A crazy idea?

[Suigintou]

Ok, I know i'm poor and a college student and I have lots of things to fix up on my car before I even consider adding more ponies...

but darn it's those thoughts that keep me plugging away at this thing.

So my latest crazy idea: My A/C compressor just kicked the bucket. No surprise there, within two weeks every car I've gotten has had it's AC crap out.

Soo...That mounting area looks like a great place to put a small supercharger. My car is currently N/A and I wonder whether this would work. Some issues I foresee:

1. Mounting, of course. It's not so much a problem as a PITA.

2. Engine strength; I've looked through posts regarding turbo-ing a n/a and the consensus is 'don't do it'. Reason being the engine isn't designed to handle boost. However, superchargers can put out smaller boost levels like, 3-8psi, and that may be ok. But that leads to the next issue.

3. Parasitic loss. I don't know a whole lot about superchargers. Will the power loss of running one be overcome by the gain?

4. Money: Right now I have none. I promise things won't stay like that though!

So anyway, you think this would be a worthwhile project? I'm a performance nut, just I'm only recently getting into car performance. As a kid I built and overclocked computers, then started working on bicycles (the very light, very fast kind). Everything I have is 'fast' except my car....that bothers me.

[93forestpearl]

It comes down to how handy you are with fabrication.

Doug's setup:

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic. ... percharger


The is significantly more to it than rigging up a supercharger and pumbing it.

[gijonas]

Dont do it.

[Suigintou]

I read that entire thread. Thanks for the link.

Hm...I think Doug made a very good point "Even with my supercharger there are new economy cars getting more HP". This is true. A new base model 2010 2.5l Impreza gets 160 hp. Of course it's alot heavier then my car.

So I guess my project will be to find and swap in a FWD manual (I have a FWD Auto that has metal shavings in the differential fluid so this swap may come sooner rather then later. )

Allow wheels, FWD manual trans, lightened pulleys, A/C delete. I'll be driving a feather weight. I dunno, I just like to dream.

[206er]

dont waste your time. its a beater fwd legacy. just keep it for what it is, cheap transportation. since youre in college save money for beer and road trips.
trying to soup up a car on a college students budget is just an excersize in frustration. even ghetto rigging a supercharger on there is going to cost a few hundred bucks with all the little crap you have to buy.

[evolutionmovement]

I agree. The greatness about these cars is in their cheapness to run. It's not a Lotus Elise and will never be. Mine's fwd manual and Phil could testify how fun it was to drive. The engine was possibly a ringer, but I ran a 16.3 1/4 in it, which isn't a bad time for some stock turbos. Instead of turboing the car and messing around I went to Italy, Greece, and Egypt and drove it across country without a worry, which inspired my book series. In high school, I had a GL which was cheap also no matter how much I beat on it. A bunch of my friends had muscle cars they spent all their money on. Me, I went out to eat almost every night with my girlfriend and the friends who weren't spending all their money on cars. I've never driven anything that's remotely as fun as either of them. Part of the fun is also the lack of worry.

[douglas vincent]

Part of the fun is also the lack of worry.

Oh c'mon.......

I LOOOOOOOVVE driving around my cars listening/sniffing/feeling constantly for that odd sound/smell/feel!

[evolutionmovement]

Any old car will do that, but I still worried less in the old wagon than with my Mazda. I didn't think anything of driving across country with 150k miles on it. All I did was an oil change and a basic fluid check. With the Subaru it was more a vigilance thing than paranoia. If something went wrong, I'd expect to ID it and fix it in due time, but catastrophic failure leaving me stranded never occurred to me. It was like walking around Detroit I didn't expect to get jumped, but always stayed aware of my surroundings anyway, but while with my gorgeous ex and getting looks from big scary dudes, I expected to be killed before they raped her. I didn't mind the adventure of walking around by myself, but I sure as hell didn't enjoy DEFCON 1 vigilance with the best hope of being able to cause someone a nasty cut or bruise with whatever object was handy before they killed me and raped her.

[Suigintou]

i agree with you guys. After I made this post I changed the oil in my differential and discovered a big gob of metal on the magnetic plug and more n the oil. So I found my mystery noise....

So even as a 'beater' any money I get is going toward keeping it running, not 'souping it up'.

The big picture is what matters

$600 for the car
$150 to transfer my plate and renew the tags
$70 new axel
$70 Tune up/fluid changes/seafoam/headlight resto
$30 Front speakers
$20 Hubcaps
$10 Melamine board (to mount my 6x9's in the back)
_______________
950$ so far. It's hard to even find a car in my area for less then 2000$ (that runs) so I'm still ahead. There was some misc costs for stuff like aviation snips, 'S' screwdrivers, and tire plugger but that's stuff I will be using for a long time.

If I can fix my Trans (or do a FWD 5mt swap) plus replace the rack/boots/ect for another 1000$ I will be very happy. I'm lucky that I happen to live in a 'deserted' trailer park. I've got like 4 driveway's worth of space to do stuff. If things go really bad I can just roll my car to the mechanic shop next to the park.

[tahiti350]

I bought a '92 FWD auto at the local pull a part for $58, and lucked out... It was apparently a fresh rebuild, super clean inside. Only had to swap the pan and one internal line as they punched it to drain the trans...

Car is now in Texas with my 20 y.o. daughter wheeling it back and forth to college.

[BAC5.2]

Mine's fwd manual and Phil could testify how fun it was to drive.

I do, quite fondly, remember stealing your car. Quite fun to drive, in fact.

[93forestpearl]

Phil is alive? Someone call the media!

[skid542]

Woah! We spotted Phil! I was afraid marriage had taken the life of another legendary BBS member. Jason Grahn threw out a post the other day. Next thing you know we'll see Vikash back again . Good to see you around again Phil. Hope life's been treating you well.


To the OT - keep the car fairly stock. I had a FWD and it was a kick just driving it stock. Remove as much weight as you can and be happy with it. Being FWD gives a little more clearance, a bit less weight, and you'll still surprise plenty of other cars when you roll on them. Being in college is not the time to be 'building' a car anyhow - it's stupid expensive . If you want to do something - get some KYB's and upgrade your brakes and you'll have a nice well balanced car for fairly cheap and not much time investment.

[SILINC3R]

you should listen to the guys cause i know i didn't and it has cost me but it has been a great learning experience. i have a 90 fwd manual(luckly) and it is a blast to drive. i have had it for 4 years and it has never given up on me. but i have done the pulleys, leg gt 05 rims, whiteline sway bars, strut bars, a/c delete, cai, wrx rotors and calipers and working on full exhaust, delta cams and coilovers hopefully. have not gotten it dynoed yet however cause i am afraid of what the results maybe. if you do want more power save up and get an SS like im doing but you might want to keep the LS or L. i have an LS which i want to switch to an L becuase there is no sunroof so it will be lighter. but enough of my rambling sometimes you just have to enjoy what ya got and be happy

just my 3 cents
Tony