NA Cam With a Supercharger

[Eddymel1998]

So I have been thinking about this, say I go with a typically NA cam like a mild VVT cam from either Texas speed or GPI, then down the line decide to go with a supercharger, probably something lower profile like Everbrook stage 1, or the Magnuson heartbeat, would I need to change out the cam as well or would it work anyways.


Sorry if this is a question that has been answered before, I've tried the forum search for a good long while but only really see threads about pairing a forced induction cam with a supercharger (guessing for a good reason).

[gtstorey]

It will work anyway. Maybe not the 100% best it could be, but probably 95% or better. My supercharger works fine with stock cam.

[bsn]

If the cam works in the car it will work with the supercharger-as was said above the difference between a blower cam and a good N/A cam will be minor.

[cc-rider]

There’s a lot that goes into cam building. My 2 cents would be to go just the opposite route. If you know that you want to end up with a supercharger in the end…then just go with a supercharger cam right upfront. Which will still work great and add a lot of power over a stock cam. Again…won’t make quite as much power NA as a dedicated NA cam…but will still be a great add on.

I put the BTR PDS stage 3 torque cam into my car. I’m super impressed with it. Now I’m supercharged and haven’t tried it NA…but I also lowered my compression to 9:1 with my rebuild and even added a massive Nick William 112mm throttle body. The car idles nicely with a moderate chop…and the responsiveness of the engine surpassed my expectation. It’s at the dyno now getting final tuning.

But anyway…look into that cam. But a lot of other good choices too.

[acammer]

It depends on which combination you maximize. Despite what internet wisdom often says - "every cam is a boost cam" - there are definitely more and less suitable camshafts for a given application. A street driven naturally aspirated combination benefits from a moderate amount of overlap to maximize power, where-as PD blowers, like the Magnuson you mentioned, like minimal overlap, while maintaining substantial duration, especially on the exhaust side. A cam optimized for one setup will be giving something up in the other configuration.

But the real question is - does it matter? You mentioned you're looking for a mild camshaft, which tells me that you're interested in gaining some performance, and undoubtedly that cammed sound, but you're not chasing maximum power gains. That being the case, this question of which is optimal matters a great deal less - either a NA or PD specific camshaft will produce good gains, which is all you're after. In this case, I'm inclined to suggest the NA VVT camshaft, which will be the better fit in NA trim, and give you a solid performance increase, and good broad power for excellent driveability. When you're ready, add some boost and continue to enjoy the same cam - it will still produce excellent results.

I'd be happy to help further if it's something you want to discuss directly. You can feel free to e-mail me at andrew@gwatneyperformance.com and we can dig a little more into what would be the best fit for your combo. We've got all sorts of options here at GPI, and I'm confident we can get the right package together for you.

[Eddymel1998]

Thanks for the info, car is a daily at this point so can't play doctor on it too much, but just getting an idea of roughly what I can and can't do in the future, the specifics are more of the future me's problem. Plan is once I can get another daily sorted to do torque converter, lifters (and associated top end stuff), and cam in one package then if I feel like I want a bit more out of it, stick a supercharger on it since the process seems a little less involved, but again that's a future me's problem.