HKS Supercharger

[sf86]

Originally Posted by Pneub

Well it depends on the cop and how they want to treat you. I can only speak of experiences my friends have had. None have been impounded but I have had friends receive referee tickets where they have to take their car into a state controller and they make sure everything attached to your engine is stock. If you don't pass you can't register your car. So I essentially have to take the SC off and put back all the stock parts if this happens and then put them all back on. As for smog I'd probably have to do the same but there are places that will pass your smog test illegally if you pay enough (less than the cost or time to take off the parts and put them back on).

I'm not teenager or a fast driver and from the outside my car should appear mostly stock besides the wheels and the exhaust. I'm leaving the cats on the car and will probably camouflage the intercooler as to not attract attention. Only time will tell if I can avoid getting busted. Every day I see heavily modified cars, dragging along the ground, exhaust pipes screaming, blow off valves chirping, so I'm hoping if they can get away with that I can get away with this. My last line of defense is saying that its the stock turbo and this is the STI version of the car...

Thank you for your sharing your experiences.

[Lonewolf]

The latest that I had heard is that most of California has closed down many of the smog referee facilities due to budget cuts, thus law enforcement has greatly cut down on of those types of tickets...here's to hoping its true

[campy]

Originally Posted by kioton32

I want to keep the car more manageable as a DD... So a supercharger is better than a turbo in that aspect... And I not a fan of vortech

What's wrong with Vortech?

[kioton32]

Nothing is wrong with vortech for most people... But I have had some bad experiences with them myself... I don't want to go into detail but I got some bad customer service and don't want to have that happen again.

[forzajuve]

Originally Posted by Pneub

I've been reading up on this forum about forced induction for awhile now and I'm pretty much set on going with a supercharger. The obvious solution is to go with Vortech and I'm also interested in going to Evasive and having an HKS supercharger installed. This will be for a daily driver and I'm more interested in reliability than peak power. I plan to redo the fuel at a minimum but may change out more in the future to pull out a few extra horsepower but I'd assume that tune for tune I'm going to get close to the same numbers with the Vortech being slightly higher because it has a centrifugal blower.

Anyways, I'm in no way an expert and really just want to have more power in my BRZ as I drive around town. I'd love some advice on why to get one or the other. At this moment I'm leaning towards HKS because I've heard it has more mid range power and Evasive is nearby so if I have any issues I have somebody to take it to immediately.

How is a supercharger more reliable, as you stated? I thought a supercharger causes the engine's life to shorten, therefore making a turbo charger more dependable/reliable when it comes to gaining more power.

[kioton32]

Originally Posted by forzajuve

How is a supercharger more reliable, as you stated? I thought a supercharger causes the engine's life to shorten, therefore making a turbo charger more dependable/reliable when it comes to gaining more power.

An SC is a constant mark of boost on the engine so it can cause the internals to have a shorter lifespan because of that, but a turbo builds boost in such a violent fashion that it can cause more damage at a blink of an eye and have you rebuilding your engine... The boost is more manageable with an SC because its constant

[forzajuve]

Originally Posted by kioton32

An SC is a constant mark of boost on the engine so it can cause the internals to have a shorter lifespan because of that, but a turbo builds boost in such a violent fashion that it can cause more damage at a blink of an eye and have you rebuilding your engine... The boost is more manageable with an SC because its constant

What if you only wanted modest boost for a turbo build, say 5-6 psi?

Would that type of turbo build boost in such a violent fashion that it can cause more damage?

[liteyouup]

In general, people's experience seems to show that the supercharger causes less damage. For example, my 03 Civic, turbo, always needed a repair. Was always something causing problems. 06 Element, Supercharged. Only repair I ever did was a belt, and the clutch. I wouldn't associate "reliable" and "turbo" in the same group. I was even on a forum for the EP3 Civic, always argued about how the turbo is better etc... just as reliable... but it wasn't.

Still have the Civic, sits in the garage not running. Sold the Element, ran like a champ for years.

[forzajuve]

Originally Posted by liteyouup

In general, people's experience seems to show that the supercharger causes less damage. For example, my 03 Civic, turbo, always needed a repair. Was always something causing problems. 06 Element, Supercharged. Only repair I ever did was a belt, and the clutch. I wouldn't associate "reliable" and "turbo" in the same group. I was even on a forum for the EP3 Civic, always argued about how the turbo is better etc... just as reliable... but it wasn't.

Still have the Civic, sits in the garage not running. Sold the Element, ran like a champ for years.

Are there any modest builds for superchargers that would get the same results as a 5-6 psi turbo charger, yet would still maintain the engine's life?

My biggest issue, which other may relate with is that adding FI to the car rather than sticking strictly NA will shorten the car's lifespan. Id like to hit 100,000 miles at least!

[kioton32]

Originally Posted by forzajuve

What if you only wanted modest boost for a turbo build, say 5-6 psi?

Would that type of turbo build boost in such a violent fashion that it can cause more damage?

Im saying the way it builds boost is more violent then a supercharger... Boost in an SC builds from idle... Turbos build boost above 3000 rpm and normally have full boost by 5500 Rpms even at 5-6 psi its still a more violent way to build boost

[forzajuve]

Originally Posted by kioton32

Im saying the way it builds boost is more violent then a supercharger... Boost in an SC builds from idle... Turbos build boost above 3000 rpm and normally have full boost by 5500 Rpms even at 5-6 psi its still a more violent way to build boost

Oh ok, I see what you are saying. So as a daily driver's induction modification, you are saying a SC will have a better result in boost build up (builds better incrementally), but may wear out the engine's life faster. While a TC has a violent way of building boost, yet still shortens the engine's life.

[forzajuve]

Originally Posted by kioton32

Im saying the way it builds boost is more violent then a supercharger... Boost in an SC builds from idle... Turbos build boost above 3000 rpm and normally have full boost by 5500 Rpms even at 5-6 psi its still a more violent way to build boost

Also, Vortech for example markets 9si, can you cap that at 5 psi if you want to possibly kick in giving the engine too much. So you are still gaining some power but not overkilling the engine?

[kioton32]

Originally Posted by forzajuve

Also, Vortech for example markets 9si, can you cap that at 5 psi if you want to possibly kick in giving the engine too much. So you are still gaining some power but not overkilling the engine?

Correct... And you can cap an SC or TC at whatever boost you feel is best.

[forzajuve]

Originally Posted by kioton32

Correct... And you can cap an SC or TC at whatever boost you feel is best.

Dang so you could go fairly low and really not be taking a toll on the engine's life and still have a good time! Thanks man