Kenny Bell supercharger sale

[seantesarski]

Soooo I've always wanted a Kenny Bell charger on something. I got the mustang and now I see the pushrod kenny bells are on sale
http://www.kennebell.net/KBWebsite/Pricelist_pg/links/PriceList.pdf

I know a lot of people dont like them because they dont make big power and the lack of cooling...

Does anyone on here have personal experience with them?

This is just a street car and just want some extra fun without having to worry about always turning a bottle on ...

 

[ttocs]

I have been wanting to go forced induction for years now. Went back and forth first with turbo/SC and could not decide. Finally I went with the proven reliability of the SC and then it was just narrowing down the kits. I was THIS close to getting a KB when I found my vortech V3 SI trim with the power pipe came up for sale on the coral for only $2500. He had opened the box to take out the head unit and the pipe was used but otherwise everything is in the plastic still. Keep your eyes open and you can get a vortech kit for a comparable price and save yourself the temps.

 

[OnyxCobra]

Kenne* and wow, that seems really cheap for new. That should be their normal price imo.

 

[seantesarski]

Kenne* and wow, that seems really cheap for new. That should be their normal price imo.

Yeah my bad on the spelling. I know you are one setup I have been creeping a lot on. From what ive been reading you seem to like yours for the street correct? Thank you

 

[410sn95]

Alright before I get flamed, I will say I do have personal experience with KB's on 5.0's. I have installed, driven and maintained 5.0's with KB's.

IMHO, for a 5.0 pushrod application, I would look into something other then a KB.

Some issues when compared to other Power adders are heat soak, limited intake manifold choices, very high inlet temps under boost AND vaccum, overall packaging, even asthetics leave something to be desired. (The asthetics being purely subjective of course.)

Some of the things can be addressed but your looking at custom fab and $$$$.

*Flame suit on*

 

[Musturd]

There's a reason I went vortech . Don't get me wrong I love twin screw blowers but it isn't efficient enough for my needs for a street car it would work great , add some meth and a 25hp shot of spray and it would make loads of torque and be safe

 

[OnyxCobra]

Yeah my bad on the spelling. I know you are one setup I have been creeping a lot on. From what ive been reading you seem to like yours for the street correct? Thank you

I really enjoy it man, i love having access to all the torque all the time. only way to really describe it is that it feels like you have a larger engine instead of a smaller boosted one.


what 410sn95 said is true though, it does make a lot of heat and for straight up racing it would not be the best choice. I look forward to hooking up my meth and seeing how much of a difference it makes. People will never stop talking about how much heat they make though.

 

[ttocs]

They all told me the same stuff about 2-3 months ago and that was why I started looking for vortech/procharger. I just got lucky and found the used NIB kit for a great price when I happened to be looking for it. That shtuff never happens....

 

[410sn95]

I really enjoy it man, i love having access to all the torque all the time. only way to really describe it is that it feels like you have a larger engine instead of a smaller boosted one.


what 410sn95 said is true though, it does make a lot of heat and for straight up racing it would not be the best choice. I look forward to hooking up my meth and seeing how much of a difference it makes. People will never stop talking about how much heat they make though.

The meth should help but thats only on boost unless you set it up to inject some on vaccum as well. The reason people talk about the heat is because they do make A LOT of heat. Needs moar heat exchanger!

That being said, your right. They make a small block feel like a old school big block... Off idle torque. Definetly can be fun to drive on the street.

 

[OnyxCobra]

The meth should help but thats only on boost unless you set it up to inject some on vaccum as well. The reason people talk about the heat is because they do make A LOT of heat. Needs moar heat exchanger!

That being said, your right. They make a small block feel like a old school big block... Off idle torque. Definetly can be fun to drive on the street.

yes the meth should only really work during boost, but that's really when it needs it the most. when it's running in vacuum the air going through the blower actually helps keep it cool, it's just under a lot of back to back pulls or when the engine is off that it really heats up. I'm running the meth through my KB so it will help cool the blower along with the air. It does make a lot of heat but the way people talk about it you'd swear after a half hour of driving the car doesn't make any power any more and that's obviously not the case.

 

[Musturd]

Yea but your times would get slower if we hot lapped 3 1/4 mile passes back to back . Which isn't 30 mins of driving

 

[OnyxCobra]

Yea but your times would get slower if we hot lapped 3 1/4 mile passes back to back . Which isn't 30 mins of driving

at my track you get at least 20 mins of waiting between 1/4 mile runs, plenty of time to ice your intake. we're talking about street driving though.

 

[410sn95]

yes the meth should only really work during boost, but that's really when it needs it the most. when it's running in vacuum the air going through the blower actually helps keep it cool, it's just under a lot of back to back pulls or when the engine is off that it really heats up. I'm running the meth through my KB so it will help cool the blower along with the air. It does make a lot of heat but the way people talk about it you'd swear after a half hour of driving the car doesn't make any power any more and that's obviously not the case.

Its making a lot of heat even when not on boost. The twin screw is always compressing and when not on boost it is bypassing that heated/compressed air and recycling over and over through the bypass.

Thats the problem, the big benefit of the twin screw is its insta-boost but the downside to that is super heated air, even when not on boost.

You plumbed your meth pre-blower. Interesting, I would always plumb post-blower with a solonoid to prevent siphoning. At the time I was messing around with KB's, KB was saying not to inject meth pre-blower. They changed their stance on that? You haven't had any issues I take it?

 

[OnyxCobra]

Its making a lot of heat even when not on boost. The twin screw is always compressing and when not on boost it is bypassing that heated/compressed air and recycling over and over through the bypass.

Thats the problem, the big benefit of the twin screw is its insta-boost but the downside to that is super heated air, even when not on boost.

You plumbed your meth pre-blower. Interesting, I would always plumb post-blower with a solonoid to prevent siphoning. At the time I was messing around with KB's, KB was saying not to inject meth pre-blower. They changed their stance on that? You haven't had any issues I take it?

you sure about that? if it's always compressing then how do the non-bypass kits work? seems like if that was the case they'd be in boost all the time but obviously they aren't. from what the tuner told me letting it idle between dyno pulls reduced the intake air temp, that leads me to believe it's not making as much heat as when it's under boost.


as far as roots style blowers go I've never seen any negatives about installing them before the blower, it's suggested to plumb them before as to help cool the blower as well. also doing it after the blower means you're injecting it the meth almost straight into the engine, not sure how much cooling benefit you're going to get in the short amount of time it's present in the air.

 

[Musturd]

at my track you get at least 20 mins of waiting between 1/4 mile runs, plenty of time to ice your intake. we're talking about street driving though.

Yea I get atleast that long between runs , but sometimes we got lap best 2 out of 3

 

[OnyxCobra]

Yea I get atleast that long between runs , but sometimes we got lap best 2 out of 3

I hear ya, i have never and will never say a KB is an ideal 1/4 mile blower.

 

[410sn95]

you sure about that? if it's always compressing then how do the non-bypass kits work? seems like if that was the case they'd be in boost all the time but obviously they aren't. from what the tuner told me letting it idle between dyno pulls reduced the intake air temp, that leads me to believe it's not making as much heat as when it's under boost.


as far as roots style blowers go I've never seen any negatives about installing them before the blower, it's suggested to plumb them before as to help cool the blower as well. also doing it after the blower means you're injecting it the meth almost straight into the engine, not sure how much cooling benefit you're going to get in the short amount of time it's present in the air.

By design twin screws compress/heat at low rpms cause they are doing work at those rpms. You get full boost at 2000rpm because the compressor has already been doing work. Thats what gives you the insta boost and AMAZING throttle response.

The heat is a even bigger issue with the early small non bypass units. The temp of the air charge could reach upwards of 300 degrees just driving around town! The bypass allows for cooler charge when your NOT using the product of all the work your compressor is doing as its recycling the already compressed/heated air.

As for injecting post blower. My understanding was KB would void the warranty on the units. Something about the methanol eating the seals. Probably just covering their ass but I would follow the reccomendations to cover mine.

Injecting into the manifold still gives the full cooling properties of methanol injection. "Atomization" is the key word here. The meth is atomized as soon as it hits the aircharge. Take a look at your spray nozzles when you have it out and how it sprays. I spray into the manifold and see total air charge temps of at most 90 degrees at full boost with a non-intercooled Vortech YSi. Before meth, it could reach 150 or so. My old s-trim could hit 220 or more with no meth at full boost.

 

[OnyxCobra]

so based on that do you think the blower is making as much heat idling as it would be producing full boost?


as far as the meth, you're saying the instant it's sprayed into the air it's full cooling is achieved? my understanding is the cooling happens via evaporation, even though it's an extremely fine mist, that's not something i thought would happen immediately.

is straight meth corrosive? probably. when mixed 50/50 it's corrosive property is great reduced if not completely gone, i'm going to run a 30/70 meth/water ratio which will be even less since I want more cooling and less octane increase. the KB screws are anodized as well which means they're even more corrosion resistant than standard metal. Will it damage the KB in the long run, i really don't know. but i don't drive my car much as is and will only use the meth during racing and auto-x which unfortunately happens even less; for normal street romping the meth will remain off since there's plenty of power as is even making 220 degree intake temps.

 

[410sn95]

so based on that do you think the blower is making as much heat idling as it would be producing full boost?


as far as the meth, you're saying the instant it's sprayed into the air it's full cooling is achieved? my understanding is the cooling happens via evaporation, even though it's an extremely fine mist, that's not something i thought would happen immediately.

is straight meth corrosive? probably. when mixed 50/50 it's corrosive property is great reduced if not completely gone, i'm going to run a 30/70 meth/water ratio which will be even less since I want more cooling and less octane increase. the KB screws are anodized as well which means they're even more corrosion resistant than standard metal. Will it damage the KB in the long run, i really don't know. but i don't drive my car much as is and will only use the meth during racing and auto-x which unfortunately happens even less; for normal street romping the meth will remain off since there's plenty of power as is even making 220 degree intake temps.

The blower makes heat when compressing air. A twin screw pumps a fixed volume of air per revolution. Obviously at idle its not compressing/making heat as much as when its at full song but it is compressing/making heat nonetheless.

Evaporation/atomization does almost happen immediatly after injection. Something to keep in mind, The closer you inject to the manifold, the more you are cooling the actual air charge and not your charge piping, TB, etc. which can act as heat sinks and take away from the now cooled properties of your charge air. Ever seen a meth fogger system, injecting in individual runners... cool stuff.

However, in your case this is effect is something you are taking of advantage of when injecting pre-blower on your KB. You are cooling your blower down some like you said. I stayed away injection pre-blower cause i didn't want to void warrantys... If yours is doin fine, Thats awsesome!

 

[HuskerGT]

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