Supercharged Griff

[bigb]

Hi,

Has anyone got experience of the supercharge upgrade offered by TVR Power? Considering upgrade rather than change car. What increase in power and torque does it give?

My car is already modified with upgraded brakes and suspension - how far can you go with power before the TVR chassis can't cope?

Any experience would be helpful.

Bigb

[sprevett]

I ran a TVR 4.5 supercharged engine, albeit in a Range Rover, for 3 years and I can offer the following pointers:

- if you don't go mad with the level of boost and drive with a degree of respect for the engine & gearbox (i.e not holding on full boost for too long, taking the usual care for things like oil temperature, being kind to the clutch etc) then the engine & transmission from a standard Griff should be fine. My range rover used the same LT77 gearbox as the Griff and stood up well.

- that said, the drive train will need to be in good nick - any worn components will more likely give way with the extra torque.

- make sure you have an intercooler - I ran without one and it really limits the supercharger as the intake temperatures go crazy...

- I don't think having a supercharger is about getting more power - it's really about getting all the torque low down (my engine produced over 360lb/ft - it's peak - at just 2500rpm). So what you get is more usable power at any engine speed. Pulling away from rest is when it can be most noticable (and fun) because you get a real shove from nowhere but of course this is when the transmission is under the most stress. I was advised that use of max boost (i.e flooring it) was best limited to when in 4th gear because its the strongest gear in the box being the direct one.

In summary , as long as your Griff's drivetrain is mechanically good and you don't go mad flooring it in every gear at every opportunity then you should have no problems at all. I gave my supercharged RR a lot of stick for over 30,000 miles and I never had any problem in terms of reliability at all.

hope this helps!
steve

[Guillotine]

bigb said:

Hi,

Has anyone got experience of the supercharge upgrade offered by TVR Power? Considering upgrade rather than change car. What increase in power and torque does it give?

My car is already modified with upgraded brakes and suspension - how far can you go with power before the TVR chassis can't cope?

Any experience would be helpful.

Bigb

there's loads on the blower stuff on www.tvrmonster.com as well as videos in the Gallery like this...
http://www.tvrmonster.com/videoblower.html

The kits are fantastic and thats a whole world of power for the money, it'll go straight to the peak of whats currently possible

andy
BTW my chassis copes with upto 400bhp OK

Edited by Guillotine on Sunday 8th July 13:00

[GreenV8S]

sprevett said:

I ran a TVR 4.5 supercharged engine ... my engine produced over 360lb/ft - it's peak - at just 2500rpm).

That doesn't sound like a centrefugal blower, which is what TVR Power are offering now. The centrefugal blowers don't have the low down grunt of the traditional positive displacement blowers, but they're typically more efficient and don't heat the charge as much, they're also kinder to the transmission since the serious boost only comes in at high revs.

[shpub]

GreenV8S said:

sprevett said:

I ran a TVR 4.5 supercharged engine ... my engine produced over 360lb/ft - it's peak - at just 2500rpm).

That doesn't sound like a centrefugal blower, which is what TVR Power are offering now. The centrefugal blowers don't have the low down grunt of the traditional positive displacement blowers, but they're typically more efficient and don't heat the charge as much, they're also kinder to the transmission since the serious boost only comes in at high revs.

Depends on the setup. I'm getting 300+ lbft at 1800 rpm, 400 at 2900 and upto 525 at around 5200 on the 520SE. All from a centrefugal blower and about 11 psi boost. As for being kinder to the transmission... already snapped a gearbox internal shaft so had to fit a rather special T5 from an RS500 touring car and then uprate the prop shaft. Then again, my setup is producing about 150 bhp more than the TVR Power SC500 setup. Mind you, the engine without a blower was around 360 bhp so it all depends on where you start from and so on.

Biggest installation issue has been heat. I now have around 30+ vents in the bonnet and an additional big intake to keep the blower and charge cooler cool. The bonnet also has an aluminium centre to help conduct heat away. Chargecooler works well for normal driving but give the car a big right foot on a circuit and the air charge temp increases dramatically - so much so that the ECU backs off the engine to preserve it and the end result is a dramatic decrease in power which rather defeats the object. Now using a 20% methanol/water mixture with water injection and that works wonders - charge temps are at around ambient.

The Wedge also has a lot better airflow through the engine bay and it is a lot bigger to start with. To be honest I think it would be a real challenge to manage the heat with a Griff without a lot of major surgery. The alternative is to severely restrict the boost and then the question is why bother when N/A engines can achieve similar power levels without having to worry about the additional heat from the blower and the question of how to fit it all in.

Rear tyres also don't seem to last... and I'm sure there must be a leak somewhere as a tank of fuel doesn't last long at all.

Edited by shpub on Sunday 8th July 17:53

[GreenV8S]

shpub said:

GreenV8S said:

sprevett said:

I ran a TVR 4.5 supercharged engine ... my engine produced over 360lb/ft - it's peak - at just 2500rpm).

That doesn't sound like a centrefugal blower, which is what TVR Power are offering now. The centrefugal blowers don't have the low down grunt of the traditional positive displacement blowers, but they're typically more efficient and don't heat the charge as much, they're also kinder to the transmission since the serious boost only comes in at high revs.

Depends on the setup. I'm getting 300+ lbft at 1800 rpm, 400 at 2900 and upto 525 at around 5200 on the 520SE.

Yours is producing a rising torque curve as you'd expect from a centrefugal blower. My comment was about an installation with peak torque at 2500 rpm, which implies a completely different boost curve.

shpub said:

Now using a 20% methanol/water mixture with water injection

Make sure you check the 'pump fuel only' clauses in the blue book before using this for sprinting.

Edited by GreenV8S on Sunday 8th July 18:20

[dnb]

shpub said:

Rear tyres also don't seem to last... and I'm sure there must be a leak somewhere as a tank of fuel doesn't last long at all.

I suspect you have 8 leaks.

[im]

I've had the SC unit fitted to my Chim for a while now - if you want more info there's some quite in-depth stuff here on the kit:

www.sc-power.co.uk

im

[Uncle Fester]

im said:

I've had the SC unit fitted to my Chim for a while now - if you want more info there's some quite in-depth stuff here on the kit:

www.sc-power.co.uk

im

What MPG/ range do you get from a tank full?

An increased consumption is acceptable, but I want to spend my time driving, not all my time filling up.

Fester

[im]

Uncle Fester said:

im said:

I've had the SC unit fitted to my Chim for a while now - if you want more info there's some quite in-depth stuff here on the kit:

www.sc-power.co.uk

im

What MPG/ range do you get from a tank full?

An increased consumption is acceptable, but I want to spend my time driving, not all my time filling up.

Fester

Frankly, there is no 'discernable' difference between pre & post SCing. If you rag it relentlessly you'll get less than mpg than if you don't - obviously - but in terms of mpg then if it's dropped by more than 2 for me I'd be surprised.

I'm certainly not in and out of the garage any more than I was before. Lets be honest though, if you have a TVR then petrol isn't one of your main considerations - then fun factor is.

IMHO

Edited by im on Tuesday 10th July 08:50