Supercharge & RDB a 1997

[MazdaX]

So i've been thinking about a power increase and did some googling and seen other people have used turbo and supercharger setups. I would be willing to go with a supercharger but I don't know all the finer details on what I would need to do to build a reliable / powerful drivetrain to back the power of a supercharged V8.

I'm not looking for it to drag race , or street race or anything more for just power on demand. Since I live in Utah there are a crap load of steep canyons on the way to lakes and I am buying a new boat this summer and want to be able to pull it up some of the steepest canyons in the country.


Also were the engines in the 1997 Tahoes 2 bolt or 4 bolt mains ? I've been reading some PSI handling differences between the two engines. I'm only looking for 6 - 7 PSI but don't want to be capped at that if I don't have to be.

I know some of the things I will need are beefed up tranny or tranny swap , reliable engine ( mines about due for a rebuild anyways.) and a different rear end to handle the power. What about fuel mangement system ? upgraded fuel pump / lines ? How about suspension for the torque difference ? bigger injectors ? ECU flashing ? stand alone engine management hardware/software ?

I just need the bare essentials to get it all together and running then can add the extras later if I feel like it.


Also wondering if there is an easy swap from rear drum brakes to convert to rear disc brakes ? I seen axles with the caliper to caliper setup from escalades for under 500 bucks locally but really dont want to spend that much if I don't have to. I've done some RDB swaps on 3rdgen eclipse RS's and that was easy but also not RWD. Any help on this matter would be appreciated as well.

[J-Ri]

Honestly, if you only want the extra power for pulling a boat, buy a bigger truck. As you said, you'll be replacing the entire powertrain for this (which may or may not be necessary depending on what you have). Also, the weight of the tow vehicle is very important for things like turning, I have never encountered a hill steep enough that my truck couldn't pull a bit over the maximum it's rated to pull. I'd imagine that you'll be well over your safe trailer weight if the stock engine can't make it up the hill. Same thing with suspension, if you have to upgrade it, the trailer's too heavy.

Driving up a long hill the incoming air will get very hot (from compression), even with a heat exchanger it will get hot enough to get some knock. My car will get up to 140 degrees IAT after a couple runs at the track, any hotter than that and I get a bit of knock. When I was at 8 PSI boost with no heat exchanger, the IAT would climb to almost 200 degrees within 30 seconds of going WOT and would take several minutes to drop off. You have to retard the timing a lot to account for that, which cuts a lot of power. You'll have to reprogram the PCM (check out HPTuners.com, I believe they support your vehicle) so that the fuel delivery is correct. And yes, you will probably need larger injectors for this. Methanol injection is a great way to keep the IAT lower, but is a lot of cost. Also, once you run out, you'll get tons of knock.

For the 2/4 bolt main caps, we need your engine VIN (eighth digit), both were available in all years as far as I know.

[MazdaX]

Have you ever driven parley's canyon ? It's insane. Also the boat I am going to be buying is 22' long and will be an a dual axle trailer 4 ton. It can murder even newer cars to drive on it.