Airbagged

I'm really considering the supercharging option, and going with the Rotrex charger that is being sold in a kit made by a Japanese company. There are a lot of issues to consider though, because the system uses a piggy back ECU to basically control the amount of fuel that the injectors will disperse. The issue with the piggy back system that comes with this kit is that it is not plug and play, and so far all the instructions I get from them are in Japanese. I have studied the diagrams and the entire install does not seem insanely difficult, just time consuming, and the language barrier is a bit of an issue. There is a member on IQforums.com that says he purchased the kit and had it installed on his Scion IQ, but that t kit was installed by someone who spoke Japanese, so they where able to understand the instructions. Given my mechanical abilities I'm sure i would be able to pull off the install, if I had a translated set of instructions. It's very difficult to translate also, because they sent it to me in a PDF format, and its hard to copy and paste over to translation software. It's really something I'm considering, as I've done pretty much everything else I could do to my Scion IQ, I just want to make sure if I do it, that I do it correctly. I would like to hear some feedback from any other IQ owners who have either installed a supercharger kit, or are considering it. I know if a US based company had come out with a kit, I would have done it already, its just a little bit uncomfortable to do such a complex mod, with little to no tech support currently available.

Airbagged

Well, I finally broke down and supercharged my IQ. It cost a pretty penny, but it sure is nice to have a bit of extra power. I've done the complete install myself, and I will say it's not easy, and I would not recommend it for someone who is not a seasoned mechanic. The install requires you to pretty much know how to do a little bit of everything you can do on a car. I took the install a step further and used real braided stainless steel hose with crimped on ends, I also covered most of the hose with a hydraulic hose anti chafing cover.
Hope you like the pic, I also had the aluminum section of pipe powder coated, and special ordered red silicone hoses instead of the usual blue hoses that come with the kit. I also used special hose clamps that hold far more pressure than standard hose clamps.
I made a few mods to the air box, and figured out how to convert it into a true cold air intake. I also modded the air box by removing the carbon filter, and installing a drop in K&N instead of the restrictive factory filter. This is the best way to have a true cold air intake as all the air going into the filter comes from the front of the vehicle and not from inside the engine compartment. By modifying the air box in the way I did, you also make the path the air has to take before entering the S/C as short as possible, it's a win win situation. Now I can get away with this because my Hella horns sit right in front of where I modified the air box so it will stop any rain from going directly into the air box in the event I get caught in a rain.

itzallgood707

Very nice. Are you going to dyno?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 4

Airbagged

Thank you for the compliment.
I'm not going to Dyno it, I know the IQ is no race car, I just wanted a little bit more power, and since this is a show car I wanted it to stand out in the crowd. There really isn't that many IQs out there, but the ones that I have seen all seem to have the same mods under the hood, a CAI, so I figure I'd do something a little better

I'm hoping it is a noticeable difference, I can say this after installing it, the install requires quite a bit of work, and modification so the outcome should be positive. I'm finishing up the install today, so I will know if it makes a difference soon. I figured I'd post a pic just to show people what it looks like so far. Today, I'm down to assembling the connections under the hood into connectors that come with the kit.

I included a pic, so you can see where I mounted the piggy back ECU. I had to extend each wire in the two harnesses because the kit is designed for a right hand drive and the wiring is way to short, get ready to do a lot of soldering when installing one of these bad boys!

Airbagged

Are you talking about a kit for a Toyota/Scion IQ. If it is a Rotrex supercharger, Rotrex does not rebuild their superchargers, nor do they have any authorized dealers to do so.

Airbagged

At first, I was not going to Dyno my IQ, but the. I remembered that Taz had posted some baseline figures a while back on a DC cold air intake post. His IQ put down an initial 81.70 hp before the DC intake was installed, so I guess the 94 hp reported by Toyota/Scion must be an at the crank figure. My IQ has the Megan racing cat back exhaust system, the power enterprise Rotrex supercharger kit, and I'm running a K&N air filter in a modified stock air box my Dyno sheet shows a max 110.39 HP and 100.69 max torque. Figures if wasn't so excited about when I thought about the 120hp that was reported by power enterprise, but they don't say at the crank or at the wheels, so since they also report the factory 94hp alongside their figures I'm assuming they used the same method of testing. Given all the numbers my total HP gains over a stock IQ are 28.69HP which is a good 1/3 over all hp gain. The ultimate test is the feel on the road, and I'm very happy with the results. Off the start it's no dragster given the CVT transmission, but once your up an rolling it has plenty of power, and you feel it in its responsiveness!

TX12IQ

hmmm, that's interesting. that little thing is pretty quick stock and I know the difference that a SC or TC makes so good for you. I have a NA solstice and a TC solstice and the 100 extra lbs of torque that the TC makes is very noticeable.

lilsatan

Aribagged, how about an update on the supercharger? How's power, how's reliability? It certainly looks great.

Airbagged

Lilsatan,

As far as feedback, the kit is very nice, and the customer service from Power Enterprise has been a class act . The kit is intended for the Japanese version of the IQ so there will be some extensions of the piggy back ECU wiring harness that you will need to do, I recommend soldering all your connections, as I did, and you will need to extend your harness about 5' to properly locate it behind the passenger side airbag.
There is an issue I recently had with one of the pulleys included with the kit, but i relayed my findings to the company, and they will more than likely make the needed corrections based off of my findings. I supplied them with part numbers and schematic drawings for the new pulley setup, so the fix is no big deal. This kit is not plug and play! I do not recommend this kit for anyone who hasn't turned wrenches for a while and is also good with wiring, as it is quite detailed, and the supplied instructions are only partially translated to English. You will have to cut into your factory wiring harness to complete the install, so be ready to do a lot of wire soldering. If anyone wants any detailed pics of my install, and the changes that I made to the kit, feel free to contact me at airbagged@earthlink.net
I have plenty of pictures, and can explain everything in as much detail as needed to help anyone who would want to install one of these kits pull it off.

Airbagged

In response to the power question, the power increase is great!
It is not the 120hp that is advertised but that's only because neither is the 94 hp that Scion advertises as the starting HP. Power enterprise simply took the gain they got, and then added that figure to the base figure of 94 hp so that people will understand the numbers better.
The actual figures I got prior to install was about 85hp And after with my install was 110.39hp I believe that scion is basing their 94hp figure at the crank shaft vs at the wheels, which would explain the difference between advertised HP and actual at the wheels numbers. My car is very fun to drive now, and it is very fast indeed, the only draw back is the CVT so don't expect to get some crazy off the line power increase, but you will notice that your RPMs will not rise as high in order to get the car rolling. The increase in HP reduces the engines need to wind up as much in order to develop the HP needed to get up and going. Nobody's asked yet about fuel mileage changes, but in all reality, the numbers haven't changed much at all even with the gained HP. As long as you drive normal, you may even notice a small MPG gain, since the engine no longer winds up as much every time you stop and go.

lilsatan

Airbagged,

Thanks so much for the detailed response. I really appreciate the information and you hit on exactly what I wanted to know most. I've got to it admit, it sounds a little intimidating on the mechanical side. But the extra go is mighty attractive. I wonder if Power Enterprises could be convinced to just set it up for LHD from the outset?

Anyway, your iQ is amazing. I'm done some mods to mine and have something major coming up, if all goes well I may get to supercharging! If you have any links to pictures of your iQ please put them up. I've seen several pictures of your car but a whole gallery or two would be nice. I love how you've kept the OEM feel.

Airbagged

Here is a pic of some of what I went through with the install, you have to take off the upper part of the intake to access the Injectors which have to be changed out for larger units. This is a step you want to be very careful with, and make sure you use a high quality assembly lube on all your injector seals, I personally use Lucas brand assembly lube because I've used it for years with good results.

Airbagged

Here is where I mounted the piggy back ECU, I made a bracket out of aluminum to give it a factory like install. All the wires where later covered up, this pic was taken during the install

Airbagged

Here are the two harnesses that go from the engine bay to the piggy back ECU, each wire had to be extended about 5' each there where about 20 wires total, I used the same gauge wire, and all connections where made by solder, and covered in heat shrink. Once you pass the harness through to the engine, you have to solder or crimp( I chose to do both) the terminals that later go into the connectors. You will also have to cut into the harness going into your fActory ECU and solder/crimp terminals on to the ends of wires to build the connectors that will connect to the harness leading to the piggy back ECU, this is one step of the install where you really want to take your time, and make sure that every connection is made solidly.

Airbagged

Every wire in the harness was covered with friction tape, and heat shrink, all the wires in the harness that where not used where capped off with heat Shrink butt connectors.

Airbagged

The kit comes with a standard rubber hose that goes to the oil cooler, reservoir, and filter then back to the supercharger. The hose is held in place with factory type spring loaded clamps. This isn't really a necessity, but I wanted to go all out so I used real stainless steel braided hoses with crimped on fittings. These are the kind of fittings that they would use on high pressure hydraulic setups. I also decided to to cover the hose with a hydraulic hose anti chafing cover to both protect the hose and anything it came in contact with, one extra benefit is that it keeps heat coming off the engine away from the hoses.

Airbagged

In this picture you can see the oil cooler for the supercharger, and the anti chafing cover that I used on all the oil cooler hoses. Some people might say why cover beautiful braided hoses, but I didn't use the hoses for looks, I used them for quality, I did leave a couple inches visible near the ends just to give a sneak peak of what's underneath.

Airbagged

Here is the filter for the supercharger oil. It sits under the car, but I wanted to leave no detail left overlooked so I used anodized ends at the connection points.

Airbagged

Here is a pic of the supercharger up close, and you can see a bit of the new coolant reservoir that you have to use after you remove the factory unit.

Airbagged

Here is the radiator fan shroud after I removed the factory coolant reservoir. The area that is slightly more shiny is the section that attached to the plant tank that was plastic welded to the shroud. In the instruction, they tell you to just cut off the tank and leave this area with a hole, but it looked unfinished to me, so I filled in the hole with a epoxy that bonds with plastic then smoothed it out and painted it, wet sanded it, and then polished it ( yeah I know it's overkill, and nobody will ever see it, but I know it's there)