Okay, this may be one of the dumbest questions but I can't find the answer anywhere and its been buggin me for quite some time. Why is it that Hondas seem to be the only make (other then Acura) that has Supercharger kits. (I know there are some for the Focus and what not but I'm just looking at it from an import point of view.) Why isn't there one for the Eclipse/Talon? If there was would it be better/worse then slappin a turbo on? I don't know a whole lot about Turbos or Superchargers but I do know a lil about them, but apparently not enough to answer this question on my own. Thanks for the help!

'99 GS 5-spd Silver
-GReddy Evolution Cat-back
-AEM CAI
-Alpine Deck (CD of course)
-2 MTX ThunderPro 6000 12" subs
-5 piece Bad Boyz Neon Under car kit (Horizon Blue)
-Clear Tail Lights

our engine bays are too small

03 rally red evo viii - stock
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Superchargers vs. Turbos are a huge problem for people who want power. They both have the same function, to force more air into the cylinders of the engine. The only problem is, the supercharger runs off the belts of the engine, while a turbo runs off the exhaust of the engine. Either way, you can obtain the same amount of boost from either source.

Problem:
Superchargers run off the belt and are therefore always forcing air into the cylinders. If you are just daily driving, you are constantly going to be having boost, which will take the gas mileage down, and won't always be useful. A supercharger also, since it runs off the belts, uses power to make power. A couple companies now are making supercharger kits with intercoolers (procharger) to try to cool the air and get more power, to compensate for what is being lost.

Turbo's run off the exhaust being pushed out of the engine to spin a turbin which produces boost into the engine. The problem with turbos are that they are controlled to "produce boost" at a certain RPM which means, no boost at low RPMs. The advantage of turbos are that they produce power without stealing power from the engine.

I was receiving e-mails from procharger (I think) for a while and they were researching superchargers for the import scene. The main problem they were having ^^^^ too little space in the engine bays. Even though not all superchargers have to be placed on top of the intake manifold anymore, most import cars don't have the space ANYWHERE around the engine to mount the supercharger. Procharger also stated they were trying to make smaller superchargers that could be mounted more easily.

But, who knows...

I think if procharger or holley, or any of those superchargers came out with an intercooled supercharger, I would use it. It would seem to be less of a hastle than a turbo, maintenence wise.
'98 Talon Esi
Apex'i N1 Catback Exhaust|Greddy 4-1 Header|Bosch Platinum +4 Plugs|Iceman CAI|Upper Front & Rear Strut Bars|

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Okay, thanks for the info on that, I really appreciate it. I guess now that I stop and think it does make a lot of sense. I never really thought about the amout of space that it would take up. Thanks again for clarifying that for me!

'99 GS 5-spd Silver
-GReddy Evolution Cat-back
-AEM CAI
-Alpine Deck (CD of course)
-2 MTX ThunderPro 6000 12" subs
-5 piece Bad Boyz Neon Under car kit (Horizon Blue)
-Clear Tail Lights

Just so you know we have way more then enough room to run a supercharger but it has to be a vortech style (not bolted to the block) and not a jackson racing style (sorry don't know the technical names). If you doubt this go look under the hood of a 3rd gen VW golf vr6 and think how Z enginering fit a supercharger in there.

Turbo = max power
supercharger = instant power

Slacker Motorsports
Some stuff......

'vortech' uses a Centerfugal supercharger design.
while 'jackson racing' uses a Roots 'blower' style supercharger.

personally i think you guys would have much better luck with a blower style supercharger since it replaces your intake manifold which would put the unit in a good position to get access to the belts (to drive it) while a centerfugal is a seperate unit (like a turbo) and still needs access to the belts, which is really hard because there are too many other things in the way.

Actualy centerfugal supercharger design you can mount it on the drivers side where you have more room its done on atleast one honda system (belts on one side and the charger on the other). I am sure this takes some HP away but there is alot of room on the drivers side once you remove the factory intake. Also this style allows you to add an intercooler or aftercooler making the system even more effective. A blower style has to sit on the block and actualy heat soaks very bad and there is no way to add in an interocooler to cool down the air.

Thanks for the technical names

Slacker Motorsports
Some stuff......

I know what you mean about there being alot of room with the intake out.... There is enough room for me to stand in the engine bay.... The problem lies in getting the power from the other side of the engine bay to where you would mount the supercharger... I'll take a turbo anyday... Now if a supercharger came along, for a comparable price, and it was at least as reliable as a turbo kit, then i might consider it. IMHO however, superchargers are better suited to large displacement engines...

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So were did that guy go that said he had a supercharged 2gnt?

>Actualy centerfugal supercharger design you can mount it on
>the drivers side where you have more room its done on
>atleast one honda system (belts on one side and the charger
>on the other). I am sure this takes some HP away but there
>is alot of room on the drivers side once you remove the
>factory intake. Also this style allows you to add an
>intercooler or aftercooler making the system even more
>effective. A blower style has to sit on the block and
>actualy heat soaks very bad and there is no way to add in an
>interocooler to cool down the air.
>
>Thanks for the technical names

but then something else to think of.. a centerfugal supercharger NEEDS an inter/aftercooler because of the 'turbo' style compressor wheel design, it works just like a turbo in that aspect and heats the air up really high when compressing it. while a blower supercharger produces very little heat while compressing the air (it doesn't actually compress air by it's self) and generally doesn't need any kind of air cooler at all.
but being that the centerfugals use a compressors wheel just like a turbo, you can crank the boost up way high (most will do 28PSI without being too low on effiency)
one advantage nobody thinks about between turbo's and centerfugals is that the exhaust isn't routed through the same peice of metal as you intake, like the turbo's are.. so the centerfugal with the same boost and the same compressors wheel as a comperable turbo, won't heat the air as much, so it needs a little less cooling.

But you aren't going to get full boost until near redline with a centr. supercharger, whereas with a turbo you can get full boost anywhere from 2500+. So you get the lag but if you have the right turbo it's minimal. And once it's over you have the full power until redline. Not AT redline.

>But you aren't going to get full boost until near redline
>with a centr. supercharger, whereas with a turbo you can get
>full boost anywhere from 2500+. So you get the lag but if
>you have the right turbo it's minimal. And once it's over
>you have the full power until redline. Not AT redline.

correct. BUT, you don't have to get full boost at redline with a centerfugal, you can get whatever boost you want at almost any RPM.. but you won't want to go much higher in RPM's then that (because you'll get more boost then you want) but that's kinda beside the point because you will get boost from it way before it makes what you want to be it's full boost, because of the gearing (and not running off exhaust gases) it's always partial spolled up and making small amounts of boost at just above idle. go to vortech's sight and use their tables and some calculations and you'll find out that if you have the pulley set to make 10psi on a 7000rpm, then do the calculation with that same pully size, but only for 5000rpm and 2500rpm and you'll see that it'll probably still be making 7psi and 4psi ish at those rpms. Oh.. and you loose very minimal boost while shifting because it doesn't have to spin back up because your rpm's will only drop to like 4K and that'll be well withing the range that it still makes boost at. So if you power shift and don't let the rpm's drop, it'll never loose boost, you might use the BOV a bit to prevent compressor surge from trying to make that much boost at partial throttle, but as soon as you got WOT again it's already and full preasure.

so there is a couple other things to think about