Tuning Supercharging a 1.4

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Tuning Supercharging a 1.4

Raveinacave

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Hi everyone,

I got bored the other dy and have convinced myself that its possible to superchage my GP,, anyone know anyone whos attempted it?? A friend of mine and me just turboed his saxo but i have always preffered supercharges to turbos and it means i dont have to sort out a new manifold. Im thinking Eaton 45 (Used in mini cooper S).. Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated

Cheers
Callum
 
I'm going to say it before everyone else does... It would be much much cheaper to sell your car and buy a t-jet.

As for whether its possible, anything is possible if you are willing to throw enough time and money at it.
 
Well first off,, ive already done allot to my car and i dont want to start fresh with a diffferent car (its my first car so im overly attached) and my insurance company didnt have as much of a fit as i thought they would £250 extra roughly (around the extra if i had a tjet)
 
The differences between a T Jet and a plain Jane 1.4 16v are extensive. Rods, cranks and pistons are the first things that come to mind. The T Jet also has a gearbox made of stronger chocolate (although I'm not sure what chocolate the GP uses -- I was thinking 500 Abarth).

The problem with old style superchargers is that they're not only driven off the crank pulley (which is a well known weak point on the FIRE engines -- extensive and expensive thread by Dave the Trike somewhere here) but they also introduce big shock loads to it.

A centrifugal blower like the Rotrex is a better bet -- much lower shock loads, far more efficient. See here.
 
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R1NGA has centrifugal charged his Panda 1.4 16v! :)


https://www.fiatforum.com/panda/286751-my-panda-4x4-abarth-project.html


It's a good read :)

I have indeed, but it was on an 8v 1.2, but the principle remains the same. Centrifugal superchargers (ie: Rotrex) make progressive torque and excellent top end power, but are gentle enough on the bottom end to allow pretty much standard engines to survive. My 1.2 went from 60bhp to 110bhp on standard clutch even. Turbo's do nasty things to non-turbo gearboxes due to the bulging torque delivery, which whilst fun, it's not good for longevity of the box or engine bottom-end.

Expensive though - expect to spend £2-3k on a proper job. You'll laugh a lot though....
 
And a 4x4 at that - even stealthier....:D

Lol the car was literally made for grannies.

With regards to humiliating acceleration, I was in the fast lane of a dual carraigeway, on the inside of me round a roundabout was a Mazda MPV with a Christian fish badge on the back. It completely obliterated me in my little GP, and it was an old boy driving it.

#punished
 
The differences between a T Jet and a plain Jane 1.4 16v are extensive. Rods, cranks and pistons are the first things that come to mind. The T Jet also has a gearbox made of stronger chocolate (although I'm not sure what chocolate the GP uses -- I was thinking 500 Abarth).

The problem with old style superchargers is that they're not only driven off the crank pulley (which is a well known weak point on the FIRE engines -- extensive and expensive thread by Dave the Trike somewhere here) but they also introduce big shock loads to it.

A centrifugal blower like the Rotrex is a better bet -- much lower shock loads, far more efficient. See here.

OP whilst the above makes allot of sense in theory, in reality every solution has it's advantages and disadvantages, and in most cases hidden costs.

Based on my experience, I would advise to consider the cost of maintaining/refurbishing a supercharger especially a Rotrex unit as part of your overall cost of supercharging a vehicle. A centrifugal compressor is the most suitable solution for NA engine due to its power delivery, however in the case of Rotrex the units are a one time assembly item. This is to say you couldn't take it apart to change shaft bearings when thing eventually wear out. Based on my research only one company in America and Rotrex themselves can recondition your blower roughly at £1K in the USA and closer to £2K at Rotrex. I have read statements on the Rotrex website for their products stating 60K kilometres life span with various reports online of units lasting half that. I'm not trying to scare you, I'm only highlighting some of the considerations you should take into account and of course do your research on each solution.

Eaton units are arguably more robust, however as previously pointed out, the NA 1.4 may not have the internals to take the extra torque delivery reliably. In which case IF Eaton is the primary choice, perhaps the base vehicle needs to be a Turbo variant.

If you have the ability and time to engineer/machine all of your mechanical parts, brackets, piping, etc. then it's doable on a fairly tight budget, but of course some trial and error should be factored in. If you don't have either, then you need to have a few thousand to pay the likes of TTS to engineer a solution for you.

As far as superchargers are concerned, arguably the twin screw is the best bet for overall torque and power delivery at low and high rpm, but at a fairly high cost, and finding a small enough unit for a dinky engine may be a challenge as most of those come from the states and are built for large capacity engines. The smallest unit I have seen is 1.3Ltr capacity, which isn't to say its for a 1.3Ltr engine!

Anyway, some food for thought ;)

If you go ahead though, it will be of interest to see how you get on. (y)

Hum
 
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OP whilst the above makes allot of sense in theory, in reality every solution has it's advantages and disadvantages, and in most cases hidden costs.

Based on my experience, I would advise to consider the cost of maintaining/refurbishing a supercharger especially a Rotrex unit as part of your overall cost of supercharging a vehicle. A centrifugal compressor is the most suitable solution for NA engine due to its power delivery, however in the case of Rotrex the units are a one time assembly item. This is to say you couldn't take it apart to change shaft bearings when thing eventually wear out. Based on my research only one company in America and Rotrex themselves can recondition your blower roughly at £1K in the USA and closer to £2K at Rotrex. I have read statements on the Rotrex website for their products stating 60K kilometres life span with various reports online of units lasting half that. I'm not trying to scare you, I'm only highlighting some of the considerations you should take into account and of course do your research on each solution.

Eaton units are arguably more robust, however as previously pointed out, the NA 1.4 may not have the internals to take the extra torque delivery reliably. In which case IF Eaton is the primary choice, perhaps the base vehicle needs to be a Turbo variant.

If you have the ability and time to engineer/machine all of your mechanical parts, brackets, piping, etc. then it's doable on a fairly tight budget, but of course some trial and error should be factored in. If you don't have either, then you need to have a few thousand to pay the likes of TTS to engineer a solution for you.

As far as superchargers are concerned, arguably the twin screw is the best bet for overall torque and power delivery at low and high rpm, but at a fairly high cost, and finding a small enough unit for a dinky engine may be a challenge as most of those come from the states and are built for large capacity engines. The smallest unit I have seen is 1.3Ltr capacity, which isn't to say its for a 1.3Ltr engine!

Anyway, some food for thought ;)

If you go ahead though, it will be of interest to see how you get on. (y)

Hum

Translation for tl;dr = DO IT. DO IT NOW.
 
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