Just wondering, because I'm not too familiar with working on turbos and superchargers, but if I were to buy the supercharger for the tC and get some custom piping and an intercooler put on, would I need to do anything special or should it just do it's thing and add on the horses? And does anybody know if the supercharger on the tC (which uses the traditional snail turbo and not the big flat kind) would that make the same blow-off valve type sound as a regular exhaust powered turbo? and one last thing, is there even enough room for adding an intercooler? the engine compartment in the pictures looked pretty filled up. Sorry about all the questions, nobody lives around me knows crap about cars.

 

I'm not sure about fitament, but it won't make the "PSSSSHHHHH!" sound, because there is no blow-off valve to make that noise. Actually, BOVs are not very common, except in aftermarket applications.

However, you can very easily intercool a supercharged setup. In fact, many factory supercharged engines are intercooled, the two examples that come to mind are the engine out of the Mini Cooper S and the VW G60 engine.

Now that I think about the fitament, your best bet would be to run a small Air-Water intercooler, which is about the size of an airbox, instead of a cool-looking, but horribly inefficient FMIC (all that piping=not good).

 

There are 2 kinds of superchargers, roots type and centrifugal type. Roots blowers use a "corkscrew" design and typically sit right on the intake manifold, making use of an intercooler almost impossible (however, some cars like the ford lightnings have an air-to-water sandwiched between the blower and the manifold). The TRD blower uses a centrifugal type, which can usually be intercooled by doing exactly what you propose. However, in the case of the TRD kit for the TC there is no room to run piping out of the blower and back to the intake manifold, so intercooling isn't an option...


You can still put a BOV on a centrifugal supercharger as well and it'll relieve pressure between shifts when the TB plate closes......
B

 

You're missing the 3rd type-screw type-like the Lysholm supercharger or the VW G-Lader.

 

Centrifugal superchargers can be equipped with a bypass valve which sounds "similar" to blowoff valve. IMHO, Air /Air is much better than Air/Water.


--
Cheese

 

Somebody really needs to adapt a Lysholm charger to one of these cars. They make turbo-level boost but come on like a supercharger. They also sound wicked as hell.

 

If thats the case.. I don't see why you couldn't, in theory, just pipes from the intake to IC then back to the intake.. sorta re route everything on that side. You may experience a lag, but the colder, denser air would be worth it.

 

Easier said than done. The blower just happens to sit in the only spot available to run piping through. If you removed the airbox and relocated the battery you could run piping, but the length and complexity of the bends would be a huge hassle. I'll correct my statement, I meant to say intercooling isn't a very easy/accessible option (nothing is impossible )
B

 

However, in the case of the TRD kit for the TC there is no room to run piping out of the blower and back to the intake manifold, so intercooling isn't an option...


Not true....the stage II upgrade on the TRD kit will include an intercooler

 

Right on. Having already taken apart a majority of the engine bay of a scion, I wish them the best of luck running piping to a front mount without removing the airbox and the battery ;)
B

 

I don't see why you cant place an intercooler into the bay at all. It's true that there isn't alot of room, however, removing the air box is the cheapest and first mod that one should do to their vehicle. With the 50 buck KN filter placed on and the throttlebody left free you should get a noticable change in HP, Torque, and Engine Sound. Until you can uprgade to a cold intake kit.

Supercharging doesn't always require an intercooler. Turbos do. The way a turbo works is using exhaust gasses to turn a tubrbine that compresses air and injects that air into the engine. A supercharger uses the engine to turn the turbine. Turbos will replace the headers with an exhaust manifold, while superchargers will leave the headers in place.

Having a 3 inch exhaust makes sense only if you are runnin high boost off of a turbo. The reason is because the turbo requires the gasses to spin the compressor blade. The more free flowing gasses the less lag the tubo experiences. Because of the turbo using exhaust gasses, the air spinning the compressor blade is hot, this heats the turbo and heats the air that the turbo is compressing to shoot it into the engine. This is when the intercooler comes in. Because the air goes in cold now (colder then the internals of the engine) the air is more dense. When the air is now being compressed in the turbop it is easier to keep higher psi because the of the denser application.

In superchargers the engine is used to turn that funky corkscrew set up or get those rods going, because of the engine being used you dont have the lag but you do have parasitic value that comes with the SC. The engine now has to work harder for your demands and the demands of the SC. You could lose HP and Tourqe if you aren't carefull. (i.e. putting a large SC on) Becuase the compressor blades (or rods) orent being spooled by the exhaust gasses the air is colder then the internals of the engine. It's not cold enough to touch but you get what I mean. This should get you a good air compression and you should be able to go 12-13 psi with out ever over heating.

I hope that clears some stuff up for people and I hope that you guys find this usefull. Sorry it was kinda long but if you read all of it you will have a better understanding of how forced air induction works. And sorry about the sp mistakes. Ima also post this in the mod section so everyone can get a good idea of how this stuff works.

Happy boostin!

 

Are we talking about an auto or a manual trans? If the car is an auto tranny, there is no need for a BOV, as the car will not loose pressure between shifts (throttle plate won"t close). The automatics should keep the boost throughout accelleration.
air to water is much more efficient but also a little messier. Another option might be an inter-chiller. It uses compressed CO2 surrounding a intake pipe to "chill" the air before entering the intake. Very efficient and compact. Check out the Cryofusion website for information.

 

[However, in the case of the TRD kit for the TC there is no room to run piping out of the blower and back to the intake manifold, so intercooling isn't an option...


I was told by the TRD rep recently that they're developing an intercooler for the s/c kit. Combined, it should produce around 250 hp and torque, according to TRD.

:D

 

I think lots of people have heard lots of things from various TRD people.....hp numbers anywhere from 200 to 250, prices from 2500 to 5K, etc etc. You won't get 50 whp off intercooling alone, so that would have to be with a smaller pulley and injectors as well (or a 7th injector kit like the tacomas use). Until there is some actual information, it's all just gossip anyways....

Like I said, I've been all through the scion tc engine bay, and with the blower sitting where they have it (even if you rotate the compressor housing) you're not getting a pipe back to the TB unless you remove the battery and airbox.
B

 

OK, so 2 1/2 years later, I'm assuming no Stage 2 TRD Supercharger intercooled kit...