I just found a website selling the complete, brand new Powerdyne supercharger system for the 2004+ 5.43v for under $2,800.

I would really like to have a supercharger, and I always told myself I would do it if it could be done under $3,500... because $6,500-8k is just plain too much for me considering I'm a full-time student living on savings with NO job planned for the next 3 years lol.

that said, does anyone know if the kit is worth getting? Or is cutting the corner from the $6k= kits just not worth it? I couldn't find much in the forums about it other than people with belt issues with trying to raise the psi..I would be fine with it out of the box.

 

If you dont plan on upgrading any more to the supercharger or the engine internals.. Powerdyne would be plenty... If you plan on adding alot of boost in the future.. I'd save my money and get a high quality, high boost capable system.

If you just want a few extra ponies... get the powerdyne kit.. From what I have read, the PD kit has the smallest HP gains of any system out there.

 

With a price tag like that I was safely assuming it had the lowest output, but I haven't been able to find any numbers for what it puts out (theorhetical or real world).

As long as it was 100+ HP and 125~+ torque I think it would be worth it. And I do not plan on doing other mods, I just want it to be a little bit more fun to drive...nothing crazy.

any reliability issues or other problems if I don't do other mods to worry about?

 

Look up "Hellbound F150"

He has a powerdyne kit... Should be able to answer any questions you have.. He seemed to have a few problems from the get go, but has gotten them worked out...

As fas as anything else.. I cant help you.

 

When I was in the Mustang world, a lot of guys who had Powerdynes had nothing but problems with belts snapping. Keep in mind, the Powerdynes are internally belt driven and self contained resulting in no external oiling requirements as opposed to the gear driven Vortech/ATI/Paxton blowers. However, a lot those guys were overspinning their Powerdynes too much causing the belts to break, so much of it was their fault. Still, plenty of others had belt breaks running the blower factory spec. That's why it's cheaper, it's self contained and a minimum of parts are needed. You get what you pay for. The gear driven blowers are tons more reliable, bulletproof, and easily upgraded. I'm sure Powerdyne has resolved a lot of the belt breaking issues and if you're on a budget and don't plan on getting boost happy, the Powerdyne should be OK. Do some research first and get an idea of what the real world opinions are from owners who have that kit on their trucks. Have you considered a torque happy roots blower? Our trucks never rev high enough to truly take advantage of what the centrifugals have to offer. Good luck!

 

I greatly appreciate that wisdom FX4&EXCURSION. I actually had never even looked at anythig other than the Roush, Whipple, and Trilogy kits before today. I didn't even know a sub 6k pricetag was available.

Are there any other "lower priced/lower performance" kits out there worth looking at? Ideally I would like to keep it sub 4k and I can probably get it installed for free with the help of friends. My main concern would be to cut a corner by 2-3k and end up with something that costs me as much, or more either financially, or through downtime and frustration due to poor quality and consistent failures.

 

Not a problem! I'm pretty sure the Powerdyne kit is about as low as goes as far as forced induction is concerned, other than nitrous. Perhaps you could keep your eye out for a slightly used blower maybe on E-bay or something. Just so you know, I'm not advocating against the Powerdyne, just informing you of some of my past experiences. However, they certainly wouldn't still be in business if it wasn't a decent blower just as long as it's run within the parameters it was designed for, and lastly, it's MEGA easy to install.

 

Again, I really appreciate it. I would MUCH rather see some HONEST information as opposed to what I like to call the "Self Glorification Syndrome," or SGS like I commonly find on this board. People tend tyo praise anything and everything THEY own to the sky...and it leaves a lot of people dissapointed later on.

I'm going to do some homework for sure, as the last thing I want is a $2,800 paperweight.

 

I appreciate that, very nice of you to say and not a problem, we are here to help each other out! Let us know what you end up doing.

 

If that is really where you are at then don't get a supercharger. These trucks have cast pistons and rods and eventually you'll hammer on it long enough (heat soak, hot weather, marginal fuel system, weak injectors.. whatever) enough to rattle a piston and break a ringland or send a rod through the side of the block. Its unrealistic IMO given your situation to expect what your asking for. You gotta pay to pla, first adage in hot rodding.. there is no free lunch.. you wanna have your cake and eat it too.. add whatever saying you want. Bottom line, if you think there is an easy hotrod mod to get your say 100hp and that there is no increased risk in it your fooling yourself and your setting yourself up to get really ticked off when you have to buy a new shortblock or longblock. If your ready to pay $2800 now but can live with your decision if it costs you the shortblock then go for it, if your not, then reset your expectations. I'm not even going to get into potential hidden costs of fuel system upgrades, injectors, tuning time to get it "right" compared to what the "kit" comes with etc.. Maybe there are kits out there that are perfect from the start but please don't believe everything you read.

I just read too many limitiations in your replies to lead me to believe you have reasonable expectations going in to this. Not to mention the fact that I'd never put a centrifugal supercharger on a 5500+lb truck.. roots or twin screw only for the immediate and low-rpm torque, helps you avoid regearing the truck and trying to wind it out all the time.

 

Great advice. Definitely something else to think about when considering the overall picture.

 

Okay, I have first hand knowledge of this on the 04-up F150. Honestly, I would steer clear of the Powerdyne kit. The blower itself is a decent blower. However, it is the overall set-up I think is crap. The absolute worst thing ever is the damn tune that comes with it. if I wasnt leaving for Japan and selling my truck, I would have scrapped this damn thing and bought a Whipple and went from there.

Here are the problems I encountered. The belt tensioner design is junk and you will most certainly have problems with the belt tensioner bending and taking your belt out of alignment and thus rubbing against the pulley, THUS causing reduced boost. There is a fix for this and it is relatively cheap to do.

Also, the TUNE is worthless. They pull so much timing out of the tune that the real power is only seen at cold start-up or a "first run" when the IAT recognizes the cold air and adds more timing. Once it heats up, you are slightly faster than a full bolt on F-150 (3 tenths in the 1/4 at best). On top of that they add 39lb injectors on a stock pump. At around 3800 RPM you can literally FEEL the fuel pump max out and restrict the power.

By full bolt on I mean, when I was Troyer tuned, pulleys and intake (all of which are removed with installation of the new system) I was running a 9.10@76.2mph on my best heated up run in 70 degree weather. After my blower, my best run is 8.89@79mph in the 1/8th in 70 degree weather at operating temps. I might see an 8.6 1/8th ET when I am cold.

In additon to that, they re-use the STOCK intake system on the truck. Yes, that is right. The stock air box, tube, and everything. All you get is a high flow air filter and some flex tubing. BS !!!

Even worse, the bolts didnt fit right, the tubing and intake relocation brackets werent correct, the intake tubing was a bit short to the throttle body, the by-pass valve was too big. Geez, I could keep going.

For me to get it going I had to buy new vacuum tees (cause the other ones were cracked), I had to add bolts, nuts and pulleys to get it lined up right, I had to buy a shorter belt to alleviate the floppy belt tension cause the tensioner is crap. BTW, the tensioner isnt a tensioner at all. It is a machine cut piece of metal with two bolts that you tighten after you take a hammer and pound the tensioner tight enough to avoid belt slip. Kind of like the old alternator tensioner bracket days (except worse).

To get this to work I would add a higher flow fuel pump, a real tensioner and a custom TUNE, TUNE, TUNE. Did I mention the tune is JUNK !!! Damn, stay away from the Diablo tune. So, in all honesty, if you can dump about another 1200.00 into it, it will work great.

A cheap intercooler on ebay is about 200.00, the a universal tubing kit is another 150.00, the a 9 psi pulley is 80.00, and the a custom tune for about 600.00 including the X-cal 2 tuner and you will have a real supercharger. So, theoretically you can still make it work for cheaper than any other blower out there.

If you are interested, I can tell you what to do. However, if it were me, I would suck it up, get a Whipple, 10 psi aftermarket pulley, custom tune and some long tube headers and you will walk so many things on the street and have a quality product too. Dont do it. Others warned me and I was the fool. Dont do it.

 

This is not going to happen. You arent going to blow your engine on this 6 psi unit. It isnt going to happen. If it does, it's because of the bad tune, not the added power. These engines can handle quite a bit.

There ARE complete kits out there and the only thing most will not offer is a good tune. With all superchargers you should really consider a set of long tube headers, and a custom tune. Whipple, Procharger, Vortech all make great kits. POWERDYNE IS JUNK !!!

 

OK hellbound, now what do you really think?
I installed a Powerdyne on my 98, and I love it.
I read all I could find on these forums and others, and came to the conclusion that the Powerdyne was really more of a journey, than an upgrade.
I bought a bare bones kit, and threw out the FMU immediately..... added air / air aftercooling, 90 mm mass air, 42 lb injectors, and a custom Troyer tune.
My qtr mile time is 1.4 seconds faster..... started with the lowest hp 4.6 engine in these trucks.
Do a search of thread by member WLF, " Who is running Powerdyne?" to have the journey more clearly explained.

 

Hellbound, great post, you obviously suffered a lot and I applaud you for taking the time to give extensive honest feedback!

If these engines can take 6psi, thats great. For 3/10 and 3mph in the 1/8th I wouldn't go to the trouble, as you concluded as well. You say you felt the fuel pump give up at 3800rpm.. how many more extreme (lean) heat cycles like that do you think those fragile pistons will tolerate before letting go of a brittle ringland? Point is, we're all going to go for more than 3/10 and 3mph.. or we'll encounter substandard parts or failing parts.. and those stock pistons just aren't going to tolerate the mishaps like forged pistons and rods do. Its a truck that weighs near 6000lbs (4x4 screw like mine) so its always under a big load.. my point is, if in the back of your mind your not willing to accept that a forged shortblock may become a requirement after adding a supercharger than your misleading yourself. I can tell from your post you probably already know this, its more to the kid who started this to set a realistic expectation.