How to gain power?

[clemere7]

I’ve done a lot of scouring on this forum recently in hopes to find ways to increase my SHO’s power. From what I gathered, it seems like most of what we can do to the SHO isn’t noticeable. (i.e 3.2 with the 3.0 cam, most bolt-on parts from SHO Source) Is forced induction truly the only way to harvest power out of the engine? I’m not opposed to turbocharging my car, but not only am I new to the whole tuning scene, but I would also have to sell an organ or two to afford it lol. But then if I do that can the stock MTX tranny handle the power?

 

[Irish Pride]

I am a fan of NA and boost. You can get good power NA but it's going to cost money to do it. High compression pistons and Triflows will make a fun NA car.

My Moonlight 3.4 stroker Dyno'd 281 at the wheels a few years ago and I'm sure it would do better with a proper(better) tune.

Slapping a supercharger on one of these cars really wakes them up too. My tuner estimates that my green 95 is doing at least mid 500s based on the AFR and MAF readings. It still needs to have the final tune done as well. Currently it just has a Quaife'd trans with stock gears in it. At some point I expect it to shred 3rd gear but I have an HD trans ready to bolt on when I can find the time.

My advice to you is to buy a car already built and or boosted and then make it your own. I didn't build the engine in my Moonlight 95. There is no way I could have had the engine built for what I paid for the car as a whole. I added the cams and the most extreme ported intake on the planet to make it my own and get it where it is today. Like wise, I bought my SC car as a non runner for less than what it would cost me to SC a car. Worked out the bugs and it's a beast now. My plan for it all along was to pull the drive train and put it in a car that I have more of an attachment to then sell the green car as a stock runner. I'll end up having everything from the supercharged car for free after I resell the car.

I know where you can buy SC brackets ready to go and piece the kit together yourself from there, or I can send you in the right direction to buy a complete SC kit ready to bolt on, or I can send you in the direction of where to buy a boosted SHO ready to drive. Let me know if you have any interest.

-Chad

 

[clemere7]

I think I lean more towards supercharging the one I have now, but do you know how reliable those are? My SHO is my daily driver and I don’t really have any other option if it decided to give up on me

 

[Irish Pride]

I don't recommend daily driving a SHO in stock form without having a backup vehicle. I certainly wouldn't try to daily drive a boosted SHO without a backup. These cars are 30+ years old now. I daily drive a SHO but I have 8 of them sitting in a rotation. Each one with different issues at any given time. I would not daily drive my Supercharged SHO.

-Chad

 

[luigisho]

Having this car be your daily driver is already a gamble. Everything is so old. I would not recommend going forced induction if you need this as a daily. Cars already this old should mostly be a second vehicle if getting to work and other routine stuff relies on this car. If you have a second vehicle to use then that is different. I have a 1993 SHO that hardly ever gets driven because of various electrical and mechanical issues and cost/availability of certain parts.

 

[doobie]

If you're looking at building a car up like that I would focus on the basics of the vehicle. Reliability and longevity. Fix the rusted rockers. Maybe get that rear window regulator fixed. Wheel bearings, stuff like that. Going forced induction when the rest of the vehicle needs work is definitely polishing a turd....

 

[Ta2dResqr]

Coming from someone that has a bad habit of modifying their DD. DON'T DO IT!!! I am currently driving a 2015 SHO. Not even 10 years old yet. It is a factory-boosted motor (yours will probably need work to be reliable with boost). It still has fairly reliable factory support for parts (as reliable as can be these days). I was driving home from work and the turbo shaft broke. I had to borrow a car from a friend for almost 3 months. There is a backorder on some of the parts I needed and I ended up having it rebuilt instead of waiting for factory parts. I unfortunately don't make the greatest decisions with cars (and DDs in general) and many times over the years I have had to call off work, catch rides with friends, borrow or rent vehicles, or miss out on things because of a broken DD. Boosting a 30-year-old DD is going to be A) expensive, B) a project that will take lots of research both in finding everything you need and understanding how to make it work well and C) a ticking time bomb. It is not a question of if it will fail, it is a question of when it will fail and how expensive it will be to fix the car and deal with how it upsets your daily life.

 

[Toolman]

Eh, I dailey’d a turbo SHO for years. It was fun. Drove my most recent boosted SHO (1994 Vortech) to 3 Conventions (mid-July) across the country while towing a track trailer behind it for 2. Build it right and boosted SHO can be quite reliable. Granted, it takes money, experience and time (or a whole lot of money to pay for the last two).

But, I’ve had 50-60 SHO’s and lots of spare parts and do all my own wrenching, so YRMV.

 

[clemere7]

If you're looking at building a car up like that I would focus on the basics of the vehicle. Reliability and longevity. Fix the rusted rockers. Maybe get that rear window regulator fixed. Wheel bearings, stuff like that. Going forced induction when the rest of the vehicle needs work is definitely polishing a turd....

Guess I’ll be seeing why it starts funny then… laaaaame