496 Ho w/procharger
 

I am concidering putting a pair of Prochargers on a 2002 Formula 353 w/496 HO's. I have not seen much discussion about this set up. Looking for some pros/cons or other suggestions.

I have one on my 496HO. Only running 3.5 lbs of boost but I have been very happy. No problems so far, and picked up about 8mph. I've only put about 20-25hrs on mine but it has been very reliable. We did add an oil cooler just in case.

Installed one on mine this winter but have not been able to test it yet (weather). I have the 3.5lb kit as well and am expecting roughly an 8-9mph increase once I get the right prop.

CFD5, ccarloss,
What kind of boat?

2001 Baja 25 Outlaw.

2002 Sunsation 288

Hey ccarloss, you finally joined the super charged club?:p
Welcome aboard.
2002, 288 6-7 lbs boost 650HP

Hey Claude, just tryin' to keep up man........just tryin' to keep up!!!:D :D :D

When it comes to boats, that old saying "enough is never enough" holds very true.:D :D :D

Hey Kannooooo ?? What speeds are you seeing I been thinking about getting 1 here also 2000 28 Sunsation 502 all stock

All stock Capo71, I was seeing around 67 gps, and best was around 69 on 1-2' chop 1/2 tank fuel.:p won't know how fast with 650 HP till spring:D :D

Same here about. I love this boat is chop. What did the set up run ya $$$? got any pics? send em to me at [email protected] i have a few of my boat but can't post them here:p

You know we have our supercharger system available for the 496 HO and we recal the ECU for the supercharged motor. We run 6lbs. of boost and make 625-640hp, 700lbs. of torque.

Thanks,
Dustin

I have been told that no matter what supercharger I put on, Plan on blowing my drive out real soon :D stock bravo1 =500 hp all these blowers = 625+

The drive problem is sooooo over exagerated, the stock drive will live in most applications with this power level, especially for normal boaters. Anybody can break something, a little caution, routine service, the drive will live in most cases. I run the living crap out of them and I've only broke one myself, and I've worked, tested, abused as many drives as anybody. I still have some of our original customers running stock drives with their original 502 mag SC kits.

Thanks,
Dustin

I highly recommend the wipple over the procharger.
I just installed one on my 502 efi and so far I love it. I had some installation issues (from previous owner mucking around with fuel system) that were NOT Whipples fault. Once those were cured-Viola! Instant horsepower:D
If I had 500 efi's I would be all over the polished top unit!!

I'm with Dustin, It's all in how you use it. My drive has over 224 hrs at 650 HP. ;)

Hey Dustin, whats with the bicycle air pump attached to the heat exchanger???:rolleyes:

Kanookstr, thats the hand pump to drain the engine for winter, comes on there stock. Also handy for puppet ballons and beach balls :D

Dustin

Ahhh, I did think it was kinda small for a back up whipple charger.... :eureka: :D :D

Dustin, are yours available now for retail?....

Drive Exaggeration???
 

Dustin, you said the drive issue is sooo over exaggerated and believe me I hope it is true.. I have a 2002 29' Warlock with the 496 HO they put a bravo 1 on it and it granaded into pieces at Havasu, with only 30 hours on the boat! Mercury thank God fixed it under warranty but they would only give me an X drive. I heard they are a little better? My Question to you is will this drive hold up bolting on the SC on this engine??? I seriously am considering buying your charger but scared to death about the drive breaking and how much it would cost me to upgrade the drive to having XR parts. When it broke I tried through Mercury to upgrade they wouldn't let me.

Oh yeah Dustin were you guys at The LA Boat show ? I looked all over for you guys?

Reckless288, yup, we've been shipping for a bit now. Got a couple units in stock.

tfairweather, were not at the boat show, but you can see some of our stuff around there, there's a 496 kit in Teagues booth. As for your drive, pretty amazing you broke one that quick, but Mercury did warranty it. You mentioned an X drive, do you mean a XZ? Both are upgrades and are better than stock. I'm very confident that the drive will hold the power. Certain boats can have an effect on the drive, but I would really have to assume that something was wrong in your stock drive with that power level. Did you ever hit the drive on anything? Did they say what failed?

Honestly, for me to do the computer testing properly, I have to do full, 100% acceleration test, from idle to redline. If I don't get it right the first time or the 10th time, I have to do it again. It's just something that has to be tested and like I said, I've only broken one drive and that was a stock drive with 1000hp on our 25 cat, lasted 2 years. I'm not sure this is much help, but if you have a XZ, you should have plenty of long term boating without trouble. I do know of a handful of similar Warlock boats with stock drives that are still going.

Thanks,
Dustin

Dustin, thanks again for the quick response. My drive is not an XZ drive I do know that for a fact. The X drive is the replacment for the Bravo 1 drive, I believe they did this after 2001. Whats wierd is I even heard (FROM MERCURY) that the bravo 1 is not supposed to go with 496HO?? Needs to be a X-Drive or a XZ or XR! when I was at the boat show I saw IMCO and they were aware of this and he told me the X drive has some better parts than the bravo 1.
I know for a fact I did not hit anything I was doing like 70MPH and had it all trimmed out all the out and BOOM Rocks in a Blender!?!?!?!?! No they never told me what failed!
Dustin this is alot of money and I just want to sure that I do everything right on putting this system in. I will be dick broke after this but if it puts a smile on my face or like you said an ear to ear grin that will be cool... Oh is the black coating SC 6495.00?

You might want to wait on the blower.

I know that Tyler Crockett is real close to releasing a 496 HO kit.
I believe it will be close to 600hp and 600ft/lbs.

Sounds like it will be really nice.


Jan

Yep,thats what I want to be is someones guinie pig :) :)

Go with the whipple its a proven winner !!!
AMBUSHER had a O S O sale on WHIPPLES I think :confused:

Island Hopper
I know there are a lot of happy procharger guy's out there, but unless you have someone around you that is reputable and has done some of them, you might want to consider the whipple. I installed one last year and am very happy with it. I installed it myself, and it took awhile to get everything right, but works great.
When is the last time the procharger guy's were here giving advise in any way. From the post that I have read, when guy's call into Procharger for tech support, they get 3 different people and 3 different answers.
I can tell you for sure, when you call Whipple for tech support, you don't talk to 3 different people. When you call Whipple and ask for support, everyone there sends you to Dustin. Now if we could clone Dustin, because he gets really busy. I talked to Dustin many times last year, because I had problems with ECU programming and a bad fuel pump. But at least I had good tech support to get me going, and not blow any thing up.
I chose to go with and XR upper and IMCO lower, so now I have a spare Bravo1 just incase. However a friend has been using a whipple for 4 years now and a Bravo1 with about 200-250 hours and had no drive problems as of yet. The X drive has the same upper as the XZ, but has the stock 1" Bravo prop shaft, and I think that is the only difference. But the upper is where most people have problems from what I read. You will want to take it easy out of the hole to save the drive.
Good luck

Well put 28Eliminator, I also run a procharger with 224 trouble free hrs, But it's been that way because of proper set up. Dustin sells a great product with hrs of proper testing. The suport is also fantastic, And yes He has helped me out even though I have a procharger. It shows you the kind of good guy he is.
Claude

tfairweather, I totally understand, if you want to stay safe, put a bigger pulley on to start out, but I'm confident in the motor and that power level is not too much for the drive for most boats and drivers. Also, from what Rockie said, you have a XZ style upper which is where all the problems are. Propshafts are rarely a problem, so thats good news. Black is 6695.

Jan, there is no comparison on the 496, our package makes over 700lbs. of torque and 625+hp, closer to 640. Forget out of the hole, at any one time, hit that throttle, no comparison to naturally aspirated. Also, the ECU has to be reprogrammed, I'm the only person that can do that, and you can't make that much power out of a stock engine without redoing the ECU. I think your refering to the GM style 496 which has the MEFI4. Also, for the investment, the supercharged dollar for dollar is far more economical than upgrading naturally aspirated.

Rockie, damn it, don't give my name out!! :D Just kididng. Hope things are going well. Snow's gotta be pretty thick at this point up there!

Thanks,
Dustin

Oh,Oh,Oh I'm sorry, I forgot to use the code name (OH supercharge GOD). LOL
I just read my post and realized I was pumping you up man, but I really appreciate all your help, personally and here on OSO as well. We don't have any snow, but we are suppossed to get some over the weekend. We need snow or rain really bad. I definitely prefer rain. I stoped at the lake we go to last week and it was about 14 ft low. That means we can only launch our boat at one marina which will get really, really busy. I think the north east is getting all of the moisture.

Jan you will love the acceleration. forget the HP and look at the TORQUE, because that is what makes the boat go fast.

What is the difference between a Pro-charger and a Whipple charger in the way the work?

Both are superchargers...

So do they both work in the same way? Same type componenets?

Pretty much. Whipple does more with the ECU I believe but he can explain better than I can.

Whipple is a screw supercharger. With the Whipple you get boost as soon as you hit the throttle. Procharger is a centrifugal supercharger. With the procharger the amount of boost created is increased as RPM’s go up. Some will say the procharger is softer on the outdrive since it does not have a lot of torque at the low RPM but I see more drives breaking while they are running hard verse. When making your decision look at the room you have in your engine room & see if either or both kits will fit without doing major remodel of your boat.

The above posts are correct about procharger tech support. You will get better support here then from procharger.

If you do a search on "procharger" or "Whipple" you will find a lot of threads with good infromation.

Dustin, what's the norm on the install charge (rough Estimate)?? for the 496 HO SC in a 29' Warlock World Class??

I live in Orange County and there saying to have Gary Teague at GT Marine in Montclair to do it ?

Has ANYONE bought this 496ho SC kit and tried it out yet??

Anyone Anyone??? Feed back ??

tfairweather,

Anywhere from $800-1500 depending on complexity of boat, type of extras, etc but I would estimate for the 29, $1200. GT does a wonderful job.

As far as difference goes, centrifugals such as Procharger have a steady increase in boost as rpm increases assuming you go WOT. This gives you good peak power because centrifugals are pretty efficient, but very little lower rpm torque. Screw compressors (positive displacement) offer the same efficiency levels as a centrifugal if not higher, so peak power will be the same boost for boost, but will generate near full boost at WOT at virtually any RPM. This gives you far more torque for much quicker acceleration and throttle response. This is not only at WOT, but part throttle as well. Also very noticeable at any rpm, whether it's 4500 or 2000, even getting on plane is far more noticeable.

Some think this is harder on the drive, but your in control of the throttle, if you want to simulate a "centrifugal" boost curve, you can creep into the throttle much slower. It's better to have the power in reserve when needed.

Fuel systems, customer service, quality, etc. are all a totally different subject.

Dustin

496 Ho Stage 1 and Stage 2
 

Just wondering if anyone on OSO has tried the Whipple Stage Kits yet would like some feed back???

Dustin if your out there I would like to ask you if I do the stage 2 first and then later want to Super Charge it is it any cheaper??

Whipple STAGE 2 kit
 

Me and my friend have both 496 mag and a 496 mag HO both with the Stage 2 upgrade and 120 degree stat. The 496 mag showed more increase. I have a Checkmate 240ZT wit the MAG and I gained 2-3 mph with a 26 4 blade bravo labbed prop. RPM were about 4700. The other boat is a 25 Baja Outlaw with the HO and it gained 1-2 mph. running a 25 stock Mirage Plus. Both engines seem to run cleaner. We both noticed way less soot on our transoms. I think it was worth it. Next winter I think I may go with a new cam kit Dustin is offering.

Fast Enough, Thanks for the Input I really appriciate it. I hear you about the transom soot I hate that. Are you talking about going stage 3 or 4? How long and how hard was it to install the stage 2 kit?