like no other- and the ones that really know here --feel that whatever you do you need all the correct mods working harmoniously together to maximize performance.
Yes this sounds ridiculous obvious.
However I know first hand that the selections that I chose do not meet this criteria and I'm currently working to swap items to achieve this state.
 
#9 ·
Yeah makes sense. My ZL1 is set up for road course racing, I took Eaton's efficiency map for the 1900 and then broke it down per psi of boost to see where I want to be. Right now on stock boost levels and added cooling mods, I have zero IAT2 temp issues at the track. However I'm taking caution about just how much boost I want to be pushing the 1900, after a 25-30 minute session on the track the temps are really starting to get up there (especially here in Texas!). One of the members in my club has upper and lower pulleys, cam, exhaust, etc around 670 rwhp (~13-14 lbs of boost) and claims he hasn't had much issues with his IAT2 temps tracking it.

I figured since I'm going to be taking the snout off for the upper pulley & isolator I might as well port and polish it.

Image
 
#10 ·
To be sure, he means the entire blower case, snout and throttle body on an otherwise stock heads/cam car.

I'd say 10whp from the snout, 5-10 from the throttle body (best case), and the remainder being the blower itself.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 
#16 ·
If the gains are 40 hp. How much of a difference is this from a cam?
As others noted, components need to be matched. You can't evaluate a cam or porting of snout, blower, or TB in isolation. You CAN compare what a car makes with whatever setup it has and say what a cam is worth on THAT car before and after a given mod. But what that doesn't tell you is the full potential of that mod. A cam without intake, heads, headers, or other supporting mods might get you 30hp. But that same cam might get you 50hp on a car with lots of other mods already in place. Each change compounds the effects of other changes on the same car. Just realize asking someone what a cam is worth is a pointless question because there is no way for them to answer it for you properly.

This can be debated all day long but if you ^^^ or anyone else can explain to me in detail why someone would possibly gain up to 45 whp from porting a 1.9 blower then I would love to hear it... and yes I am very skeptical. Just from what I have heard, and the gentlemen that I heard it from, 30 whp would seem to be the high end of max. gain but hey...this is only my opinion.

Someone convince me that it is even possible to gain 40whp on a 600whp V...make me a believer.
Well I might be a good test case. I have pretty much EVERY supporting mod, from 4.5 intake to Mamo-ported TFS 255's, headers/x-pipe, good size cam, ZL1 lid, TrackAttack HX and pump upgrade, and on and on. I have a ported snout to accept the 102mm throttle body, but a completely stock blower case.

I'm at 675whp now and my stage 2 is just going to be a swap from the stock upper to a 2.85 and porting the blower case. Not EXACTLY what you are after but it should give us an idea. If it weren't double labor, I'd ask them to test just the blower porting swap to find out how much its worth...

I agree with you completely. I'm assuming this is a max effort port with all supporting mods. I do not believe a pulley only car would pick up these numbers. I also think it's gotta have a somewhat aggressive pulley combo as well.
Eggs-actly...parts gotta work together. Pulley only car with JUST a blower porting? Will gain SOME but not LOTS. But if you combine a ported blower with cam, heads, headers, intake, and exhaust - now you're talking...
 
#13 ·
This can be debated all day long but if you ^^^ or anyone else can explain to me in detail why someone would possibly gain up to 45 whp from porting a 1.9 blower then I would love to hear it... and yes I am very skeptical. Just from what I have heard, and the gentlemen that I heard it from, 30 whp would seem to be the high end of max. gain but hey...this is only my opinion.

Someone convince me that it is even possible to gain 40whp on a 600whp V...make me a believer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MYV and matt55
#19 ·
So the best bang for the bucks are ported heads over ported S.C.?

More money= More horsepower.
 
#22 ·
Thanks Brett.

I was trying to answer the question based on what I see as what I think it a better overall increase in power.

The worst part on the heads thing is the labor...it's a fair amount of work.

On 91 cali fuel, I gained about 100 hp adding a cam and ported LSA castings, and reduced boost some, probably about a psi.

I think the heads are probably about 40 of that hp, and had I gone with a bigger cam, it probably would approach 50.

No question the blower porting increases power, but it also increases the heat. If the guy has the means, heads and blower, and cam.

IMO, if you have pulleys and CAI only, would do E85 if available, only going 50% ethanol, but be sure you watch it, and then go with a cam. The stock LSA cam is so small. Even going to an LS9 cam is worth 35hp and virtually zero drawback except needing springs and a tune, plus the labor. The car is really undercammed from the factory.

That's my honest 2 cents, completely taking away any consideration towards making a penny...it's just where the gains are.

Blower porting, heads, cam, all that stuff is what you do to reliably go from 600 up to around 800, rwhp, stock bottom end.
 
#27 ·
Hrrmm, I was originally planning on porting the blower and snout along with upper/lower if the power bug really bit me, but didn't want to deal with pulling heads or messing with the cam as I want to keep things simple. Sounds like it would be counterproductive and I should just do pulleys (maybe ported snout) since the last thing I want is more heat in Texas.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MYV
#28 ·
Blower porting adds heat because you are getting more air into the blower, which results in an increase in boost, which results in more heat.

It's more efficient, but still increases the heat as you can't get around physics.

You will still increase power.

The blower will be more efficient than one not ported, so it's still a worthy upgrade.

I just feel the need to point it out as I'm an engineer, and I personally would want to know all aspects.



CNC ported blowers, heads from WCCH, new Eaton rotor packs for your LSA blower, Mamo ported throttle bodies and more:
Sales@dynamicflowconcepts.net
Dynamicflowconcepts.net
 
#29 ·
The thing is, I don't drag the car and am planning on doing more road course events. I need longterm reliability and heat would cause more problems than the power would be worth.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MYV
#30 ·
Road racing...ported heads, ported blower (if you want another 30 hp and more torque coming out of the corners), stock pulleys to keep the heat in check, and a properly spec'd cam.

That would cover the engine portion, though not the cheapest option.

You don't want excessive heat, as road racing will cause you a lot of problems with a lot of pulley.

Also, diff cooler, suspension upgrades, and of course tires and brakes.

Plus oil cooler.


CNC ported blowers, heads from WCCH, new Eaton rotor packs for your LSA blower, Mamo ported throttle bodies and more:
Sales@dynamicflowconcepts.net
Dynamicflowconcepts.net
 
#31 ·
I think you missed the part where I said I'm not pulling the heads or the cam, haha. Sounds like I won't be going with 2.45/8.66, though.
 
#33 ·
Already have forged wheels, Conti Extreme Sport tires, and I'm working on a custom suspension setup, which I will do a write-up on if it works. Cooling will come before more power. I wouldn't think just running an 8.66 lower should be a problem, though? I need to do my oil pan gasket at some point, and if I'm down there anyway, I was thinking of upgraded oil pan baffle and ported oil pump. Would be a great time to do the lower.
 
#34 ·
You should see a nice gain with just the lower, and still manageable with the heat.

There are a few road racers here that would be able to share their experiences.

Out here in SoCal, it's brutally hot at the road race courses for a good portion of the season.


CNC ported blowers, heads from WCCH, new Eaton rotor packs for your LSA blower, Mamo ported throttle bodies and more:
Sales@dynamicflowconcepts.net
Dynamicflowconcepts.net
 
#35 ·
Maybe 2.75/8.66 with ported snout? As far as I can tell, my s/c is untouched, which means it's on stock isolator. I just hate doing all the work to remove the snout without upgrading *something* hah.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MYV
#37 ·
But as for boost, 2.75/8.66 paired with HX tank and pump should be more than reasonable.
 
#39 ·
I got one of those super cheap Powerbond 8.66 lowers, so it's still cheaper to get an upper than getting just an ATI lower.
 
#42 · (Edited)
With all due respect, if you are compressing more air, you get more heat, no way around it. If you port the inlet side of the blower, nothing on the outlet side, you must have more heat generated because the vary act of compressing air adds heat.

PV=nRT

If you are seeing otherwise, it's that you are either making other changes, or something else has changed, or your equipment isn't accurate enough.
 
#45 ·
Sorry, I believe you are not correct here.

I understand the blower doesn't compress the air internally, but it does so externally, by moving the air into a fixed space, where the air cannot be ingested fast enough, pressure rises.

The air isn't in contact with the rotors long enough to increase the air temp that much, it's the compression that does it.

To believe otherwise is wrong, or misleading.


CNC ported blowers, heads from WCCH, new Eaton rotor packs for your LSA blower, Mamo ported throttle bodies and more:
Sales@dynamicflowconcepts.net
Dynamicflowconcepts.net