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3.8 supercharged power question.

M

mitchalar1997

New member
So i just bought a 1999 pontiac grand prix gtp. Stock the car has 280 torque and 240 horsepower. My question is why. A 2004 volvo s60 with a 2.5 turbocharged puts out 295 tourque 300 horsepower. Shouldnt a gtp put out a lot more. Is the supercharger weak. Are there restrictions. A naturallu aspirated 3.8 should have these specs. I like the car but it seems like it should be more powerful.
 


GM didn't want a fwd car being more powerful than the Corvette and the Camaro so they gimped it from the factory. When GM designed the l67 the Corvette was only at about 300hp at the crank and the Camaro was at 275. If you look into things the prototype Grand Prix GPX put out 300hp. Its all about business and GM wanted the Vette to remain on top.
 
now that the vet has over 600 hp they can really up the HP on all the cars so the corvette is still on top. Why i have no clue its for people over 50 who want a sports car with out the 100k price tag.
 
I have owned many domestic cars so don't think of me as a hater, but: domestic companies produced absolute **** between 1980-2000. Look at a 1989 Nissan Skyline. 2.6L motor, 280hp, 3100lbs. If skylines, silvias, etc. were allowed to be sold in the states in 1989 they would have been in the same price range as the camaro and mustang. That's why the import laws were made. If these cars were allowed to be imported to north america brand new, it would have crushed the domestic car market. And don't think that the Japanese were that far advanced with their technology. The Japanese were just more willing to provide quality to their consumers. Domestic companies were content to sell mediocre products...
 
Turbo is far more efficient than superchargers.... The engine it self may be a little underpowered for it's size, but it can modded up to some pretty big numbers, where other engines may become unreliable.
 


HP and TQ numbers don't mean jack is some cases, its all about how it puts that power to the ground.

The SC 3.8 also came out in 1995, its dinosaur technology compared to a much better volvo technology of 2004.
 
V style engines aren't as efficient as inline engines.
Inline engines can rev higher efficiently therefore have a higher Peak torque RPM (higher HP) than V engines
Also the 3.8L is a 2 Valve per cylinder and doesn't flow that well from factory. Add mild cams, restrictive exhaust and the fact that superchargers are not efficient like Turbochargers...you have your answer.
That said a good old 3.8L has more potential for improvement since it is very tame from factory.

GM could have made this engine more powerful. But my best guess would be they knew the transmission was the weak point in the system. It just can't hold abuse at higher HP/Torque than this.
This is why torque management is used on these cars to tame the shifts and torque down.

Also GM knew these were knock prone with the superchargers, which is why it has 2 knock sensors stock and pretty good knock management for it's age.
 
The boosted engines may be lackluster. But the NA motors are absolutely and unapologetically pathetic. 200 HP 3.8 V6 being produced up until 2008? What? Seriously?

I may just be a little butt hurt over how slow my car is, so ignore me...
 


nos4blood70 said:
The boosted engines may be lackluster. But the NA motors are absolutely and unapologetically pathetic. 200 HP 3.8 V6 being produced up until 2008? What? Seriously?

I may just be a little butt hurt over how slow my car is, so ignore me...
Click to expand...

No, a 3.8 liter v6 making only 200 HP in '08 is pretty ridiculous, yet people still say "Why did they stop making the 3.8? It was such a good engine" It's easy to see though. They were ahead of the competition in 95, making 195 hp though, right? They just carried it out too long without making the improvements everyone else was around them.
 
civic si.... Seriously? yes it might make that much Hp up near red line but it has no tq at all. l36 makes plenty of tq and the gearing in the car helps too. Yes I will also agree domestic Hp per Liter numbers are low. even my 3.4DOHC that came with my z34 beat the hell out of the L36. 3.4l 220hp 215 tq vs 200 from 3.8l!! the best thing about the 3800 platform was it was over built. near bullet proof in stock form and from what most have seen even in mod'd form they still hold together very well. that is when properly tuned and not put to their death by the wrong pulley size.
 


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