Date:         Fri, 18 May 2007 09:06:17 -0400
Reply-To:     Jim Akiba <syncrolist@BOSTIG.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jim Akiba <syncrolist@BOSTIG.COM>
Subject:      Re: Huffer motors..Turbo and SC...
In-Reply-To:  <000a01c79901$c138f160$6019e442@dhanson>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Hey Don,

Do you mean supercharge the boxer? Yeah you could do it, but there are
serious downsides.  The big three are that since the boxer is already prone
to head gasket sealing problems as most open decks are, forced induction in
anything but the lowest of boost levels is asking for trouble. Second you'd
have to change the engine management significantly enough to cause the whole
project to cost quite a bit of money, and the supercharger itself isn't
cheap. You'd also have to bring whatever other pieces of the puzzle that are
old and worn up to spec, you can't push the limits of an engine if it's near
failure already either because it is maxed out by design or state of
operation because of age, miles, etc.  Lastly since the boxer is expensive
to rebuild/replace, the risk financially is huge. If you spent 5k on
supercharging the setup and pop your engine, are you really willing to spend
another 4k for a rebuild to attempt it again? What is the second rebuild
goes? You're then 13k into it with nothing to show. The risk money-wise is
huge, the *potential* ROI is small. Doable? Sure. Prudent... eh.. dunno...
You're right about the altitude though, in our 3500k mile trip just this
past month, at altitudes of 6k and above with the supercharged setup we were
still pulling good grades at 65-70 if we wanted to push it.

Jim Akiba


-----Original Message-----
From: Don Hanson [mailto:dhanson@GORGE.NET]
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 12:05 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Huffer motors..Turbo and SC...

All this talk of 6 bangers, SVX Turbos, etc brings me to this question...Has
anyone considered supercharging for the Vanagon?  A bunch of my pals from
the Porsche 928 world have recently started doing it to their beasts, rather
than the 'traditional' method of getting over 400 rwhp, which is to use a
stroker crankshaft.

  It'd seem to me, from looking at some of their installs and superficially
perusing the net sites about superchargers that a SC and a Vanagon were
meant for each other...Looking at my little inline four transplant motor
sitting in there with all that extra room, I am thinking..."Hmm"..and I see
lots of sand rails, buggies, etc.  with supercharged small motors putting
out some decent power with good dependability....
  I am gonna look into that...One thing I do know for sure is that at
altitude, a forced induction (turbo or SC) motor still retains lots of
power, but a Normal Aspirated motor drops off dramatically at about 5000' of
elevation...
  It's also my understanding that the boost from a supercharger can be
'dialed' to the desired level, right from a dash knob...So if you are just
donking down a flat road in no particular hurry, you can use Zero boost but
if you need some power, you just dial it up a bit and cram more air/fuel
mixture into the cylinders...Of course, you have the extra drive belt drag
always, and some plumbing to do and you would have to make sure your motor
had some knock sensors, probably...but attractive thought..
  Dunno for sure, but it sounds good..
  Don Hanson