Quote:
Originally Posted by laynlo15
Anytime you force more fuel and air into the cylinder there is a risk.
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THIS
Go into it with your eyes open, as some people's cars run and run, and some of them break. There is no guarantee with hot rodding. Yes you could buy a kit with a warranty and HOPE they honor it if it breaks, but the fact is, they might not do so.
As far as what brand of supercharger you might want, I'd suggest doing a LOT of research on them before plunking any money down. Most of the reviews on this site are positive but I'll let you in on another fact, which is, they do not always work as advertised. The reason I think you should be aware of this possibility (sub-par performance) is because, when you spend thousands of dollars for a supercharger kit, you justifiably expect to get a 'wow' feeling when you floor the throttle. I know there was at least one person on the forum who's posted low power with a blower (Edelbrock I think it was?), and I'll mention now that I've also had that experience with an ECS/Paxton/Vortech kit. To clarify, when I'm saying low power on an LT1 here, I mean under 500hp supercharged, when the kits are advertised at 550~580hp. So 10% or more below advertised, I am not nit-picking here, I'm talking large discrepancies. The same shop that dyno tested my car also tested an ECS-equipped C7 LT1 which was under 500hp, so I was certainly not alone with the poor performance I got. Same shop again, got over 600hp with a Whipple on a 6th gen Camaro LT1 (with long tube headers). That last example is to show it's not a case of 'heartbreaker' dyno going on, it's a case of poor gains from the ECS supercharger. My SS was 395/482 stock vs ECS supercharged, and the C7 was 403 stock and 490s ECS supercharged. The ECS site showed the Gen6 Camaro LT1 as 398/550 stock vs ECS supercharged. So the ECS kit is supposed to gain around 38% in hp and our cars only got around a 22~23% gain. I ended up removing the kit from my car, disgusted for sure. BTW I must mention that tech support from ECS was ZERO while I was installing the kit. They failed to call me back or email me back at all when I asked a couple of questions. I did call Vortech (due to already-mentioned total lack of tech support from ECS) and asked them what these cog pulleys (tooth counts) should do for boost, and they told me 7 to 7 and a half pounds. I saw as much as 153.5kpa on my MAP sensor (at shift point) while I had the kit on, which is in the ballpark. So while the boost was a little less than the 8psi that the ECS site seems to suggest the kit will make, it's not far enough off to really explain why it's down over 60hp from where it should be.
The engine seems to run ok back in normally-aspirated form so it probably was not significantly damaged by the supercharger. Have installed a catch can and not getting much oil in there, whereas if the ring lands were broken then I'd expect a significant amount of blowby. When the supercharger did so poorly I had to wonder if it had hurt the engine, but that does not seem to be the case.
Obviously problems can occur with any brand, like I said, do a lot of research, and still, there's no real guarantee that you will get the advertised results, or have no problems, if you do buy one. The reason I'm saying you should be patient and research is because I had only seen good reviews of ECS before I bought my kit. Now in the real world, ECS kits are 0 for 2 on LT1s that I've seen with my own eyes as far as performing even close to advertised, and the customer support that I (didn't) receive could only be considered shamefully bad. Obviously, the truth about other brands could be different than most internet chatter says as well.