No Doubt KB is a Huge company. So i know from experience its hard to please everybody.(and i'm a small company ) But i do know this we will do our best to keep up with the demands and tech ? The upper plenum i use is a fabricated intake i made myself. this will not be available. but i do know there will be a much better design available shortly from KB. Like i said we have been doing alot of testing not only with the blowzilla but with the upper plenums as well. the base kit will come with the blower and adapter plates for the upper intake. the reason for the adapter plates is because the inlet is HUGE! this is designed for *future* Plenums. which will make even more power. As soon as we get the new blower for our 99 we'll be testing it. we run consistent high 11's when testing. i'm sure with just the swap we'll be running low 11's. i'll keep ya posted......JLP

 

KB is not huge. They are five people.



Speaking of pleasing everybody: Of the hordes of angry people who bought the KB Dodge truck blower kits and had a fiasco, is there anyone else here who "graduated" to a Lightning?

 

The KB sounds very similar to the Eaton running down the track, maybe a little higher pitched. I've never seen an ugly blower.

 

Aren't there two bolt patterns. '99's ,'00,s have one pattern and '01's and newer have another. Which does the
KB fit.

 

Are we talking women or truck parts here

 

Power is about density, not pressure. More density= more oxygen molecules=more fuel--more power. Pressurized air which is heated will have fewer molecules of oxygen than pressurized air which is not heated.

The "adiabatic" efficiency of a supercharger is its tendency to heat the air versus a theoretically perfect supercharger. Even a perfect compressor would heat 8 PSI air about 75 degrees F. The Eaton is only about 60% efficient.

The other component of supercharger efficiency is drive horsepower. If one supercharger takes less HP to spin it, there is more HP left for the rear wheels.

So, the KB blower has better adiabatic efficiency, better mechanical efficiency, or both.

 

So what is the answer to the question about the bottom end? It sems noone wants to answer that.

Will it require a new bottom end to run the blower or will the stock bottom end be ok say to 16-18 psi ?

And what about the trannies ?

I'ts evident that a lot of people are wondering this as well. I know I would like to know exactly what I was getting into. Is the $3k that I'm gonna drop on the blower it or will I also need to drop $1500 on a tranny as well as $3-4k for a new bottom end ? THere is a big difference between a $3k investment and a $8.5-9k investment

--wes

 

red00Lightning
Think about it this way there are people blowing engines on the stock blower. I dont know about you but i wouldnt bolt an aftermarket blower onto a block with stock internals. All you will be doing is making you own home ram air when one of your rods ventilate the block . Im pretty sure Sal has said that you will need a built bottom end with the works blower he is selling. Isnt the Kenne Belle supposed to make more power ? So i would guess you would need a built bottom end even more for that blower. Another thing is none of the tuners are bolting a bigger blower on stock internals why would you .

 

FWIW, my stock blower has made as much as #16 (Autometer boost gauge)with the 6# lower. Its usually on 14 1/2 to 15. It seems to be holding up OK. It is daily driven and is nearing the 50K mark. If the new blower is more efficent, less heat ,and all of that good stuff I would suppose it would be eaiser on the motor. Maybe we can run 18 or 19# of efficent boost with our stock blocks for 100k. Who knows? I am sure thats what the tesing people at KB are doing right now but its hard to put 75 to 100k on a stock motor in a few months

I guess I just stated to obvious and I didnt really add any helpful info to this thread Thinking about deleting it

 

just because the kenne bell blower puts out more than 20 pounds of boost this does not mean you have to run that much. with the same amount of boost as the eaton, the kenne bell made more power just because it is more efficient than the eaton.
i have a #2 and #8 on my stock bottom end and it runs just fine with the eaton.

 

Well...I guess I want to hear it from the tuners. None of them seem to be fessing up.

I have also asked the question about what makes the stock rods go boom...is it detonation from whacked out AF ratios? is it excessive heat from the stock Eaton? is it too much power and the rods just can't handle it ?

I think a few of them have the answers, they jsut don't seem to be sharing

--wes

 

All the above. Some engines have blown from RPM's and boost, some to much boost, some bad tunes, some detonation, some by some other means I can' t think of right now.

As for can a stock motor handle a new blower, honestly I don't see why not. The Works or KB should be fine on a stock L, just do not crank up the boost that much. If I remember some other thread, the Works blower created more power over the eaton and the same PSI levels because of more efficieny. Same with the magazine article on the KB. Both blowers are more efficient then the stock blower and can handle higher boost better then the stock blower.

But then that arises the question, who would spend $3k on an aftermarket blower thats going to make a little more horsepower at stock boost levels b/c of effecieny. If your gonna spend that much and keep it at low boost, thats just money to burned.

 

If the KB is so much more efficient, then shouldn't you be able to run it at 12psi and get the same HP as the Eaton at 16psi? Wouldn't there actually be less stress on the engine, since the actual observed hp at the flywheel is derived from hp produced minus parasitic drag? I think the stock engine would actually last longer with the KB (or any more efficient blower), as long as you keep the boost to safe levels.

Eaton @ 16psi--- (~625hp - ~85hp to turn blower)= 540 flywheel hp= 459rwhp
KB @ 12psi--- (~600hp - ~60hp to turn blower) = 540 flywheel hp = 459rwhp
I'm just using .85 as a constant for figuring rwhp...use whatever you want.

 

TruckPerformance.com

The switch is on to the more efficient Kenne Bell Twin Screw supercharger. It's the most flexible and powerful product available for the 5.4 Lightning. Kenne Bell designed a direct bolt-on replacement for the factory Roots type supercharger.

The Twin Screw enjoys several key performance advantages over the Roots: Higher boost potential (up to 22 PSI), lower parasitic losses (-14 HP at 9.3 PSI) and reduced air charge temperatures (-65 degrees at 9.3 PSI). And it's boost adjustable from 9.3-22 PSI for any street or track combination.

160 HP increase on 100% stock Lightning. Tuneable to +200 HP with inlet and chip upgrades

Direct bolt-on replacement of less efficient Roots style

96 peak HP improvement over Roots style with 9inch x 2 3/4inch pulleys

60degrees lower air charge temperature with direct bolt-on replacement

14 HP less parasitic loss

No boost drop off at any RPM regardless of boost

Quick, easy one bolt/4 minute pulley changes

Billet aluminum construction

Uses same belts as factory

HP & Torque: 96 HP

Installation: Kenne Bell supercharger kits are designed to be a complete bolt-on installation. Each part necessary to complete the installation is included and all OEM parts are reusable for conversion to stock. The factory throttle body and computer are utilized. There are no internal engine modifications required. The compressor has self contained lubrication, eliminating the need to tap into the engine oil. Complete instructions and an excellent tech help line ensure a successful do-it-yourself installation. Install time ranges from 8 to 10 hours and, when completed, looks factory installed. Note: installation of a kenne bell supercharger does not void your factory warranty!


Retail Price: $2999.00
Your Low Price: $2899.00
New Item -Updated Expected Release Date Is 12-1-2002

 

Some how I doubt this... I dont see Ford/SVE/SVT standing behind a third party product... If an intake kit, can void your warranty, what makes them think a S/C wont?