Im trying to supercharge my 1997 f150 with the 5.4l engine. I tow a trailer somtimes, and would like the power when im driving around town. What supercharger is the best for the price, which one is cheapest? What kind of mods would be required to install a supercharger. are all the kits intercooled? Im looking at a powerdyne kit. The truck has a hypertech installed.

 

my roush kit will be at my door tomorrow for my 06, if i were you i would look for a lighting swap kit

 

he cant do the lightning swap without PI heads, better off to build your engine and do the lightning swap.

 

on your '97 you'll have to swap to PI heads but there is a eaton harley Takeoff mostly complete (no innercooler) 6psi for 1200 in the classifieds

you can pick up a used procharger or vortech for around 2500 and with a couple upgrades you'll be happy

 

Or you can just put a Procharger on it. That's what I did with my '97...the kit is made for it so it just bolts right up.

The cr@ppy NPI heads ultimately limit your power, but I got 320rwhp and 410 lb-ft. Not overly impressive HP, good torque... if you search the dyno sticky you'll see that the numbers are about as good as you'll find for an NPI engine in these trucks with a blower but no internal mods.

I loved my Expy.

 

How much do the heads run? how much power would they add?

 

I prefer my procharger to my eaton, once you replace the crappy ATI bypass valve with a good one you make more low end power

 

is there any tranny mods i need to do for a supercharger?

 

You have to be very careful doing the PI swap as it raises the compression ratio to something like 10.5 to 1 which is not good for forced induction. I am also running the Procharger and if i had it to do over i would go with the Magnacharger/Allen kit or a Kenne Bell.

I know at some point i will be building a motor and doing a Whipple.

 

More info on this please.

 

wouldnt the higher compression ratio make more power? I was told that the PI heads would be better than the stock heads.

 

Higher compression and forced induction do not go well together. Ideally for forced induction you want 8.0-8.5 to 1

The higher the compression ratio the less boost you can run

 

If you put PI heads on it, you cant do the eaton swap with the stock pistons, the high compression+ boost on a stock bottom end will never hold up. you will need little to no timing, and I doubt 93 octane would be enough.

 

would a port & polish, cam, valves and springs be a better combo than the PI heads?

 

For the money you spend to do all that, you could buy a used blower.

But ported NPI heads flow almost as well as ported PI heads so it's sort of a wash.