ruskienator360

Hey guys I got a huge question/favor to ask. Im looking on purchasing a supercharger but not sure which one will be the best one for my 2003 Gt figuring I don't want to blow up my engine. I was looking at Vortech and kenny bell. So far I have 4:10 gears, BBK shorty hearders, magnaflow exhaust, chip, new alternator, short shifter, BBK coils and njk sparkplugs and red top battery. Please help me figure out which one of the superchargers will be the best option. How long does it usually takes to install it? Can I just buy a part at a time? ( like fuel injectors and superchager itself) or its better to just buy a kit. What is the max Psi i can run on my gt ?

Thank you in advance

vr

Ruskie

dastangman

well...first we need to know a couple things, what compression ratio...secondly, whats the cars purpose (cruiser, drag 1/8, 1/4, road racer).

first, you can buy the parts separately, and sometimes there are benefits to that, such as swapping out for a better upgrade and sometimes its cheaper...

next, depending on the use youll decide on if you want low end torque or more worried about high end power. even on a higher compression a kenne bell can be used, but youll need to watch how much boost you have, or more importantly the tune, because detonation is more likely and youll need expert tuner for high boost.

a vortech centri supercharger will probably be easier on the car and safer in terms of reliability to throw more boost one simply becasue they work well wiht higher compression and dont throw a lot of boost at low rpms, but similar to a turbo, they have a sort of lag to them...4.10s will help you thougyour chip will need to go bye bye though, because youll either recieve a custom tune for the supercharger or as most here will recommend youll need to see a tuner. youll also prolly want ngk tr6 plugs if you dont have the tr6 already because theyre a step colder

i

dastangman

Sorry about the grammar in the last post, Im on a phone.

MU71L4710N

yeah....what are your intents on the car?

and read the 1500$ supercharger thead in the how-to section.


general consensus:
KB is sick for a street car. has instant torque and is great for impressing random skirts.

centri style blower will be faster at drag racing, but less "wow" behind it.

Mr Graystang

Personally I would rather have a kenne bell for the track and a centri for street/daily driving so I can stay out of boost when I dont want it. Vortech kits are really cheap , non intercooled of course but you can always add one from ebay or paxton has a nice one. Prochargers are bit more because they have a 2 row intercooler (which is always good to have when running boost but not a necessity and more a good to have kind of thing). There is also paxton too which is just like vortech IMO , Paxton and vortech have alot of units that need you to tap into your oil pan to keep the blower lubed and cool. Prochargers are self contained oil units that you add the oil into and have no need to tap a hole into your oil pan (all three brands now carry self contained head units along with the kenne belle). IMPO I dont like the ideal of tapping into my pan , just preference. I have a friend who installed his in a week end with all his self owned tools in his storage shed , so it depends on how much time you have and how carefully you can follow directions (I will would have a pro install mine then tune it , two birds one stone). What are you using your car for ? Kenne bells are slam your nutts insto boost via the centri superchargers build boost like turbos and then slam your nutts. Pick your driving style and budget and go from there , also with no forged guts I would not go too high on the boost 6-7 non IC and 8-9 PSI IC , Its not fun seeing a rod fly out of your hood.

Hangwire

In terms of stress to the engine they are all the same. 400RWHP is 400RWHP no matter what blower you're using, ITS ALL IN THE TUNE. The first thing to blow in our engines is our connecting rods/pistons. Our connecting rods are actually pretty damn strong and can take the compression, the problem is they really don't like stretching. So with a blower try to avoid 6k RPMs as much as possible especially with a twin screw. You're boost kicks in full instantly so riding out that extra 300 RPMS all the way to 6k isnt doing you much good with a twin screw. Centris build boost through the power band so thats a different story.

Kenne Bell is going to run you a bit more money but it is an all encompassing kit and everything is top notch quality, no corners cut period. The ONLY thing you need to buy are spark plugs, around $25 bucks.

Also keep in mind that running boost with no intercooler is a lot more stress on your engine. Simply adding an intercooler will up your power significantly while also making it run significantly safer. If you're going to spend the money get a damn intercooler.

ddmsgtr1

Unless you plan on changing gears, I'd do a centri. A KB is going to be a b*tch with 4.10's.

dastangman

I agree with that statement in some regards, but in others ways I don't.

A centri blower is going to be a lot safer with a higher compression than a twin screw. I'm not saying it's not possible to run a twin screw with a high compression engine, and furthermore, I'm not saying you can't run it with high boost as well. But, when you start doing that, you'll find it'll be harder to tune for, especially if you have a run of the mill tuner. Your expert guys know how to, but you can't just walk into some average shop and get a decent tune for that situation.

A centri blower can usually handle quite a bit more compression, in fact, you'll probably want to or you have a sluggish car until 3000rpm. In general, you'll want 8.5:1 (based off the Terminator compression) for a roots or twin screw car, and like 9.5:1 or up on a centri so you can keep that low end. I opted for a 9.2:1 on my 01 Cobra, because I like having the extra room for tuning, octane error to reduce detonation, I can add a few pounds of boost to create even more power, and a set of gears will help the low end.

400rwhp is 400rwhp, but the way in which you get there, beyond just the tune can have a lot of differences in safety. In general (to a degree), it's going to be safer to up your boost a couple of pounds to get more power than it would be to raise your CR. Some people, in some applications, prefer that high compression ratio with a high boost setup, but for someone more interested in their engine lasting so they can take the car out on the weekends, less compression and more boost is probably the answer.

Another thing to remember is that, a roots or twin screw (because it has the potential to create so much torque and boost right off the bat) will stress more parts from a launch (transmission, rearend, and engine components, etc) than a centri which will start off mild in boost and build it as engine speeds increase. Imagine having a bunch of kids sitting on a merry go round that's sitting stationary and running full speed at it to make it turn. The resulting collision is definately going to make the thing spin fast, but it's going to throw the children on it violently around. Now imagine that same merry go round sitting still and you running at it at a slight jog, grabbing the bars and slowly gaining speed faster and faster. The children on it are going to not be jolted on the initial push, but will still end up gaining the same amount of speed as a result.

Example (Please note these numbers might not accurately represent each scenario in terms of power):
Car A and Car B both have 450rwhp.
Car A has 9.85:1 compression with 10psi of boost from a centri blower.
Car B has 9.2 compression with 14psi of boost from a centri blower.

They both make the same horsepower, but car B is going to be less prone to engine detonation, a bit easier to tune, and have more room for error than car A. And if car owner B wants to significantly increase the boost to say 20psi, he'll still have room for gas, tuning, and atmospheric issues.
Potentially, car B could make more power than car A because the owner can throw more boost at it than car A could.

Where things get tricky, and where I agree it's all in the tune is this. Car A can, if the tuner is good enough throw just as much boost at the car safely, and as long as all variables work out good, not have an issue. But, there are no guarantees that the gas station down the street is going to have good gas, there's no guarantee your local tuner is going to have the perfect tune no matter how many people say he's bullet proof, and with those variables in place, atmospheric and temperature changes can come into play. At the same time though, let's not forget this fact car B could just as likely blow a piston with a terrible tune, but there is in fact more room for error. It goes with out saying that unsinkable ships sometimes sink.

So who's gonna win the race, car A or car B? Well, all things considered (running same mods, same gear ratios, same driver, etc.) probably car A. Higher compression will make the power down low and rap up faster, while car B will take some time to build the boost. Hypothetically, if car owner A raised compression and car owner B raised boost, it'd be the same situation. Best case scenario, is running high boost and high compression (furterhmore getting that power to the ground), but I wouldn't suggest that to people that can not afford to rebuild engines or have run this risk of subpar tuning. For the average Joe on the street, gaining that extra fraction of a second in exchange for engine reliability probably isn't worth it. Hence, the reason for needing to know the purpose of the car before making an accurate assumption. I don't want to scare you away from the roots or twin screws, tons of people have used them without problems on your very application, but there are pros and cons as well as limitations to each setup.