Hi guys, help with a final decision on a S/C

[JoonPrime]

As a couple of you may have seen already, ive made many uneducated posts on these forums in an attempt to learn as much as possible in these past few weeks. After debating on S/C vs Turbo, i landed on S/C realizing that as a daily driver, the simplicity of it won me over as well as the (probably) more reliable option without adding a bunch of separate mods to keep temps down and such.

Now here is the problem, ive finally decided on going super but.....having difficulty choosing which one. Ive been lurking forums dating back a year(combed through about 35 pages of old posts..) and havnt been really able to narrow down the list enough. My current choices are Innovate(Sprintex), Jackson, and Kraftwerks.

1)Innovate, or Sprintex is on this list because as a DD, i wanted that low end torque that this kit seems to offer the best on, based off dyno charts ive found listed on these forums. Also, when i did research on the centrifugal(belt driven) styles vs a twin screw type for the S/C's, it seemed that a twin screw offered more potential on the reliable day to day driving scheme. However, even with the alluring idea of low end torque, the kit itself seemed to have a few troubles.

Originally Posted by tendogy

Compilation of Owner-Mentioned Hiccups

Multiple people have stopped by to ask what issues the owners are having, because that is often one of the top questions by people trying to decide on a kit. Slogging through dozens of pages is laborious, so here is a compilation of the hiccups/issues reported by the owners here.



The numbers in the grid are the post numbers where the hiccup is mentioned, and the resolution is in parenthesis. "sr" means the issue was self-resolved by the owner, "ic" means the issue was resolved by Innovate/Sprintex; the number inside the parenthesis indicates the post number where the resolution was resolved. For example, xjohnx reported his blower was missing a clip in post 739 of this thread and reported in post 775 of this thread that this was resolved by Innovate/Sprintex.

There are 56 owners currently listed in OP. Of those owners, fifteen of them (26%) mentioned a total of 29 hiccups/issues.

Of those who mentioned hiccups/issues:
20% reported coil failures.
15% suffered a belt failure.
15% suffered a idler pulley failure.
15% discussed the weak/loose plastic elbow fittings.
15% discovered an intercooler coolant leak.
15% had to deal with disintegrating bolts/fasteners.
all other issues were only reported by 1 or 2 people.

Feel free to interpret the data however you wish. I hope it was useful to have it compiled from 174 pages to one image.

taken from the innovate owners thread, even with these issues however, i feel that over the course of a full year these issues could have been banged out by the company. Also, it is mentioned somewhere the use of faulty or bad bolts, the manufacturer has since been changed according to the Sprintex guys, can anyone confirm this?

2) Jackson Racing is here because i could find very limited information on this kit, for bad experiences. Based on the amount of lurking ive done, ive seen this kit to come up with the least amount of problems, whether be the belts, missing components on initial delivery, or just customer service.
- Also, the torque given while not on par with innovate, does seem to do quite alright with a large boost to outspeed innovate by a handsome amount at the later RPMs.
-My only issue is that as a non-tech savvy person, i will be ordering this through a local shop and having them do the full install. They havnt had any experience with the kit, and while as a shop i could expect full professionalism, can never be too certain when no one has touched on it hands on before.

3) Kraftwerks is the preferred and recommended kit by the shop i plan on working with. I asked them many questions and the KW kit was worked on the most in the shop, all with excellent experiences. But going through the old forum i found a list of people who complained about the parts.
-Missing parts, wrong parts, sizes slightlyyyy too small and the works. Kraftwerks seems to be working with some great customer service tho as most people who addressed these issues, waved it off saying parts were overnighted or handled accordingly and quickly by the people over at their customer service.
-My issues with this is, i live in delaware, but commute to PA an hour for work. The shop i intend on invading is a 25 minute drive from the store but can hardly afford to take off multiple days/hours to visit the shop a few times for missing parts. Also as my only car, i need the car to be in and out within the day, cant revisit because a single bolt didnt come through

In conclusion, when going through each of the dynos, the literal whp or speed or max out power wasnt as important to me as is the reliability of the car.
-Innovate is on this list because as a DD who wont be pounding his car at 6-7k rpm constantly, i would like to see more low end torque even if it became a little wasted and outshone by the JR and KW kits at the end of the RPM scale. However with the list of issues, would it worth it for me go through the headache? or have most issues been solved over the year?
-JR simply look to be the most reliable of the 3 in terms of parts missing, problems, belt snapping, and ETC. The torque gains seem adequate at the low ends compared to Innovate, and obviously outshine it by the likes of the end of the RPMs. Should i overlook the fact this shop has no experience with the kit since as ive read, SC are in general easy to install? Also worth noting is ive seen many appraisals of the JR kit saying just how easy the installation is, even compared to other superchargers!
-Kraftwerks is the most utilized SC at the shop i plan on taking it too, but with its list of missing parts, i really cant afford to take 2 days time to work out a 1 day installation because of one bolt. Also, as i understand both JR and KW use the same rotrex systems and were once combined but have since spit up. Would picking a KW > JR or vice versa have a big difference? The numbers are similar so is it just a matter of name brand at this point??



SORRY for this wall of text, and thanks to anyone who can answer and share some insight!! If i have any information that is wrong, seemingly biased then PLEASE feel free to point it out, this forums has been nothing but humbling and educational for me on my step to becoming a car junkie

Also, for those who may think im too picky about the missing parts issues, its because its my first official year on this job and my hours are very demanding, its quite difficult to take time off so i would really really need this to be a one in and done thing, at least for the time being

[wheelhaus]

KW: If you order the parts but are paranoid about getting a complete kit, have the parts shipped to the shop and let them verify everything. Let the shop determine what's missing by looking through the instructions and parts list and work it out with KW first before you ever drive up there.

JR: Same Rotrex unit as KW, but uses the OEM belt system (longer belt) and different IC plumbing. Essentially the same thing, if they prefer KW, the JR will be very very similar.

Sprintex- There's rumors they're going to release a more powerful unit, so just throwing it out there.

[FR-S Matt]

I received my Kraftwerks C30 kit with no missing parts. I just had to get the cogged idler pullies separately from them and they shipped them out, no questions asked. They have fantastic customer service. I went through and checked off every part in the boxes and matched them all up.

Can't go wrong with either of the Rotrex blowers, but I like Kraftwerks independent belt system for a daily driver. Worst case scenario, I buy a backup belt and keep it in my car. So easy to put on. Its still even driveable without the belt to get you to safety. That's huge for anyone who plans on daily driving with a supercharger in my opinion. Not saying the belt will snap, but a good piece of mind in case it does.

The cogged pullies make the kit a ton quieter versus the smooth ones it comes with. Probably less wear on the belt too.

[diodelphi]

I'm not professional but we see Ferrari,porsche , BMW, Benz, ALfa Romeo, Subaru all use turbocharger for 2.0 L engine.
check here:
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/automobi...tml/?a=viewall

I think turbo charger with boost controller could have a good torque curve.
I never liked supercharger for 2.0L engine

[civdaddy]

Jackson racing makes a great product. And don't worry about the shop never working with that kit specifically because it's a straightforward install.

[cdrazic93]

As said before JR and KW kits are very similar. Id prefer the JR kit as I have seen larger #'s than a KW kit, or any other kit for that matter. They have the least problems, and make a quality blower.

[CSG Mike]

The majority of the Jackson Racing SC owners install at home over a weekend. If you shop can insta'l a more complex Kraftwerks system, they won't have any issue with the Jackson system.

[zoth]

3 good points with KW...

1.) You can drive back home safely if the cogged belt break. (Just stay of high RPM's)

2.) Blower can be upgraded without any fuss.

3.) Intake placement. I only have about 8-12 degrees difference when car is motion compared to my ambient temp.

Power I would say same, same....

And yeah, for whatever reason . Do a inventory before diving in the install.

Oh yeah, I like the cleaner look of KW also.

Of course IMHO.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by civdaddy

Jackson racing makes a great product. And don't worry about the shop never working with that kit specifically because it's a straightforward install.

More important, if you pick a shop that can't figure out how to install ANY supercharger.. run the fuck away.

[gmsii]

With the kraftwerks kit you have several blower options as well as pulley/boost options...as far as supercharger kits go, you can make the most power with the KW kits

[gmsii]

Originally Posted by zoth

3 good points with KW...

1.) You can drive back home safely if the cogged belt break. (Just stay off boost)

2.) Blower can be upgraded without any fuss.

3.) Intake placement. I only have about 8-12 degrees difference when car is motion compared to my ambient temp.

Power I would say same, same....

And yeah, for whatever reason . Do a inventory before diving in the install.

Oh yeah, I like the cleaner look of KW also.

Of course IMHO.

@zoth .... If the belt breaks there isnt any boost to stay off of lol

[zoth]

Originally Posted by gmsii

@zoth .... If the belt breaks there isnt any boost to stay off of lol

True that, so it's safe to drive normally without belt? How about tune?

[Kiske]

I can't speak for this car but, I limped my old GTP and Cobra home with broken belts multiple times. The car sucked, mileage became shit and felt like the engines were running in limp mode the whole time but, no issues.

/nohelp

[sam69]

I have the Sprintex kit as a DD and had no issues at all to date and love how flexible it is and still get good economy for the performance gain.