My first exposure to forced induction was superchargers. I have a built 98 Mustang Cobra with 15 intercooled psi and its a monster. Since I purchased the Lexus LS400 few years ago. Initially I created a Twin Turbo system for the LS400. The first stage I achieved 324.5 rwhp on 8 psi and later I decompressed the motor with larger injectors and other goodies, I ran 15 psi from the twin T3. The car pulled like crazy.
After many full boost at 15 psi with stock internal and stock timing and so on. I took my car for a leak down test and the results were two thumbs up. My mechanic was impressed with the result (6-7% lost) After running for a while, I got tried of the trouble of having turbos, the oil, the heat and other things. So, I finally go back to my root – supercharger!
As you can see, I was influenced with centrifugal superchargers. Of the different type of superchargers, centrifugal is the easiest one to make and it perform like a turbo with out the turbo problems. Due to the compact side of the V8 engine bay, high mount turbo is very difficult. Therefore, supercharging is an obvious choice.
The first thing I did was to relocate the car battery to the back. Battery Relocation Article to allow room in the battery location. The supercharger fit perfectly in that space. Secondly, I have to make sure the supercharger pulley would align with the fan belt. After I relocated the battery and clean up some of the wires and battery tray, I started to do some measurements on the supercharger and the engine bracket. The bracket has to be strong, but yet light.
Since I have two extra engines at home I started to make a pattern of the engine block with mounting holes. Initially, I used cardboard to make the proper holes on the engine. After about 3-4 tries, I finally got the proper alignment of holes to anchor the bracket. After the cardboard holes are done, I transferred the cardboard pattern into a 1/4″ plywood.
The reason I chose 1/4″ plywood was because the thinner woods are easier to work with. After the anchor holes are drilled into the plywood, I did a mock fit into the engine and align everything. After about 5 tries on the plywood, I finally came up with a prototype. The same is also apply to the supercharger head unit.
Initially, the supercharger was mounted on the 3/4″ plywood. One of my friends let me use his iron shop to manually cut the pattern into an aluminum plate. The first workable bracket was hand made with a nice finish. The hand made bracket works fine, later I got help from European member of my forum to draw out the bracket in AutoCad. Although the bracket was drawn in AutoCad, but many reversions were needed to make the final product.
The hardest thing in a supercharger especially in centrifugal is the bracket. After the bracket was done, everything was just down hill from there. Luckily, my brother is a CNC Machinist and he helped me to make the bracket in the CNC Mechine and some pulley adapters. He also helped me refine the cad drawing. I could not do this project without him.
Besides the Vortech centrifugal supercharger, I also wanted to be intercooled. That is what make this kit so different, so efficient, so powerful and so safe. With centrifugal supercharger and intercooler, it can compete with turbocharger system. Once again, I made this kit because I like my car to have the capability to go fast. I did not made this kit to get rich on. I will not produce this kit unless there are orders.
Therefore, it will take few weeks to produce the kit. If you are interested in my bracket, please let me know. I have done all the hard work already. Why reinvent the wheel again? You can purchase the bracket by itself to do a DIY supercharger. However, I would need your promise not to reproduce your project, this is a respect for me and my hard work. If you are interested in this DIY parts, please visit here!