Kenne bell

Has anyone really ever had any issues with Kenne bell? I see a lot of hate on them. I can’t speak because I’ve only owned this car equipped with a KB for a week now. Lot of people say they break cranks? After doing my own research KB seems to stand behind they’re stuff and deny any of this. But I want to hear everyone’s experiences, not opinions. I do feel like vmp has a much better marketing side so I can see why they are talked up very well. In no way am I trying to bash and company I just want to see if there’s hard proof of KB not being a good RELIABLE supercharger. These are new cars to me coming from the 5.0. So I’d like to learn as much as possible.

Blackwell808 said:

Has anyone really ever had any issues with Kenne bell? I see a lot of hate on them. I can’t speak because I’ve only owned this car equipped with a KB for a week now. Lot of people say they break cranks? After doing my own research KB seems to stand behind they’re stuff and deny any of this. But I want to hear everyone’s experiences, not opinions. I do feel like vmp has a much better marketing side so I can see why they are talked up very well. In no way am I trying to bash and company I just want to see if there’s hard proof of KB not being a good RELIABLE supercharger. These are new cars to me coming from the 5.0. So I’d like to learn as much as possible.

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breaking cranks is not specific to KB, its more related to tension on the crank snout (belt tightness), the blower being run and how hard its being spun. The single key way and bolt into the snout doesn't have a ton of support, thats why the stock lower is "caged" and attached to the block for support.

Well belt tightness is key with these cars it sounds like!

I have run KBs since 2005. Outstanding blowers and outstanding company. Problem is Whipple and VMP has sales reps on this site so they will “push” their agenda. KB does not. People will always say well I had a friend with this issue with KB. Well Over the past 15 years I have heard the same issues with all three of the companies. The blowers that have broken the most snouts are the Whipple 3.4L and Whipple 4.0L. Which are both great blowers.

GodStang said:

I have run KBs since 2005. Outstanding blowers and outstanding company. Problem is Whipple and VMP has sales reps on this site so they will “push” their agenda. KB does not. People will always say well I had a friend with this issue with KB. Well Over the past 15 years I have heard the same issues with all three of the companies. The blowers that have broken the most snouts are the Whipple 3.4L and Whipple 4.0L. Which are both great blowers.

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Right. Marketing makes a HUGE difference. Kenne bell always seems to be one of the quiet ones that aren’t always out shoving their stuff in your face.

Been running my KB since 2010. No issues at all with it. Like stated, KB is not a blower sold by the vendors on here so you dont hear much about them.

All the TS blowers are great blowers, it's really up to personnel preferences and visual looks. I like the look of the billet case vs cast case like whipple and VMP.

First of all OP you've come to the right place for REAL answers. I can tell you've been doing a lot of reading on FB. From my personal experience other social media platforms such as FB tend to have the biggest idiots who have ZERO experience but love to push their complete and utter BS opinions. The worst part for me is that I've been banned from a few pages for basically fighting the stupidity.

To echo what others have said breaking of crank snouts or cranks has almost nothing to do with kenne bell. I say almost nothing because as you step up in blower size the heavier the rotor package gets and the more power it takes to spin. Without a supported crank snout or at a minimum a deeper stud instead of a bolt you have a high potential for a failure with the larger blower.

Anyone telling you this is solely the fault of kenne bell is:

1. Full of shit
2. Has ZERO experience
3. Lying and possibly making up stories

Now as far as kenne bell as a company? My experience has not been a great one so to speak, especially in this last year.

Unless you are buying a part their customer serve SUCKS! There is no other way to put it. Years ago they had a few people answering the phones that KNEW the products and KNEW what you were talking about when you called. Now you get someone who can't figure out a damn thing and you end up waiting on hold for Mike. He seems to be the only knowledgeable person left these days and even he has failed me in recent months. Everything I've emailed him about has never been returned and I've been forced to figure it out myself. A few things are still not resolved too.

Another massive problem is that they have all but stopped supporting some of their older kits. Yes they will still rebuild an old 2.2 or 1.7 but God forbid you need a part specific to one of those older kits. I am dealing with this right now and am stuck fabricating what I need at a much higher cost. Once they've moved on and they sell any spares they have thats it, done.

My other problem with them is they will deny problems to the bitter end and in some cases for YEARS. The 2.1 2v bypass valve issue comes to mind here. KB denied anything was wrong with that setup for nearly 2 years before they finally came out and admitted it was a problem but also covered their asses at the same time.

Also do NOT believe people saying their parts are O.E. quality. They are far from it and people making those claims have never seen the shitty castings of some of their manifolds. Hell the casting flash alone proves they are not O.E. quality let alone the other issues I’ve found.

Honestly if it wasn't for them having the only smog legal PD blower kit for my car I wouldn't own one, period. Id rather run a whipple or a TVS and would have sold my kit ages ago.

Now I know my experiences with them do not echo everyone else's. I also do not expect any company to be perfect and one mistake doesn't sink anyone I deal with but all of my experiences with them do in my eyes. I'd never deal with them again given the chance to buy a different setup.

Well belt tightness is key with these cars it sounds like!

03' White Snake said:

Been running my KB since 2010. No issues at all with it. Like stated, KB is not a blower sold by the vendors on here so you dont hear much about them.

All the TS blowers are great blowers, it's really up to personnel preferences and visual looks. I like the look of the billet case vs cast case like whipple and VMP.

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what size blower are you running?

Blackwell808 said:

Well belt tightness is key with these cars it sounds like!

what size blower are you running?

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2.8lc

I have been dealing with KB since the late 80s with my Buick stuff. They have always been hard to get on the phone. You will get a hold of them eventually and they are helpful when you do. I have a 2.8H that has been in place since 2009. I got it used, and sent it across the country to KB to be checked out. They waved the fee and checked it for free (it was fine). It was sent back nicely boxed for the cost of shipping. I have had no issues with it at all over the past 11 years.

Just an FYI the VMP/TVS IS NOT a Twin Screw Blower. It is still a roots blower. From an engineering stand point it is less efficient than the TS blowers. If used on the correct setup it is a fantastic blower.

03' White Snake said:

Been running my KB since 2010. No issues at all with it. Like stated, KB is not a blower sold by the vendors on here so you dont hear much about them.

All the TS blowers are great blowers, it's really up to personnel preferences and visual looks. I like the look of the billet case vs cast case like whipple and VMP.

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Blackwell808 said:

Well belt tightness is key with these cars it sounds like!

what size blower are you running?

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2.8H standard inlet, non- LC.

I also think another reason why whipple stands out is bc they are constantly making and improving there blower. even for the terminator. A 17 year old car. so I give whipple a lot of credit. I still like kenne bell. I also spoke to jim bell, the owner, over the phone when we all purchased the first run 2.4 kbs and they were not that great. The one thing that bothered me was when kb came out with the mammoth kit. It was not designed for the 03 cobra. The intake on the driver side. They had the GT500 setup so they slapped it together with the 2.8h and bam, a terminator kit. I remmeber on modfords some of the guys questioned kb when they were posting on the forums. I guess the people didn't believe there response.

stangfreak said:

I also think another reason why whipple stands out is bc they are constantly making and improving there blower. even for the terminator. A 17 year old car. so I give whipple a lot of credit. I still like kenne bell. I also spoke to jim bell, the owner, over the phone when we all purchased the first run 2.4 kbs and they were not that great. The one thing that bothered me was when kb came out with the mammoth kit. It was not designed for the 03 cobra. The intake on the driver side. They had the GT500 setup so they slapped it together with the 2.8h and bam, a terminator kit. I remmeber on modfords some of the guys questioned kb when they were posting on the forums. I guess the people didn't believe there response.

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Not enough air was their excuse for having the inlet on the drivers side. Over the years that has proven wrong with whipple and vmp doing just fine. Definitely looks like a cost saving reason. KB would of sold a lot more had they designed a passenger side mammoth inlet in my opinion.
Ive always loved KB products. Even had a KB 2.6H at one point. I would honestly love to see them make the 2.2 again for all the fans who bought a terminator because of the SnakeBite video. A 2.2 mammoth would be interesting


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I would be interested if they offered a larger inlet on the passenger side. Even better if they developed a removable inlet.

03cobra224 said:

I would be interested if they offered a larger inlet on the passenger side. Even better if they developed a removable inlet.

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Same here, I pretty much maxed out my 2.8h with the standard inlet. Been looking for a bahemouth inlet to change too.

D-MANN said:

Not enough air was their excuse for having the inlet on the drivers side. Over the years that has proven wrong with whipple and vmp doing just fine. Definitely looks like a cost saving reason. KB would of sold a lot more had they designed a passenger side mammoth inlet in my opinion.
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It was NOTHING short of a cost cutting measure and IMOP a joke. Nothing was ever proven that the passenger side of the car restricted airflow and like you said whipple and VMP have proven that to be 100% false.

I always like to see how companies address known issues and KB falls flat in this department especially on their 2v stuff. They know the issues with the bypass valve location and instead of fixing it they have continued to roll out new blowers for those cars while ignoring it.

Let's also not forget when Jim Bell himself started posting on other forums about how the upgraded inlets that people like MPH were making could potentially damage their blowers. Yet another crock of shit from them. I seem to remember him saying your warranty would be voided by running one too.

Honestly I don't know why anyone would consider them for a supercharger kit or upgrade unless you're pigeon holed in some way like I am. If I ever move out of CA I am ditching my 2.1.

Having running a blower on both sides Technically they are correct for how their kits (read KITS) are designed there is in fact more room and better air flow on the driver side. That is 100% fact. You can’t even fit the air filter the KBs run on the passenger side. Remember it has been proven that it is safer to run a fender mounted air filter than an engine bay one due to engine heat. KBs kits are fender mounted and you can not do that easily on the passenger side without removing intercooler pump and other items.

What did Whipple do at the time? They sold just the inlet, not a kit and said run what ever CAI and what ever air filter. The guys that needed the air run it in the engine bay and hollow out their headlight. Nothing wrong with that it works great.

As far as potential damage you were taking the blower apart all the way to the screws themselves. You could easily drop a screw in there. So should they warranty a product you are taking apart and putting it back together god knows how?

Blkkbgt said:

It was NOTHING short of a cost cutting measure and IMOP a joke. Nothing was ever proven that the passenger side of the car restricted airflow and like you said whipple and VMP have proven that to be 100% false.

I always like to see how companies address known issues and KB falls flat in this department especially on their 2v stuff. They know the issues with the bypass valve location and instead of fixing it they have continued to roll out new blowers for those cars while ignoring it.

Let's also not forget when Jim Bell himself started posting on other forums about how the upgraded inlets that people like MPH were making could potentially damage their blowers. Yet another crock of shit from them. I seem to remember him saying your warranty would be voided by running one too.

Honestly I don't know why anyone would consider them for a supercharger kit or upgrade unless you're pigeon holed in some way like I am. If I ever move out of CA I am ditching my 2.1.

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GodStang said:

Having running a blower on both sides Technically they are correct for how their kits (read KITS) are designed there is in fact more room and better air flow on the driver side. That is 100% fact. You can’t even fit the air filter the KBs run on the passenger side. Remember it has been proven that it is safer to run a fender mounted air filter than an engine bay one due to engine heat. KBs kits are fender mounted and you can not do that easily on the passenger side without removing intercooler pump and other items.

What did Whipple do at the time? They sold just the inlet, not a kit and said run what ever CAI and what ever air filter. The guys that needed the air run it in the engine bay and hollow out their headlight. Nothing wrong with that it works great.

As far as potential damage you were taking the blower apart all the way to the screws themselves. You could easily drop a screw in there. So should they warranty a product you are taking apart and putting it back together god knows how?

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I guess I stand corrected on the passenger side inlet issue.

However the damage I was refering to had absolutely nothing to do with damage from hardware or anything else being ingested into the screws.

What I was refering to was Jim Bell himself claiming that upgraded inlets would cause uneven aiflow to screws which could potentially damage the screws. If I could find those old posts I surely would link them but I remember reading it. This is back when the behemoth inlets came out and one other that I cannot remember the name of. I wonder if some of those old posts are still around on modfords? I know one of the reps there made similar claims.

Lastly you can defend them all you want but as far as I am concerned they are a B minus company at best and nobody will change my mind.