Supercharger
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Overveiw
This in my opinion is one of the more difficult systems to install in a custom set-up. The reason I say this, is belt alignment is paramount, when a belt is spinning at several thousand RPM, it really does not take much for it to get thrown or "spit" off the pulleys.
Types of Supercharger
There are two types of Superchargers currently offered on the market:
Centrifical
The most common used on daily use and custom applications seems to be the Centrical design. It's high efficiency and design make it a great choice for custom applications and smaller displacment applications.
Positive Displacment
There are a few common names for this design "roots", "screw", etc. These are most commonly placed on the top of the engine, and attached directly to the intake manifold. These are generally less efficiant than centrifical, but are a good choice for some added power to "play with". It's also much easier to find this design in the local auto recyckers than a centrifical design.
Mounting
The supercharger also needs to be mounted in a very solid fashion, again due to high RPM, since if the supercharger were to be pulled by the belt, seeing as when it creates pressure this places a load, it can spit a belt this way. There have been many (DIY) systems where at high RPM no load tests, the belt stays on, but placed under load (vehicle accelleration tests), when the load of creating pressure is placed on the supercharger with a weak bracket system, it flexes towards the crank and spits the belt, a strong bracket system is needed.
Mounting Hight
Should be as high as possible to promote oil drain back to the engine, without the need for a scavenge system, as that adds more cost and should only be considered if it is the only possible way to get the oil out of the turbo and back in the engine due to a necessity of low mounting height. Higher is good. ===Oil feed=== Should be at least 1/4" and made of a good hose, I recommend nothing less than stainless Braided, like Earls, Aeroquip and Russel supply, this assures a consistent pressure and less likely to chafe.
Oil drain back
Should be at least 5/8" in diameter as the oil coming back out of the bearing housing is usually quite frothy and will not flow well through a small hose. The fitting in the oil pan (most used and usually most convenient) is to be above the oil level when the engine is running, and again is due to the oil being frothy and helps drain the bearing housing instead of backing up the froth that is draining back.
Oiling Notes
There are some newer superchargers on the market, such as Powerdyne that use a sealed oiling system, that does not use the enging lubrication system to lubricate the supercharger. Many of these systems prove to be quite reliable.
Intercooling
There are many opinions and ways of doing this, generally for a front mount air to air intercooler, a larger area is desired, with large tubes, but there is a balance between too large of a tube and too small. Too small and the IC will be a restriction, too large and there will not be enough surface area for each tube to effectively cool the intake charge. End tank design is also to be considered, a nice flowing (smooth transition) end tank is desired, since it will be less turbulent and help promote flow through the IC core(s). For an air to water IC, there is a lot to this subject and would require a lot of space and time to cover all of the general ideas, and should only be considered if ample cooling from an air to air design is not available, such as very little vehicle frontal area where an air to air IC couldn't fit, vehicle design, where the intake tubes from the turbo/supercharger to the IC and from the IC to the TB will be be quite long or nearly impossible to actually run through the vehicle.
--Six Shooter 01:10, 9 December 2006 (EST)
