Hi all,
Let me try to answer as many of your questions as possible.
First lets start with my experience with the conversion. I'm going to
try not to sound like a salesman but I have not found a downside to
this. As far as technical expertise, if you can turn a wrench and tune
your car you can install this kit.
The requirements are pretty typical for any performance upgrade, the
engine must be in sound working condition & within manufactures spec's.
After all the parts were at hand and the pre assembly run through were
done the actual hang time over the car was about 5 hours. I venture to
guess I could better my time by 2 hours now. The beauty here is that if
for some insane reason you want to go back to having Civic's kick your
ass, you could put every thing back in even less time! Remember, you are
basically still running a stock six cylinder motor which contrary to
many believes, is petty reliable & durable as well as very streetable.
No big cams, multiple carbs hammering away just to run to the corner for
milk. Until you press aggressively on the gas you are not running under
any boost.
As far as cost, OK it's not cheap, about $2,500 for all the goodies. But
compare it to the necessary engine work needed to get the same end
results and suddenly it's a bargain. The supercharger itself is an Eaton
M62 unit ( already updated )
Welcome To Magnuson Products . I'd say it weighed in at about 25lbs ,
not much of a difference from the two carb set-up. I also have headers
to offset the weight gain & help the engine breath better.
Performance has been greatly improved. I have a G-Tech but have not done
any testing yet. Eaton claims a realistic 40% increase in power & I
would absolutely agree, maybe more depending other modifications
(exhaust, ignition, head porting etc. ) The car has a ton of grunt and
the torque has increased dramatically. Third gear pulls like second. I
am using the larger of the pulley choices which gives a 6-9lb max boost.
The smaller pulley should increase that to about 12lb boost. At
approximately 10hp per lb of boost that's a pretty decent gain. Remember
this is on a single carburetor ( a rather large HD8 ).
Can you build your own manifold ? Sure you can. I can't, but you may be
able to. The aluminum plenum at first glance looks simple, but don't
fool your self. It took Peter Boutcher of VIS plenty of hair pulling to
get it right. The workmanship is excellent, compact and well, pretty
cool looking. It's a tight fit and and well engineered piece that
required the talent of a good machinist and welder. This wasn't just
aluminum box channel patched together.
This will be my second full summer with the supercharger and the
following two problems are the only thing I've encountered. The design
does not allow for a water jacket between the carb and supercharger to
help in cold winter driving. The car still starts on the first turn of
the key and idles perfect but I have had cold weather fouling that
corrects itself when the motor reaches running temp. The vacuum control
for the boost by-pass valve failed. Magnuson mailed me a new one in 3
days. This is a wet intake design meaning that the air and fuel are
drawn through the supercharger. If the car was fuel injected the fuel
would be introduced after the supercharger and by-pass valve. I will be
changing my vacuum source to improve this possible problem. I have
spoken to other owners with this set up & I am glad to say No one else
had this problem. This car is a daily driver for the most part but I
will say I do not take it out in the snow or heavy rain. Other than that
it gets driven almost every day. I have done other things to enhance the
supercharger and hope to keep making it fast & reliable. I would be
happy to answer any and all questions to keep this available.
Mitch Seff
75 TR6 Supercharged
Oceanside, N.Y.
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