Ford Forums banner

Vortech/Powerdyne/Whipple?

11K views 44 replies 11 participants last post by  gus351 
#1 ·
Just wondering what brand of supercharger people have chosen to run and the reasons why they chose that particular brand or type of blower. I've been toying with the idea of supercharging my I6 wish it was a V8 :( EFII Fairmont with the intention of achieving around 240/250 rwkw and also making it a more driveable cruiser.

CAPA have a few centrifugal blower kits advertised on their site and I'm after some feedback from people who have purchased these kits on whether they are easy to install, whether they achieved respectable power figures, and if they encountered any reliability issues.

I'd also be interested to hear from people who have chosen a roots type blower such as a whipple and how they went about making or sourcing a suitable manifold.

Your help would be much appreciated
Anth
 
#2 ·
I went with a Vortech V2 blower on mine for the reason that tons of people use them, their quality seems to be very good and you can get decent boost out of them. I would stay away from Powerdyne because their internal belt design is a weak point, you can only really get 6-8psi max out of them which will only get you to the low 200rwkw mark.

As for the CAPA kits, they are easy to install because every last bit is included. A full install should take 2-3 days of work for the ordinary person, as long as you dont run into any little snags along the way.

Drivability is generally close to stock, idle to around 2500-3000rpm is just like stock then the boost starts to come in. Reliability should also be good as long as your engine is in good condition, I would always recommend a basic rebuild before installing a blower anyway.
 
#3 ·
Whipple is a better more efficient design over the Roots type...But for general street use the many sizes of centrifical Vortech is great..Easy to fit,can be pulled off anytime without too many signs it was blown...
 
#4 ·
i got the V2 for the same reasons, i also like that it is all under bonet.
my sujestion is if u get an ea-ed kit . U can use el fans & if ur not nere capa find some one local for ur chip & tuning.
capa were exceptionly helpfull to me .
210rwkw 8 psi stock edxr8 engine, pacrmakers,gen3 cats 2 1/2 in to 3in strate through muffler & 3in out.
126rwkw when i got it & had a 2 1/2 fron the y back system put on for some sound LOL
 
#7 ·
#10 ·
chich said:
Waiting for CAPA to give me some feedback.. should be interesting!!
I hope your not waiting for an email response because I don't think they ever look at their emails.

As for the V1 vs V2, I was going to get a V1 but I went and visited CAPA and one of the sales guys had a V1 on his car and they are loud. After hearing it I got the V2, it still has a very noticable whine at idle but far less than the V1.
 
#11 ·
Post from Corral...
The V1 is loud at idle only. Anything above 1000 rpm's and there is no more noise, at least from the V1's i've heard locally. The whistle is still noticeable from about 800rpm to about 1400rpm and then it goes away entirely; that is while sitting in the car as the exhaust pretty much drowns out any other noise outside the car. It may be different when passing by someone stationary that can listed for it, but i wouldn't think it would be too noticeable.
Another..
Well, the V1 is just extremely LOUD... the V2 is quieter, but it still "whistles"
_______________________________________________________________
 
#12 ·
I was waiting for an email response but I suppose i better forget that...
I'm probably set on the Vortech V2 but I want to know what components and modifications are needed to run their stage 2 and 3 kits and whether the 4 and 5 Litre kits are interchangable.
I like the idea of a force fed six as it would be somewhat unique but I've still got my heart set on a 5 Litre conversion. Nothing like the sound of these damn windors with a decent exhaust. I've given myself 6 months to find a donor vehicle so if that doesn't work out, blowing the thing stupid is definitely on the cards!!
 
#13 ·
No the kits are not interchangable between the I6 and V8's. If you change you will need a new pulley system and bracket, the V8 kits also come with a MAF. For the I6, the stage 2 kits are use the powerdyne blowers while the stage 3 run the vortech. For info on their kits give CAPA a call and ask for Justin, he has helped a couple of us out with out blowers and gives some great advice.
 
#14 ·
I have also been toying with the idea of a blower kit from capa and was considering the powerdyne but it seems it has reliability issues from the few posts here. One quick question, how many people are running blowers with std btr auto's and how are they holding up with the increased torque??
 
#15 ·
Noddy said:
I have also been toying with the idea of a blower kit from capa and was considering the powerdyne but it seems it has reliability issues from the few posts here. One quick question, how many people are running blowers with std btr auto's and how are they holding up with the increased torque??
The powerdyne does have reliability issues but they are still a decent entry level blower. They are however extremely limited in boost with most seeing only 7-8psi on standard engines and less with modified ones. Their internal belt and bearing design can be a problem and they should really be rebuilt every couple of years. The vortech on the other hand is basically bullet-proof, they can be run to around 16psi boost if required and aren't that much more expensive. Downsides are they need oil lines which means tapping into the sump, and are usually audible at idle (blower whine).

I run the 4 speed on mine but haven't doen many kms (tuning issues), but from all reports, with a large cooler, a shift kit and regualr oil changes they hold up well.
 
#16 ·
Yes raising line presure and fitting AU solinoids raises power level....
Good BIG cooler as said...
 
#17 ·
ebxr8240 said:
Yes raising line presure and fitting AU solinoids raises power level....
Good BIG cooler as said...
I take it being a T3 it has an auto oil cooler std, bit it probably a small unit?? What is the best way to increase line pressure?? I was thinking of purchasing one of those shiftkits, either two stage switch or fully adjustable. Is there an alternate option to this?
 
G
#18 ·
EDXR8 said:
Downsides are they need oil lines which means tapping into the sump,
With mine i am planning on running a seperate resivour for oil (full synthetic) and an inline oil pump, going through a decent sized tranny cooler to keep it cool, and back into the blower again.
a mate over the other side of town has the same kind of setup on his blown X-flow.

my crank pulley should be turning up in the next week or 2, just after a 3inch 8 rib pulley for the blower
 
#19 ·
Believe it or not I actually received feedback from CAPA. In a nutshell they advised that a Vortech can only be supplied with a stage 3 kit and would most likely be set up to run 9psi of boost. They believe that with this amount of boost a standard engine would produce somewhere between 240-280kw. I find it hard to believe that this sort of power can be achieved with no engine mods.. surely they must not be telling me something. I'd imagine that at leats an exhaust is needed to achieve decent power figures.
Also... how the hell can they justify $8000 for a kit without including an exhaust or ECU? The blower costs about $3K.. unless they're made out of titanium the brackets aren't worth 5 grand!
 
#20 ·
Yeah most of the figures CAPA work on are with exhaust and extractors, and are generally fairly conservative IMO. Those sort of power figures can be achieved fairly easily when you are talking about boost, people get close to 200rwkw (about 260-270fwkw) with just the basic powerdyne kit so the vortech with the extra boost can make that power easy.

As for the pricing, it is good value when you consider it comes with absolutely everything needed to install, and as far as I was aware included a custom chip or I think now they are running unichips. You could do it cheaper but you would have to fabricate brackets, the pulley system, piping etc etc and even then it all adds up. In the end you are paying a bit more for the convenience of a complete kit that is easy to install and produces good relaible power.
 
#22 ·
Looks like i'm going to have to speak to an installer here in melb to see whats included in these kits. Whichever path i take - blown 6 or 5 Litre conversion, i'd like about 250rwkw. As it stands the vortech seems to be the easiest way to achieve this.
Has anyone had experience with whipple blowers on an I6?
 
#23 ·
There is an ff member that had a AUii 200kw xr8 t5, 3.73 with a vortech, pacies and cai which was putting out 379rwhp. I think that works out to around 282rwkw, freaky engine. It is the GRUNTR! :ymca: From memory i thinks his pb was 12.7 in street trim. :bowd:
 
#24 ·
i imported my own vortech kit V2SQ 5.0. No Ecu mods required.. Runs stock injectors. stock maf. T-rex fuel pump. FMU to raise fuel pressure under boost.. And a MSD BTM. To retard timing under boost. cost all up about $3600 and i installed it in my garage in 2 days.. no detonation runs perfect.
 
#25 ·
Mate, If you want your car to hammer get a Kenne Bell Supercharger it is a Twin Screw design. They run cooler then a Roots system and get more power quicker then a CAPA supercharger. Don't muck around with CAPA they are full of sh!t. No offence to anyone, but I am yet to see a STREET DRIVEN Ford 5.0 that goes hard with a CAPA kit in Brisbane.

I will get you the contact person in the next couple of days regarding the Kenne Bell Supercharger.


Read this:

How well does the new Kenne Bell BLOWZILLA/FLOWZILLA work? Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords Editor Richard Holdener recently tested the Kenne Bell BLOWZILLA/FLOWZILLA kit on his own engine with the Westech engine dyno. The little 302 had #185 AFR heads, Comp Cams #274 cam, 75mm throttle body, 77mm mass air, Kenne Bell Switch Chip and 42 lb injectors. The combination made an amazing 508HP at 9.2 psi and 484 (ft lbs) at 7.5 psi with a pavement ripping flat torque curve (453-483 ft lbs). 483 ft lbs @ 4000 rpm. That's 500" engine torque numbers. The boost never varied or dropped off from 2500 up - and there was another 9 psi left in the supercharger.
 
#26 ·
Noddy said:
There is an ff member that had a AUii 200kw xr8 t5, 3.73 with a vortech, pacies and cai which was putting out 379rwhp
A bit more than just pacies, cai and vortech now. Definitely a beast :hy:

Mechanical mods (from http://www.grunter.com.au);

Mechanical:
Trick Flow Twisted Wedge Cylinder Heads (link)
Trend Pushrods
Crane Gold Aluminium Pro/Race 1:7 Rocker Arms
Ford Motorsport B303 camshaft
Phenolic Spacer
Rollmaster Timing Chain Set
Vortech V-2 Supercharger @ 10psi (link)
T-Rex Fuel Pump
Injectors
Water Injection
Pacemaker 4-2-1 TRI-Y Design headers (link)
3" High Flow Cats
D&T Performance Twin 2.5" Stainless exhaust into 3" single (post axle) (link)
K&N Pod Filter
Unichip (link)
B & M Ripper Shifter
Custom Clutch (to strike a balance between no slip and no shuddering)
3.73 Diff Gears

Apparantly this combo put down 432rwhp on Bob Romano's dyno.....siiiick.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top