Pros and cons of superchargers?
 

Ok guys, I've been reading posts about superchargers for a couple of hours now, and I'm having trouble finding some of the answers I need. ATI claims their system is meant for a stock application. Well, that's what my car would be, stock.

1. I'm currently running a 14.2 in the 1/4. What's a supercharger
going to do for me?

2. What's it gonna take to get me into the low 12's?

3. How long should my tranny hold up? (Daily driver)

4. Can you use nitrous oxide and a supercharger together?

5. Are there any issues that ATI doesn't cover in their kits, such as PCV?

6. What are the do's and don'ts of future mods after the supercharger?

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer! :hail:

1. I'm currently running a 14.2 in the 1/4. What's a supercharger going to do for me?
If you go with a p600 or D1 from ATI, you should be able to get into the 12.90's with some traction, just bolting on the kit and tuning in the FMU.

2. What's it gonna take to get me into the low 12's?
A good exhaust system, and maybe some better flowing heads, blower + n2o, etc.....

3. How long should my tranny hold up? (Daily driver)
That all depends on the condition that it is in presently, and how much you hammer on it when you put the blower on, if ya baby it it could last for ever, but if you look like John Force everytime you take off, i wouldn't give it very long.

4. Can you use nitrous oxide and a supercharger together?
Many people use both together with great results, the nitrous helps in cooling the intake charge. With the blower, a little nitrous goes along way.

5. Are there any issues that ATI doesn't cover in their kits, such as PCV?
The instruction manuals have been very poorly constructed in the past, they may be better now. and the PCV just gets vented to the atmoshpere. (not emissions legal)

6. What are the do's and don'ts of future mods after the supercharger?
A BIG don't would be to raise the compression, and Do's would be, strengthing the bottom end of the engine or anything to help make the car more powerful.

there ya go
later
larry

Wow!!! Thanks for all the answers Larry! I guess I'm just left with 1 question. What's the difference between a P600 and a P-1SC? I understand the SC means self-contained, but is that it?

how many miles are on the engine and trans now? do beef up the ignition system, coil, wires, msd w/rev limiter.
ever since my 600 went on the instant the tires bust loose(un-intentionally) if i dont watch it the rpms shoot to redline faster than they ever did before, even when the n2o was the power adder. the cooling system setup as instructed by ati-fans on always-is bullcrap too,if you get a blower i will tell you what is working for me and it aint 2 hotwired fans. oh i got delco, gates and goodyear #'s for relacement belts too. didnt mount aux fuel pump where they said to either didnt cut any factory lines and tucked it up above the diff.siliconed an aluminum mount plate with studs to the floor pan, let it dry and mounted the pump to it didnt hack fuel lines again w/fmu got some fuel line fittings and made the fmu a screw together deal no hackery there, more to come thats good fer now-hope it helps, frank:lala:

The engine and tranny have approx. 120,000 on them right now. Both are doing great right now. I'm trying to weigh out all the costs before I go buy the supercharger. How much is all that ignition stuff gonna run me?

OOOOF!!!

Ouch, you have 120,000 miles, you might want to consider a engine rebuild before the S/C, then again if the engine was meticuliously(SP?) maintained, the engine may survive for alittle bit. Your call!!!

Grumpy is right about the cooling fans, there is no need to "hot" wire them in, i installed a 175 fan switch w/ a 160degreeF t-stat, and the car runs about 180 sitting in traffic during cruise night.

make sure that you do a COMPLETE tune-up. Getting a better ignition box with a rev limiter and maybe boost/ignition retard is a good idea. but you can get away without them

also the FMU for the ATI kits are now plug-n-play, no cutting fuel lines.

the difference between the P1sc and the p600, i think, is the impellor and the amount of air(cfm) that each unit can flow, but then again i could be full of :bs:, call ATI and ask them, thats what they have sales reps for. they will gladly tell you anything that you want to hear and their pleasant people to boot :)

have fun
later
larry

The engine has been well maintained. I already have fairly new rotor, cap, plugs, wires, air filters, and fuel filter. Even if something was to happen to the engine, it would just be a good excuse to build up the bottom end.

thing is though-you want to have a bottom end remaining to be able to beef up. superchargers have a way of letting the deficiencies of the motor be seen, and when the motor is tight and new even your dial-in process, if not gradual and step by step-the blower again will illustrate to you the error of your tuning ways by munching on it. i know im not wearing a skirt-ok sometimes a kilt during scottish holidays-but it took three or 4 weeks of watching O2 millivolts, boost pressure, fuel pressure, coolant temp rise, exhaust gas temps, till i had the bal-s to put the loud pedal to the floor. i guess the idea is cover the basics and work up from there.

ATI
 

THE HUGE difference between the P-1sc and 600B is that the P-1sc is selfcontained. Which means that it has its own oiling system. You change that oil like you change your motor oil. its better cause you dont haveto tap into the pan and use your engineoil. If the blower dies, the shrapnel gets into the engine and kills that too. If the engine blows, the blower gets destroyed w/engine shrapnel in the oil. Get the P-1sc, costa bitmorebutits about 6 hours faster to install, quieter, more powerful, and mostimportantly, self contained.
Goodluck :lala:

the P600B requires an oil supply line from your engine and making a hole in your oil pan for the return. its max cfm flow is 1200cfm (same as P1sc) its dimensions are listed as the same. it has a max of 60,000 rpm on the impeller (62,000 for the P1sc) the internal step up gear ratio is 3.05:1 (4.10:1 for the P1sc) the max capable boost is 24 psi (30 for the P1sc), typical max HP usage for the p600b is 775 (825 for the P1sc) from the ATI sale book.

Ok, as far as the "better ignition box with a rev limiter and maybe boost/ignition retard" goes. I can get an MSD setup for $438 or a Crane setup for $345. Is there any reason I should choose MSD over Crane?

I'm not sure why but all of the MSD BTM's as well as the blue BTM's from msd that come in the vortech kits dont seem to work as far as we can tell from testing. on the chassis dyno you can crank the adjustment knob all the way one way (make a run) and then the other (make a run) and HP stays the same. so we used a pressure side of a mighty vac (hand pump tool) to raise the pressure into the MAP sensor port on the box and watched timing at different RPMs and noted zero change. Im wondering if this is why Vortech is putting cranes in some of thier kits now? we performed the same test on the crane and it worked as advertised. Dont get me wrong I am and will be a MSD 6al and digital 6 guy through and through but I just dont understand why this one item performs this way.

well b4ctom i was going to poo-poo the dyno testing of the spark boxes as an inconclusive testing procedure, but then you tested it like i would have done, the old manual method and you say you saw no retard at the balancer that way? now i am curious too. maybe knock counts were a factor? did you ever try the vac.pump test with the "set timing" blk/tan wire disconnected? wonder whats going on there. i have been using msd products of one type or another for 10-15 years and only had instance of breaking down and having to send it in for repairs to autotronic, im kind of partial to them

we did that and tried it on stangs (vortech includes this unit with their stang kit) they have no knock sensor and with the "spout" connector unplugged (equiv to our ESC wire) and got the same results.