supercharge kits - worth it?

[tribetype40 0]

Hi fellas, Considering more power, just sold the Esprit and returned to the trusty corrado so finding it 'quick' but theres no push in the back.

Not really interested in the turbo route as I didn't really like the whole lag thing.

 

So, supercharging.... I've read a fair bit on here particularly on the forced induction thread but that seemed to bounce around alot between turboing and charging and people part way through building or chasing big HP.

 

I'm not interested in big HP but getting a health shove in the back will be a welcome upgrade. I dont have much time so would be looking at a straight forward kit install. What I would like is peoples feedback the kits they have fitted. Is it worth it etc??

 

is the vf vortech kit the only one available?

 

Cheers,

 

Doug

[ProdigalSon 1]

Hi Doug,

 

Are you running a VR6 or a 16V? Both can be charged without too much difficulty, but it's good to know what you're starting with! :wink:

[marcus 0]

Choose a turbo with minimal lag! turbo power delivery always 'feels' stronger to drive than a charger.

[VR6 0]

*Worth* it?

 

I think you'd struggle to get more extra power for your money, also bearing in mind the installation time/hassle.

[tribetype40 0]

hi, I always forget this! I have a '95 VR6 Storm

[KADVR6 0]

there are a couple of very cheap kits on vr6oc at the moment, ones a vortech v1 kit, the other is a zr1 kit. both are for golfs so will need re-mapping.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

If you want a kick in the back, it can only be a turbo or the Rotrex supercharger.

 

The Vortechs do nothing useful until you're past 4000rpm.

[jamminvr6storm 0]

If you want a kick in the back, it can only be a turbo or the Rotrex supercharger.

 

The Vortechs do nothing useful until you're past 4000rpm.

 

 

Its a shame but i have to agree ^ ^

 

I have a V9 on my storm, plus a few other 'choice' modifications big valve head etc... its great above 3.5k! Obviously no lag, so my advice would be Rotrex all the way!

[tribetype40 0]

any links to a rotrex kit? or what spec charger I will need to look out for?

[Jim Bowen 1]

returned to the trusty corrado so finding it 'quick' but theres no push in the back.

 

 

 

i was disappointed by this too, think i over estimated the VR6 before i bought one.

 

still a very capable car, its just very smooth delivery.

 

i think with all these modern turbo cars with 1 big whallop of power has made people forget about refined power

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Trust me, a turbo on the VR6 is very refined and not laggy in the slightest ;-)

 

A nice mid frame turbo like the GT3076 is swelling at 2000rpm and it's kicking hard by 2800rpm. Takes some finesse with the throttle to avoid wheelspin.

 

In the real world, the biggest bonus of a turbo (or indeed a Rotrex) is fully appreciated when you're sat at 70mph in 5th on the motorway in the outside lane. When the car in front moves over, push the throttle and the car accelerates away like the stock car pulls in 2nd. In both standard form and Vortech'd form, you have to drop to 4th to get any real progress and even then it's miles off the pace of a turbo.... even running 8psi!

 

The reason for that is the torque delivery. What the Vortech does at 7000rpm, the turbo is doing at 3000rpm and the difference is night/day.

 

As Jammin says, I was also pretty dissapointed with my Vortech, even when running it at 12psi, so it had to go.

It just felt like stock plus a bit more at high revs. I was after the midrange kick I was led to believe Superchargers deliver, but that's where the Rotrex differs, it DOES deliver the midrange thump.

 

http://www.stormdevelopments.co.uk is the link for the Rotrex setup.

 

No offense intended to any Vortech owners by the way, I'm just being honest and the question was asked, are they worth it? Yes they are, but sadly not a Vortech because it's midrange clout the poster is after.

[jamminvr6storm 0]

A couple of points to add...

 

It depends what you want the car to do, as in a Vortech will ad a good 60-80BHP to the top end (if stage 2 or beyond) so with them being quite cheap now on the second hand market its still a good option for a power increase.

 

The Schrick inlets are supposed to help with low down power but as I dont have a one i cannot comment.

 

Rotrex are quite a bit more expensive (over 3k new :shock: ) so it also depends on your budget as with that kind of cash you could have a nice Turbo set up.

 

I actually bought my Vortech off Andy @ Storm and he has been very good with advice since so I would recommend using them if you do decide to go Rotrex.

 

I have always found the best place for a VR6 in standard form is in a mk2 goof since driving a one, as you have to remember the Corrado (allthough it looks great).... its still a heavy car!

[herisites 0]

I am currently in the process of fitting a Rotrex charger to my VR6. I was originally going to go for a Vortech purely for the reason you can have close to 300bhp for about £2k considering a shrick and 268 cams would come close to that fitted and you wouldn't have anywhere near the power of the charger. I drove Karls vortech charged vr and i loved it, but did notice that it didnt feel any different to standard until you are up the revs, and even then the power delivery is progressive and smooth so feels naturally aspirated.

 

Then a rotrex SP30-84 charger came up for sale for a bargain price on this forum so after reading about them i just had to have it. The rotrex's deliver power from the word go, when Mr_Fusion was fitting his it gave 5psi pretty much straight away which is awesome, mind you his did end up running about 15psi and killed his head gasket! My charger is now an old model and is now taken over by the C30-84 or for silly power C30-94, they are the same design however the C models have a stronger gearbox and longer lasting bearings when running big power, i believe the C30-94 charger can go to 400bhp which is turbo territory!

 

If you keep your eye on the FI VR6 thread i will be updating as i fit mine which will be within the next couple of weeks touch wood!

[craziscot 0]

I over estimated the punch of the VR6 when I bought it, but now with the Rotrex its very much the car I wanted, very punchy at lower speeds and quick accelerating, then very satisfying when some suited muppet in his 530i trys to tail gate you out the way only to be left in the distance of the rear view mirror!! :lol:

 

Storm Developments did my install along with lots of other work, excellant service and after care. Give them a call they do a very well priced stage 1 kit with the C30-94, 6-Branch, Aquamist, Tuning and a bag of other bits and pieces.........

[Taggart 0]

herisites - how much did you pay for your kit if you don't mind me askin'? Did you get it new?

[herisites 0]

herisites - how much did you pay for your kit if you don't mind me askin'? Did you get it new?

 

Nah i got it second hand from Coxylad, i got the charger itself along with a mocal oil cooler with the chargers oil supply etc for 650 notes, billy bargain! Then i got the custom bracket, pullies, belt and the stupidly expensive traction oil that rotrexes can only run on :roll: from a company in Denmark called R-Techs who specialise in Rotrex charger and supply Storm i believe which all came to about £400. Thats everything to fit the charger to the block, then i ordered all my silicon/alloy piping which has come to about £150 and im going for a quick cheap route for the mo until i can afford to get my head rebuilt and go for silly power so for now im getting a custom fuel regulator from Storm which ups the flow of the stock injectors and is good for 6-7psi (about 260bhp) and doesnt require any ECU mapping!! Thats going to cost £140 though, ouch! And because its only 6psi it doesnt need any additional cooling either. So altogether along with new oil, plugs, K&N filter etc its going to cost me about £1500 :D only for now though, i am going to save up and get the head done with metal gasket and ARP head and conrod bolts and then go for about 12 psi which will obviously need larger injectors, aquamist cooling and a full map!

[Veearrhsix 0]

I've only recently bought my C. & I've gotta admit disappointment is sinking in re. it's mid range power... Just like other members have commented - I'm wondering is a Rotrex turbo installation the ideal solution? And if so where do I go to get it installed (I live in Manchester)?

 

While I'm at it, where could I go to get the engine reconditioned too? ...as I can see the head gasket's on it's early way out... Questions, questions, questions! Any comments would be appreciated! :)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I've only recently bought my C. & I've gotta admit disappointment is sinking in re. it's mid range power... Just like other members have commented - I'm wondering is a Rotrex turbo installation the ideal solution? And if so where do I go to get it installed (I live in Manchester)?

 

Either are good. Up to about 8psi, both are similarly priced, but go over that and both will get expensive as they need proper internal mods to beef them up to take the boost. StormDevelopments are the only folk in the UK that do the Rotrex stuff - http://www.stormdevelopments.co.uk

 

As for turbos, there are no kits for UK cars.

 

While I'm at it, where could I go to get the engine reconditioned too? ...as I can see the head gasket's on it's early way out... Questions, questions, questions! Any comments would be appreciated! :)

 

Well that would be a great oppurtunity to prepare the motor for boost :-)

 

What makes you think the gasket is dying? Ignore a sweat of oil by the pulleys, they all do that. There's not quite enough head bolts in that area. So long as the plugs are staying dry and not oiling up and it's not losing water, I'd leave well alone...... until you go forced induction that is ;-)

[CrazyDave 0]

For mid range kick the turbo is spot on, and lag is minimal with modern turbos if you size it properly (fully spooled at about 2.5k ish). Smooth, quiet, refined. Got one of these :)

 

Vortech's are very linear, but you have to work the engine into the upper rev range to get full boost. Charger gearbox whine sounds good, but some get bored of it. Drove one of these on Saturday! :)

 

Rotrex have a good mix, the rather clever gearing system allows it to run much higher boost lower down. So this should be good. Almost silent gear drive. Not been in one of these yet but look and sound very promising. Rob's going to take me out in his :lol:

 

Downsides:

Turbo. No RHD turbo kits and you really do need to do head / rod bolts as a minimum to get the engine bottom end suitable. Cost?

 

Vortech. Midrange a little dissapointing. Belt maintenance quite high.

 

Rotex. Help me out lads, I can't think of any for the Rotrex? Except that maybe running so much boost all the time will kill the fuel economy. Somebody reported only getting 150 miles to a tank!!! But he is making 370hp :shock:

[Lizard Racing 0]

With my Rotrex setup I am making 370 BHP @ JUST 3941 RPM and thats the maximum Storms rollers could measure so its well over 400 BHP maybe even 450 BHP who nows. The downside is the economy or lack of and also the cost involved getting this sort of power.

[junkie 0]

You seriously ned to get it onto some rollers that can measure more bhp/torque.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Stealth Racing have bought a new controller for their Dyno which will read over 500hp at the wheels. Not sure when this will happen, but I'll be first on there!

 

18psi is good for 400whp with a turbo. The rotrex might make that with 20psi, but it's flow is reducing the higher the revs get.

 

What you need is a nice GT35R turbo....kicks hard all the way to 7000rpm and will do 600hp without breaking into a sweat. Can deliver 40psi.

[Veearrhsix 0]

Thanks for the nudge in the right direction! And yeah it is oil sweating down its sides cheesewire... I'll keep an eye on it tho. Rotrex it shall be CrazyDave - but not yet, as suspension shaking2: will be one of the first things to tally off my long long list.

[CrazyDave 0]

Thanks for the nudge in the right direction! And yeah it is oil sweating down its sides cheesewire... I'll keep an eye on it tho. Rotrex it shall be CrazyDave - but not yet, as suspension shaking2: will be one of the first things to tally off my long long list.

 

Good choice, but they are all pretty good in their own way.

 

Trouble with this stuff is that once you start it just goes on and on. I blame the forum myself, for putting all these ideas in our heads! :lol:

[dukest 0]

I blame the forum myself, for putting all these ideas in our heads! :lol:

Couldn't agree more! The Forum is directly responsible for £1300 of purchases in the last 3 months that I didn't have the money for in the first place! I never would have known about any of those bits had I not been on here! :D :D

 

*edit: and just confirm the OT-ness, thats not money spent on a charger either!