a supercharger is not for everyone. If you are concerned with economy and saving money... its not for you. If you want more performance and fun out of the car... this is awesome! You bring up gas.... this thing gets just as good of gas mileage as stock.

But like I said.. Some people cant justify the price.. while other can.

 

i understand you what you coming from but... like i said the supercharger is to make the car a lot more fun...

 

Thanks for the low down KF; i just wasnt sure what triggered the boost in the sc cause it really would suck if im just driving super fast but constant to vegas and the engine is under constant pressure the whole time from that darn blower screaming its guts out. So i could assume the same thing you just said above if, lets say i didnt have cruise control engaged but just driving 80 the whole way...

 

I think your point is correct for a lot of people, but I looked at it in a different way. Even my wife eventually bought the arguement. I planned on FI before I bought the car and looked at it as a package. Compared to the Mazdaspeed 3 and other cars I was originally looking at it is cheaper, fun, and more practical. So after the wheels, tires, header, exhaust, and now the supercharger, I still will only have about $20M in it (I started with the Base Model). Plus gas mileage in the mid 30's.

 

Well put, and I share your thinking. I think that it is a shame not to get the full potential out of any car. That potential is never realized as you drive the new vehicle home from the dealer. Honda built the L15 engine with inherent strength that will be unaffected by the boost available from this kit. I believe, and will risk the effects of any misunderstanding, that the AT in my Fit will also be unaffected by the hp and torque increase provided by this kit. If I can have the additional hp and torque available under my right foot, any time I want, with no appreciable loss of fuel economy, why the hell not?

I tried to do the same thing with an '87 Ford Bronco II, and was warned by several supercharger vendors to forget it, because the cheap German-made engine was too weak in the crankshaft, connecting rods and main bearings to withstand the boost, and the equally cheap French-made auto transmission would also fail under the load of the extra power. Thanks, Ford!

At least in this instance, we have Honda strength and quality in the engine and transmission, and good engineering from the Jacksons to make use of it without abusing it. I did not buy my Fit because it was the cheapest vehicle on the road, but because is was the most fun and most fuel efficient vehicle on the road made by a high quality manufacturer. Now, I can make it even more fun with no downside except for the cost of the new hardware. The same quality hardware would cost the same, or more, for any other vehicle.

 

The arguments that both Idweng and Mamxman put forward are simple and make a lot of sense. So much that I can make them mine... and use them to get my wife want a SC! Good show!

 

So manxman, your thinking of getting this SC. If so i have to drive your car because im really thinking of getting one of these aswell. Let me know!

Tyler

 

Hey, Tyler!

I have been following this thread since its beginning, and have not found anything objectionable about the product. That is, except for the tremendously long development time. But that is a very GOOD thing. Time taken in development, in order to do it right, is the very best investment.

I do intend to buy this system, but not necessarily the day that it becomes available. I want to read the reviews from the first half dozen buyers before I make the investment. This will be very hard for me to do, the waiting, because I will get just as much enjoyment from my own installation as I will from using the system. I am really looking forward to installing this hardware!

 

On these forums, it's nice to have at least three people agree on the same topic,at the same time! Congratulations to both of you for having reasonable wives. I don't know if I am in that same category or not, yet.

 

the supercharger is indeed compressing air under all RPM and operating conditions, that i agree.

i'm having a hard time following your post, but i think that you're saying that load has nothing to do with boost in which case you are mistaken. load demand (let's simplify to just throttle position and RPM) will determine whether that compressed air will be utilized by the engine (seen in manifold pressure, or boost) or expelled through a wastegate (blow off valve, recirculating valve, etc.) which is a more correct way of saying what you're trying to convey.

 

absolutely incorrect.

yes, the supercharger will be compressing air. but there are very important aspects and topics you are mixing here.

1. one can't simply assume boost just because a supercharger is being driven. from here, i'll assume that by "boost" you mean positive intake manifold pressure, not operating under vacuum. throttle position (we'll just simplify by assuming a cable adjusted throttle and a conventional automotive throttle body) has a huge vote in this process and determines if the compressor discharge is utilized as "boost" or vented away.

2. as far as additional wear, if it takes 20hp to maintain a honda fit going 50mph on a straight and level surface, it will still take 20hp to maintain a supercharged honda fit at 50mph on a straight and level surface, assuming that both cars weighed the same and had the same amount of total drag. as a result, demanding 20hp from the motor, in whatever configuration, is the same amount of strain from a materials aspect. what isn't the same is achieving 80-90 whp vs. the hoped-for 150whp or greater.

 

An excellent point, claymore--

What say you, Chris??? In your area of SoCal, you are in the same ambient temperature range during the summer as claymore, just maybe a little less humidity than him in Bangcock. How is your engine temperature on a long freeway trip?

Another good semantics point brought up by claymore-
unless you drive a hybrid or electric car, your car does NOT run on a MOTOR.

 

I do drive ALOT. I dont have a temp gauge installed, however with constantly driving 1-2hrs on the freeway in triple digit heat I dont have any bad issues with temp that I can tell. I have run into NO issues with the kit since installed last march, except for the one I posted awhile back that was caused due to a huge pothole, but has since been modified so it will never happen again.

 

negative. let's get some definitions before we go any further.

1. Work is defined (in calculus terms) as the integral of force over a distance of displacement. The SI unit for Work is the N*m, which americans convert to ft*lbs. So it takes a certain amount of force (Newtons to move a Honda Fit over a certain distance (meters) and if you take the sum of the total force applied over that distance, you can measure the amount of work accomplished. Note, we have yet to say anything about the rate at which this work is done.

2. Power is the time rate at which work is done or energy is transferred. In calculus terms, power is the derivative of work with respect to time. The SI unit of power is the watt (W) or joule per second (J/s). Horsepower is a unit of power that has a variety of definitions, but let's say that an acceptable way to derrive HP is with this definition: HP=TORQUE * RPM / 5252.



By definition, the 50 mph is the rate at which the work is being done. And by definition, we're talking about a measure of power (HP), not simply a measure of force (torque), once we talk about a body (honda fit) moving at a certain rate (50mph, or whatever speed you'd like).



And if the force (torque) was zero, then work accomplished would be zero and hp would be zero, so far be it from me to say that you are wrong that torque is what accelerates the car. But a more complete way to look at it is HP because we're not talking about a one-time force applied to a body for a very short period of time.



Anywhoo, lets go back and assume it took 20hp to achieve 50mph before, and we convert that 50 mph to approximately 2500 rpm at the engine (the long legs of an AT). The engine is required to generate about 42 ft * lbs of torque to achieve the 20 hp and maintain 2500 rpm (or 50 mph). This relationship is true regardless of supercharger or not.




The part that gives me the idea that you're mixing and matching definitions is this one -

If an engine is producing more HP, it's achieved it through some combination of torque and rpm (by definition). If it is creating more torque, it's not doing it because it suddenly feels better about its prospects in life - it's because the internal combustion forces are greater. It is impossible, from a mechanics of materials point of view, for the internals to produce more motive force (torque) yet somehow experience less strain. You may perceive that the engine is doing its work more easily because you don't have to step on the throttle as much, but your notion of strain seems better fitted to living things than to the L15.

 

point being this -

1. cruise condition isn't going to subject your internals to any more strain (except for the additional load required to drive the supercharger, a load present at all rpm).
2. compressor discharge does not only equal boost. just because the supercharger is always attached doesn't mean you are always driving under boost. it just means that the supercharger is always compressing air.

 

Thanks, Chris. Your answer is exactly what I had guessed. If you had been staring a a little red radiator light all the time, I think that you would have said so by now. But, adding a temperature gauge sounds like a good idea anyway.

 

i did a search through the thread for header, but couldnt find any information on wether you can use an aftermarket header with the jr sc? i know with turbos you have to get a turbo header right? will jr sc work with all the aftermarket headers or just the stock header? sorry if this has been covered or is a stupid question but couldnt find any info on it. thanks.

 

since people are highly interested in durability, i'm surprised no one has really asked what the folks at AJ Racing have done. they've got a 6psi kit, it makes 160whp/162wtq, and most importantly, they probably have quite a bit of good reliability/ durability data since they actually subject the L15 to the rigors of road racing AND street miles too.

 

A supercharger has absolutely nothing to do with the exhaust system.

 

THIS thread concerns the s/c from Jackson Racing/Kraftwerks,