Advice on Procharging?

[Hunter92]

Hey performance guys, I have a 92' Chevy K1500 ECLB with a Recently rebuild TBI 350 in it and I am just putting in a upgraded rebuilt 700r4 in it.
I would like to put a Procharger on it. Now I'm not sure which parts of the engine I should absolutely upgrade before putting a Procharger on it since I have zero experience with boosted engines. Should I replace the crank and cam and pistons for sure or just the pistons and cam, I've read up on other people asking about super and turbo's and they seem to have been told that stock pistons are a bad idea under boost. Any help would be appreciated

[Hollow65]

Is that an lt-1?

[BR3W CITY]

Depends how big of a procharger, how much boost you wanna run, how much power you wanna make.

You can put one of the smaller blowers (like a p1 or smaller) @ ~4-5lbs of boost on a stock engine and have it live a decent life as long as its tuned very well. Unfortunately, if your keeping it TBI, then "tuned very well" isn't really an option on stock equipment. You'll have certain limits on fuel delivery, and no advanced way of controlling spark/timing. The smalled Procharger I see around is the P1, which is for making 5-900 hp. At the low end though, your not really making much use of its potential.

I should add...procharger doesn't even make a kit for the TBI trucks. If its an LT or TPI then there might be something around for you. The procharger kits for the regular small blocks are designed to work with aftermarket injection or a boost-friendly carb.

I'm not sure how much you want to put into this engine, and what your end-goals are. If you really want to make the power a procharger is designed for, then you need to consider upgrading the whole fuel/intake system at minimum. The pistons will survive for a little while on low boost if you can prevent detonation, but even medium boost levels will eat a piston if it knocks. Forged pistons are ideal for a boost-built motor. You'll probably need to upgrade to a blower cam, and with that get dual valvesprings and hardened pushrods. The stock crank is fine for the most part.

If you already did a rebuild on this motor, and don't want to do all this stuff^^^^, then I might consider recommending a different supercharger. For your truck, something like the Eaton/Weiend 144 might be a simpler solution. You can get them in a couple sizes for all sorts of power levels (from bolt on nearly stock, to big 8-71s like nostalgia drag cars). They work easily on SBC's, and can be made to work with standard carb or even TBI systems simpler than a procharger would.

If you give us a bit more info on the current motor, what your looking to do with it (goals for use and for power), and how far you want to go (i.e. budget, scale of project)...we can be a bit more specific.

[GMR-PERFORMANCE]

Great post there.. I will add that running a Pro charger on stock engines with mild boost 6-8 PSI is not a issue. THe way they make power its not a massive hit on the low end. Myself like that fact for a street driven style. I have had two on them now. One in a Full size SUV and on my Charger 07..

But it sounds like you need to get a game plan together.. Look into Vortech and paxton also if that style blower is what you want.