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Doing Supercharger-need option advise

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Old 11-10-2015, 06:03 PM
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Steven Popham
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Default Doing Supercharger-need option advise

I'm going to do an ecs kit, headers looking for 600 rwhp.

For those of you that have done cam, alky, valve springs etc. would you do it again? Or wish you did or did not do it?

Looks like a&a has some advantages by not changing the water pump and coming with an upgraded balancer

Last edited by Steven Popham; 11-11-2015 at 08:40 AM.
Old 11-10-2015, 06:13 PM
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I have the ecs kit, no restrictor plate, alky and headers. If I could safely be at 650+ without alky I would but I'm ok with having it for what I'm doing right now. Only reason I would get rid of the alky at some point is I don't want to have to monitor it, pour it in, buy it, etc.
Old 11-10-2015, 10:08 PM
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0mike@calvomotorsport
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For your goal of 600rwhp you do not need a cam. The ecs kit with headers will get the job done. Can add alky for that extra fuel and safety and make a little more power and enjoy. Never had to Crack open the motor.

We are having an awesome sale on ecs and a&a kits etc. Shoot me a PM if interested man. Where are you located?
Old 11-11-2015, 07:55 AM
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I'm in San Antonio or Houston any given day. But San Antonio is home.

I'm asking about doing the cam and other upgrades, is it worth doing at once to avoid major double labor charges.
Old 11-11-2015, 08:08 AM
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Not really. The cam install is its own charge anyway. Feel free to give me a call today and we can discuss more. We are in Austin so not far from you
512-339-0330 mike
Old 11-11-2015, 08:39 AM
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Just sent you a pm Mike
Old 11-11-2015, 09:18 AM
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DOUG @ ECS
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Originally Posted by Steven Popham
I'm going to do an ecs kit, headers looking for 600 rwhp.

For those of you that have done cam, alky, valve springs etc. would you do it again? Or wish you did or did not do it?

Looks like a&a has some advantages by not changing the water pump and coming with an upgraded balancer

Just an fyi, we can supply an after market balancer, but for your goals it is not needed. Also the water pump gets machined to fit our larger HD tensioner, so one easy step added in the beginning gains a lifetime of a better tensioner.
Old 11-11-2015, 09:21 AM
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Im going with Andy and AA kit on my C7...customer service is awesome

With his kit it comes with a balancer and no waterpump machining too..

this is awesome!!

http://www.aacorvette.com/supercharg...roducts_id=437

Last edited by blown81bu; 11-11-2015 at 11:49 AM.
Old 11-11-2015, 09:33 AM
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DOUG @ ECS
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Originally Posted by blown81bu
Im going with Andy and AA kit on my C7...customer service is awesome

With his kit it comes with a balancer and no waterpump machining too..
Congratulations.
Old 11-11-2015, 09:50 AM
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Default For those that installed a cam.....

Originally Posted by Steven Popham
For those of you that have done cam, alky, valve springs etc. would you do it again? Or wish you did or did not do?
Fair question.....I would like to hear more feedback....I am considering this over the winter......the local shop has installed cams on two C7's.....
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Old 11-11-2015, 01:53 PM
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Originally Posted by blown81bu
Im going with Andy and AA kit on my C7...customer service is awesome

With his kit it comes with a balancer and no waterpump machining too..

this is awesome!!

http://www.aacorvette.com/supercharg...roducts_id=437
Glad you made your decision.

For others still on the fence, keep in mind that you do not need an SFI balancer unless your making crazy power. Many people have experienced surging at low speeds with this kit. I also looked at the attachment of the blower. A buddy has an A&A and loves it but if you pul on the SC, it has play. That worries me. The ECS mount is solid and does not move if you pull on it. As far as machining the water pump, since ECS installed mine, I could care less.

ECS does vent the valve covers to the air box. Some dislike the smell of oil in the cockpit. A breather eliminates this problem.

The other thing I looked at was the ability to have a 7 or 8 lb restrictor plate or pulling it when you decide you want more power without swapping out the head unit.

There is no RIGHT answer as to which is better. Comes down to what your priorities are. I can't speak to Andy's customer service but I can speak for my many experiences with ECS and those guys are phenomenal.

Whichever kit you go with you'll probably be happy. Pick the one best suited for your needs.

My only problem with Andy is he seems to critize "The other guys" and that just seems childish. ECS will respond but I have not seen Doug put down Andy's kit unless provoked. Not sure why Andy needs to keep throwing jabs at "the other guys". His products should stand on their own merits.

Last edited by C7-Beast; 11-11-2015 at 01:55 PM.
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Old 11-11-2015, 02:52 PM
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My only problem with Andy is he seems to critize "The other guys" and that just seems childish. ECS will respond but I have not seen Doug put down Andy's kit unless provoked. Not sure why Andy needs to keep throwing jabs at "the other guys". His products should stand on their own merits.
I just got off the phone with Chris,

we talked and I ended up agreeing with him to do, the

supercharger
headers
alky control unit
tune

he is saying this should be 600-650 rwhp that is reliable and proven to be safe. He was saying that there is no reason to open the motor until we know about the transmission and how well they are going to hold up. I agree, and I can always add cam, lifters, springs later on. This is the main hit, Chris and Doug have spent weekends on the phone with me, They have never down played anyone and have always been patient and professional with me. I feel comfortable with them and that is worth piece of mind to me. Ill just have to find someone to tune it for me.

Last edited by Steven Popham; 11-11-2015 at 02:53 PM.
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Old 11-11-2015, 03:05 PM
  #13  
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Originally Posted by Steven Popham
I just got off the phone with Chris,

we talked and I ended up agreeing with him to do, the

supercharger
headers
alky control unit
tune

he is saying this should be 600-650 rwhp that is reliable and proven to be safe. He was saying that there is no reason to open the motor until we know about the transmission and how well they are going to hold up. I agree, and I can always add cam, lifters, springs later on. This is the main hit, Chris and Doug have spent weekends on the phone with me, They have never down played anyone and have always been patient and professional with me. I feel comfortable with them and that is worth piece of mind to me. Ill just have to find someone to tune it for me.

Thanks Steven, we greatly appreciate your business!! I would be happy to either send you a tune file, or if you do not have software you can mail in your ECM and I'll install a file here for you to get started with. That's N/C btw when you purchase our SC kit.

Old 11-11-2015, 03:48 PM
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Doug,

I think we are going to give Mike with Calvo Motorsports the install and tune, He just went to work for the company. They are only an 1.5 hour drive for me. He is calling you guys right now to see what the lead time is going to be. It would be nice to have it back and driving before thanksgiving for sure
Old 11-11-2015, 04:19 PM
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I know Lethal Racing just did an ECS supercharger, headers, alky and tune at 11 pounds of boost and made 700 rwh and 639 torque. Mine is headed there Thanksgiving week for the same setup.
Old 11-11-2015, 05:04 PM
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Just placed the deposit, we are going to drop the car off 11/19/2015 and pick it up 11/25/2015 just in time for Thanksgiving.

Mike has been great to deal with, will keep you guys updated

this is

ECS kit T-trim novi 1500
alky control system
american racing headers
corsa exhaust
Old 11-11-2015, 06:20 PM
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Congratulations, you made the right choice. I just did the same install less the headers at ECS with tune by Doug. The car makes 686 WHP and is drivable just like stock. Its a sleeper with stock exhaust. Doug and Chris did a great job.
Originally Posted by Steven Popham
Just placed the deposit, we are going to drop the car off 11/19/2015 and pick it up 11/25/2015 just in time for Thanksgiving.

Mike has been great to deal with, will keep you guys updated

this is

ECS kit T-trim novi 1500
alky control system
american racing headers
corsa exhaust

Last edited by jdarc1; 11-11-2015 at 06:21 PM.

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Old 11-11-2015, 08:11 PM
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Originally Posted by Mike02Z
Glad you made your decision.

For others still on the fence, keep in mind that you do not need an SFI balancer unless your making crazy power. Many people have experienced surging at low speeds with this kit. I also looked at the attachment of the blower. A buddy has an A&A and loves it but if you pul on the SC, it has play. That worries me. The ECS mount is solid and does not move if you pull on it. As far as machining the water pump, since ECS installed mine, I could care less.
At the risk of sounding rude I guess one must defends ones self
The idea of bolting a finely machined piece to a cast piece just doesn't sound like the best way to go. A CNC machined inner and outer hub will run true. That's why I did it. It was not the SFI approval necessarily. I also like the idea of interchangeable lower rings like the CTSV. Do you absolutely need to have it? No. Is it better? Absolutely. It is included at no extra charge in all our kits.
Our blower moves when you pull on it? I can barely get it to move with a large pry bar on it. It's as solid a piece as we could make.
Rather than a 1" dowel we made a solid billet piece that attaches the blower bracket to the cylinder head. It attaches with 3/8" Grade 8 and M10 (Grade 10.9) bolts. The part attaching it to the water pump is a solid piece of 1.600" thick aluminum attached directly to the water pump with M10 (Grade 10.9) bolts It doesn't come much stronger than that.
I will, however, concede one thing. When I originally designed this system in 2013 I was adamant about running a long straight 4" MAF tube. I wanted to keep the diameter as close to stock as possible so the MAF would not need to be scaled back something like 30%. Our kit starts up and the fuel trims are almost dead on right out of the box. The transition from 3" to 4" did cause some turbulence. I'm still not sure why. But it is what it is.
Anyway Doug once told me something to the effect of "your MAF Tube sucks so you should redesign it" I'm paraphrasing here. Well I always listen to Doug, so I did. I will admit that 3 1/2" reduces the turbulence. We went back and forth and found that it was smoother yet with the air straightener in it so that was also added.
I hope you and Doug take this last part in the light hearted manner intended. No "jabs" intended. This may be the first and last time you hear this from me: "Doug was right"
The downside is that the MAF needs to be scaled back but that's really no big deal.
The bracket/ supercharger is delivered just as seen in the picture. It comes completely assembled. Even the bolts attaching the assembly to the engine are zip tied in the correct holes. Once the necessary parts are moved out of the way it is literally a 3 minute job to bolt the whole assembly to the engine.
As for the '14 - '15 changes go, we chose to make an entirely new bracket for the '15 rather than have to modify the water pump to allow the '14 bracket to fit. We actually made a bracket that fit both to save money but it was kind of ugly looking. I'm not saying that the other way is bad, I'm just saying we chose to do it this way. This will make a difference to the home installer. Also our '14 and '15 systems are the same price. Retail is $4995 including the $600 balancer. I guess the other upside to our kit is that we always (well 99% of the time) have everything in stock. We can ship a kit in two days, depending on work load.
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Old 11-11-2015, 08:43 PM
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Andy,

Thanks to be fair I didn't even consider your product when I was researching super chargers on here a month ago, Chris and Doug called and spent over an hour on the phone with me talking about options. I (thought) I wanted 1000+ horse car but they convinced me I didn't need to be the guennie pig for the A8. Hind sight is 20-20 but next time I will reach out, also If ecs droops the ball and the package isn't delivered by 11-23 as promised I'll be calling so keep a kit with a ti v3 on the shelf just in case! Thanks for the post
Old 11-11-2015, 08:59 PM
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Originally Posted by Andy@A&ACorvette
At the risk of sounding rude I guess one must defends ones self
The idea of bolting a finely machined piece to a cast piece just doesn't sound like the best way to go. A CNC machined inner and outer hub will run true. That's why I did it. It was not the SFI approval necessarily. I also like the idea of interchangeable lower rings like the CTSV. Do you absolutely need to have it? No. Is it better? Absolutely. It is included at no extra charge in all our kits.
Our blower moves when you pull on it? I can barely get it to move with a large pry bar on it. It's as solid a piece as we could make.
Rather than a 1" dowel we made a solid billet piece that attaches the blower bracket to the cylinder head. It attaches with 3/8" Grade 8 and M10 (Grade 10.9) bolts. The part attaching it to the water pump is a solid piece of 1.600" thick aluminum attached directly to the water pump with M10 (Grade 10.9) bolts It doesn't come much stronger than that.
I will, however, concede one thing. When I originally designed this system in 2013 I was adamant about running a long straight 4" MAF tube. I wanted to keep the diameter as close to stock as possible so the MAF would not need to be scaled back something like 30%. Our kit starts up and the fuel trims are almost dead on right out of the box. The transition from 3" to 4" did cause some turbulence. I'm still not sure why. But it is what it is.
Anyway Doug once told me something to the effect of "your MAF Tube sucks so you should redesign it" I'm paraphrasing here. Well I always listen to Doug, so I did. I will admit that 3 1/2" reduces the turbulence. We went back and forth and found that it was smoother yet with the air straightener in it so that was also added.
I hope you and Doug take this last part in the light hearted manner intended. No "jabs" intended. This may be the first and last time you hear this from me: "Doug was right"
The downside is that the MAF needs to be scaled back but that's really no big deal.
The bracket/ supercharger is delivered just as seen in the picture. It comes completely assembled. Even the bolts attaching the assembly to the engine are zip tied in the correct holes. Once the necessary parts are moved out of the way it is literally a 3 minute job to bolt the whole assembly to the engine.
As for the '14 - '15 changes go, we chose to make an entirely new bracket for the '15 rather than have to modify the water pump to allow the '14 bracket to fit. We actually made a bracket that fit both to save money but it was kind of ugly looking. I'm not saying that the other way is bad, I'm just saying we chose to do it this way. This will make a difference to the home installer. Also our '14 and '15 systems are the same price. Retail is $4995 including the $600 balancer. I guess the other upside to our kit is that we always (well 99% of the time) have everything in stock. We can ship a kit in two days, depending on work load.
Andy, as I stated, I have had no experience with your SC kit. Maybe my buddy's car may have had an install issue as he did the install himself. I'm sure your kit is great. My buddy loves it.

Yes, I agree the SFI balancer is probably the best way to go but at 650-700 HP you know it's not needed. Nice to have, but not a necessity.

You really don't need to defend yourself or your kit. I bear no ill will to you at all. My 2 points were there are other options (good for the customer) and I'd prefer not to see any vendor talk about "the other guys".

There are enough people that want SC's that there should be enough business for all major SC players. In my honest opinion, when vendors start talking about " the other guys" they are trying to put down a competitor. As noted, your kit can stand on its own without knocking anyone. This is just my take. No one should get offended.

It's all good Andy. Keep up the good work. I think the 2 best aftermarket kits sold are your kit and Doug's. Can't we all just get along?

I had to save your post saying that Doug was right about something

Last edited by C7-Beast; 11-11-2015 at 09:03 PM.


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