Is this fact or just opinion>??? I may be upgrading come sometime soon and want to know the FACTS. Who knows....maybe my truck will find its way down to PSP. -Mat-

 

Ive seen Works quality first hand and its top notch. Throw in the lower quality Kenne Belle and there world renowned customer service and im sure you will make the right choice

 

I agree that the Works/Whipple supercharger will most likelly be more effecient and powerfull, than the Kenny Bell/Autorotor blower.

The rotor pacs for the Whipple are not made by Eaton, they are made by Lysholm in Sweeden. Eaton is Licenced to make and sell Lysholm twin screw rotors, but only for OEM applications. The Kenny Bell uses Autorotor rotor pacs also mase in Sweeden.

I agree with Sal that the Whipple twin screw rotor pacs are of the highest quality and the failure rate is allmost zero.

Both the KB and Whipple use a 2.3 Displacement supercharger, the differance is that the KB uses a top entry. This will reduce it's efficiency 2-3% over the Whipple unit. I got this info directly from a Whipple engineer last fall when I was researching different blowers.

The reliability issues in the KB have been questioned and there were some failures in at least the first batch of the production units made. Also from what I have heard(so don't consider this a fact) it was not a rotor failure. It was a packaging problem that caused the first batch to have some failures. From what I heard there was some case flexing, or warping that caused the failures.

I am sure KB and Autorotor have or will have those problems solved by now. Autorotor has been selling superchargers for many many years to not only the Automotive, but also to the aircraft industry, and Military. So rest assured that Autorotor will make sure the problems are fixed in short order.

 

Originally posted by LightningTuner
the Works is still a better quality blower.
I won't even go there,I'm not going to rehash this all over again..You guys buy whatever you feel comfortable with..We'll all know the likes and dislikes here very shortly....JLP

 

Cmon Johnny, you have exclusive rights to selling the KB's. Can you can honestly sit there with a straight face and tell me the KB is a better quality, more effiicient, high power making blower then a Works 140?

 

Blower Wars

coming soon to a track near you

 

You KNOW how right THAT is!

 

HEHEEHEHEHEHE

 

he also added that it was his .02 cents, so i dont think he was forcing that opinion. im gonna go with the works, because i like the rear loading and new intake design, and i trust Sal's opinion, he hasnt steered me wrong yet. if the kenne bell ends up being better it wouldnt be by but a small minute amount

 

I am in favor of just spraying the stock Eaton!!! LOL

 

Johnny Lightning is not the only one who can sell Kenne Bell blowers. Swanson Performance can also sell them. The price is the same as Johnny Lightning sells them for.

 

Especially when you only drive it once or twice a year.

 

How can it be a better quality unit if it uses an adapter plate? Doesn't that kind of make it a fits-all , that with a lower and upper adapter happens to fit a Lightning. A KenneBell is built with bolt patterns for 99-00 and 01 to 03 cast into it. No adapter plate needed. It bolts on like a stock blower, just as Ford would have done it themselves. I got mine thru Swanson Performance and Danny has been more than helpful. Skip

 

 

Soooo it's okay for the KB supporters to say the KB is the best thing since sliced bread with zero to back that up, but it's not okay for Works supporters to do the same (with data no less) huh?

Listen, I know most of the people in the Lightning community are new to Fords, and you can hardly say anything around here without it stirring up some contreversay that leads to WWIII. But there is no secret in the world of Ford performance that Kenne Bell blowers not that great. Ask a bunch of people who've owned KB blowers in the past, and you'll get 9 out of 10 of them telling you about the lackluster performance, failure problems, and horrid KB customer service. There is enough evidence of this out there on the net to keep people busy for weeks worth of searching.

For those of you who aren't into listening to what other people have to say, here's a more technical reason for the statement I made about the Works/Whipple being a better quality unit. Years ago, Jim Bell and Art Whipple worked together. Without getting into the details of it (which I'm honestly not sure of), they eventually split up. Jim Bell started selling Autorotor twin screws, and Art Whipple started selling his Whipplechargers. At first, both units were about equal, and had about the same failure rates. Whipple eventually got involved with Lyshom, who is the pioneer and leader of the twin screw design. With that change, the quality of the Whipple rotor packs drastically improved. Failure rates on the Whipples dropped substantially to almost zero. The KB Autorotors continued to fail and have problems on a regular basis.

As just stated, Whipples rotor packs are built by Lyshom, the originator of the twin screw design. Whipple makes their own cases and intakes per vehicle application (in this case, it's Works making the supporting parts, as the Lightning kit is being developed by Works, not Whipple). Not only is Lyshom the pioneer in twin screws, but the company is quite large, has hundreds of employees, and is QS-9000 certified. That certification means that their blowers are high enough quality that they can be, and ARE, used on OEM automotive manufacturer applications. ALL current twin screws used on production cars are Lyshom/Whipple blowers. Even the aftermarket tuners like Roush and Saleen use Whipples on their current blown cars.

Autorotor on the other hand, is a small company, made up of 21 people. Their rotor packs are made by Opcon. Opcon is a company who's main business is making large air movers for industrial heating/cooling systems. Superchargers were just an add on market for them. Autorotor superchargers do NOT meet QS-9000 certification, and are used on NO production OEM vehicles. The KB version blowers had always used a case extrusion, with end caps and lego block intakes installed on them. The Lightning guys are actually VERY lucky, because the KB Lightning blower if the first KB unit to ever have a dedicated cast case. Unfortunately, it's still a top inlet, and according to Jim Bell himself, the top inlet is 10% down on efficiency compared to a rear inlet (taken from the MM&FF KB test article).

Now, with that all said, let me say this-- I am not saying the KB doesn't work, perform, look good, or whatever else people want to think. It's obviously already proven itself to work quite well. The reason I wrote all of the above, is to back up my statement when I said the Works/Whipple unit is a better quality blower, and worth the extra expense. When I say something, I usually MEAN it.

I'm sure there will be KB advocates that will come back with all sorts of debatable replies to this, but the simple truth is everything I wrote is FACT. You can search and look it all up if you like. You don't have to like it, you can go cry in the corner if you want, you can not believe it, I don't really care. It's fact for those who wanted to know, do with it what you like.