Superchargers

[Tekeman]

So I've heard of Paxton, Vortech, Whippel among others.... is one better than another? Would only some fit my 5.0? Is there any problem with picking up a used one? Is anybody selling a used one? $3500 is a pretty hard nut to swallow. how much adjusting can you do on one with regards to boost pounds? ie can you install a "dial" to increase/decrease pounds depending if you want to stomp on it or just cruise. They advertise 40-50% HP increase, so if my mods. take me to about 240 gross hp, I can expect 350 ponies when blown? Just wondering.....Any useful info appreciated
BTW...literature I've read says a competent person can install a s/c in like 5 hrs How much fiddling do you need to do after the install. Alec, aren't you still fine tuning?

 

[Alec]

Did I hear my name?

Tek, I won't try to answer all your questions because there are many differences between the 4.0 and the 5.0, but I will try to give you some answers.

First of all, there are sometimes used blowers for sale on ebay. There were two Paxtons auctioned in the last 6 weeks that I can recall. As far as adding 40-50%, they do. Grossly converting my rw dyno numbers to engine numbers, both my hp and tq are up 100 from the stock 160/220. Estimating that my bolt-ons gave me 20 hp (K&N, TB, headers, catback), then the blower gave me 80 hp. As for tuning, there are some things that I'm slowly fiddling with on my truck to optimize the blower. It always runs very well with the gross tuning of fuel and timing that we did, but I fiddle with it every now and then to optimize it for the weather. I play with the secondary FMU, the timing controller that was part of the BBK kit, and the wastegate valves. I don't need to do this, but it gives me something to do and optimizes performance. With most blowers, you tune the fuel system on a dyno and get a custom chip to control timing and to help the fuel system. Also, if you have a wastegate, it's usually mechanically controlled. Mine is computer controlled but I can adjust some of the valving and plumbing. Unless you have a laptop that hooks into the vehicle or easily adjustable parts like me, you normally don't fiddle with stuff once its installed.

Installation: It took my mechanic 10-12 hours to install everything. This included the blower itself, the FMU, and the computer. The blower was the easy part. The FMU was kind of difficult to tune, and the computer was a b!tch to install. Since most blowers don't come with an extra computer like mine, you won't have that problem and can probably install the blower in a long weekend.

I had a very good experience getting the blower up and running. There were a few setbacks, but all in all it was a fairly simple project given the enormity. It took about 5 weeks to get everything finally done with my busy schedule (the truck was mostly drivable most of that time); but now it's very reliable and the truck runs so much better than stock, even when I'm not into boost.