98Tacoma

Ok so i have been researching Superchargers, I have found that there are two main ones to chose from, One by TRD and oone by a Souyth African Co, i was wondering if anyone here has had experiance with either and if they had what there experience was.

I have been onto www.customtacos.com there is some talk of the TRD superCharger being underpowered and unreliable, and there is talk of the other one being better, upto 14PSI of boost, Does anyone know of any reason to get one or the other, or if there are any out there that are going to work "better".

Nitro Hotpants

what engine do you have? the 2.7 or the 3.4?
the 2.7 S/C is made by the South African company named Alpine. the TRD version of the 2.7 S/C is made by Alpine but only uses a 4-5 PSI pulley for U.S. specifications. i believe that the one directly from Alpine gives 6-7PSI. however, if you have the 3.4, that is made by Magnusson (sp?) the 3.4 S/C has proven to be a very good unit and everyone with one has seemed to have very little amounts of problems. of course if you want it to perform better there are fuel and transmission modifications that should be performed to insure the most possible from the unit.
i had the 2.7 TRD S/C on my 4Runner for about a month, with no noticable power increase. in some cases it works really well, and in others its not to great. but i have never really heard too many problems like what i had with the 3.4.

someone please correct me if im wrong of if i forgot something

-Casey

98Tacoma

I have the 2.7L, Apreciate the info. the basics are a 2.7L, 5 speed 4x4.

Gadget

The best info on the 2.7 TRD or Alpine supercharger can be found on the New England Chapter site for www.TacomaTerritory.com. It was the people there that started importing the very first ones to the US and that is what got TRD interested in the Alpine kit. They stripped it down, put a smaller supercharger on it and called it their own and sell it to you for twice the price.

Gadget

www.GadgetOnline.com

rimpainter.com

No power increase with a SC

What happened?

elnip

Something doesn't sound right....

Nitro Hotpants

well i had it installed, and when i drove it home, no increase, so i was like:wtf: . so i called TRD and they said to give it 5 full tanks of premium gas and about 500 miles. so i did that, and still no increase. so i decided to get a boost gauge to see what kind of boost i was getting if any. took it for a drive and i was getting around 4-5 PSI. so i took it to TRD, in Tustin (right next to Irvine) and their head mechanic said that with the 2.7 sometimes all the CA smog restrictions make it a dud. for some people it works great, and for others it is a dud. i was pretty disappointed as one might assume, so they gave me a full refund and paid to have my original parts reinstalled. another reason it might not have worked well for me is because i had about 108,000 miles on it. but i dont know, im over it now, and im just waiting for my money to come in.

-Casey

rimpainter.com

That pretty much sucks. That's cool about the refund though.

PhxTRDRunner

Wow...didnt think that a 0 gain was even possible all things equal Sux man, good thing they took care of you!

Good Times

casey:

mileage of 100k should have been a null factor for your SC. I was gonna say if you were living in a high altitude area then the SC might not work as well due to the air but since you're down by sea level (or almost... ya know what i mean) that's not the issue.

I doubt that it's because of all the smog crap too... Were you able to get a quick dyno to see your performance curves? Just cuz the boost guage said it was 4-5psi don't mean squat. I'd say it's gotta be something else, were you running lean or too rich? I mean it's gotta be something else as that SC should have given you atleast some difference. I mean it could also be because of the tires/gearing you have but i doubt that too...

My guess would be the lean gas? I'm not rocket scientist though but that's what I'd think.

The smog stuff is BS cuz if you were pushing it hard, you'd just end up blowing out the cat conv anyway. hehe

anyway b4 i start rambling off ....

Nitro Hotpants

i never did get a chance to take it to be dynoed. i was getting the run around for the longest time from the dealer that installed it and from TRD. so basically i was just getting frustrated and i didnt want to deal with it anymore.
i dont think my tires had a big influence at all because i have regeared to 4.88's so the tires werent holding me back. my fuel might have been off a little. i did experience some pinging in high RPM's and i was running premium and a can of octane boost and still no improvement.
i guess after it was all said and done, i was just glad that i got it off and was getting my money back.
I would say anyone with the 2.7 that wants to supercharge, dont let my crappy experience hold you back, im sure you wont have the bad luck i had

-Casey