Its just a little annoying, this kid keeps boasting about his 5.3 and talking about how crappy my car is and I've put alot of work into it but I want it to fly.

Nope, not too bad. You'd void the warranty the junkyard may give you by opening up the engine, but otherwise you're set. A member here ran a 12.675 second quarter mile on a bone-stock 97 SSEi with NOS. The car had about 250K miles, I think.

But keep in mind that the easy stuff you do, like adding NOS, can be done by the 5.3 guy. I'm not really trying to push the turbo too much, but...

he isnt a modding guy, I am. What about just adding 2 cylinders by either gxp or N*?

The N* engine doesn't pack the punch of the 5.3. The Bonneville GXP guys know that it'* a powerful engine and will confirm it if you ask them, but it'* not the thing to use if you want to mod or if you want to beat 5.3L V8. GXP Venom added NOS to his N* engine, and it definitely could take on the 5.3, but the swap to the engine is so mind numbingly difficult and expensive that you could get an awesome 3800 turbo setup by the time you have a N* in there.

Now, a 5.3L V8, that'* doable. And it could make slightly more sense. Probably as difficult and expensive to throw in, but the benefits are greater.

ok so you keep hinting at turbo, what about a turbo l67 w/nos? or would that be too much? The turbo I couldnt afford brand new if anything I would find a used one in decent condition and get everything else that I cant find used

I should add that this is my every day car and still need sensible fuel economy

You're going to lose your fuel economy with a cam, so keep that as plan B actually. For now, aim for a drop-in L67 first. Do some mild modding and see if that doesn't walk the 5.3. If it doesn't, NOS time. Then the next step is a cam and thus low 20s highway mileage.

Well I dont mind the thought of turbo i just get a little freaked at the amount of work it seems to need, but I found a honda b18 turbo that comes with wg

The main cost with your turbo setup is going to be the stuff. You can get a $90 turbocharger, but then you're still $1000 away in stuff to make it work for your engine. Also, a turbocharger that benefits a 1.8L 4-banger will probably choke your 3800. Is that the $90 turbocharger from eBay?

no its a $150 from craigslist, so I guess for the time I'll start with the supercharged and do the modding tips on one of the other threads here.