supercharging alloytec Ly7

[Fredwillows]

hi everyone.

first off i want to appologise if i have offened anyone by accidently posting this in the wrong section. my experience is people get a bit finicky about this stuff so you never know.

Id like to supercharge my LY7 engine. But i do not want one of those centrifugal turbo looking things.

my question is; has anyone ever mounted a proper supercharger on top of their alloytec in a ve?
is it even possible?
could it be done for less than 15k?

also would love to hear how stupid i am for asking so dont hold back!

Cheers.

 

[18vDrill_SkinOnly]

Man, just get the centrifugal blower and stop dreaming.

LY7s are bastards to tune. I have one, I also wanted to supercharge it.. with all the headaches it has given me over the past 6 weeks I'm all but ready to push it off a cliff. They don't like being played with and are a flat out garbo motor for anything other than just driving stock.

If you want my honest advice, use the money you'd waste on blowing your LY7 to put a V8 conversion into it. It's about the same price all up.

Do that and you'll get 300kw at the rear wheels without having to drop mad coin on an LY7 which may or may not do that. More on the may not side of things.

Nobody cares about V6 development as well is another issue - with all the LS options out there the whole market is geared around them. Guys aren't being smarmy when they say just get a V8, stuff will be 100% easier to source and they've got tuning these things down pat. V6s are trickier to tune, performance options are limited and the average LY7 is going to have at least 150,000km on them if not more by now as they're all around the 13 year old mark. Questions about service history etc. are more important now than 10 years ago.

Not trying to stomp on your idea, but these are really shitty engines and if you start playing with them you'll honestly just regret it. Seeing as you're a Brunswick lad, you might as well just go to Maxine's and chuck money at the dancers if you want some very average thrills and ultimately an underwhelming experience. The kebab shop across the road is top notch though.

 

[_R_J_K_]

my question is; has anyone ever mounted a proper supercharger on top of their alloytec in a ve?
is it even possible?

It's largely down to the design of the block and heads. The roots M90 fitted onto the L67/Ecotec because it was a 90 degree V block with push pushrods and no overhead cams, whereas the Alloytec is a 60 degree V block with DOHC, so there's waaaay less real estate to put a supercharger on.

So there are two options:
1. Modify a lower intake manifold to mount a supercharger without fouling on anything. Likely expensive to have somebody fabricate it and will probably push the supercharger through the bonnet. Some of the Toyota superchargers can get away with this because of how much Toyota lean their V6s (in either direction) when they're used for FWD. Nobody makes any kind of manifold (to my knowledge) that will fit a roots supercharger to an Alloytec, and even if you do find one you're limited to whatever supercharger it's adapted for.

2. Find one of these offset Toyota superchargers with the massive casting hanging off the side that lets them be mounted to one side. Can guarantee you that nobody makes these for the Alloytec and you will need to adapt it.

Really, unless you can fab stuff like this yourself, it is in no way worth the dollarydoos of having somebody attempt it for you.

 

[krusing]

As above ^^^^
Don’t waste your hard earnt $’s,
Great motor when running ok,
But, they are like a chiminea when they fault,
Keep burning your money !

 

[F1Aussie]

I wonder what makes the LY7 a dog of a motor compared to the LFX which seems to get the nod as the best of the alloytecs?

 

[_R_J_K_]

The SIDI engines use a different ECU that has better support in HPTuners (but still not complete). There are not a great deal of tuners who support either of them anyway, and I have a feeling there's some crossover with a lot of Euro cars as it's a Bosch but Euro shops won't touch Commodores. The engines (or their engine management) also seem to be picky about sensors, like it seems to be the flip of a coin if you can get an engine swap to fire up easily.

It's a shame though, the engines seem to be designed like they could take a lot of punishment (and I'm sure they could with some R&D), but are let down by a couple of major flaws either in GM cheaping out (timing chains and PCV obvs) or other design decisions around the engine. It's a shame the LF3 never got here.

 

[Fu Manchu]

LY7 used two different ECMs.

 

[krusing]

I wonder what makes the LY7 a dog of a motor compared to the LFX which seems to get the nod as the best of the alloytecs?

The only issue I have witnessed, is the Oil pump fails on the LFX,
And they seize with no warning.

 

[F1Aussie]

The only issue I have witnessed, is the Oil pump fails on the LFX,
And they seize with no warning.

Glad I got mine changed over then when I got the chains done recently.

 

[Commo64]

Not worth putting money into this engine, as said above... Might as well buy a V8 Commodore