As a relative newbie, I am weighing my options on which supercharger to pick for my new 2014 Stingray. As I see it, the choices are ECS, A&A, Edelbrock (not out till March/April) and ProCharger. I have read pros and cons to each system and now I am really flat *** confused. I have started leaning towards the A&A supercharger, just for the plane reason that the shop I am using has started to convince me this is the way to go. They are are A&A and ECS shop, but also deal in others as well.

Please would someone help with this decision, making my head spin!!!

Thanks in advance.

Jay

 

I just ordered the Procharger Tuner Kit. My primary reasons were cost, , ease of installation, no irreversible changes to the car, a conservative tune, and less heat soak than a roots. I have installed a centrifugal supercharger before on the last generation LT1 and this looks way easier. I like A&A's reputation and prices, would have gone that way had they had a sale. I think Vortech and PFADT are overpriced. Best of luck.

Edit: A comment on the conservative tune part: you can blow your motor up with an aggressive tune and a bad tank of gas, happened to a friend of mine and read about it many times. Best to stay conservative.

 

My personal choice would be ECS with A&A or Procharger as quick second. That may change once we see more detail on the A&A kits. ECS and A&A have notoriously been the kings of the corvette blower systems for years now. When you base your entire business on a single platform for the most part you are bound to be better than the competitors that offer wide varieties of blower systems.

On another note, prochargers system does look very nice and it is currently available unlike A&A. So really your only choice is ECS or Procharger. My dollar goes to ECS simply because the "base" blower that is included in the kit has more capability and room for power increase without upgrading the head unit than the base blower included with the procharger kit. Both kits are about the same price. Both will work great and are well engineered.

I would personally stay away from any of the positive displacement or screw type blowers (edelbrock, Magnuson, Whipple, Kenne Bell)

The centrifugal blowers will be more efficient and run cooler and also make for a faster car.

If you simply want big block torque off idle and like to smoke tires without really caring how fast the car is, than a screw blower is for you.

 

ECS holds all the records for c5 and c6 cars for blower cars. Chris/Doug are top notch (Matt too). You can get them on the phone, ask for help, etc. The service is top notch along with the quality of the kit. Friend ordered his ECS kit yesterday. For the price the ECS the way to go. I looked at the PC kit but when you add black, D1SC, plugs, tune, etc you are spending $600-800 more than the ECS kit which has already proven to make 800+rwhp. There is nothing irreversible on the ECS kit.

A&A isn't out yet but their systems are nice too. I've installed A&A, ECS and procharger on c6. ECS>A&A>PC on the c6, who knows on the c7 yet since not a single person has seen all 3 yet in person. Right now no one has installed more than one kit so it will be hard to say but I know you can't go wrong with the ECS kit.

If you aren't doing the install yourself get what your local shop/etc will support but I strongly suggest the ECS kit.

It does look like PC is moving forward and may have fixed the issues of the previous kits but it is a bit early to see. I wouldn't gamble on it. Too many people swapping PC brackets/etc for A&A/ECS setups to make me want to gamble that they actually did a decent job on the c7 kit.

 

Another reason I bought the Procharger is because they posted detailed models of the setup and it looked very robust to me (as a mechanical engineer) structurally and with the 8 ribbed belt. The last SC I had was a 6 rib and it slipped sometimes.

I think its not good to have a black supercharger as it will absorb more heat from the engine than a polished or satin finish.

 

Then order the polished, ECS includes that at no extra. ABS line thing is a joke. ECS also has an 8 rib direct drive setup just like the PC setup.

The brackets haven't been an issue, it is the tensioners/idlers/etc they use. A&A and ECS have always had MUCH nicer tensioners/pulleys/etc.

Anyone claiming one is perfect/etc is just fan boy nonsense since no one has installed a PC kit besides PC, and no one has installed multiple vendor kits yet. I was going off historical c6/c5 stuff. I'll be installing an ECS kit in a week or so. Wait a month or two and get some more real world feedback. So far the shops/customers with ECS kits are very happy and it is making great numbers. Hopefully we see the same with other brands.

 

Thanks for the info on the pulleys and tensioners, didn't know that. I will inspect those closely when it gets here and post some pics.

 

To each their own. Be lucky that there are 2-3 nice kits. ECS, Procharger and A&A will all be nice kits and make plenty of people happy.

Custom intercooler is funny. As someone that has made a ton of intercoolers in their life I find that term funny to use. Would anything but OEM be custom? Hand fabbed endtanks custom? Cast endtanks custom? What makes an intercooler custom?

I believe ECS said they ship all the OEM parts needed to go back to stock. I guess I'll find out in a week when the kit shows up.

I'm glad posting some solid works drawing really impresses some people.

The swivel tensioners on the ECS/A&A kits are much nicer in design than the rod style in the PC kits from my experience. ECS uses nice steel idler pulleys, others use plastic ones. Not a big deal at first but when you start swapping them out once a year it kind of sucks. I don't know what others are using on c7 kits but ECS always uses top of the line parts.

PS. I'm an engineer so my opinion counts.

 

What is your opinion on having headers installed along with a supercharger. I have heard different opinions, most are saying it is not necessary and can in fact impact the overall performance.

 

I'm really trying to be a good boy and stay out of this, but every post of his on SC threads is like this...

I'm going to try to pick this apart objectively. I'm not going to be rude, and I'm not going to use any company names and kit types, because it's unnecessary. Please don't take this as an attack - I'm merely trying to counter-point some of these in an objective manner. I'm sure others will appreciate it.

To the OP, you will find arguments in every thread - quite simply, we've all been on the fence looking at each of the kits. The only definitive answers you will see are usually coming from people that don't have the kits, and have never seen them for that matter... Choose your advice carefully, and make sure to call the respected shops here.

They're extremely helpful, and are dealers for all of the brands discussed on the forums.

I'm not sure CAD/CAM and a few press shots make this option the one with the most details. Actually, if you look closer at the thread, we're not getting a lot of info because it has been sold to other media outlets (magazines)... Not a fan of that tactic.

Until parts start going bad, or don't work in the first place... If you're worried about specs, you'd be foolish not to pick the kit with the best specs.

I like this too, but you won't get rattling with the proper hard-pipe setup. Silicone charge tubes have caused issues in the past, so it remains to be seen if this is a positive or a negative.

And how does it differ from the other kits? The others use the same type of designs. One takes it even further than required - as a fellow engineer, you should really stand back and admire that.

I'm not aware of any kits that make you "hack up" anything. All of the other (real) kits that require trimming or cutting are providing the OEM pieces pre-cut in order for customers to set aside the original panels.

As Unreal said, they're all custom intercoolers... The flat IC isn't a revelation, seeing as how several others kits have the exact same design. Yes, there's an option, but I have no idea why someone would block the over-burdened radiator. Regardless...

You're really pushing this, aren't you? Do me a favor. Walk outside to your car, pop the hood, and look at the lines. They are suspended. Literally. Suspended in the air without any clamps, clips, etc. The only thing keeping those lines tensioned is the bracket on the ABS module. Remove the bolt, and see what happens. That's how much play there is in the stock system. You jumped on a bandwagon that was started by a low-level employee at a shop that uses and sells that kit... It's hilarious at this point.

See what happens when you want to use larger head units on these kits - I'll bet dollars to donuts that you'll wind up in the same place. If this really does it for you, and makes you feel good about your decision, then I suppose that's fine. Others shouldn't continue to hear this nonsense, however. All five major vendors have explicitly stated that it is a non-issue, and one of the leading tuners and vehicle manufacturers laughed off the implication that it was an issue.

Now that's a first. Out of five of the major shops I've spoken with here, I didn't get that feeling from a single one of them. In fact, the overwhelming recommendation was to 'wait a month and see'. Sage advice, actually.

Now that I can't argue with - we have several great kits to choose from. It really will come down to individual preference - be that price, installation difficulty, power goals, emissions, etc. Lots to look into here for all of us.

 

Only one kit manufacturer has stated that they lost power with LTs. All of the vendors who have tested the other kits here have stated that they gained power and/or efficiency with the addition of LT or mid-length headers.

...

 

I've seen 30+rwhp with every set of headers on a s/c application. So can they impact performance, hell yes they can. Is 30+rwhp worth it to you for $1500-1800? On higher horse cars I've seen 20-30rwhp gains from going from 1 7/8" to 2" headers.

If you want 550-600rwhp or so then just bolt the blower on and enjoy it, but if you want to start turning it up then it is time to add headers.

I would look at doing some cat elim pipes if you don't want headers, or knock the cats out. I've seen too many bad things happen from people melting cats and then losing motors. I personally will never run cats on a s/c car but some people do with success, but I error on keeping the motor alive.

 

 

Tough here as all have good parts, Be nice to get some parts from others to make a kit!
I like the Procharger bracket which fits on with no moving anything.
but not that adjustor or blower But rather have 1500 or t trim or even si.
In that case the ECS bracket, but I like the A&A or Procharger intercooler in that order.
I like parts of all 3 but none of the total kits do I totally like.
So far but have not seen every part of all the kits.

Here's my choice's in order!

Bracket------------ Blowerhead----------- Intercooler
Procharger --------------- ECS or A&A -------- A&A
ECS -------- ---------- Procharger -------------- Procharger
A&A ------------ ---------- --------------- ECS

I like the Procharger crank pulley system have not seen the others system.

So it's tough pick! maybe I'll check the parts to make a perfect kit!
Waiting to see more also!

 

In a perfect world, we'd make a franken-hybrid out of the kits.

I'm nearly-positive that the PC and ECS crank pulley setups are using the cam locks (6-bolt). A&A is using an entirely new (machined) part in the place of the factory balancer. Andy just posted pics in the other thread.

...

 

The crank setups are nearly identical on all the kits.

 

This is what we are doing for the crank pulley. It's an SFI approved unit with interchangeable outer pulleys. In my mind this is the best way to do it.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/atta...1&d=1392252773

 

 

I have a PD blower on my DD Mercedes and I like it for a street car. Since my Corvettes are also street cars, I lean towards the Edelbrock E-Force PD blower. Edlebrock has been a major player in intake manifolds, heads, crate engines and superchargers for years and they do their development in house on an engine dyno plus do their manufacturing in house where they can control all aspects of QC.

 

Doesnt take a perfect world. Many of us have been mix and matching ECS and A&A kit parts for years. This is no different.

Andy's balancer is dope!

That is something I would like to see offered by everyone that is building these kits, its truly worth the extra money. Andy scored big points on that one.

Probably would not be a universal part though as Im sure none of them use the same standoffs or spacing. To use his balancer with anyone elses kit you would have to do some custom work. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but would deter the average garage mechanic from doing it.