Supercharger vs. Turbo
 

Here's the deal: about a year ago i supercharged my 86 gxl. it was great and tons of fun...till a few months ago when i blew an apex seal...so anyway, im at a cross roads. im goin (if nothing happens) to pick up my motor tommorow. it will have a fresh rebuild and large streetport. for about the past month i have been thinking about how much time, money and effort has went into this "project" and i began to look at it all pesimitically. i mean yes, i personally think its pretty badass to have such a unique car, but at the same time, for what i have put into it, i could be making near 375hp instead of ~265whp (what i am projecting it will be with the addition of my street port and the new headers i bought). so my question is, what would you guys do? give it up on the eve of victory for more power? or keep it? also, i have already thought of keeping it for now and reinstalling everything once the motor is back in, then making my decision based on how much of an increase i see with the port work, but in reality, the car has been down for a few months now, and i think that if i put it all back in, i wont have the heart to take the car off the road AGAIN to do a turbo project. your thoughts and opinions are appreciated.

turbo.

Turbo.

Go turbo, I will help you out by buying your supercharger set up! :)

turbo.. (big one too)

hahah ^ lol haha

I'm confused about one part, you said you'll be making 375hp? Is that with the port and supercharger?

Put it back together, run low boost and save up for a nasty turbo setup. Turbo cars are much more fun IMO

haha, wow, this is kinda 1 sided!

blackedoutfc3s: NO. i was saying that with the amount of money i have dropped into my current setup, i could have a 360~375rwhp turbo car. before i blew the motor i was making about 220rwhp, since then, i have got headers and a test pipe (to go along with my apex'i catback) a large street port and other misc. stuff that should put it at around 265whp. im confident that it will make over 250, but above that, its just speculation since theres really not much for me to go by.

thanks for all the input guys, i look forwad to more!

Ok, that's what I thought you said, but couldn't quite make it out. My input is now changed...

TURBO

haha, sorry if it was wriiten akwardly. im no shakespeare.

either way, i dont think it would be possible to put down that much out of this s/c. i think where i am now is about its cap (safely) unless of course you had a bridged motor or something. now if i had one of those big whiple s/c's that make like 17 psi, it be a different story!

Was it Aaron Cake that coined "Supercharger, the most expensive way to make 200rwhp on an RX-7"?

well i guess i should start diggingthrough my hard drive for my pics of this setup, it has LOTS of extras. its not a bad setup or anything, i just want more power (my cousin has an 87 supra that he just put a t3/t4 hybrid in and i gotta keep up with the johnson's!). it will be perfect for someone that doesnt wanna have to mod there car (its practically bolt-on thanks to all my custom work :) ) and is a HUGE upgrade from an na. on stock ports with no mods, it will make about 200rwhp. throw in a full exhaust and a nice tune, your looking at close to 240.

he wasnt lying....but seriously, there are alot of perks to this s/c. its a centrifugal type, unlike the camdens, so it is made for higher boost levels (i have the upgraded impellar which flows at 1200 or 1400 cfm, i cant recall, and i hit 12 psi on it twice. for obvious safety issues (no intercooling and 550x4 injectors) i normally limited myself to acout 8~9psi, but could easily and consistently hit 10+. the main advantages of this s/c over a turbo is that boost is near instant (i starting building boost at under 2k) and it builds incredibly linearly. if you are looking for a good upgrade to your na and not gobs of power (but plenty fun mind you, i puled on an automatic 350z), its a great option

Turbo.

Do it.

yea i pretty much already sold before making this thread, i just wanted to see what other forum memebers thought haha

to make the kind of power you are wanting from a rotary i would say turbo it.

torque from SCs are nice but rotaries are happier with turbos.

next question is, did you determine what caused the failure and plan to fix it before putting it back together as it was?

yea, the torque was nice....haha

im pretty sure that it was a combination of 3 things: high compression rotors, lack of intercooling (these two combined make HOT HOT air, which can cause preignition as we all kno) plus the lack of timing retard under boost (was running stock NA ECU w/ an safc). to correct the problem i had TII (low compression) rotors instlled when it was rebuilt. i also was searching for an intercooler solution and was pretty set on water/meth injection, and lastly i got a TII ECU which i was gonna (still am btw) rtek.

evryone is saying turbo, but it looks like you have a 6port.

Get a RTek, T2 pressure sensor, AFM, and tune for 12psi and call it a day.

yes, i do have a 6 port. like i said previous, i already have a TII ECU (and the pressure sensor and afm) that i was planning on rteking. also, i dont believe it would be safe to run the boost level. originally, the s/c is meant to run 6psi. with the upgraded impeller, its supposed to hit 9psi. the reason i was able to hit 12 was because i had a smaller pulley (for those not familiar with s/c's, smaller pulleys are upgrades since the cause the s/c to spin faster in relation to engine rpm) BUT, i heard from 2 others with this s/c that it isnt safe to run anything smaller than 3.75" pulley as it will over spin the blower and cause it to fail prematurely. the 3.75" pulley with the upgrade impeller is only capable of about 10psi, so therefore i decided to only boost 8-9. that and the fact that i still had high compression rotors and no intercooling at the time.

even so, at 12 psi with all my other mods, i dont think that i would be able to break 300rwhp on this supercharger. the reason being that the characteristics of superchargers would not provide that kind of power versus a turbo at the same psi. however, this is strictly speculation, im not a physist. also, the rotary just seems like its designed for a turbo. it produces so much exhaust volume relative to its engine displacement that it will get good spool out of a large turbo that other piston engines with similar and even more displacement could only hope of getting to spool in a much higher rpm range.

I love this board!
 

Most Supercharger threads end with a blown engine.

Touch always STARTS his thread with a blown engine!:lol:

Good Luck!

haha, you made that comment last time, but its so true, i believe this is like the third thread that has begun with: "ok, so i had a s/c'ed gxl until i blew an apex seal.."

...and the beat goes on!


Heh heh.

haha, but in all seriousness, thats not true jackchild! with the proper ems (most importantly being the ability to retard timing under boost), and cooling of some sort (intercooler or aux injection) you'll be fine, even with high compression na rotors, altho TII wouldnt hurt.