oem supercharging a non supercharged 3.8L ss

does anyone know if it is possible to oem supercharge a 2002 ss that was not super charged out of the factory?

Yes, I supercharged my 2000 Monte with a stock supercharger off a wrecked 04 monte. You need the supercharger, intake manifold, fuel injectors, lower compression ratio, and reprogram your computer. I was lucky I found all the parts on e bay for $400. I saw another one the other day. Go to ebay motors and search superchargers. You can lower your compression ratio a few different way (dished pistons, diff cylinder heads, or a thicker head gasket). I do not suggest the thicker head gasket because it weakens the seal and more you have blowouts. Either way your stock compression is at 9.4 when it needs to be at 8.5. I went with the new pistons and my ride put out only 40 extra hp because the stoch supercharger has a large 4" pully. I replaced it with a 3" pully which gave me a total of 75 hp I am now running 350 hp
with a cold intake, borla exhaust w/headers, completly reprogramed computer, supercharger 3" pully, diamond cut low compression pistons, and performance cam. I hope this is helpfull good luck

yeah good luck, but be careful, supercharging an engine designed for natural aspiration can be an invitation for disaster. But be sure to reprogram the pcm, lower the compression ratio and replace the fuel injectors, just as he said above, but beyond that a new fuel pump more vacume lines and a stronger lower end may be in order. Supercharged 3800s are generally manufactured w/ stronger trannys for a reason. SC power will be very harsh on your engine/ lower end the way it is.

I have a buick regal gs which has a stock 3.8 supercharged. There is a diffrence between the 2 engins minus the supercharger. The 3.8 that comes with a supercharger is actully made with a diffrent type of metal mixture, I beleive there is more nickle in the metal to sustain the stress on hte motor. The non supercharged 3.8 does not have this additional reienforcment. there is alot of information about the pros and cons of supercharging the 3.8 in the buick regal fourm

more than just the metal, diff pistons, more vaccum lines, diff compression ratio/pcm, fuel injectors, fuel pump, basically everything i told you youd have to work on my above post. It would be cheaper to purchase a used SC 3800 and drop it in, but even then your tranny would probably have problems eventually. My advice, sell your car abd buy a used grand prix gtp, probly be cheaper to be honest. You can find 98s for 5g if you look /bargain, or 99s for 7g (few more horses, better parts)

Nu-Line Concepts makes a turbo for the N/A 3.8L.

PM me for more info....its cheaper then the SC.

cartuning performance, zzp, and intense racing also have 3800 turbo kits / will have 3800 turbo kits soon the cartuning performance looks to be the best out for 3800s, id got with it if you want a turbo kit.

I am not necessarily looking for the cheapest way out. This is the same reason i did not buy a gtp, that and grand prix are all over. i have also looked into adding a turbo instead. and i am aware that the trannys are different. the sc ss's have a lower set of gears and are "heavy duty". I think there would be more to putting in a sc motor that just dropping it in, like the ecu amongst much other hardware. i think that the sc ss's tranny would be and easier sawp.

there is much more to it than just dropping in the sc on a naturally aspirated engine, but droping a sc engine in would be much less work, tranny would be optional with A HUGE* if you drive it hard you will need a stronger lower end, and the ecu, and a larger air filter or preferable cold air intake, and less restrictive exhaust would also be a good idea
the turbo kit would be much less work, the cartuning performance kit comes with a reprogramed pcm, all the necessary exhaust modifications, and since it is a turbo it is much easier on the input and output shafts than supercharged power. But if you really want a supercharger with a lot of kick, there is a centrifugal sc kit out for 3800s that would easily give the largest performance gains...along with a beating on every stock part of you car. centrifugal sc power is easily the best way to go for performance, they are basically just turbos driven by the crank, much less inefficient than roots type superchargers, and they still have all of a superchargers benefits over turbos.

For the addl 40hp, its not worth the conversion. Use other methods of gaining HP.

40hp is for the stock sc, it is very mild, mostly for warranty reasons and whatnot, but for 60 bucks you can get a smaller sc pulley and then your gains over a stock engine could be colser to 75+hp w/ proper measures to keep KR down, not easy to get that kind of power out of the naturally aspirated engine unless you drop in a turbo.

My friend just got an 04 Supercharged. How would he go about changing the pulley from 4-3"? Obviously the belt and pulley but what else is there to do?

The belt might be the same, you have to see for yourself on that one, or get a slightly smaller one. The tension pully should compensate for the 1" smaller pulley.. but if it does not, adjust it a little, or get a new belt. the pulley is easy to replace..

you need a pulley puller tool, and for a 3" pulley you will want a smaller belt, but if your stock besides the pulley you might not want to drop that much, below ~3.5 inches will bring a good deal of KR on a stock car, in which case a 3.5 would bring more hp than a 3, unless you are planning other mods

I just purchased a 2004 Impala with NA 3.8L that has a blown head gasket from my neighbor for $200. My buddy just totaled his 2004 Impala SS Indianapolis Motor Speedway Edition with a supercharged 3.8L engine and told me he just gonna get rid of it or I can have it for salvage. Here's my question: How hard would it be to transplant the power plant from The Supercharged Impala to my naturally aspirated Impala? Would I need to swap the entire engine and transmission or just swap the heads and top end of the engine along with the ECU? Also will there be a lot of modifications to make with the wiring and vacuum system? I know this seems like a lot of questions. it might seem kind of elementary to some of you but this is my first time undertaking something like this and I figured since both cars basically fell in my lap why not at least try? Any help or sound advice would be greatly appreciated.