Supercharger; worth it or not?

[Kentish]

I'm currently restoring my 1969 MGB GT.

It has a mildly uprated engine and I'm wondering whether it is worth spending £3k (plus fitting) to S/C it.

I'm spending nearly £10k on the resto anyway.....

This S/C I'm thinking of would be a kit from Moss.

There may of course be other options on cheaper S/C kits (appreciate any advice if anyone knows of any)!

[Kentish]

Basically £3k + fitting costs for 40bhp.....

Would you?

[jon-]

Torque increase?

What's the starting HP?

I'm not sure I'd want to spend nearly £100/hp.

[kambites]

If I was going to spend that much on an engine upgrade, I'd probably be looking at a V8 conversion.

[xRIEx]

kambites said:

If I was going to spend that much on an engine upgrade, I'd probably be looking at a V8 conversion.

This.

If the restoration* is not about getting it back to standard glory, there are surely more cost effective ways of getting more power.



 *Does it still count as a restoration?

[Kentish]

kambites said:

If I was going to spend that much on an engine upgrade, I'd probably be looking at a V8 conversion.

Lots of work on a chrome bumper model & very expensive if not DIY (no time to DIY I'm afraid).

[kambites]

Kentish said:

kambites said:

If I was going to spend that much on an engine upgrade, I'd probably be looking at a V8 conversion.

Lots of work on a chrome bumper model & very expensive if not DIY (no time to DIY I'm afraid).

I looked at doing it to mine (paying to have the bulkhead and transmission tunnel done, but doing the rest myself) and it didn't look all that expensive. I guess the labour costs for the actual installation are prohibitive? This was about 10 years ago, mind.

ETA: I wasn't looking at buying new parts either.

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 12th August 12:25

[TheRealFingers99]

40bhp is still a fairly substantial power hike for an engine making 95bhp (probably an excessive claim?).

There are probably cheaper ways of doing it (s/h Eaton charger), but by the time you've done all the engineering, it still won't be really cheap.

Lots of n/a engines out of more modern cars (assuming originality isn't important) will give you 130+ bhp.

[crofty1984]

Kentish said:

Basically £3k + fitting costs for 40bhp.....

Would you?

I wouldn't. You could go the more traditional route (and keeping with what MG did) by fitting an uprated Rover V8. Or if you weren't too fussed about originality, I'd bet you could fit something like a Zetec/K-series engine in there for a lot less than 3k and end up with more power.

But that's just me. You may like the idea of squeezing every ounce of power out of the original engine so go ahead. I can see the appeal of both

[kambites]

I'm not sure you could fit a modern engine for less than £3k if you were doing none of the work yourself.

[TheJimi]

Kentish said:

Basically £3k + fitting costs for 40bhp.....

Would you?

No.

That's N/A tuning cost/gain ratio.

[MC Bodge]

There are parts and kits for fitting various modern engines and much could be done DIY.

I'd fit a Ford Zetec on carbs or a K-series.

It is still cheaper than buying a new modern car, although selling it on won't re-coup the money.

[swisstoni]

It's an old car with a charm of its own. I can't see a good reason to bother.

[soad]

Kentish said:

Basically £3k + fitting costs for 40bhp.....

Would you?

No. Too dear for so little. Keep the funds in your pockets.

[Kentish]

OK thanks, what I was thinking really - too much pain (in the wallet) for too little gain!

I'll get the head ported and polished and re-jet the carbs.