Lowest Maintenance Most Reliable FI

[schmeky]

Based on your actual experience or what you have observed first hand, what FI system has shown to have the lowest maintenance coupled with the best long term, real world reliability?

I realize there are many variables, the power output, region of the country, how often you're in boost, who did the tuning, etc. But overall, which system/brand has proven to not require a lot of tinkering, fixing, and worst of all breaking or leaving you stranded because of components in the FI system that failed/malfunctioned.

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[engineermike]

I had a Whipple 2015 f150 and now a Whipple 2018 mustang. The f-150 is at 75k miles at 14 psi, while the mustang is at 28k miles at 10 psi, both boosted almost since new. Both have been nearly flawless, other than tuning quirks.

If low maintenance and reliability are priority, I would say to limit the boost. Myself and others have increased pulley size to increase safety factor. I’d even consider slowing it down more. I mean, for day to day use, you can not hook 700 rwhp on a true street tire at any reasonable speed anyway. I would imagine that if you dropped all the way to 6-7 psi, a good unit would still make 600 rwhp, which would be plenty fun, a 50% improvement over stock, and dead reliable.

 

[NotMarc]

I had a Whipple 2015 f150 and now a Whipple 2018 mustang. The f-150 is at 75k miles at 14 psi, while the mustang is at 28k miles at 10 psi, both boosted almost since new. Both have been nearly flawless, other than tuning quirks.

If low maintenance and reliability are priority, I would say to limit the boost. Myself and others have increased pulley size to increase safety factor. I’d even consider slowing it down more. I mean, for day to day use, you can not hook 700 rwhp on a true street tire at any reasonable speed anyway. I would imagine that if you dropped all the way to 6-7 psi, a good unit would still make 600 rwhp, which would be plenty fun, a 50% improvement over stock, and dead reliable.

What pulley are you running on your car right now?

 

[engineermike]

I’m running the 4.0” pulley. I’ve been kicking around swapping to the 4.25”, as that’s the biggest that will fit. Should be 7-8 psi.

Anyone else remember when 5-6 psi was standard for bolt-on supercharger kits?

 

[Stymee]

I’m running the 4.0” pulley. I’ve been kicking around swapping to the 4.25”, as that’s the biggest that will fit. Should be 7-8 psi.

Anyone else remember when 5-6 psi was standard for bolt-on supercharger kits?

You and I think alike

 

[sigintel]

I concur the Whipple 4.0. I tracked (road courses) a Whippled 2015. Running that setup in hot Texas in extended road course conditions was brutal on the drive train (3.5, 3.625, 4.0 pulleys).
Killed Several sets of timing chains, 3 junk yard differentials,etc.
I eventually backed it down to a 4.0 pulley resulting in more consistent higher timing in track conditions, and way better durability. Lol, that and I kept getting black flagged for drifts and tires got expensive. Ugg, the constant diff fluid changes after track days smelled worse than death satan burnt rotten roadkill.

Besides, Putting 600-700 rwhp down consistently will be fast on track and street. Hooking more power than that below tripple digits speeds becomes more of a “discipline” then necessarily something you do for fun.
For 12:1 compression gen 3, I would go Whipple w 4.x or 4.0. For 11:1 gen 2: 4.0.
For reliability, you have to leave room for bad gas.

Pretty sure OP is getting a Whipple. Whipple has the strongest integration of tuning with hardware dev. They have the safest stock tune and would be my choice for a one stop shop to get a reliable set up from.

 

[schmeky]

All good info, I really appreciate the responses.

I was thinking it would be the Roush or the Whipple. Between these 2, if reliability were equal, I would lean towards the Whipple.

 

[Dominant1]

Centrifical sc’s are the lowest maintenance Sc’s. They have the best iat’s, the easiest to install and remove and they allow you to use your current n/a mods. I’ve had 2 kits on two different cars no issues with either.

 

[Meatball]

I have had a Whipple stage 2 since late last year...not a single issue. Drives as well as stock except a little stronger at step-off (off-boost) and sounds a little different than before.

Others have talked about being safe with larger pulleys but keep in mind that Whipple has "flight control" which can mimic a larger pulley (these are Whipple's words)...essentially they modulate the throttle a little differently so boost is lower and everything associated (spark curve, probably cam timing) are adjusted accordingly. It works seamlessly and I see on my mechanical boost gauge the boost is lowered, again like I have a larger pulley when I want to. You can dial in anywhere up to 25% lower torque (which feels like stock, but a little stronger and gives about 2psi boost) in increments of 5%, and each gear can be adjusted differently. There are a bunch of other safety features in the tune, like "Octane Adjust", which uses a less aggressive spark curve.

I keep OA and all the other nannies except one on all the time, because I am in Cali and run our unavoidable crappy 91 and want to stay carb legal (=no E85 for me). I think it's safe but it still hauls. I have 2nd gear at -15% torque, which is the most the Firehawk 285s on the rears can handle during the summer (I have to dial it down more in the winter). I have 3rd at -5%. Once in a while I'll put Boostane in and go to 0% for 3rd and OA off. It's super fun. You can kind of mimic this without by watching the boost gauge and modulating your right foot, but flight control is more sophisticated than simply a fixed not fully open throttle position (in logs the throttle opening changes progressively at WOT at any non-zero requested torque reduction).

I also have an nGauge and watch it like a hawk for positive KR (=knock sensors sensing knock) when WOT with a new tank of gas.

Having said all that, keep in mind that Roush themselves warrant 18+ mustangs to 3/36 powertrain Phase 1 or Phase 2, so it's likely to be a very safe system/calibration as delivered, even if you're past there on your '18. Some people aren't always satisfied with the safe Roush cal but I think some are. Check out the 500-page "Questions for guys who actually have the Roush kit", always one of the most recent threads in the FI section. Most of those guys chose Roush because of reliability. I havent read it in a while but you can probably get an idea there how they like their setups.

 

[engineermike]

Flight control and OA aren’t available on the gen3 FYI.

 

[Angrey]

I think you'll find that blower failures and issues are few far between for just about all the major players. It's usually the rest of the major assemblies in the car that are an issue. But on a manufacturer tune and appropriate supporting stuff, Whipple, Eaton (just about every TVS variant), Procharger, Vortech, you don't usually see a lot of blower failures or issues.

All blowers take "maintenance" in terms of changing the oil and ensuring the air filter is either replaced or cleaned. Twin screw blowers don't do well with contaminants going through them (none of them do really, but TS blowers have tight tolerances against the casing).

 

[Meatball]

Flight control and OA aren’t available on the gen3 FYI.

Strange. I wonder why not? Esp OA in case of marginal gas...

*edit*
It (Flight Control) is listed under “Exclusive features” in the 18-20 kit description on their website.

 

[engineermike]

@Meatball, looks like a copy/paste error to me. I have the latest firmware and cal and it’s just not there. I’ve since purchased HPTuners and now I can turn on OA and limit torque as I please, plus a couple thousand other things.

 

[GTFORMULA]

I would think a turbo kit would be the least maintenance as a lot of factory cars use them and only change the oil and filters.

 

[Meatball]

@Meatball, looks like a copy/paste error to me. I have the latest firmware and cal and it’s just not there. I’ve since purchased HPTuners and now I can turn on OA and limit torque as I please, plus a couple thousand other things.

Nice. I know, different gen Coyote but what baseline (pre-adjust) spark advance do you use with “OA” off and on?

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