I'm thinking of adding a nitrous system to my 454 camino. I posted on CAF but those dummies kept popping off crazy stuff. "Make it a race engine" OK. I'll give you a complete rundown of what I have and what I plan to do within the next month I just rebuilt the engine myself less than 500 miles ago. Everything is fresh and new OK. The engine is a 454 .060 over (468) hypereutectic flattops. Should be about 9:1 compression Edelbrock performer dual plane intake Edelbrock performer 750cfm carb cam specs are Duration @ .050 Intake 218/ exhaust 228 .500 lift .500 lift Lobe seperation angle is 114 Heads are small oval port (peanut port) heads with very small amount of porting. Valves are 2.08 intake and 1.73 exhaust This is currently running though exhaust manifolds because headers for big block in G body is almost $400. So i'm tinkering with the idea of modifying a set of BBC 70-81 camaro small tube headers. As you may have gathered by the combo....the off idle torque is wonderful. Gets up very quickly and goes even for having 2.73 gears. I'm very happy with my current setup and it is still very managable on the street. I dont want to modify the engine itself anymore because I dont want to loose driveability. The engine runs out of breath at about 5000rpm's though. Is nitrous a wise idea? What I am asking is.....are the components in my combo able to support the hit. I dont want a race engine. I want a street engine with "insurance". Just in case I find myself in a race that I cant win....i'd like to have 100 or so horses at the push of a button
First off, the components should stand up to the nitrous. I see no reason for concern there. Next are my concerns... The ignition system. I assume it is stock, as I see no mention of it in your description. The increased ability of the engine to reach high RPMs more quickly is a concern. Overrevving with nitrous is very real, and the damage it does can be disasterous. Floating valves and burning them are the minimal concern, snapping rods is the major concern. An MSD with a rev limiter will be a wise investment for engine life. Plus, with available add on options like in cabin timing adjust (with custom preset values) it allows you to switch up from normal driving, to light to light racing at the intersection!!! Also, an updated fuel pump is in order. I prefer electric on rail pumps. They are relatively inexpensive, but concerns over going leanneed to be addressed. A lean nitrous run engine will burn valves, or worse yet, burn a hole in your piston :blink: . Lastly, the ability of the engine to rev more quickly will drag it out of the monster low end torque range you obviously so desperately were looking to attain in looking at the internals you have chosen. Basically, you will throw that torque out the window when the nitrous is in use. Do you really want to do that? Now off to the why I wouldn'ts... I hate nitrous. It is IMHO cheating. No, the old arguement of "well that's just because you lose to juiced cars" will not work. I don't lose, juiced or not . I just don't like it.
Great resonse. I never thought about it dragging me out of my rpm range as you put it. Hmm....Is there anything I can do to bring my RPM range up a little without a cam swap. Problem is...i can blow the doors off of alot of cars but even mild small blocks almost always "run me down"
some nice long tube headers will help a bit. I was going to suggest a manifold swap, maybe a tunnel ram or long runner intake. Possibly a carb spacer. Also, a big port and polish job will help. All these will really provide little extra top end, but each inand of itself will provide some changes. Really, the cheapest and easiest way to do it is through a cam swap. The big block should be a stump puller anyways, so why not get those top end figures up some. The piston diameter will provide you with plenty of torque no matter what you do up top
Sandt38.......I know I need some headers. But have you checked the price of the BBC headers for the Gbody cars. Outragous and you can only get them with 2" primaries. Do you think it is possible to modify a set of 70-81 camaro headers to fit? Seems to me that the camaro engine bay is much more cramped than the Gbody bay.
Will he really lose much torque at all? He doesnt have to engane nitrous at low RPMS, he can juice it at like 3-4,000. Overall though, I find Nitrous to be something more for import cars with higher RPM bands. Maybe Ill throw down a few bucks for some NOS and strap it on in my civic. Sure my car will only run once, but it will be the fastest run this car could have ever done,lol
Sure you should be able to. But why? Seriously, the cheapest way I see to add some top end is to cam it in there. While you may lose a modest amount of bottom end, it will not be enough to create any real problems. A big block with stock torque levels is still enough to get the back end out from under the ElCo and we both know that . Spinning the tires is not beneficial to quarter mile times, or long light to long light runs . I suggest doing a bit more focusing on the power where you are lacking it, up top. Civic, while it is possible to mount a momentary switch in the cabin somewhere, it is just not really that easy to use when pounding a quick light to light. I thought of mentioning that as well, but then I thought of one of my customers who asked me to do that for him. When he was getting into the car after a race (he forgot to kill the nitrous bottle and the trigger was hot at all times) he bumped the nitrous trigger. When he started the car it backfired and blew the intake right off the car, destroying his intake, MSD ignition system, carb, and hood as well as all the nitrous components and the like on the manifold. I stopped suggesting ideas like that soon after that little fiasco :blink:
