Superchager Mod for the Chim

[wooders]

Does anyone have any experiences on supercharger Modification, I have 1999 400 with 38500 miles on the clock. Had four good years of fun with her.
I am looking for a little more excitement or should I change to a Tuscan S?
Any HELP most welcome with this decision.

[Boosted LS1]

I've fitted a roterex onto a rover before now and it had enough pressure just off idle to blow your hand away They cost a few bob though.

[tvrbob]

In simple terms the SC Power option for the 4.0ltr will raise output to the equivalent of a 5.0ltr. I'd suggest it would be cheaper to swap your car for a 5.0ltr or do an engine change.

[spend]

I reckon there might be scope for a wee bit more power on the SC400 Bob. Is it Nick that has uprated InterCooler and mapped ignition that is going to up the boost? I would figure that is more easily doable on the 400's, and I was under the impression they out performed NA 500's as standard SC400's?

I guess the other advantage with the SC kit is that you can take it off when you sell the car?

[Chimjunkie]

spend said:

I guess the other advantage with the SC kit is that you can take it off when you sell the car?

You'd be mad to do that! An SC kit is a huge selling point

[spend]

Whichever makes more money, but historically you are better off selling your mods separately

[Chimjunkie]

spend said:

Whichever makes more money, but historically you are better off selling your mods separately

True. Just wondering how much I would pay either way. It does beg the question of whether an SC400 is worth more than a 500? Throw £1k of mods at the 500 engine and it would match the performance of the SC400 IMO. The SC kit is very desirable for people who dont want to part with the devil they know. Think i would pay £2k for a relatively new used SC kit.

[Tvrjock]

Hi Wooders
The man you want to talk to is Blues, hes had sc fitted to his 450 and has had it chipped now pushing 425BHP
Graeme

[Blues]

As TVRJock said, I had the SC Power supercharger fitted to my 450. It comes with an intercooler, and is an impressive piece of kit, very tidy too.


The transformation is absolutely awesome. I am getting more giggles per mile than i did when i first bought the car.

Rolling road stats pre and post show an increase from 270bhp to 425bhp at the flywheel (340 at the wheels) and over 400 torques

If anyone is seriously considering this mod, and wants a run out to see for themselves, just give me a shout

Edited for correction

Edited by Blues on Saturday 8th November 10:26

[dhf]

Surely you mean at the flywheel ?

[Markh]

Blues said:

As TVRJock said, I had the SC Power supercharger fitted to my 450. It comes with an intercooler, and is an impressive piece of kit, very tidy too.


The transformation is absolutely awesome. I am getting more giggles per mile than i did when i first bought the car.

Rolling road stats pre and post show an increase from 270bhp to 425bhp at the wheels, and over 400 torques

If anyone is seriously considering this mod, and wants a run out to see for themselves, just give me a shout

Impressive figures, I'm still not sure about the intercooler pipes, still looks too much of an after thought

[Blues]

dhf said:

Surely you mean at the flywheel ?

It was early

[Blues]

Markh said:

Impressive figures, I'm still not sure about the intercooler pipes, still looks too much of an after thought

I don't spend too much time looking at them tbh. I actually have had new "formed" ones fitted since that pic was taken, but they still look pretty much the same. SCP have managed to fit quite a lot of kit under the bonnet, in a very tidy way - IMHO of course.

[spend]

I really don't understand questioning the IC pipework? The engine bay is still pretty 'uncluttered' in comparison to modern cars, and some owners like shiny bits that don't even do much

It will be interesting to see over time how reliable the engines prove with the extra power going through them. Not just for the SC chaps, but Turbo and extreme NA modders as well. There has been a lot of rubbish spouted about need for xbolting... bottom end can only handle 350bhp... when some chaps with really extreme power have stated that simply ARPing is good enough...

[Blues]

spend said:

It will be interesting to see over time how reliable the engines prove with the extra power going through them.

Oh yes. Mine was extremely reliable before hand, only time will tell...

[steve-V8s]

Long term reliability certainly will be interesting, not so much of the bottom end but the pistons. The main thing that concerns me is the intercooler location. If the intercooler is needed to keep the charge temps down to control detonation, sitting in traffic with no air flow the normal rad would, it seems to me heat the intercooler and therefore the charge air. Would have thought it would take a fair bit of going forward to cool down again so if the engine is used enthusiastically immediately the traffic clears is the charge cooled or heated ? The second concern is taking all that additional load off of the crank pulley, particularly on the 5 litre engine where there are a bit prone to snapping as it is.

Plainly the way it is packaged is very neat and well thought out, certainly compared to some other after market blowers. The idea of reversing the plenum was sheer genius, the sort of thing that is obvious after someone else thought of it

[GreenV8S]

spend said:

I really don't understand questioning the IC pipework? The engine bay is still pretty 'uncluttered' in comparison to modern cars, and some owners like shiny bits that don't even do much

The pipes in the picture do stick out like a sore thumb, those sharp bends are fugly and look like a quick and nasty hack. I'm glad to hear they've been replaced with properly formed pipes.

[spend]

Bloomin Eck Pete, for an extra 155bhp you could erect scaffolding under my bonnet & I'd still be happy as Larry

Getting nice radii and still giving access to PAS bottles etc might be tricky, considering the pro/con I wouldn't critique it out of hand, given the differences in performance/cost/packaging? I am guessing that they tried to get one kit to fit all the swirl, expansion, PAS, even Fan switches/Anderson lead combinations that can clutter the front chassis Xmember ~ a daunting scenario

[GreenV8S]

Given two straight pipes to join at an angle, there's not a lot of difference in the work involved in cutting the ends off at an angle and slapping them together directly, versus inserting a curved piece to join them. IMO the former is a bodge, the latter isn't.

[spend]

GreenV8S said:

Given two straight pipes to join at an angle, there's not a lot of difference in the work involved in cutting the ends off at an angle and slapping them together directly, versus inserting a curved piece to join them. IMO the former is a bodge, the latter isn't.

Hmmm, I guess I would agree from a theoretical level, but in practice I was thinking the following:

If using a preformed bend you end up with extra blobs of weld as you have 2 joints rather than 1, which also costs twice as much in production, some will be able to be dressed others will not. You can also get 'sharper' angles by simply sectioning which might just help the fit, when you want to radius things can start getting tricky & a sharp radius isn't that good anyway IMHO. Off the shelf bends are only available in 45/90degs & it looks like they required just odd angles and most of them reasonably acute which is not as dterimental. Getting stuff mandrel bent, which would be the preferred option, is pretty expensive, plus I think its quite difficult in large dia soft material to avoid wrinkling which would just about negate the advantages?