Ok, so in my off-season research for power, I have now come to superchargers. I upgraded my suspension last winter, and I do want som more grunt (especially since my friend just bought a C6 Z06...)
I have done some reading here on the forum and on the sites of supporting vendors.

There seem to be much support for going the centrifugal way and A&A especially. Can anyone elaborate why?

In the A&A kit, I see that you need to choose between standard and a 8 rib belt system. Should you go for the 8-rib, and why?
Are these kits complete with everything you need for the setup?

Is it a must to live-tune the car after installation, or is it possible to get a standard tune from the supplier (if the car is otherwise standard or you give the supplier your setup)?

What can I expect from reliability and driveability? My car is approx 45' miles and otherwise stock except an axleback.

And what about power? I see for example A&A says +175 rwhp. That means 500+ on the crank. Is that correct, give and take?

Other things I should bare in mind when considering supercharging the Vette?

Thanks in advance for your insightful replies.

 

Lot's of good reading material on the forced induction section.

The biggest question is how much power do you want to make? Going forced induction will get you anywhere from 500rwhp to 1000+ rwhp. That would answer all of the other questions.

If you are just going mild (<525 RWHP), then you wont have to do much of anything. Beyond that, and the supporting mods start driving up the cost.

For any supercharged application, you will be much better with a dyno or in-person tune than a mail order. For a mild S/C install, someone like ECS can probably get you pretty close.

 

More people go with tye centrifugal units since they create less heat and a more linear power curve. The roots blowers make monster torque way down low.

You'll need an 8rib setup and possible the direct drive conversion if you decide to chase high power with high boost levels. You'll need those options to avoid belt slip on a small pulley. If you stay under 700rwhp, it isn't really needed, IMO. I'm maxed out on the AA Si unit at 12lbs on a 3.4 pulley and 638rwhp. Car also has a blower cam and full exhaust. Just adding meth would bring it to or close 700rwhp

 

Thanks, we also supply start up tune files with our supercharger kit at no cost.

OP, sales are going on now for the ECS system, take a look into why we feel we offer the best system out there. The TQ output of our design is greater than any other centrifugal kit on the market.

 

Can anyone explain more about the different headunit types? For example A&A has standard, V-3, Y-trim and so on. At ECS it doesn't seem to be any choices there. What does that mean?

Another thing, I talked to a local tuner about installing a kit for me. He quoted me a price, if I chose a head unit like V3 so that he don't need to drill a hole in the engineblock for oil return??

 

A&A's standard head unit is smaller than what we start with, we have other options going larger, but we feel the smaller head unit is not in anyone's interest. Just our opinion with our experiences, you have more room to grow without any negatives on low end boost.

Only the largest head unit for our kit (1000+ HP) would require drilling the block.

 

i have the ECS novi 1500 kit on my C5 Z06 and i love it...i would always get a tune after getting something like a supercharger kit installed on your car..

 

at 600 horse you will be reaching the limit of the materials in your engine block and transmission, rear end etc.... if yours is an ls1 then you should expect 460-470 if its an auto trans and 480??? for stick car. If you do a blower cam while its apart for an additional 1000 bucks it will get you another 50 plus so you can see 525 at rear wheels with auto trans car. that is really all you will ever need and more than enough power to kill you three times over. the car will barely be tractable and dangerous with an automatic with 3.42 gears...tell me how i know.. over powered cars are dangerous cars and slow since they never hook. food for thought.

 

When it comes to the AA kits, you talk about the 8 rib setup or not. I understand that the 8 rib is a larger/wider belt setup? What about the Ecs kit, is that only with the standard belt setup?
I think I have the stock (from new) harmonic balancer. I guess that should the replaced in this process no matter?

Another thing; every other year I got to have a mandatory car inspection, and if they see I have a sc, it will not pass. I will probably need to remove the sc for this. I'm thinking of just removing the headunit and the ic, and have another belt that fits without the sc. My friend did this with his E60 M5 with ESS kit. Is there any reason why this would not work on the C5?

Thanks again for all your good responses, I'm getting kind of exited for this project now ��

 

Truer words never spoken.

 

ECS builds are never in the 400's to the tire, at least here anyway. Even the most base model will make 500 rwhp with an auto. Personally I would go with meth injection over a cam, much better return on investment since the limiting factor is octane which it now provides. Our base kit can max out octane in pump gas without a cam.

Your last sentence.. well we will just have to respectfully agree to disagree.

 

Although our idlers and spacing is ready to step up to an eight rib from the start, we have many car that have been in the 9's @ 140 MPH in the 1/4 mile with 700 rwhp from our base six rib drive. There is no need to increase it until you come close to those levels.

For inspection you could simply use your stock belt and tensioner and remove the items you listed.

I hope that helps.

 

Thanks Doug,

I see that A&A changes the fuelpump on earlier models, ECS uses 'only' boost a pump. Why is that?

 

Just FYI, I needed both to have safe fuel pressure all the way past redline. Even slight FP drop can lead to detonation, which has been known to shatter (shadoobie) ring lands. Meth also helps, but complicates the installation/tune. Very happy with my A&A kit, which I installed myself.

 

one thing i will say with any supercharger build is always try to have a meth kit installed and tuned for on your car ..as well as the rear steam port's....both will help you enjoy the car more..i did not have meth or the rear steam port's on my 03 z06 and now i am rebuilding the engine...but its good now as its getting all forged internals ..just some FYI

 

After a lot of search and pondering, I pulled the plug on a ECS kit from Doug. Good pre-sale service from Doug made the difference for me. Still not sure if either kit is better, but I guess that the fact that the head unit on the ECS kit is larger also is positive. I remember from my turbo days that larger head unit makes more power with less boost..

Anyways, can't wait until summer, this will be fun

I considered many options before I went the SC way. What tilted me that way in the end was that my friend bought a 2006 C6 Z06, Black on black, a real beast. That car is of course meaner in every way, but on pure dragracing down the Autobahn the coming spring, will I be able to keep up with him at all?

 

congrats and you will love it.doug and the team at ecs took a lot of phone calls from me while i was installing mine..they are great to work with..and as far as the c6 z06 my dad has an stock 08 c6 z06 and from a dig if i don' spin my tires i can take him to a given speed..then his top end will get me every single time

 

I think you'll be happy with the results. Good luck!

 

Thanks guys,

I think I'm still on the original harmonic balancer, so I will replace that since it's coming off anyway. From what I've read, I should go for an aftermarked unit. Are there any types that are not compatible with a SC kit (Have room for the crank pin that you need to install for example)? I guess I need to have a standard diameter type, not underdrive?

Any suggestions on what type to go for?

 

We typically use the Innovators west or ATI, I can throw one in the box to help with shipping and also send the correct pin kit. I'll have Alex send you quote via email.