Let's talk about the Procharger i-1

What type of power adder would you prefer?


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IUP99snake

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I've been reading more and more information about the new Procharger i-1 variable ratio centrifugal blower.

Most of it is the basic press release stuff and some limited tests. But I haven't really read or heard about anything from the people actually using it.

We've all been speculating about a supercharger design like this for ever... now that someone has finally made it, I'm curious to know what it's like..

Anyone thinking of getting one for their 4.6 or 5.0? What are your thoughts about installing one on an 03/04 Cobra or 07-up GT500?

We've all battled it out in the Centri vs Roots argument regarding the 03 Cobra.. but it would be really interesting to see how this fares in a direct comparison to a factory PD blower... or the PD upgrades.

Assuming you have the budget, what power adder would you get-- now that the i-1 is available?
 

01yellercobra

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Depending on the budget I'd either get another centri or go turbo. A guy on the s197 forum had an I-1 installed on his car and he loves it. But even he said it's heavy. He does enjoy the adjustable boost. But turbos have been doing that for years ready.
 

xFLG KING PIN

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Waste of time, money and its dead weight...plus it has a horse power cap of 900...
That things like $1500? After I rebuild my D1 ill still only have $2500 in ALL my Procharger and b@@st parts. Yes, all parts are brand new except the blower and pullies.

-I pieced the my kit together like a working man
 

IUP99snake

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I'd love to have an adjustable boost curve, but the one thing I always worry about with my Centri is the belt issues. It's always in the back of my mind when I step on it and get into the boost. Is the belt slipping? Is the bracket flexing? Will it throw a belt if I do a burnout?

I'd love to have the peace of mind with a turbo knowing I'm not gonna throw a belt when I get into it.

Granted, Procharger looks like they have addressed many of the belt and bracket issues on the 5.0 kit compared to the flimsy setup on my 99 Cobra.

On the other hand, I'd love to have a huge hit of instant boost as soon as I floor it instead of waiting for the turbos to spool up and the RPM's to build.

Is it innovative? Hell yes! Are there misconceptions that need to be addressed? You bet!
 

01yellercobra

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A turbo brings other issues with all the piping and exhaust leaks. But a properly sized turbo can spool under 3000rpm. My buddies fox pretty much no lag. He went to a larger A/R on the exhaust side to slow down the spool a little.
As for the belt issues it does take some work but it's possible to make it reliable.
 

IUP99snake

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A turbo brings other issues with all the piping and exhaust leaks. But a properly sized turbo can spool under 3000rpm. My buddies fox pretty much no lag. He went to a larger A/R on the exhaust side to slow down the spool a little.
As for the belt issues it does take some work but it's possible to make it reliable.

I didn't think about piping and exhaust leaks... makes sense. Not to mention underhood heat.

Mine's reliable 99.999% of the time. I've put 75,000 miles on this combination and have no problems during normal street driving. But normal street driving isn't why you get a power adder.

One thing I've seen a lot in diesels but not in mustangs is variable vane turbos... I wonder why..
 

Wildcard

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I looked into the I-1 when it came out, but it wasn't a big enough supercharger and the added cost and space required turned me away. I decided that I'd rather have either a Novi 2000 or a F1 Procharger. I've had almost every single poweradder in your poll. I've had roots style, centrifugal, and turbo. The last set up that I had was a big turbo. Custom turbo kits are extremely complex and are like X-planes – you have to do a lot of work to dial them in to work right. Even then you may still have pipes that hit, oil leaks, exhaust leaks: they are a lot of work. When you have a lot of time to go through all of the issues then it is not that bad, but when you just want something that works all the time without the hassle they're not the best option. I think I spent most of my time dealing with indirect turbo issues: issues that were caused by parts getting near to the turbo pipes (suspension, a-arm, coil over, steering rack, tire, sway bar) or parts that had to be moved because they were too close to turbo pipes (body parts, brake lines, power steering lines, washer tank, etc.), as well as how low you could lower the car without having pipes scraping (a 4" down pipe was a big pipe). I switched from my turbo to a Novi 2000 because I can have the same power numbers but less hassle. No more worrying about indirect and direct turbo issues. I'm going to run a wastegate on it so that I can control my boost like I did on my turbo system. So I would say that the wastegate method is a way to do a variable controlled boost supercharger set up without going to the I-1.
 
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01yellercobra

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One thing I've seen a lot in diesels but not in mustangs is variable vane turbos... I wonder why..

My guess would be the computer controlling the vanes. For trucks equipped with it from the factory it's part of the ECU. A non factory set up would need a stand alone computer
 

95snake03

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I looked into the I-1 when it came out, but it wasn't a big enough supercharger and the added cost and space required turned me away. I decided that I'd rather have either a Novi 2000 or a F1 Procharger. I've had almost every single poweradder in your poll. I've had roots style, centrifugal, and turbo. The last set up that I had was a big turbo. Custom turbo kits are extremely complex and are like X-planes – you have to do a lot of work to dial them in to work right. Even then you may still have pipes that hit, oil leaks, exhaust leaks: they are a lot of work. When you have a lot of time to go through all of the issues then it is not that bad, but when you just want something that works all the time without the hassle they're not the best option. I think I spent most of my time dealing with indirect turbo issues: issues that were caused by parts getting near to the turbo pipes (suspension, a-arm, coil over, steering rack, tire, sway bar) or parts that had to be moved because they were too close to turbo pipes (body parts, brake lines, power steering lines, washer tank, etc.), as well as how low you could lower the car without having pipes scraping (a 4" down pipe was a big pipe). I switched from my turbo to a Novi 2000 because I can have the same power numbers but less hassle. No more worrying about indirect and direct turbo issues. I'm going to run a wastegate on it so that I can control my boost like I did on my turbo system. So I would say that the wastegate method is a way to do a variable controlled boost supercharger set up without going to the I-1.

Where is the evidence that w waste gated centri setup makes better power? I've not seen one successful build yet. I say just go turbo and forget all this playing with belts. If it's done right you won't be doing much of any maintenence. Buy a prefab kit. Wildcard tried to do his all custom with the damn turbo in the fender
 

Wildcard

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Where is the evidence that w waste gated centri setup makes better power? I've not seen one successful build yet. I say just go turbo and forget all this playing with belts. If it's done right you won't be doing much of any maintenence. Buy a prefab kit. Wildcard tried to do his all custom with the damn turbo in the fender


Where does it say "better power" in anything I wrote? And Yes my personal kit was in the front bumper, so how does that impeach or eliminate anything that I've said? I built turbo kits for a living and built many so I'm pretty knowledgeable about what they take, and the issues that are common. Why make your response about me though? You point out "damn turbo in the fender" To mean what? You didn't like the way I ran my down pipe? I mentioned above issues that you will face when building a kit. If you disagree just say you disagree. Why make it personal.
 
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encasedmetal

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thread is pointless as procharger told me first hand it won't be available for any model before the S197. and the blower i the equivalent of the P1sc btw- so that's pointless as well. cool tech- but too big and too much of a hassle to fit in our cars- my f1a was fun enough to get to fit.
 

01yellercobra

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thread is pointless as procharger told me first hand it won't be available for any model before the S197. and the blower i the equivalent of the P1sc btw- so that's pointless as well. cool tech- but too big and too much of a hassle to fit in our cars- my f1a was fun enough to get to fit.

I thought it was supposed to be equivalent to the D1? I imagine the other body styles make fitment a big issue.

The thread isn't pointless. It's just about thoughts on new technology.
 

encasedmetal

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I thought it was supposed to be equivalent to the D1? I imagine the other body styles make fitment a big issue.

The thread isn't pointless. It's just about thoughts on new technology.

not pointless, but you know what I mean. I talked to John at procharger at length about it cause I wanted to send my f1a in and them do the "i" treatment to it. no dice, so I discussed the reality of putting in sn95/new edge cars- and he said not gonna happen
 

DSG2003Mach1

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Id be interested to know how much more power it takes to turn that new I series blower vs a normal one
 

IUP99snake

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Id be interested to know how much more power it takes to turn that new I series blower vs a normal one

Good call. Whatever the parasitic losses, I'm guessing they will vary with the ratio of the blower at any given RPM.

I wonder if you could lower the parasitic losses by changing the pulley size and running the blower at a different ratio. There's got to be a sweet spot in there somewhere.
 

DSG2003Mach1

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What is the MAX WHP on this blower?

I havent seen anything yet, apparently there were initially limited to 7psi, AJ over at LaMotta just got his reflashed for more boost, I wanna say 10-12 psi is possible now. It didnt sound like you could swap pullies on them at this point like the old units (Im guess the pulley they have on it will hit max blower RPM once they fully open it up in the software)
 

IUP99snake

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I havent seen anything yet, apparently there were initially limited to 7psi, AJ over at LaMotta just got his reflashed for more boost, I wanna say 10-12 psi is possible now. It didnt sound like you could swap pullies on them at this point like the old units (Im guess the pulley they have on it will hit max blower RPM once they fully open it up in the software)

Interesting. If it was initially limited to 7 PSI, that sort of defeats the purpose of having a variable ratio supercharger to begin with. If 7PSI is the max, I wonder what the minimum is? 0 PSI? Or should we start to talk in the scale of "inches of mercury" instead of "pounds per square inch" when you turn it down as low as it'll go.

I originally thought 7PSI would be the minimum, and perhaps it would go up to 14PSI or something around there.

You might not be able to change the snout pulley, but you can always change the crank pulley. I wonder if it would confuse the unit's computer by overspinning it.

Despite its shortcomings, it's the first. It's a start. The first of anything always has ridiculous shortcomings. This idea is not going away anytime soon.

Maybe we'll start to see this as common as self contained blowers that don't require a separate oil supply, a feature that used to only be available with a Procharger.
 

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