Ok here's where I am at. In my quest to make my truck more reliable so I can stop spending all my free time FIXING PROBLEMS, I am throwing around the idea of removing the turbo and swapping back to a supercharger.

Here's my line of thinking on this. With the turbo, every piece is independent, meaning that to have a turbo, I need tons of ducting, exposed oil feed and drain lines, wastegate, blowoff valve, all of the vacuum lines that go along with it, and the hot-side piping that I am expecting to have problems with once I crank the boost up some more. With the blower, everything is integrated into the s/c head unit. The only external thing is the intercooler, and instead of tons of air ducting, all I would have is two water lines and a small reservoir. The head unit had a self-contained lube system and has 100,000 mile service intervals. I don't need a wastegate. I don't need a BOV. The whole deal just seems like it would be much less of a hassle. I also like the idea of off-idle boost. The turbo lag isn't bad, but I don't see good boost numbers until I'm over 2500 RPM. Then again, if I get a s/c that is large enough to support my motor, I don't know if I will have to spin that up to the same RPM's before I saw good boost #'s either.

Now the only potential problem I see with this is finding a blower that will support the power levels I am looking for. I was pretty well set on running 14-15 psi on the 408, hoping to break 10's eventually. I'm also pretty well set on staying with Magnuson. I know the 112 is out. The 122HH is questionable. I'm still trying to gather some info on that unit and whether or not it would still be efficient spinning as fast as it would have to to support 15 psi on a 408. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what the TVS units offer, but there is still so much up in the air with those, as far as pricing and availability.

I figure I can do the swap for less than a new complete kit costs. I still have some of my Radix accessories left over, like the accessory bracket and tensioner. I already have a 90mm TB, and I already have my own fuel system and tuning capability. Essentially I would be buying a head unit and J tube, and some minor accessories like a coolant tank and pump and heat exchanger.

I'm not really sure that I have any specific questions about this, but I'd like to hear everyone's opinion.

 

Here is an article that might interest you, it is about the 122HH and a 402.

http://www.magnusonproducts.com/pr020.htm

 

I saw that, but it didn't give any indication of IAT's and I don't think they said what size pulley they were using on the blower.

 

Dibs on the manifold!

 

Thanks for the helpful post jackass

 

Funny...I'm toolin around with the idea of goin the other way! I'm gonna spend another little while trying to get this thing workin right and then I might be willing to do a swap with ya! What turbo kit do u have?

 

Not really a kit. It's TurboGibb's old setup. Parish's old log manifold I believe, stock driver's manifold, crossover and most of the other hot parts made by TurboGibbs, PT76GTSH turbo.

 

Ok fine! I'm not going to say which one you should choose, but from a reliability standpoint: Yes, a SC will be more reliable. No doubt. I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve with reliability though. I mean this isn't your DD anymore, so why not throuw a little caution to the wind? Are you going to do one lap of america in this? How many miles a year do you plan on putting on it now?

 

More reliable = less money down the tubes in repairs If I can hit the same power level and spend less money fixing/tweaking things, seems like a good deal to me. I'm not sure how many miles a year I'll put on the truck, but I'm getting to the point where I have other priorities for my time and money (like my house) and it's tough to make any progress on that front when I'm spending so many hours and so much money every month trying to keep the truck in good running condition. There has just been one problem after another recently, so I want to do what I can to cut back on that and have something I can just drive whenever I feel like it without worrying about the next place I'm going to have to dump another $500.

 

I've debated between the two setups (single turbo vs. radix) for my DD for some time and I'm just curious, what types of things have you been having to fix that's causing you to change your mind?