Supercharger/Regrets

[Livernois Motorsports]

Our KB supercharged 5.0 has had zero issues. On the even more positive side, our customers with the Windstorm 2.3 kits also have had no issues out of them. For the price, S/C is the way to go, and if they do have problems, it's considerably less than turbo cars.

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[FIVE_LITER]

Makes me think, if it's not FI from the factory, don't do it.

That's a horrible way of thinking you've got going on. Everything needs a little boost.

 

[ProChargerTECH]

Makes me think, if it's not FI from the factory, don't do it.

Yikes, I have put F/I on almost every single thing I own...

Ironically the car that spent the most time at the dealership was stock forced induction and loads of issues. LOL . I sold it, bought a GMC truck, stuffed a ProCharger on it, and now have 217,xxx miles and climbing of supercharged awesomeness. ... never been back to GM once. (even after 5 different blower kits have been on it, still has the stock cats on it lol)

That's a horrible way of thinking you've got going on. Everything needs a little boost.

Amen, stock cars fail parts all the time whether they have a blower on them, or if they are stone stock. It's just the way it is, if they were perfect there would be no need for a 5yr/100k warranty on them.

BUT, all the OEM's are building the best cars and best engines they ever have been. We should all be lucky we can "bolt on" the kinda power we can these days, with OEM drivability, gas milage and street manors.

Just a short while ago, you would literally break engine blocks in HALF trying to make the kinda power we are all now used to making.

It's a great time to be into performance cars/trucks

 

[rs7337]

whipple here with zero issues. got the update for the very slight hesitation done and i am extremely happy(was happy before it...) . no belt problems... put about 3000 miles on it then pulled everything off to do OPG and CG. even after that still no belt issues. i am usiung the long belt set up.already had ATI balancer

 

[AutoX_GT]

Paxton here with zero issues. The only thing that I regret is not installing the billet OPG's BEFORE I installed the Paxton kit.. :headbonk:

 

[Omega]

Amen, stock cars fail parts all the time whether they have a blower on them, or if they are stone stock. It's just the way it is, if they were perfect there would be no need for a 5yr/100k warranty on them.

Warranties are funny things.
I have a co-worker whose brother-inlaw's job is to evaluate products and go to the manufacturer and say you can offer X warranty for X time and will only need to take care of a failure 2% of the time.

In short, his job is to make sure the product fails one day after the warranty expires :headbonk:

 

[Mustang_Lou]

I've had a turbo car with mods blow an engine so call me "cautious" guys ...

 

[Tugger50H]

I haven't had any problems with my paxton kit but my only regret is I'll probably never be able to drive anything without forced induction again.

 

[Phoenix]

The C7 with the PS1c regretted not getting a bigger blower last night when he lost on the highway

 

[ProChargerTECH]

I haven't had any problems with my paxton kit but my only regret is I'll probably never be able to drive anything without forced induction again.

It's a sickness that has almost no cure....
Good luck...

The C7 with the PS1c regretted not getting a bigger blower last night when he lost on the highway

HAHAHAH, Savage!

 

[ETCH]

Well today I got to the bottom of the noise issue, I think. I was glad it wasn’t the S/C itself. Turns out one of the smooth pulleys had locked up. I pulled the belt off to install the new 10 rib belt spring loaded tensioner I got from Whipple today. I turned the S/C pulley by hand. That was smooth as glass, no grinding. I then spun all the smooth pullies and found one locked up tighter than a frogs ass.

When I did get it to turn, it felt horrible, grinding and felt like I was crushing sand; really bad. I thought to myself that has to be the noise. I called Whipple, told them the problem. Two minutes later I have one in the mail next day air. I should have my baby back on the road tomorrow with the new spring loaded tensioner; which hopefully takes care of the belt squeak and the new smooth pulley; which hopefully will take care of the grinding noise.

Like I said Whipple's customer service second to none. They called it a warranty issue. Only charged me for the next day air because I needed my car for Monday to go to work. Its me DD

 

[Mustang_Lou]

^ Good work on the diagnosis. Bearings must've gone in the pulley I assume.

 

[oesman]

I've had no major issues with my ProCharger Stage 2 kit. Granted I've only put about 400 miles on it, but they're hard and abusive miles! I don't really drive this thing unless it's to go mess around on some back roads or go to the track.

All major kits for these cars seem to be fantastic. It's incredible, especially when you consider how incomplete, poorly documented or questionable many kits were just a decade ago. Now we have HD youtube videos and full color manuals. I think the fit and finish on my ProCharger kit is excellent, I love the 8-rib dedicated drive setup. If something is wrong with a kit, these vendors are all very responsive, especially ProCharger Tech from what I noticed. He even saw one of my posts and sent me a tune to try out with my race gas blend since I'm maxing out the timing on their original tune.

I'd say if you're DIY installing like myself your experience will largely depend on:

- Having reasonably advanced mechanical expertise.
- Your experience with engine management, fuel system, vacuum and electrical.
- Fundamental understanding of how your car and it's powertrain work.
- Prior experience with heavily modified cars.
- How you manage expectations and your level of patience.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and these kits have never been more straightforward to install than today. However if you have zero experience you may want to start with some other mods and work your way up. If you've been wrenching on cars for years and understand how everything works you'll be fine. When I got the kit I had the familiar pang of "wow that's a lot of parts", but ultimately it wasn't my first supercharger install and I knew I'd get it done.

The biggest risk to your engine when going DIY is in my opinion not OPGs. It's failing to understand how engines work and not knowing what to look for as you test the kit and continue to use it. Im not saying OPGs aren't a risk, they carry a certain risk, but there is a 100% risk of ruining your engine if you run it lean and do not recognize this as a problem or even something you should monitor. This is a relatively expensive engine to learn a lesson on.

The last bullet about expectations and patience I think is important. Many guys who have modded cars for years find these kits to be so well made that you can consider them essentially trouble free. From my perspective the PC kit I got is damn near factory compared to nonsense I had to deal with on my first supercharged car. However if you are just getting started with this hobby, I think it would be unfair to expect the end result to be a truly factory car and hold the vendors to it. Ultimately this is an unachievable standard. You're doubling the crank horsepower output with many of these kits and there is no free lunch in life. There will be various caveats. Sure there are factory FI cars, but who's making this kind of power for this kind of money? The Hellcat is the closest at nearly double the cost with less power. Everything else is basically $100K+ and most those cars you'll find have quirks and issues too. Just goole Ferrari or Lamborghini fires. If you want near zero risk of major problems get a bone stock Toyota Camry and find a good dealership and let them service it for you.

 

[venumous]

Well said!!

 

[FIVE_LITER]

It's a sickness that has almost no cure....

There is a cure...


More boost!

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