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Whipple Superchargers


Z-Dreamer

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Guest RON JONES

Most efficient roots type blower.They work fine,good for hot rods and such,that want the classic look of a roots type blower.I use to own a roots type blown 355,before centrifugal blowers were around or popular.It was a lot of fun,11.40's in my Z.I wouldn't buy one brand new now,ofcourse if it was real cheep,I'd deal with the old way to make boost.(I may be geting another one cheep)

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Guest Anonymous

As Ron was saying, if I got one cheap I'd use it. (the small 144 roots style blowers are nearly a third the cost of the centrifugals).

Yeah, it heats the charge up and isn't intercooled and the hood clearance is a problem (although the intercooling and height are being addressed these days with a different manifold and rear entrance air intake on the supercharger). Those are the minuses, the plus is off bottom, right now power, immediate boost. See the video of Darius's car. Notice the turbo-esque rush of high rpm power? Thats the difference. If it was a roots style blower he would have smoked the tires at a much earlier RPM.

Old and maybe a tad inefficient, but its light and uncluttered without all the hoses and additional plumbing turbo's and centrifugals require. For roadsters and even a pro-street Z, maybe its my taste in old school, but WTF I am old school, heh, it just flat looks good and works adequately. IMHO.

 

Lone

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Whipple seems to be very heavily invested in the Marine industry lately.

I've been doing a lot of research on them over the winter and it looks like I will be installing a set on a pair of big block EFI marine motors. I think their claim to "most efficient" blowers in terms of positive displacement blowers. A screw type blower (like the Whipple) is far superior to the older three lobe "roots" design. However, today's centrifugal blowers are far more efficient at making boost than any positive displacement models.

 

The down side to centrifugal's, is that the boost curve is RPM dependant. The boost at 3000 rpm might not (and usually isn't) the same as it is at 4500 rpm. In the marine business, this creates a big problem. Most offshores need all the low end grunt they can get, once they start swinging big props. With a positive displacement, however, boost is relative to the drive ratio. If the engine uses 500 cfm at 5000 RPM, overdrive the blower by xx% to supply 1000 cfm at 5000 RPM. This would create something like 15 psi of boost. The same boost pressure would (theoretically) be had at 1500 rpm.

 

One bad thing about Whipple chargers is the difficulty in intercooling them. In a marine application, cold water is abundant. Therefore, making a super efficient H20 to air intercooler is a breeze. Things aren't so easy in an automotive application though. I've seen it done before, but it looked like a plumbers nightmare. Take a look at a Thunderbird Super Coupe and you see what I mean. These were screw superchargers with intercoolers. Also, GM is still using a screw type supercharger in it's 3800 engines (Grand Prix GTP, Pontiac Bonneville, Buick GS) but is non-intercooled.

 

I'm scheduled to get started on the Whipples - Boat project in early April. I can send a little update if you are interested. Price is a little steep (OK, a lot), but it's nominal with every other type of system out there. Besides, anything that says "Marine" next to it is gonna cost double. For example, ONE system is running $5500. Don't forget that most offshore boat have two engines. Oh well, that's the beauty of O.P.M. (other people's money) biggrin.gif

 

-Andy

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Guest Anonymous

Andy,

Yeah let us know when you get into that marine project, I for one would really like to see a update on it. Isn't it amusing when you use the word 'Marine' the price goes through the roof. (Is there really in difference per se in the Edelbrock street carbs and the Marine variety?). Mention 'Aircraft' and you can instantly jack the price 1000 percent. smile.gif (On the other hand, the quality has to be pretty good, if your aircraft quits running, depending on where you are and if you can coast in dead stick or not, you can end up majorly FUBAR'ed...)

 

Lone

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Lone,

The old man bought a few subscriptions to a couple of "Pilot" magazines over the winter. I keep telling him if he's looking for places to throw money away, I'm always available biggrin.gif

I can agree with the aircraft quality. If your boat motor goes south, big deal. Call a tow boat, crack a beer, and wait a good four hours for the tug to arrive. Airplane motor failures, however, tend to sound a little more... dare I say, uh... fatal?

 

As for "Marine" carbs. I asked some of the old Holley guru's this question. The only things that are differnt in the Holley's (this is from memory, so I might be missing something):

1) J-tube bowl vents

2) Poly floats (Coast Gaurd doesn't like you to have brass confused.gif )

3) Specially grooved throttle shaft, for gas vapors

 

...that's it. Worth the extra $100? You be the judge. Sorry to get side tracked here.

 

Superchargers? Yeah, they kick ass.

Get one!

 

-Andy

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Guest RON JONES

OK,enough talk about Plane engine failure.I have to get on one next week.Beleave it or not I HATE flying!My wife says its a control thing,I say I just like having My feet on the ground.Can Anyone say XANAX!

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a buddy at work put a whipple kit on his chevy truck-worked good.the rv guys use whipple too.quality is good -just not hyped like other kits in magzine.as far ai intercooling goes -i am ahving a tough time on my 77 z on how to get an i.c. in with factory ac on l28et.i am thinking of mounting it on top of intake with a hood scoop feeding it.

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WoW, I see I struck some opinons,(hehe). From what I've gathered from reading everything on their site, is that their blowers not only provide the low-end grunt of a typical "Roots/Lobe" type blower, but, also high rpm efficiency due to the twin screw design. This would seem to be a great benefit to those running smaller displacement engines. And since most folks on this site seem to be interested in quickness (stop lite to stop lite) the whipple seems a viable option. I did see that an intercooler can be had( it is incorporated inside the blower intake manafold) perhaps this is where they get the efficiency claim?

 

Mark

 

------------------

" Now where did I set my beer? "

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Guest JAMIE T

I agree with the Wipple developng boost at a lower RPM. I drove a friends 5.0 Mustang with a screw type blower, I think it was called BLOWZILLA by Kenne Bell. It had a ton of bottom end. My Mustang on the other hand has a Vortech centrifigal blower. On the street on radial tires I can roll into the throttle in third gear from a low RPM and when it gets to @4500 RPM, boost is registering @10psi and the rear tires will draw smoke at @60MPH biggrin.gif

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Z Dreamer - what was aid above is true - they provide good low end grunt but DO heat the air more than say a Centrifigul blower. Compared to an older Roots style though they rock! You see them in Pro Mod alot I believe. for a boat they sound pretty good but ATI has been making big inroads in that arena too so I'd look closely at them - they've apparently won a few shootouts. ATI has a Marine division so be sure to check them out - geared properly they can make boost off idle and I've even seen them make boost free revving, something my Paxton blower could NEVER do. That's boost as in several pounds BTW - say 5-7 - with no load!

 

Forced induction is awesome....

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