jimxms

Ok so I know how fed up everyone is with these "what s/c" threads, and a lot of the ECS vs A&A ones come down to personal preference/location etc.

However I'm hoping my question is sufficiently different that I may not get bashed for going over already covered ground...

I live in the UK with a 2008 Base C6. I want to get it supercharged, but there are a very limited number of specialists in the UK, and even those are probably the equivalent of of your crappest USA shops.

So what I'm looking for is:

(A) The easiest to install S/C kit, with the most complete package.
(B) A kit that will offer a modest power increase (say 100hp). I'm not chasing 1/4 mile times, I just want to comfortably kill AMG's and M3's.
(C) A plug-in tune that will be totally safe and useable until I add more mods in the future and then need to track down a good vette tuner.

Money is no object really, so I'm happy to pay anything from $5k for the A&A to $8k for the Edelbrock.

neverstop

if you don't care about future power at all the A&A kit is probably the best one, i'd just call them and see what they say about using mail order tune though

speedz06

The same style charger used on oem's is best. I have a Lightning with 210k miles that still kicks *** with original eaton charger like the magnasun. I had an 02 z06 magcharger from the dealer put over 125k miles on it of hard use. Now I have the e force. Hindsight would go with magnacharger but the eforce is good product too. I just like the sound and the extra height and s/c hood.
everyone has a nice charger though. This is only an opinion but no disputing the Eaton relibility, throttle response, torque curve from down low etc.
Im not comfortable with the whole alky/water injection debate concerning the new gen superchers. Good luck with your purchase you cant go wrong

Unreal

Any of them are easy and reliable.

C U IN REARVEIW

I would go with the magnasun heartbeat looks great (almost factory),great power,100% complete with a canned tune.....and I have an A&A kit on my car so....

jimxms

Do any of them need oil or coolant lines tapped? This was my main worry with the edelbrock.

How about modification of oem bodywork? Any holes to drill, things to dremel...etc

Also I'm concerned about how difficult changing the serp belt is. I understand ECS is easier than A&A but I'm not sure about the others.

jimxms

Edit:

Yes that looks pretty awesome. Does anyone on here have one?

SquatchMachining

The hardest part of any blower install is pulling the rack to pin the crank pulley. From that point on, they are all cake. Go with ECS or A&A, both will give you lots of room to grow. I have no doubt that Andy or Doug can supply you with a plug and play tune for their basic packages and I think both of them will work with you on tune adjustments via datalogging and Email. You would just need to purchase HP tuners or EFI Live.

I would give them a call and talk to them, that would be your best solution. Do not settle for a out of the box blower kit with a canned tune like edelbrock, with today's technology it's nothing for a good tuner to remote tune your car. There are several guys I know that consistently remote tune cars that make over 1000hp, your car would be no issue.

CI GS

After carefully considering what I wanted, I went with the Magnuson Heartbeat, which I installed in my garage, by myself, with basic hand tools. I was where you're at and since I live on a small island, where there's only a handful of C6 Vettes (I own the only GS in the country) there's absolutely no one here that I would trust to do the install.
The thing that ultimately made me go with the HB was that after reading all of the instruction manuals for all of the kits, theirs seemed to be the most comprehensive, and that proved to be the case when I did the install.
The kit is complete, right down to the colour coded hose clamps.
It also helped temendously that there is a small group of very knowledgeable guys on here that had done the HB already, that were always helpful with advice, and a couple of them in particular are very experienced with blower installations and had done other kits as well. Through their support on here, they made it enjoyable for me to accomplish the install without too much fuss.
This style of blower, along with the Edelbrock (which is also a great kit, by all reports) is the same type of blower that GM and other manufacturers invariably uses for OEM blower applications, so that would indicate to me that this is the most dependable. It is also very quiet, until you get on the throttle, but I usually can't even hear the blower whining over the exhaust and the tires screaming.
My car is a blast to drive and I've had zero issues with it, and the everyone that has looked under the hood can't believe it didn't come from the factory that way.
Just do a lot of research on here and you will get all the information you need to make an informed decision.
Good luck and keep us posted on what you decide to do.

petsur

Right on man I'm glad it went well for you. I've been eyeballing the Heartbeat myself.

How long did it take? What kind of issues did you encounter during the install?

CI GS

Thanks man. Here's a link to a thread by Magnuson that we sorta high jacked

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...this-fall.html

Tons of info in there, even from the guy who designed the HB.
Posts on my install from post # 262 onwards...

jimxms

This is exactly the kind of reply I was looking for.

I installed a Procharger on my Lexus IS300 a few years back, so I'm no stranger to using a spanner. But for that install I needed to holesaw into the bodywork, cut away the front bumper and do a whole load of other stuff that I never want to do ever again!

Did the Magnuson come with a canned tune, or did you need to get it shop tuned? Right now I'm debating whether to get a DiabloSport Trinity so that tuning will be easier when I put the s/c on. But I'm not sure about the whole wideband and map sensor side of it.

CI GS

Thats what I liked about the HB - I didn't have to cut anything other than a couple of holes in the side of the plastic radiator shroud to route the Heat Exchanger hoses through.
You also don't have to pull the steering rack out to pin the crank to the balancer, as the Magnuson instructions shows you how to drop the engine cradle and jack the engine up slightly to get the clearance you need. Check the link to the thread I posted above and you will find some photos and a write up on some aspects of the install, along with a bunch of useful input from other members who are very knowledgeable.
The Magnuson kit usually comes with a canned tune, but I ordered mine without it, which saved me a whopping $200, and it still came with the handheld tuner tool with no tune in it
I had chuck COW do me a custom tune, based on a really good tune that I got from one of our own CF gurus (streetk14, aka Andy, who's actually a BMW tech guy and knows a ton of stuff about these cars) which was pretty damn close but needed the necessary tweaks for my A6 car.
I've since I've stepped down on pulley size (to a 90mm) which is plenty of fun, and I intend to do a "few" more mods, till it blows up, most likely..
BTW: Chuck told me that it's best to get the Magnuson tune and build on that, but some folks have told me that the "canned" Magnuson tune is far from optimum.
If you have the opportunity to put your car on a dyno and tune it, then that's definitely the best and quickest way to get it tuned properly.
Because if where I'm at, I have no choice but to do the mail order tune thing, since I'm not that savvy on tuning, although I can handle a spanner pretty good myself!
Do spend some time researching as many threads as you can on each of the different kinds of blowers, though, and see which one you think is best. And don't be afraid to ask questions. After all, that's what these forums are for, if you ask me.

0mike@calvomotorsport

I sent you a PM man.. like stated what i would do would be an eforce or maggie. eforce comes complete with hand held with can tune etc. Check out the PM

jimxms

That sounds just what I'm looking for. I was also looking at the eforce, but it seems that there is some sort of issue getting fuel pressure to banks 7&8 (from what I read)? A problem not present with the Magnuson.

I'm still having trouble getting my head round this whole mail order tune thing though. In my previous supercharged ride, If i wanted to get a mail order tune done, I would need to send wideband/boost pressure/throttle position/rpm logs to a tuner. Yet it seems like you boosted vet guys can get a tune done without all this info? Does the base c6 have a MAP sensor for reporting positive pressure, and what about accurate afr's?

Unreal

Car does not have a map sensor from factory to read boost. Some of the kits come with then. Worst case they are $30-100.

Need to add a wideband if you want afr.

CI GS

I don't know anything about a E-Force fuel issue, but from what I've read, everyone that has one loves it.
You are right on the mail order tune. You will need a data logger with a wideband interface, so that you can send data logs to your tuner for him to adjust your tune. I still can't get my Autocal to read the PLX Wideband, and I can't seem to get that fixed, so my AFR is way off currently (10.1 instead of ~11.4).
It seems that you can get the tune fairly close without a WB, by reading LTFTs and tweaking the tune to get those as close to zero as possible. In fairness to my tuner, he had mine at a solid 11.4 after I put the 90mm pulley on and the car was screaming. But, after I added - purely for safety reasons - a Racetronix harness (which I would recommend to anyone) and a Kenne Bell fuel pump booster, the added fuel pressure dropped the AFR down to 10.1, which tells me that my fuel pressure must have been falling significantly at WOT before. But a good wideband like the PLX Gen 4 is cheap and is a must for proper tuning, IMV.
As for a MAP, you'll want to install an OEM ZR1 MAP and tweak the tune for it, so that you can read boost.
The additional things I would recommend that you get would be:
- Racetronix FP harness (which comes with a BAP connector built in);
- ZR1 MAP sensor;
- PLX Gen 4 wideband;
- Dashlogic EVERY C6 owner shod get one if these gems, IMV (there's tons of threads on here about what this is and how to configure and use it), and;
- if you go the mail order tune route, then depending on what brand your tuner recommends, a good scan/ tune tool with datalogging capability - either HP Tuners or the EFI Live tool or Autocal.
On the HB, if you're going the mail order tune route, I would also recommend going to the 90mm pulley with a belt to match.
Even though it might be a bit tedious, scroll through and read the posts on the thread that I posted the link to above. It has photos, part numbers etc all in there.

0Chuck CoW

Sammyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Call me.

As far as t he canned tune....from Whoever... Reason for that recommendation is that when you're 1,000 miles away

or in a foreign country.....or across the street, it's always very helpful to have the blower manufacturers idle tables,

MAF curve, and injector data..... If it's working for them, trust me they spent good time building that data and it's a

huge time saver to borrow that data and other stuff to when remote tuning. We can all build that data but it takes a lot

of time to build and especially when you're doing it remotely, it never hurts to have something to start with.

None of the "canned" blower tunes that come with these systems are aggressive....They CAN NOT be...it would be stupid.

They are always "good enough" for most, and a great starting point for sure.



Sammy, call my office or cell today.... I think my TAN is wearing off.
Chuck CoW

realcanuk

There is no fuel issue with the eforce. What they are talking about is changing the lines to feed both rails equally, instead or just one side. This is no issue unless maybe making big power.
Chuck did an eforce for me some years ago. As far as simple and reliable, it couldn't get better. Car was flawless and ran great. A blast to drive.

jimxms

OK thanks for the info.

I'm putting together my shopping list at the moment for stuff I'm going to need aside from the s/c.

The PLX Wideband looks like a safe bet, and I'll probably grab the Dashlogic as I don't want gauges cluttering the car.

What I cant get my head around is how the ZR1 MAP sensor hooks up? Does it replace the stock sensor (is that a MAF or MAP?) and if not, how do you go about logging the data from it? My only previous experience with a MAP sensor was hooked directly up to a piggyback ECU.