Yesterday I spent the day at Courtenays having my new Stage 1 supercharger install checked over and having the map tweaked.
Here are the results:
As you can see the graphs are so smooth and that is exactly how the car feels to drive, instant and progressive power. If it wasn't for the supercharger whine, (which I now quite like actually), you couldn't tell it was forced induction from the way it behaves. The power delivery is immensely preferable to the various turbos I have driven.
As a brief summary of what the Stage 1 consists of:
- GM Supercharger
- GM inlet manifold
- Inlet manifold gasket
- Inlet to supercharger gasket
- Air filter
- Silicone hose
- Throttle body adapter plate
- MAP sensor
- Injectors
- Injector plugs
- Injector Boots
- Idler pulley and bracket
- Longer belt
- Coolant hose extender
- Dipstick bracket
- MAP sensor retaining bracket
- Supercharger blanking plug
- Coolant
- Crank breather hose
- Crank breather T piece
- Inlet manifold locating collets
- ECU remap and rolling road time to test and tweak the map
- A whole load of cable, sheathing, various heatshrink, solder, bolts, hose clips and cable ties
The quoted power level is officially 210bhp and the price fully installed is £3,300 inc VAT
Whilst I fitted it myself I think that price is pretty damn good for a drive in, drive out warrantied install which gives something like 60+ bhp over standard, especially as it provides a great basis to go to a stage 2 at a later date with the installation of a charge cooler, a smaller pulley and laminova cores for a relatively small cost.
If you are interested in fitting it yourself then please call Courtenay and speak to Jon, however, bear this in mind before considering doing that:
- It is quite a fiddly install
- It's probably going to take most people at least a week to do it
- You will get scraped knuckles, a bad back and sore hamstrings
- You must be confident in messing around with wiring
- You must be quite methodical and organised, check and double checking everything
- You must have a reasonably good tool kit and an appropriate place to work
- The ECU needs to be sent off in the interim to have a suitable map applied
- You will need to return to Courtenay to have it properly mapped and checked when completed
- If the above doesn't sound like good fun to you, don't do it :p
So whilst it isn't beyond the realms of a DIY'er, it won't be suitable job to attempt for a lot of people, partly due to the length of time it would take. When you also include all the little bits and pieces you need to buy it all adds up.
There are some more photos at http://www.muncher.org.uk/supercharger
