To supercharge or not to supercharge?

[Stinger]

#1800 Reply |

I’m considering supercharging my 2002 GTS.  After 20 years and over 125,000 miles of driving with 450 hp, I’m ready for more (my current car has 78k on the odo).  Who can either talk me into or out of it?

1. Will it be too loud?  I do not want to make any exhaust mods.  The car came with a Borla when I got it, but the constant drone was annoying, so I swapped it out for stock.  This is my daily driver and I like to hear my music when I’m cruising around at 40 or 50 mph.  That being said, I’m totally fine with it getting loud when I step on it and get to high RPMs.  I just don’t want the drone at idle or in typical rush hour traffic conditions to be significantly louder than stock.  You might ask, “why supercharge if you’re stuck in rush hour traffic?”  The reason is that I still get lots of opportunities to open it up; for example, there is a stoplight right before a freeway ramp where I can go from 0-90 (heh heh).

2. Reliability and Roe vs. Paxton…I’m not looking to break any records.  I’d like to add 150 or 200 hp but keep the boost in a range where I don’t have to worry about reliability, detonation, etc (6-7 lb?).  All street driving, essentially zero track, and I never go above 5500 rpm.  But it appears that Roe is out of business.  Do I shop around for a used Roe or just go Paxton?

3. Gas mileage is not a huge concern; I currently get about 15-16 going back and forth to work.  I don’t mind a slight drop, but I don’t want it to drop to something like 10.

Thanks in advance for your inputs!

[1 of 3 GTS]

#1832 Reply |

we had a Roe on our 98 RT10 for 15 years, zero issues. plenty of long trips, Detroit, Salt Lake City, Charlotte, FL, etc.  Installer and tune are the key.
Yours being 2002, 5 lb boost is safe, more than that you’ll probably need water/meth, nitrous, etc. Loud depends on exhaust mods, most likely catless or high flow cats. Maybe others will chime in. But, I’d say do it if you want.

[Ben Keethler]

#1864 Reply |

Agree with the comments from the previous post. I have a new generation ROE kit and have been very happy. 2002 non-forged internals will impact boost level and would definitely include a water/methanol kit. That said if MPG is a significant driver for you, not sure if you want to play with more horsepower. The only way to get more horsepower consumes more fuel. The type of driving (street/highway) and your right foot will determine the MPG. I have a ’99 so do not have the same boost limitations. I never got great mileage before – roughly 11 mpg around town and 13mpg highway. I am not Mario Andretti, but also not Driving Mrs. Daisy. After supercharging (14lbs of boost) 700RWHP, I get about 8 mpg around town and 10 mpg highway. Hard to say how 5 or 7 lbs of boost would impact. Clearly for me mpg was not a concern.

 

[RT Serpent]

#1877 Reply |

I’ve had my Gen2 RT Roe charged since 2007.  Still runs fine (other than it’s time for a new clutch now.) Tuning is paramount, but the neck snapping power of a roots blower is like nothing else.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by RT Serpent.

[Kim Peterson]

#2952 Reply |

Leave it stock why screw with it if your using as a daily driver, more HP more issues, more tickets, more chance of too much HP at the wrong time. Enjoy the car knowing that it has more HP than most anything  else . I have a G1 and a G5 I love the raw of the Gen1 and have no desire to do more and prove something to anyone.

[Brent Barr]

#3095 Reply |

Truthfully, it comes down to where you live or how far you’re willing to ship your car. Not changing the exhaust is going to rob you 30-60 whp. It is difficult to come across Roe kits anymore. My advice would be the Paxton. It seems that the Paxton cars have less cooling issues compared to Roe cars. Either way I would highly recommend a watermeth kit as well. Regardless you run the risk of snapping the crank pulley. If you do decide to supercharge it do not throw on a DLM tensioner. Out of the 3 snapped cranks on supercharged cars that I have seen in the last year, I believe all three ran that tensioner. The other thing is the tuning. A lot of people do remote tuning, I can say that it costs more and it never seems like you get the same drivability that you would if you had the car tuned in person at a shop. I have two Paxton cars myself. The Paxton with the stock bypass valve is depressingly quiet, which sounds perfect for what you’re looking for. I upgraded mine to the Vortech Max Flow Race BOV so I could actually hear the supercharger.

[Daniel Cragin]

#3179 Reply |

I developed that kit with Paxton and installed over 50 of them on the cast piston Gen 2’s.

Feel free to reach out if you need any advice.

 

dancragin@gmail.com

[Lawrence Laney]

#3362 Reply |

Do belanger headers if you dont have them already thats an easy 50hp upgrade.. you could put a cat and muffler behind it that isnt too loud or droney i suppose. I think stroking and a cam upgrade might give you the power you want vs supercharging though.

[Stinger]

#3380 Reply |

Thanks for the inputs everyone.  I ended up going with the headers + hi-flow cats + Corsa and am really enjoying it.  Only a smidgen louder than stock at cruising speeds (and NO drone!) but when the GO pedal goes down, it’s a head-turner!  Not to mention an adrenaline rush.

What a great community we have.  When the budget becomes available, I agree that the cam work (lifters, etc.) is the next step.

[Author]

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