Supercharging

[THAWA]

I've been looking for a while now but it seems like barely anyone supercharges the soobies. It seems like a good idea for the NA engine, but then again what do I know. So yeah is there any reason there hasn't been any supercharger kits instead of turbo kits? Besides the obvious no real space to mount it.

[georryan]

It HAS been done. Not to a huge extent, but it has been done. Look up www.legacycentral.org

Click on reader rides and on the right is a link to a supercharged legacy.

As far as writeups on how-to's....can't help ya there.

[legacy92ej22t]

I know there's supercharger kits available for the 2.2 because a friend of mine was looking at them. IIRC they were pretty expensive though too.

[mTk]

There aren't many supercharging kits due to the plethora of turbo scoobie engines out there, at least that's why i think it is

MK

[91White-T]

The reason why you don't see many supercharger kits is because turbos are more efficient, cheaper, make more power, don't take away power to make power, etc. to sum it all up, turbos > superchargers

[Tleg93]

Hi, had to jump in here to put my two cents in. Check out the info at this site it seems to be well researched and informative, especially if you look up some of the sources.

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~toptron/carclub/svt.html

[vrg3]

It does seem well-researched if you look just at the references... But it also seems rather subjective. It appears that the writer is trying to sell the screw-driven supercharger to the reader. Each section is written either as a "here's why superchargers are better" or a "here's why superchargers aren't as bad as people say," and there's a good deal of opinion thrown in. The writer also doesn't really back up many of his statements, and some of his turbo cons don't apply to modern turbocharged engine systems.

The belt-driven vs. exhaust-driven debate's gone on for a gazillion years and will continue to, but neither one is definitively better. You can make a case for either type of system even without using the usual cliches (which aren't even all true). In the end, you gotta pick for yourself.

[THAWA]

Well I'd rather not turn this into turbo vs super and I'm aware that both have inherient problems, I dont feel real strong either way. It'd be cool to have a supercharged car, just don't really understand why noones seriously done it, yeah there was rimmer and that whole flop, then dnt and stuff, now something new on nasioc, but nothing really sold a lot. Ah well, maybe in a few more years.

[vrg3]

I think the main reasons there aren't widely available supercharger kits are twofold: 1) Subaru fans are generally more in favor of turbos, and 2) superchargers tend to be rather engine-specific (especially the positive-displacement type) so a kit can't very easily be done one-off.

[scottzg]

I had plans to go this route, but have given up in favor of a turbo engine. The main reason being that the turbo engine is better even if you are going to supercharge it rather than go through the turbo that is already set up. More potential.

That said, from my research, the oh-so-common eaton roots chargers are a bit big for our application and theres no good place to mount them.

The mr2 supercharged would be the supercharger to nab. it has a clutch type wheel that is controlled electronically (set it up to the throttle to choose when boost comes on), it has a built in bov, the displacement on the engine is reasonably appropriate (a pulley kit and you're set) and you could probably produce 190 hp with a naturally aspirated ej22. Oh, and a torque chip to handle those flow patterns. But that would be the end of the road.

You can read about the trials and tribulations of a guy s/c'ing his 2.5rs on nasioc.

I dont really know that much about the possibility, but enough to know that an engine swap and a turbo is the route for me.

[THAWA]

Maybe I need to have a goal in mind, like making x amount of hps or running x secs in 1/4 mile then go from there :\. The thing I liked about dnt was they used the rotrex supercharger, that thing is tiny, around 6 inches each side. basically the size of a turbocharger. I'd love to get my hands on it

[scottzg]

or blowing up x amount of pistons or having it last x amount of thousand miles.

When you go the supercharger route, you have to worry about fuel delivery a lot more than you do with turbo-ing. There's no ECU designed for a supercharger. Plus, you are gonna spend 400 for a used mr2 sc or 650 for a rotex, plus some kind of engine management that will get your power output to equal that of a legacy turbo with a mbc. Wahoo. ej22t, please.

It doesnt make sense in terms of reliability, cost, or engineering headaches.

As an added bonus, a leg turbo automatic isn't really any faster than a manual n/a (granted the potential sure isnt the same...)

THAWA, think about ousting that 4eat. thats your primary weak point in handling, acceleration, and reliability, in my opinion.

We have almost the same car.

[vrg3]

Any aftermarket standalone ECU will be able to handle a supercharged engine just as well as a turbocharged engine. You may not find as much expertise, but that's a different issue.

Done properly, supercharging does not kill engines. And, a supercharged EJ22 has the potential to have much better drivability than a stock EJ22T, which is rather gutless off boost.

[scottzg]

man, i always post these proclamation posts, someone picks it apart, and i have to retract. Bah!

a supercharger setup will cost more than a jdm engine. You will have to engineer it yourself. An aftermarket ecu will work, but its expensive and who knows what it will do to your fuel economy. Then there is the stress of wondering if that next snapped shut throttle will be the one to lean you out into cracked piston-land.

No thank you, i will go turbo, its well documented, a stock wrx engine (pick your flavor) is more powerful than a SC ej22, and as i said, until that engine shows up on my doorstep, an n/a with a stick and a good driver is pretty quick on its own. I've got a sizable kill list to back it up

My guess was that THAWA was looking for a less expensive alternative to an engine swap. I am stating that S/C'ing is not that route. You are right though, correctly done, a SC would be quick with great drivability.

[THAWA]

Well I had wanted to swap in a 5mt but after hearing about the 4eat handling torque better I'm not quite sure I would like the swap, but then again I don't know how much torque would be putting out. The rotrex that dnt used was thought to put out around 200 ish hp on a 2.5 rs, If I went with it I'd have to downsize to the next model to fit an ej22 but I still think it'd be pretty good. Madmax on nasioc is getting 200 wheel torque and 180 whp with an eaton i/c and some other stuff. I know going f/i is going to put more strain on the engine/drivetrain and all that stuff. To be quite honest I don't even think I'll be doing any of this, just getting and throwing around some ideas. I also dont think supercharging would be any easier or cheaper than an engine swap or just buying a turbo car, I guess originallity is what I want. Well that and instant boost

But don't get too angry about this whole thing, we're just throwing ideas around.