TimC6Vertible

I'm considering a supercharger for what would be the equivalent of a daily driver. It's a 2012 A6 Convertible (base), and the supercharger would be the only modification. It would be tuned conservatively, given an automatic and a convertible I'm not trying to go racing, just want some extra oomph. However I like long trips, two weeks+ with often 500 miles+ per day. Is a supercharger a smart move for a vehicle that will run for many hours per day? Any obvious negatives? Suggestions? Will probably do 30 000 miles a year with it. Thanks.

russ472

Mine is a daily driver. I have only had mine for a few months, but have made two 180 mile round trips without issue. drives completely stock unless you are in the throttle. I wouldn't hesitate taking it on a longer trip

neverstop

if you keep it conservative at maybe something around 550whp i doubt reliability would be any different than stock. I have a friend with a bone stock ls3 6 speed vette which made 630whp with an A&A ket and methanol and he drives it 350-400 miles each way to races, races it all day at road course or at 1/2 mile, and then drives it home. car has I think 40k miles on it.

winters97gt

No negatives at all. An SI, T, or Novi 1500 will basically be free wheeling and you won't see any big difference in MPG on the highway with cruise control. Once you add a big cam, or a bigger blower like a F1, 2200, YSI, etc, then you will see a drop in gas range. But a base centri kit and stock cam is fine.

Unreal

I drove my car 1200 miles in 2 days, and that was when it was making 1090rwhp. No issues, drives like stock on highway.

Detoxx03

I take mine on trips a couple of times a year.

Pitufina

I took two 8+ hours one way last year and it drove perfectly. I was amazed with the fuel economy too!

TimC6Vertible

Thanks for the responses, very helpful.

MARSC6

On long trips I just try to behave with the gas pedal. Not concerned about the supercharger itself. Don't want to break an axle or something stupid far from home.

schpenxel

I've got something like 25K on mine in the last year since SC install. No issues with long trips.

Nosferatu

for the most part it's fine

ECS 1500 stock cam blown for over a year and it's daily driven. So far 17K miles or so on the boost. Only thing to watch for on long trips is if on a pull the belt goes SNAP! Been there done that it's no fun being stuck on the side of the highway. :/

DOUG @ ECS

We have plenty of customers who have surpassed 100k miles supercharged now. Things can happen, that's for sure, but for the most part it's no problem.

Many of our customers are Fl/NY-NJ birds and drive their SC Vettes to and from. I have done it personally myself.

As we speak I am working on a new supercharger kit for 2015/16 GM trucks, which is being fabricated on my personal 15 Silverado. I take weekend trips with my family regularly to Vt skiing, 5 hours each way. Yes I love a supercharged car/truck, but if there was enough of a risk of failure I would not chance breaking down with my wife and young kids in the car in sub zero temps late at night.

I hope that helps

Josh@AandASuperchargers

I have a customer with a '01 Auto that they bought brand new and had us boost it at 90,000 miles. It currently has 194,000 miles on the exact same A&A V3 Si-trim SC kit. It's still running the stock LS1, but has had the auto trans replaced with a built RPM unit at around 105,000 miles.

Don't hesitate to do the SC install. We have dozens of road trip customers that run their A&A Supercharger kits all over the country. It will drive like stock when cruising and pin you back in the seat when full throttle. It's so much fun and has great reliability.

Give us a call if you need help picking the kit or finding a shop in your area. 805-278-4107
-Josh

ATLS2

I drove my 650 whp cammed/supercharged C6 1700 miles in 33 hours and still got 33 MPG. No issue at all

EvanZR1

I've got about 15K miles on mine since the blower went on, and have taken it on several road trips without any issues. The longest was this past summer when a buddy (with another blown GS) and I drove from Dallas to the Corvette Museum and then on to Gatlinburg, TN where we ran a bunch of back roads including Tail of the Dragon. Total trip was probably 2,500+ miles. Have also done several trips to south TX and Arkansas. The one piece of advice I would give based on your description of what you want and how you drive, is that I'd probably skip doing meth injection, or just do it for safety and maybe run a 50/50 water/meth mix.

Ultrasport05

I have driven my car from Pensacola Florida to Minneapolis and back twice. Haven't had an issue. Built engine, ECS Kit, cam , etc... 800rwhp.

As long as great care was used on the install (I.e. Belt alignment), you should not have any more issues on long trip than a car without a blower

schpenxel

I made a similar thread a long time ago. I had forgotten all about that

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...rged-c6-s.html

mourat

Took my s-trim on two long road trips 8 hours each way and recently went to the Dyno made 735rwhp so I say these things are good but glad u read this thread I was a but worried going on long trips. Glad to hear there are guys with 100k miles on them that's awesome!

speedz06

Just look at the OEM's using the Eaton chargers from the factory and that will answer your question.
You can keep out of boost nearly all the time if you want to and the car runs as stock. Even on long steep grades the boost doesn't kick in either of my cars but vacuum is at '0' so not sure what that means.

I can bore you with some of my own personal experience:
Not all GM.
Put over 125K miles on the maggie 02 Z06,
I have 220K miles on my Ford Lightning (eaton supercharger raised boost to 12 PSI plus) one of our landscape work trucks and super commuter.

IMHO, (shared with OEMs') the Eaton chargers are the way to go unless you are looking for peak numbers and save a few bucks upfront. These chargers derive from designs proven to last over 1 million miles in commercial use.


Issues:
Now, when I first built the 02 Z06, a piston failed with the canned tune from lingenfelter but this was one of the first ones in the country at the time. The great warranty paid for the work and I sprung a few hundred for forged pistons. A new canned tune, never dyno tuned. THEN the car lasted for years of hard use. Really hard.

Now, I recently did the same work to my '06 Z06 and the same damn thing happened as before in '02 (cracked piston) but only after I added more boost and dyno tune. Again forged pistons going in and debating a cam swap. With a replacement block: The cost is over $25,000.00 with considering price of the E-force kit, the failure and rebuild etc. So, realize we aren't all so lucky and you want to play, you may have to pay.

0ISP Racing

One of our customers has the ECS 1500 kit on his C6 and he made 3 round trips in a course of 3 years from Maryland to Texas. He drove 18 hours straight, stopping for gas and after a week, drove 20 hours straight back, also stopping for gas.


We have done numerous installs and maintenance. It is a great kit for HP and very reliable.