If you've already got the blower, then the rational thing is to install it. It's not that difficult, and won't cost you as much as doing an HCI combo. Whatever you do, don't waste your time with GT40s especially if you're going to pay someone for the installation. They just aren't worth the money unless you get them almost for free. Think about it, the 93 Cobra made about 260 hp (despite what it was rated at), and it had GT40 heads and a GT40 intake. A gain of about 40 rwhp over the GT and 15 of that came from the intake.
If it's one or the other, I'm a big fan of doing heads, a cam, and an intake first. Thing is, a blower at 15psi on a stock block is not going to make much, if any, more power than a good H/C/I. For example, I made 311rwhp on a dyno, which is a gain of 121 rwhp (before I installed a cold-air intake), with my AFR165s, a custom Ed Curtis camshaft, and a Cobra intake. And you can figure that you'll need at least 10 more rwhp in a blower-only car to run the same in a straight line. A blower only car, instead of taking advantage of lighter aluminum cylinder heads, adds the weight of a blower. Overall, you're probably talking a 100lbs difference. My old car outran quite a few blower-only 5.0s and did a best [email protected]. How much money did I have invested? $1200 in heads, $400 in the intake, $325 in the cam. That's almost $2k, which is roughly the cost of a good new centrifugal blower. Everything else that you'd buy should go on the car with either the blower or the H/C/I motor (headers, injectors, roller rockers, Cat-back exhaust, CAI, AFPR, fuel pump, Throttle Body, aftermarket MAF, pullies, tune or tuner).
Keep the compression low, and choose a blower friendly cam, like ford's F-cam, or go custom. Go big on the injectors, 42lbs injectors would be a good pick. That car will be a beast in and of its own right. And, it will be ready to become a monster with the addition of a supercharger.
What you end up with staying n/a is a car that requires minimal tuning if you have an MAF setup, is resilient to detonation (as opposed to boosted motors that tear up easily under detonation), a lighter and simpler engine that's easier to work on, looks better, and gets better gas mileage. Plus, people will underestimate an n/a 5.0, and they will overestimate a supercharged but otherwise stock 5.0. My old setup surprised the hell out of a lot of people.
Good luck either way,
Chris
If it's one or the other, I'm a big fan of doing heads, a cam, and an intake first. Thing is, a blower at 15psi on a stock block is not going to make much, if any, more power than a good H/C/I. For example, I made 311rwhp on a dyno, which is a gain of 121 rwhp (before I installed a cold-air intake), with my AFR165s, a custom Ed Curtis camshaft, and a Cobra intake. And you can figure that you'll need at least 10 more rwhp in a blower-only car to run the same in a straight line. A blower only car, instead of taking advantage of lighter aluminum cylinder heads, adds the weight of a blower. Overall, you're probably talking a 100lbs difference. My old car outran quite a few blower-only 5.0s and did a best [email protected]. How much money did I have invested? $1200 in heads, $400 in the intake, $325 in the cam. That's almost $2k, which is roughly the cost of a good new centrifugal blower. Everything else that you'd buy should go on the car with either the blower or the H/C/I motor (headers, injectors, roller rockers, Cat-back exhaust, CAI, AFPR, fuel pump, Throttle Body, aftermarket MAF, pullies, tune or tuner).
Keep the compression low, and choose a blower friendly cam, like ford's F-cam, or go custom. Go big on the injectors, 42lbs injectors would be a good pick. That car will be a beast in and of its own right. And, it will be ready to become a monster with the addition of a supercharger.
What you end up with staying n/a is a car that requires minimal tuning if you have an MAF setup, is resilient to detonation (as opposed to boosted motors that tear up easily under detonation), a lighter and simpler engine that's easier to work on, looks better, and gets better gas mileage. Plus, people will underestimate an n/a 5.0, and they will overestimate a supercharged but otherwise stock 5.0. My old setup surprised the hell out of a lot of people.
Good luck either way,
Chris
