Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Does Mercruiser actually build their own blower or do they use one of the above mentioned?

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

mercruiser doesn't "BUILD" much other than outdrives. There are some Merc-specific parts out there, such as thermostat housings and such, but most Merc-stamped parts are just rebranded stuff.

Not saying Merc won't or can't build whatever they want, but it is usually more cost effective to use an existing part. Might need a tweak or two for Merc usage, but usually not even.

To my knowledge, though, Merc has never attempted to make their own blower.
Weiand and B&M have been used on their smaller SC motors.

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Doesn't Mercury Racing, a division of Mercury, build their engines?

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

mooney

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

This can get out of hand to what is best, for myself BDS has terrible
customer service but their blowers are the best. I have seen in many
of the top engine builders shop remove the whipple and install a roots
blower instead. To each its own, you run what you want, this is
strictly my own opinion on this topic.

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Did they quote a reason?

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Thanks for the replies. There is some good info here.

MYPANTERA28, what was the reason the engine builders you know were removing Whipplechargers?

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

I have run 1471 Littlefields for eight years with no problems or broken belts.

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

DaveF

Sure, MercRacing hand-assembles their blue blower motors, but they don't "build"/manufacture the parts. A question was asked if Merc builds their blowers, and the answer is NO. They use sourced parts that are the same pieces we can buy ourselves (some do have a special merc emblem on them).

Merc DOES "build"/manufacture outdrives, but assembles motors.

Not trying to dismiss anything of Merc, just pointing out that while Merc DOES have some "Merc-only" parts, they are stuff like outdrives, exhaust manifolds, tstat housings, and cable brackets - not special blowers, blocks (other than the big aluminum 4 they made years ago), heads, pistons, etc..

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

That says it all

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Real world -limited resources (poor by OSO standards)-stock not exotic! I purchased a Vortech based system from Livorsi Marine (ask for Ron Harris). It came with a modified ECU, Vortech charger, intercooler. I now have over 200 hours on the motor since adding the system. Real world: blew the outdrive once - blew the head gasket once. Would I do it again? YOU BET! Went from 64gps in a 26 Donzi to 77-79gps. Wanna play you got to pay. This still seems to be one of the most reliable, cost effective systems out there. HOWEVER - To each his own!

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

I love this question... and I hate this question too. So many variables and potential contradictions. But here we go.

The best blower system needs to:

1) Give the greatest HP/speed gains
2) Not blow up your engine
3) Give your drive a chance to live
4) Be good value for the money
5) Be easy to install on nearly stock engines
6) Look good!

Sticking to nearly stock engines makes things more affordable and easier to install, but it eliminates purpose built, big $$$ blower engines with PSI or Quad rotor screw compressors. The contest is between Roots, Whipple and Centrifugal, using the criteria listed above.

IMHO, only the centrifugal blowers can make the big HP numbers on nearly stock engines. They have high compressor efficiency and the way the blower is mounted on the engine leaves room for a huge intercooler. This is very important because detonation is the real limit to how much HP you can make, and the coolest possible intake temperatures are needed.

Dean Nickerson gets 950 HP @ 6000 RPM from a Vortech V-4 blower and a single carb on a 498 CID engine with ported GM cast iron heads and a small solid roller cam. Before installing an Rtech supercooler he was making 850 HP. The extra 100 HP with the supercooler is partly due to cooling but also to much lower restriction to air flow. The same Rtech system on a stock HP500 will make 800 HP @ 5600 RPM. This is affordable $/hp. Dean is still using his stock Bravo drive, although I don't see how it can last much longer.

You could make 950 HP with an intercooled 14-71 on the same engine but you would need much better aftermarket heads. The better heads compensate for the lower efficiency of the roots blower and the small roots intercooler. But the heads would cost more money and the Roots system would be more likely to wreck your drive. The single Whipple has great bottom end torque but you can't make this much HP with a single Whipple, and the Quad rotor would cost more money.

As far as looks go I'm biased. I think the supercooler looks much better than the usual plumbing found on centrifugals, but I know many prefer the look of the roots blower.

That's my $.02. You can easily change my conclusion by changing the emphasis you place on each of the above variables; that's what makes the question so difficult to answer. Any time the magazines try to approach this issue, there is a lot of such debate and usually "everybody is a winner".

There's only one thing for sure...you need a blower! :D

Tom

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

What... nobody wants to start an argument, I mean discussion. :argue:

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

would you like to see my dino sheets on a 540 with a single 3.3 whipple try 1067 hp at 5700 and 1128 ft. lbs. one 1180 cfm carb

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Better overall performance on your motor.

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Thet dont trust them for sh^&.

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Hi Mike:

It's always hard to compare blowers because it seems they are always installed on different engines (heads, cam, displacement, headers etc.), which changes the restriction to air flow that the blower is working against. I'm not saying that your 540 (with aftermarket heads?) didn't make 1067 HP, but if you put your 3.3 Whipple on Nickerson's 498 with cast iron heads you would not be able to make that much power. It would take too much boost to do it and the heat/detonation would be the limiting factor, as it always is.

Any positive displacement blower must be sized to the engine HP you're after. That's why there are 14-71 and quad rotor Whipples. Whipple rates the 3.3 at 775 HP on the HP525EFI. At 1067 HP you're getting into quad rotor territory. This doesn't stop you from changing pulleys and spinning your 3.3 faster, but it is a case of diminishing returns. When we dyno tested Nickerson's engine we tried a smaller pulley and made 1013 HP but he didn't leave that pulley on the engine.

One little-known advantage of centrifugal compressors is that they are much more flexible on the HP range. The same V-4 blower that we used to make 1000 HP on Nickerson's engine is used in Vortech's basic 502MPI kit to make 570 HP. This means a guy can get started with the basic kit, and when he is ready to move up he doesn't need to buy a bigger blower.

I guess the only way this question can be decided is to test different systems back to back on the same test engine, same dyno and ultimately in the same boat. That's way too much work/money, except maybe for a magazine. I doubt that it will ever happen, so we will be able to argue (I mean discuss) this question forwever. :D

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

I have the Mercruiser SC600 in my 26' Scarab #5 drive. The Blower is the B&M 420 Mega Blower! :)

Bryan

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Merc may "build" the drives... but they have the cases cast by someone else... I've seen the brochure of the company that casts the components.. No one... no company makes everything on a car or a boat... It just isn't economically feasible. Some companies that specialize in unusual components can make the parts much easier than a large company. When people say "Lockheed" built the F-117 Stealth fighter... well... they assembled it... and made the airframes... but lots of first and second tier vendors manufactured the components... Same with Mercruiser.

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Sorry for the offtopic, but...

Reed:

What company cast mercury's outdrives?

vtec

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

This is the "logic" I use in assigning "ownership" of a part...

Regardless of what facility casts/forges/or fabs a particular piece, if the part is built to a customer design and to an exclusive SPEC than that part "belongs" to the entity who "ordered it". At least in the case of outdrive castings, if they are MERC spec and are not made available to any other, then they are MERC castings. Just done outside. Still Merc castings.

On the other hand, stuff like Dart intakes with bronze liners and a Merc emblem are NOT merc parts. Gil manifolds with Merc cast into the sides are NOT merc parts. A Weiand blower housing with a Merc emblem on the side of it is NOT a merc part. Even those H-beam rods with Merc on the beams aren't Merc parts (they are somebody else's rods with a "private label" sort of character mark on them).

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Dam...

I got fooled.

I thought MC was back.

:(

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

My preference is for roots type as they are "displacement" compressors. You get a fixed volume of air/fuel for every revolution, regardless if its 500 or 5000 RPM. Very predictable and the efficiency increases only slightly as you get up in RPM's (80% adiabatic max). You feel the torque throughout the entire range.
I haven't owned centrifugal units, but they are basically belt driven turbo's.
I was under the impression that cent. blowers were more efficient at higher RPM's but suffered from boost lag, and the boost pressure went up exponentially as RPM's increased. Not a good thing if you are constantly leaving the water and going from 5 to 10#. I know waste gates control the psi, but still a scary proposition for my taste.
Besides, twin blowers through dominators at 5500 RPM sounds like a 747 is chasin’ ya. :D

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

So while we are talking about blower efficiency, i heard from a very good source that on a top alcohol funny car, a 1471 takes about 1000hp to spin and a PSI only takes 300hp or so. Just a random fact to throw out.

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

screw superchargers like the psi work so well the nhra limited the amout pat austin could overdrive his screw supercharger and the roots guys could over drive thiers as much as they wanted. they did it to level the playing feild cuz austin was kickin everybody azz in alcohol funny car

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Nobody..........

AND don't say Whipple because they can't and will not have anything for LONG LONG time....so its LIKE they are out of business

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

the only reason an engine builder would remove a whipple to use a roots, is to save a drive from too much power. care to name the many top engine builders??? i love the way roots look & how simple they are, but if you want to make big power it's whipple or procharger.

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

ttt

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

I hate to chime in an old thread, but seriously folks... it's either turbo or whipple...adiabatic wise, they are very similar, other than the lag factor. The controlling factor is cylinder pressure and octane. Keep in mind that octane requirements increase based on time and heat.

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

how do psi's stack up???

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

This brings me back to Thermo 1 class i took

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

I vote BDS.............

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

:cool: A whipple would be my first choice of the blowers listed. If you want shear horsepower PSI is also an excellent choice. With a PSI the blower builds boost almost instantly. They are costly. I have built up to 1600 HP with them on a 557 cu.in. Chevrolet @ 15 lbs of boost. As far as a roots style blower The Blower Shop and BDS build very good blowers also. It al depends on what Horsepower range you are building in. I have also just become a dealer for Procharger , and have a few projects in the works. MAS BOOST!

Dean Gellner
Gellner Engineering Marine Power

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

per post 65....when whipple and psi came on the scene in the mid 90s...the results were amazing..if you didnt have one of these blowers YOU COULD NOT WIN in nhra..nhra put limits on them and would check your overdrive pully...of coarse we were making 50psi of boost at the finish line....wow 50psi
whipple technology changed the marine market

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Best blower? Monica Lewinsky hands down. Pretty face, nice teeth, nice smile, money in the bank, etc.

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

I'd take Pamela Anderson over Monica any day of the week, Monica has a big a$$......... :D :D

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Pammy's sexier in a dirty way, but if I had to take my chances with no condom...

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

If sterlings whipple motors make 1550 and the PSI motors make 1550, why do all of the record boats have PSI's? Making 16-17lbs of boost for a PSI is nothing. I guess you don't see people in top alcohol using quad rotor whipples. I know that lysholm builds another screw blower that is compable to the PSI. I believe Race-Crafters uses them on their motors.

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

I believe the Sterling quads made 1630 for speed racer but were detuned to 1550. But can be turned up if need be. Also most of the record boats were run before the quads got popular, and there has been a major shortage. Like none delivered in almost a yr. Not saying one is better than the other, just something to think about.

Re: Who makes the best blower/supercharger?
 

Good point.