Increasing compression, building up a N/A motor: done it?

[OutKlast]

So has anyone built up a V6 N/A motor, maybe boosted the compression a little? Results?

In the tech database on here theres the http://tech.firebirdv6.com/intimidator.html , perhaps a little much but still putting down a comfy amount of power coupled with perhaps some suspension work should make for a snappy ride, reasonably fast but still somewhat daily driver. Seems like money wise you could invest in all around engine/tranny/suspension work and get a pretty reasonable and predictable ride for roughly what it costs for a turbo or super kit alone. Sure max HP would be less but most of this stuff should be done anyway. Seems better to build from this end first then when your ready drop compression and run FI on a more built up motor/tranny/suspension better built to deal with things of that nature.

I'm rambling you get the idea, feel free to ramble on as well. If this is in the wrong place feel free to move it we don't really have a N/A built up motor section that I could find.

[GhostRunner]

The 3.8L engine already has 9.4:1 compression, that's pretty darned good for a street driven "econo-sports" car that our v6s are.

Unless you wanna go with some outrageous 11.4:1 compression or higher, you're not going to notice enough difference to appreciate the money spent just to bump the c/r up. Not to mention you'd have to use at LEAST 91 octane.

A cam, some mild headwork + tuning and an exhaust would yield far happier results for you. Even nitrous would be a better investment than rebuilding your engine for higher compression.

But that's just my opinion.

[OutKlast]

Originally posted by GhostRunner:
The 3.8L engine already has 9.4:1 compression, that's pretty darned good for a street driven "econo-sports" car that our v6s are.

Unless you wanna go with some outrageous 11.4:1 compression or higher, you're not going to notice enough difference to appreciate the money spent just to bump the c/r up. Not to mention you'd have to use at LEAST 91 octane.

A cam, some mild headwork + tuning and an exhaust would yield far happier results for you. Even nitrous would be a better investment than rebuilding your engine for higher compression.

But that's just my opinion.

Higher octane isn't much of an issue, 93 is the highest you can get here from the pump. I just see some cars running like 14-15's putting down 400hp or whatever and it just seems silly to put all that into some sort of power adder system without first building the engine up and tranny/suspension.

[OutKlast]

Hmmm I just looked at compression ratio to power calculator, not perfect I know but wow it doesn't add much at all. I didn't think it would add much but a little something. If I ran a 40 to 1 compression ratio on some sort of top secret fuel it would only add like 60hp.

[WickEdSix9838]

you gotta realize though, 15hp in our cars will run .25 quicker. compression is worth power from idle to peak. When i ported the heads on mine we milled them .015 and it increased the compression about .1 but nothing more than that. It would be fun to build up a aluminum rodded motor w/aobut 11-12:1 compression but its not worth it. Someday ill put a 4.88 gear in my car, strip it down to nothing and put a 7-8" wide slick on the car and do some rev limiter dumps. It should fly. But that wont happen for another year, still gotta drive the car back and forth to school.

[Turbo V6 Camaro]

Originally posted by WickEdSix9838:
you gotta realize though, 15hp in our cars will run .25 quicker. compression is worth power from idle to peak. When i ported the heads on mine we milled them .015 and it increased the compression about .1 but nothing more than that. It would be fun to build up a aluminum rodded motor w/aobut 11-12:1 compression but its not worth it. Someday ill put a 4.88 gear in my car, strip it down to nothing and put a 7-8" wide slick on the car and do some rev limiter dumps. It should fly. But that wont happen for another year, still gotta drive the car back and forth to school.

but just think how much faster you could get to school lol

[OutKlast]

Originally posted by WickEdSix9838:
you gotta realize though, 15hp in our cars will run .25 quicker. compression is worth power from idle to peak. When i ported the heads on mine we milled them .015 and it increased the compression about .1 but nothing more than that. It would be fun to build up a aluminum rodded motor w/aobut 11-12:1 compression but its not worth it. Someday ill put a 4.88 gear in my car, strip it down to nothing and put a 7-8" wide slick on the car and do some rev limiter dumps. It should fly. But that wont happen for another year, still gotta drive the car back and forth to school.

I'd be interested in what kind of things you've done to your car. I'm not looking to set a land speed record or anything just something a little quicker. Your numbers looks like more where I'd want to be. The reason I was looking into the compression and optimization is that my car is also my daily driver to and from school a 25 mile highway journey so I wanted to keep some level of respectable MPG and driveability.