[fantacmet]

I've seen alot of people talking about adapting roots style blowers/superchargers to their engines around here. There are two other types available.

Screw types which is pretty much limited to just the whipplecharger, which bolts to your existing intake, but that'd provide hood clearanceproblems.

The other type would be very easy to adapt and are fairly cheap. Centrifigul. Paxton and Vortech both. Beofre y'all talk crap abuot them(if anyone is going to) lets set some things aside. I've heard people say the boost is limited, thats plain wrong, you can actually get more boost if done right. I've heard less power, or unreliable. I have a friend who has a90 mustang, he has a vortech on his, and lemme tell ya, he blew the doors of a Hennessey Venom 700 Viper, thats the 700 horse Viper by Hennessey motorsports for those who are unaware. Since he put that on after installing his shorty headers, his Stang is WOW. Let me say this upfront I HATE Stang's with a passion but his gives me well, yeah I won't make that sexual reference here, but it gets my blood going and makes me drool. They are incredable reliable he's been running his for 5 years with ZERO problems. So why not look at the Vortech and Paxton's? They are far more refined then the roots styles everyone keeps looking at, and would be very easy to install. Here's a link to one of the paxton's.

http://www.paxtonauto.com/catalog/units.as...=GetRecord&ID=1

There are Vortech's out there as well. Oh yeah the other nice thing is, if it'll set on the same engine in a difference vehicle it'll work in yours. The only thing you have to figure is the piping from the filter to the charger and the piping from the charger to the intake which is going to be fairly easy, considering the CAI's and such y'all been doing already. Check it out seriously. Don't pass them off, but give the centrifigul very close examination. They are worth it. As soon as I get the money I'm gonna S/C my little 4 cylinder.

Michael

 

[baby sho]

depend what you consider cheap. Plus your talking about a 4 cyl...i think you have the only one on the tcca

Good luck

Brad

 

[-qaz-]

Yeah I looked into that also and those blowers are just expensive, while roots is cheap. You can get one on e-bay for a couple hundred bux. Also not to forget to mention, the roots gives you more gain at lower rpm then the centrifugal types do, but at high rpm the centrifugal is great. But the cost of them is what makes them unattractive. I hear you though on the installation, yeah should be fairly easy, except you might need to make a driveshaft to run from one side of the engine bay to another since there is no room on the belt side of the engine bay but the air box and battery on the other side can be removed or relocated and that space can be used by charger. Like I said though for me its the price issue.

 

[fantacmet]

Spy Guy, I wasn't talking about a 4 cylinder with the mustang heh. Qaz brings up some good points, but they do offer it up with the dirveshafts. For the price issue I was looking overall at the higher priced used units and the new units costing in upwards of 3 grand because of them being so "exotic" or whatever. Mostly capitalizing on the ricers, who will dump 20 grand intoan engine to drop one tenth of a second off their 1/4 mile time of 20 seconds, their 8 second times fromthese 200horse things are on 1/8th tracks but thats irrelevant really so instead of continuing on that I'll stick tothe topic instead of getting sidetracked. Anyway when comparing the paxton and vortech chargers to these, they are a deal. Qaz about the low end thing your quite right for paxton, but the vortech's do really good on the lower end. Some of the paxtons do as well, but thats only for certain compressors they make. Personally I am a fan of the paxton chargers, they seem to be more refined, but that damn vortech in my buddy's stang, WOW. Granted he's also an exception as he had the vortech guys from their HQ come up and install it, but then he's got cash out the a**. He paid off his brand new house in 3 years. Army Core of Engineers electronics engineer, so he's got the cash. Plus I believe his wife works in the same industry. His ex used to work for Fujitsu as one of their top technicians in this state at their plant. Anyway back to topic, um yeah everything I just said. It is possible to get paxtons and such used at very reasonable prices. As a heads up SHOShop uses Vortech superchargers. It's also entirely possible if you get a vortech and fit it to your car in a practical way in which can be duplicated, that Vortech will buy the design setup from you so they can duplicate it and sell it as a kit. They've done this before with several kits. Sorry for the long winded post. Also thanks for keeping this low key and inteligent so far guys without letting the differences of opinion that may be there go into hostile or aggressive mode. This is how "differences of opinion" should go. Inteligently.

Michael

 

[93taurusSX]

Vortech's and Powerdynes are more compact units. However you have to remember how all of our engines are setup - the belts and pullies are on the opposite side of the intake. This would require a lot of piping (see how the SHOshop version is setup) that might not fit given the confines of the engine bay, or some kind of custom-made driveshaft running across the engine bay, from the drive belt to the unit. And I don't think there's enough room in front of the radiator to use any kind of off-the-shelf FM intercooler (unless its a pretty small unit).

Anyway, I think the most prohibitive factor in using these centrifugal type 'chargers is the cost - they go for the same amount as a turbo in most cases. That, and they are really hard to find used - roots type blowers are really easily to find in the junkyards because of all the factory cars that have used them in the past (namely, the W-bodies and the SC T-bird). Most of the people here don't have the $$ to spend to got make a custom blower setup themselves, let alone get a new blower unit in the process, so it's the price that has really limited the interest here IMO. Anyway, I'm sure if SOMEONE does have the resources to commit to such a project, it can be done, but then again, what project can't be done given enough time and money?

 

[Mikeys_Taurus]

Debate what style is better until you're all blue in the face, but at the end of the day, does it really matter?

IMO, the people that don't have down the 2 basic designs of blowers (screw is a variation of roots) are exactly the people that won't be supercharging their cars.

Honestly, You have so much engine bay room, why not turbo? The plumbing would be a lot simpler, you could use a relatively small turbo, and you're running a speed density fuel system, so you should be good to go.

 

[fantacmet]

Well as for the why not run a turbo, I can only really see a couple of turbo downfalls, one is spinning your impeller into oblivion which isn't much of an issue if you know wth you are doing, or seek the right advice really. The only other issue which is the bigger issue for most is turbo spool up time. Turbo lag. PErsonally I'd rather have a S/C, because it's right there, from idle all the way up. I'm not trying to convince everyone go to out and pickup paxtons, and powerdynes, and vortechs, I'm just saying they are worth considering. Especially on G1 and G2 as there is plenty of room in the engine bays, I can't speak for the G3 and G4 owners though as I don't have any experience with them at all, I don't know what kind of room there is on the underside what whatnot. I'll leave that up to the owners of those years. Catch y'all on the flip side.

Michael

 

[Maverick]

Dont forget sliding vane superchargers. Theyre not used on cars, but they do make boost.

~~Maverick~~

 

[Kermit]

I have been doing some research on superchargers and was curious why do a lot of them require a return fuel system? I know the gen IV's do not have this so is there an option for us? I was looking at Kenne Bell's escape twin screw, because it's one of the few I think that runs on returnless fuel systems (or so I think I ordered an escape service manual, and have talked to a few people on some escape boards about it). Is there a way to bypass this? Is the Vortech kit even available anymore for the Contours? it's not on their webpage, and not available through the SHO SHOP.

 

[silvapain]

Because as the boost rises, the fuel amount needs to rise, or a lean condition can occur. Most SC setups use a FMU (Fuel Management Unit) inline with the fuel return, that restricts the return flow more and more as the boost rises, thereby rasing the fuel pressure and flowing more through the injectors. The problem with this is, that with high fuel pressures, the injectors can have problems re-seating when they close and can dump excessive amounts of fuel into the combustion chamber.

EDIT: on returnless fuel systems, the chip needs to be programmed to pulse the pump differently. On returnless systems the EEC controls the fuel flow by turning the fuel pump on and off as necessary.

 

[-qaz-]

Yeah like silvapain said it, also a higher flowing fuel pump and larger injectors are in order.

 

[spridget]

Originally posted by Kermit@Apr 1 2004, 02:24 PM
Is the Vortech kit even available anymore for the Contours? it's not on their webpage, and not available through the SHO SHOP.

AFAIK, the Vortech is no longer available, but Street Flight makes one for the Cougar/Contour. I've also heard the Street Flight is more reliable.

 

[crackhead]

don't waist your time with a FMU they totaly suck. just spend your money right the first time and you will not have to rebuild your engine when you go lean on the high end and rich on the low end and scar your cylinder walls.

for the $400 for a ecu tuner or $200 for a chip +tune it is not worth the time getting an fmu close to being right.

 

[Kermit]

I don't think street flight has any superchargers. They have a turbo setup and comparisons to the vortech but no superchargers that I can see.