"Upcom" twin screw compressor (supercharger)

"Upcom" twin screw compressor (supercharger)

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Discussion

GreenV8S

Original Poster:

30,262 posts

286 months

Thursday 12th December 2002
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Apparently they're dead good, but I can't find any reference to them anywhere. Ever heard of them?

350matt

3,745 posts

281 months

Friday 13th December 2002
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I think you mean Opcon try :
www.hi-flow.com/HPSuperchargers.htm

basically sprintex design with twin screws one male one female, so no pulsation in flow and pretty efficent.
The other option would be those centrifugal blowers essentially one half of a turbo with a ruddy great gearbox on the other side to get it up to the 120,000Rpm

Matt

deltaf

1,384 posts

259 months

Friday 13th December 2002
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Consider the comprex pressure wave supercharger?

Jasper Gilder

2,166 posts

275 months

Friday 13th December 2002
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Saw the referance to Sprintex supercharger. I've got one on my 350sx so what can I tell you

Engine mods - on a 350 - negligeable - thicker head gaskets to lower th ecompression ratio a bit, and put the timing back a bit to prevent detonation.

Reliability? mine's headed for 75K no problem - we replace3d th edrive belt at 60K as a precaution - goodness only knows why - seems perfect to me

Performance BHP up about 70 for a loss of about 14 and bags of torque. I love it!

2 Sheds

2,529 posts

286 months

Friday 13th December 2002
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I think supercharging a standard stroke engine is probably safer than a 4.6 especially as these stage 3 jobbies already put out 275 od bhp, they're probably safe for 320 at a push ?, or you could just go for it,.
I must admit i'm tempted to supercharge my "junior" Griff.
Tim

Brm Brm

217 posts

276 months

Friday 13th December 2002
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I posted this on an earlier thread on supercharging:

"There is also a company called AJ6 engineering (I think in Macclesfield) who are mainly Jag specialists but they have a subsidiary in Yeovil (AJ6 Superchargers) who apparently have experience with supercharging - including Rover V8s in TVRs - I believe it was them who sourced the original Sprintex superchargers for the Haughins conversions. They now use a Swedish OPCON supercharger with a screw design (inherently more efficient that the old Eaton design). I can probably dig out an address for them if anyone is interested - I may well be talking to them myself at some point - just not yet due to funding constraints!"

I suppose all this begs the question what is the best/cheapest/ most reliable way to "well over" 300Bhp? "Supercharging" or "5.2 Conversion plus additional tuning" or a "Yank engine and gearbox transplant" as previously advertised on Pistonheads. I wont be doing it this year but next year maybe. say with a 10k budget?? - any thoughts ..........

grahambell

2,718 posts

277 months

Friday 13th December 2002
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Brm Brm said: they have a subsidiary in Yeovil (AJ6 Superchargers) who apparently have experience with supercharging - including Rover V8s in TVRs - I believe it was them who sourced the original Sprintex superchargers for the Haughins conversions.


Yeovil... superchargers... Dennis Priddle! Back in 1970s Dennis Priddle was leading UK Top Fuel drag racer. Twas indeed he who did the Haughins installations and last I heard he was using Swedish OPCON superchargers. Actually sampled one of his installations on a TVR engine fitted to a Range Rover! Top man.

greenv8s

Original Poster:

30,262 posts

286 months

Friday 13th December 2002
quotequote all

Brm Brm said: I posted this on an earlier thread on supercharging:

"There is also a company called AJ6 engineering (I think in Macclesfield) who are mainly Jag specialists but they have a subsidiary in Yeovil (AJ6 Superchargers) who apparently have experience with supercharging - including Rover V8s in TVRs - I believe it was them who sourced the original Sprintex superchargers for the Haughins conversions. They now use a Swedish OPCON supercharger with a screw design (inherently more efficient that the old Eaton design). I can probably dig out an address for them if anyone is interested - I may well be talking to them myself at some point - just not yet due to funding constraints!"

I suppose all this begs the question what is the best/cheapest/ most reliable way to "well over" 300Bhp? "Supercharging" or "5.2 Conversion plus additional tuning" or a "Yank engine and gearbox transplant" as previously advertised on Pistonheads. I wont be doing it this year but next year maybe. say with a 10k budget?? - any thoughts ..........


Yes it was Dennis at AJ6 got me thinking about the "Upcom" (Opcon?). They look really nice in a shiny add-a-zero kind of way, make the Eaton ones look quite agricultural by comparision. Question is, what boost levels can you get up to before the extra efficiency becomes worth paying for?

I don't think there are any cheap options at this sort of power level. If I was starting from scratch, capacity seems like the simpler option. If you're starting from an existing engine (as I am), its a trickier call. Made slightly more complicated because until we look under the covers, I don't actually know what state it's in; for all I know it could be on its last legs or could be good for another 100K. What a dilemma!

Would be much easier if I didn't get the impression nobody else had ever done it in the history of the universe. "Supercharging a CAR engine, what a curious idea!" C'mon guys, why can't I just pick a package out of a catalogue!