opinions on power adder?

[Marvin97]

I've come to a dilemma. I currently have an on3performance FF 4v turbo kit with 67mm BB turbo waiting to go on. I already have the tubular k-member/a-arms/coilover kit installed. Forged bottom end is assembled and awaiting installation. But for some reason i'm considering ditching the turbo kit and going with a ported/pullied Eaton swap. The problem is my 2 best friends both have had turbo cars; one a mildly built 92 coupe with a 2.3 turbo SVO engine, the other an engine swapped Miata with a new Borg Warner turbo. Both of them have had countless problems with the cars, and most of the trouble leads back to the fact that its turbo charged. Something never seems to work right, either the car is bleeding off boost or over boosting, the coupe has already ruined one turbo due to a faulty Blow off valve. IDK, on the other hand I had another friend with a supercharged 2v and he never had a bit of trouble. I guess the simplistic design and general worry free nature of the supercharger is what appealing to me. Am I crazy? What would you do?

 

[justinschmidt1]

I've come to a dilemma. I currently have an on3performance FF 4v turbo kit with 67mm BB turbo waiting to go on. I already have the tubular k-member/a-arms/coilover kit installed. Forged bottom end is assembled and awaiting installation. But for some reason i'm considering ditching the turbo kit and going with a ported/pullied Eaton swap. The problem is my 2 best friends both have had turbo cars; one a mildly built 92 coupe with a 2.3 turbo SVO engine, the other an engine swapped Miata with a new Borg Warner turbo. Both of them have had countless problems with the cars, and most of the trouble leads back to the fact that its turbo charged. Something never seems to work right, either the car is bleeding off boost or over boosting, the coupe has already ruined one turbo due to a faulty Blow off valve. IDK, on the other hand I had another friend with a supercharged 2v and he never had a bit of trouble. I guess the simplistic design and general worry free nature of the supercharger is what appealing to me. Am I crazy? What would you do?

As long as you have a good bov and wastegate it should be fine...that said Turbos tend to be a pain in the ass and a supercharger setup is just far easier and more reliable.

I went turbo and I wish I stayed with the vortech.

But you will make more power with the turbo......when it runs lol

 

[KillNThrill24]

I've got an Eaton for sale

 

[FrankenStang]

its all on your plans for the car...daily driver(supercharged),weekend warrior(twin turbo) or nice weather crusier/streeter( single turbo)....thats how i always thought of it...


honda(iac tuner chip/electric supercharger/hot-air intake/10in muffler/stickers) 380HP untuned

 

[ttocs]

compairing a modified stock system to an aftermarket power adders and of course you will see a difference in reliability. With either one will come more work/maint as well as more problems with the power but as they said depends on what you want too do with the car.

 

[TanTop94]

What kind of power do you want? You have a built your internals and such up enough you can run either.

Turbo: You turbo your car you will see a lot more power, but if things would go wrong they always tend to be catastrophic
Supercharger: Less power, but tend to be reliable, but will cut a lot of life off of your engine.

 

[justinschmidt1]

What kind of power do you want? You have a built your internals and such up enough you can run either.

Turbo: You turbo your car you will see a lot more power, but if things would go wrong they always tend to be catastrophic
Supercharger: Less power, but tend to be reliable, but will cut a lot of life off of your engine.

Why do you think the supercharger will "cut a lot of life off your engine"?

 

[TanTop94]

Why do you think the supercharger will "cut a lot of life off your engine"?

hmm...I guess I thought back to a conversation I had and didn't put enough detail in what I was saying, I had been discussing what I wanted to do with my car, with it being stock and me talking about the eaton m112 SC going on there its pretty clear that a stock motors life would be cut shorter than not running it at all. Now that I cleared that up; but someone with a built motor wouldn't have much of a problem running a SC, given the amount of boost they decide to throw down with it.

 

[Musturd]

With a good tune and adequate fuel system I've seen cars with superchargers last a really long time

 

[lobird91]

Either setup done properly with high quality parts will last, I think you see more broken turbo setups because very few people buy complete quality setups and usually end up skimping on parts to try and finish the car. JMO

-Alan

 

[TanTop94]

With a good tune and adequate fuel system I've seen cars with superchargers last a really long time

Were they running a lot of boost? If you have the right things to support a supercharger/ turbo like I said you shouldn't have too much of a problem with one, problems can always arise with any car supercharged or not but forced induction can usually tend to be the problem starter.

 

[justinschmidt1]

hmm...I guess I thought back to a conversation I had and didn't put enough detail in what I was saying, I had been discussing what I wanted to do with my car, with it being stock and me talking about the eaton m112 SC going on there its pretty clear that a stock motors life would be cut shorter than not running it at all. Now that I cleared that up; but someone with a built motor wouldn't have much of a problem running a SC, given the amount of boost they decide to throw down with it.

Gotcha..I just didnt get why you put that in there like it was a supercharger only thing lol....any power adder will put more stress on the engine built or not, id say your stock motor would last longer with a blower than a turbo setup lol.

Id say a supercharger in general is more reliable and easier to tune than a turbo setup.

I ran my vortech setup HARD for like 5 years making 11 psi on a stock 4.6 bottom end and never had an issue until I started revving it to like 6500 rpms and making 15 psi. lol

Unless you're trying to make crazy power number and run lots of boost id say a blower is the way to go.

You can make great power with no lag reliably

 

[TanTop94]

Gotcha..I just didnt get why you put that in there like it was a supercharger only thing lol....any power adder will put more stress on the engine built or not, id say your stock motor would last longer with a blower than a turbo setup lol.

Id say a supercharger in general is more reliable and easier to tune than a turbo setup.

I ran my vortech setup HARD for like 5 years making 11 psi on a stock 4.6 bottom end and never had an issue until I started revving it to like 6500 rpms and making 15 psi. lol

Unless you're trying to make crazy power number and run lots of boost id say a blower is the way to go.

You can make great power with no lag reliably

This is what I was trying to say ^^ He just said it better and with past experience lol!

 

[Marvin97]

I'm shooting for just over 600rwhp. After doing some searching over on SVTP I don't think I can get there without going twinscrew and that's just even more money. I'm running more compression but it looks like most 03-04's are maxing ported/pullied Eaton's around 18psi and 520-530rwhp. The plan for the car would be a weekend cruiser that saw some track time, not alot. And plenty of street time

 

[duh09]

I think the reason most turbo cars seem less reliable when compared to supercharged cars is the ability to turn up boost with a couple minor adjustments and people boosting too much without being ready for it and also the fact that there are so many subpar quality turbo kits out there on the market. My SRT4 wasn't the best car in the world but overall, all of the issues I had out of it were due to either the previous owner's eBay junk and inability to properly work on cars or how hard I drove that poor bastard. I put close to 70k miles on it in the matter of 3.5 years and that car saw full boost and redline every single time I got in it. The turbo was on it's way out when I got rid of it but I had also upped the boost to close to 16psi and again, I beat the living tar out of that car. I had some issues from blowing charge lines but quality silicone hoses and t-bands solved that, the knockoff BOV didn't work when I bought the car but a new Greddy unit had that fixed... It was more reliable than my stock-motor Mustang ever was but then again it never quite had as many miles.

So long as you are using quality components and get the car tuned correctly, either system should be reliable. A supercharger setup would be easier to install and easier to have tuned but you can see more gains from a properly done turbo setup. Honestly, it just depends on how you want your car to build power and what you want to use that power for.

 

[lobird91]

I think the reason most turbo cars seem less reliable when compared to supercharged cars is the ability to turn up boost with a couple minor adjustments and people boosting too much without being ready for it and also the fact that there are so many subpar quality turbo kits out there on the market. My SRT4 wasn't the best car in the world but overall, all of the issues I had out of it were due to either the previous owner's eBay junk and inability to properly work on cars or how hard I drove that poor bastard. I put close to 70k miles on it in the matter of 3.5 years and that car saw full boost and redline every single time I got in it. The turbo was on it's way out when I got rid of it but I had also upped the boost to close to 16psi and again, I beat the living tar out of that car. I had some issues from blowing charge lines but quality silicone hoses and t-bands solved that, the knockoff BOV didn't work when I bought the car but a new Greddy unit had that fixed... It was more reliable than my stock-motor Mustang ever was but then again it never quite had as many miles.

So long as you are using quality components and get the car tuned correctly, either system should be reliable. A supercharger setup would be easier to install and easier to have tuned but you can see more gains from a properly done turbo setup. Honestly, it just depends on how you want your car to build power and what you want to use that power for.

agreed

 

[justinschmidt1]

Turbo systems are just a lot more complex than a supercharger system thus you have more shit to potentially go wrong.

You cant compare an OEM turbo car to an aftermarket setup...its just not the same thing at all.

 

[lobird91]

You cant compare an OEM turbo car to an aftermarket setup...its just not the same thing at all.

They all require the same parts...I agree a factory setup is designed for it, but the parts arent any different, and if it is done correctly reliability shouldn't be any different either.

-Alan

 

[Musturd]

Were they running a lot of boost? If you have the right things to support a supercharger/ turbo like I said you shouldn't have too much of a problem with one, problems can always arise with any car supercharged or not but forced induction can usually tend to be the problem starter.

Over 10lbs

 

[justinschmidt1]

They all require the same parts...I agree a factory setup is designed for it, but the parts arent any different, and if it is done correctly reliability shouldn't be any different either.

-Alan

Yes but factory parts are extensively tested for reliability and the cars are built around the turbo setups so everything is "right"....when you go to put a turbo setup on an aftermarket setup you're basically forced to make due with what space you have so things arent usually optimal.

• The turbo setup I ran on my mustang for example places the turbo right under the Radiator overflow tank and has piping running everywhere.
• Everything is in danger of getting damaged from the heat of the setup. A lot of cars have issues keeping the car cool with a turbo setup
• I couldnt even get the turbo blanket on my little 67mm turbo because there is no room.
• I had to lift my front end and I couldnt take turns hard because the turbo piping would slam into the A arms when the suspension compressed.
• The oil adapter setup was a rigged up joke because theres no damn room for anything there with the front facing headers.
• oil adapter plate issues forced me to relocate my oil filter which eventually caused issues with the oil lines leaking and even popping off a few times and causing my car to nearly burn to the ground!
• long term possibility for piping to crack/ headers to crack
• long term issues with hot side leaks
• turbo lag sucks

Im not saying you cant run a turbo setup and have success...Im just saying theres a lot of shit going on that could go wrong and as someone who has actually had both setups, the turbo setup definitely wasnt worth the hastle for the minimal power increase you may see.

Let me put it this way, ran 11.3@121 with my vortech setup, ran it HARD every day for like 5 years as a DD, never an issue other than the occasional belt replacement.

Cant say the same thing with my turbo setup lol.