Whipple (and others) supercharged engine life

[07stangcs]

IMO its all in the TUNE and GAS! Quality GAS and quality TUNE should yeild you just as much life as a completly stock motor.

 

[KungFuHamster]

IMO its all in the TUNE and GAS! Quality GAS and quality TUNE should yeild you just as much life as a completly stock motor.

i agree with this to a point. when youre making over 500 to the tire youre asking for trouble because now youre going stress the physical limits of the rotating assembly...namely the rods.

 

[Germeezy3]

i agree with this to a point. when youre making over 500 to the tire youre asking for trouble because now youre going stress the physical limits of the rotating assembly...namely the rods.

If you want stock reliabilty than don't modify the car, any power adder is going to reduce the life of the engine. I have seen with my own eyes a car that is driven and driven hard with a lot of drag strip passes put down well over 500 rwhp on stock internals.

 

[jmn444]

To be clear, I don't expect it to last as long as a stock engine, nor do I really care if it does... I just wanted an idea of how long people were getting out of the stock block in the real world.

 

[REDS197]

I have had 2 cars with the whipple ho on them. Irun 12-13 psi on both cars with a total of 30k miles and 0 problems. I am on stock whipple tuneand have a gt500 throttle body on both cars. The stock whipple or frpp
tune is pretty safe in my opinion. I make about 490 RWHP.

 

[jmn444]

You can swap throttle bodies with no tune change??? not to get off topic, just surprising...

 

[RyanS197]

Yup. you just have to check the tps voltage to make sure the new one is clocked the same as stock.

 

[Vapour Trails]

You can swap throttle bodies with no tune change??? not to get off topic, just surprising...

I have always been under the impression that the PCM should be retuned as you could be exceeding the range of the MAF.

 

[REDS197]

GT500 tb is okay without tune. I would get a tune with any other throttle body. I had afr, maf, injectors, data logged on the dyno. All ok.

 

[aznjpnboi86]

Everyone is going to have a different opinion on this matter. I believe that any forced induction car with effectively car the cars life by at least 25-30%. I also believe that how much boost also comes into play with a big part towards tuning. In mechanic school, my instructor stated that when you force more air in, you have to shoot more gas. All of that extra gas must combust and if it doesn't, you with cause added strain on the motor. Another helpful tip would be added crankcase pressure by means of blow-by. Added pressure in the crankcase causes the pressure to jump to eventually bend or break the rods in our cars. It also causes the pressure to build to break the block. Since, I am running the Edelbrock Street Kit, I am thinking to hopefully get 50k miles. If I get more than that, great! If not, it will be motor building time.

 

[jmn444]

AHHHHHH, you mention crankcase pressure... your thoughts on keeping pcv vs. venting to atmosphere? any support on which results in less pressure?

 

[Riptide]

JDM says it's not that important to vent to the atmosphere until you start pushing 500+ to the tires. You can keep it closed otherwise.

 

[jmn444]

For some reason, "not that important" leads me to think it's still "better" to do it. I've already got the ball rolling for using a breather can over the pcv, but my initial decision was based on keeping the oil from going back into the motor, I hadn't considered whether venting would decrease pressures more or less than the pcv.

 

[Riptide]

http://www.s197forum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=356041&postcount=41

Sounds like you've got your mind made up then. It's not going to cause any problems venting it so go ahead if you'd like. Whether it's really going to benefit you that much is where the debate comes in. After reading that post in the link I decided to stay with a closed system for now.

 

[jmn444]

I'm honestly confused as to why that post led you towards keeping a closed system, he states that they are running breathers so that when the motor pulls air, it comes from atmosphere rather than all the "bad" places it would try to pull from... I read it and think there's no good reason to keep the pcv in any boosted application except for environmental issues, but not the point of this thread, so to each their own I guess!

 

[Riptide]

I'm honestly confused as to why that post led you towards keeping a closed system

This:

If a car is running enough power, say 500whp+, we will stick a breather cap on it.

If you don't run 500+whp then they don't put a breather on it. Seems like wasted money to me. There are boosted cars running sub 500whp that come stock with a closed system. Yes I know emissions laws. That said if it were blowing up engines then they wouldn't be leaving it closed. Does the GT500 even have a separator stock? Not AFAIK. Just some food for thought.

 

[Germeezy3]

Everyone is going to have a different opinion on this matter. I believe that any forced induction car with effectively car the cars life by at least 25-30%. I also believe that how much boost also comes into play with a big part towards tuning. In mechanic school, my instructor stated that when you force more air in, you have to shoot more gas. All of that extra gas must combust and if it doesn't, you with cause added strain on the motor. Another helpful tip would be added crankcase pressure by means of blow-by. Added pressure in the crankcase causes the pressure to jump to eventually bend or break the rods in our cars. It also causes the pressure to build to break the block. Since, I am running the Edelbrock Street Kit, I am thinking to hopefully get 50k miles. If I get more than that, great! If not, it will be motor building time.

In my opinion when you start boosting your stock short block its a good time to save for the rainy day/ engine fund just in case.

 

[Marc s]

If you want stock reliabilty than don't modify the car, any power adder is going to reduce the life of the engine. I have seen with my own eyes a car that is driven and driven hard with a lot of drag strip passes put down well over 500 rwhp on stock internals.

I believe you even saw mine put down 569/489 corrected. I have over 100 passes on it and it's still running strong. Although, it could blow up at anytime and I know it. But it could blow up at 450whp also. I have decided to run my car at the power I want and get the suspension worked out. When and if the engine fails, I will have the chassis sorted out ahead of time and then build a forged shortblock. Maybe that's putting the cart before the horse. But if it aint broke, run it till it is and then build it better.

 

[Germeezy3]

I believe you even saw mine put down 569/489 corrected. I have over 100 passes on it and it's still running strong. Although, it could blow up at anytime and I know it. But it could blow up at 450whp also. I have decided to run my car at the power I want and get the suspension worked out. When and if the engine fails, I will have the chassis sorted out ahead of time and then build a forged shortblock. Maybe that's putting the cart before the horse. But if it aint broke, run it till it is and then build it better.

Yes your car is the one I was talking about and I know you don't baby it, and its lived a not so easy life at the dragstrip. You are right heck engines blow bone stock as well!

 

[ArizonaGT]

There are just way to many variables to get any useful information out of this thread.

1) Driving habits
2) TUNE
3) Maintenance
4) TUNE
5) Type of PA
6) TUNE
7) Luck of Individual
8) TUNE