Anyone supercharge a Vortec 7.4L

[JeffYoung]

Tow with one of these in a 99 BurPan, 3/4 ton. Have plenty of power but saw a Whipple supercharger for sale on ebay for $1200 and thought, that'd be cool.

Anyone run this on their truck? Reliability issues? Stay cool while towing? Just looking for a little more fun on the old Burb.

[JohnRW]

So...in addition to having a race car that is likely tuned to the edge of unreliability, you want to do it to your tow vehicle, too ?
Keep this number handy: (800) 222-4357. That would be AAA's Emergency Road Service. You signed up, right ?

DON'T SCREW AROUND WITH YOUR TOW VEHICLE.

The whole idea is to GET to the race track, THEN race.

[JeffYoung]

Uh....the Whipple is a 5 psi blower....on an already very unstressed motor. I see your point, and I probably should have been clearer, but this seems like a decent way to make a few extra hp to get around town and up hills. Was wondering if anyone had any experience with this unit.

Let me ask you -- you have a diesel tow vehicle? You chip it? Exhaust?

[ITANorm]

Originally posted by JeffYoung:
Let me ask you -- you have a diesel tow vehicle? You chip it? Exhaust?

My 275HP Powerstroke 7.3L (AKA Navistar T444E) is chipped - to the same horsepower that Navistar builds it to, 340.

[JohnRW]

Originally posted by JeffYoung:

Let me ask you -- you have a diesel tow vehicle? You chip it? Exhaust?

7.3 PSD crewcab dually. No chip, no exhaust, no propane, no trans commander.

[JeffYoung]

Thanks. So, you don't have any information about any of the items I am looking into to try and make my tow easier. I was looking to see if anyone had any empirical experience with the Whipple blower -- especially about reliability -- and you don't. Therefore, not sure why you posted.

[JohnRW]

Try posting on a truck towing or Suburban board. I'm sure if you searched 'Suburban' and 'Vortec' and 'supercharged' you would actually find an interested audience to get snippy with.

I've always found that amateurs fooling around with well-engineered vehicles make them more unreliable. But...the experments are fun to watch...from a distance.

Is that the input you were looking for ? If not, then not sure why you posted here.

[JeffYoung]

Last post.

I came to the Tow Vehicles and Trailers section of this board to see if any fellow racers had any experience with getting a little more power out of the 7.4. Mine is mostly fine, but I would like a bit more going up hills, etc.

I got from you what appears to be a "snippy" response, essentially claiming that I was stupid, and that had no empirical information about the question I asked.

Again, if you have any experience with the reliability, power, install ease, etc. of the Whipple setup, or of the other popularly available power upgrades for two vehicles (chips, exhaust, etc.) let me know. Otherwise, I'm not sure why you are posting here.

End of thread.

[Ron Earp]

Not quite the end.

I have used low pressure positive displacement blowers on two of my cars to great effect. One was a 5.0L in a Cougar I had and I made the whole setup myself. I used a Eaton M90 from a wrecked Thunderbird Supercoupe and made the brackets, piping, etc.

It was not intercooled and made about 5psi throughout the rev range. Motor compression was 8.5:1. Never missed a lick.

If your motor has reasonably low compression, I'd say under 8.8:1 or so, it should be fine. I am certain if you check Kenne Bell performance they probably have a kit and some information about them as well. As far as I know folks have had great experiences with them and they are very reliable.

As long as the supplier can tune the EFI right it should be a beautiful match. Gotta like blowers, the Lightning is fun!!! Not everyone wants a huge diesel to tow with, although that seems the majority opinion around here. Not buying my daily driver based on a 2-4% useage pattern.

Ron

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Ron
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