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Whipple (and others) supercharged engine life


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OK, I'm still thinking about the numbers my car made with the 3.25" pulley on the dyno... and debating going back to the 3.50" to be "safe". I know that the 550 kits have come with as small as the 3.125" pulley, so I'm somewhat incliined to think that it's not a huge risk to run the smaller pulleys, but I thought that starting a thread that people could post some info about their cars may help me and others decide just how big of a risk it is....

 

So here is what I'm looking for, and it'd be nice if people that have killed their stock blocks would add info as well:

 

total miles on motor

miles on motor with the blower/turbo

type/brand of power adder

who did the tune

lbs of boost and/or pulley size

rwhp/tq numbers if possible

 

it may be helpful to know if you drag or track your car and if you were running drag radials or anything that may contribute to the stock internals dying early too...

 

 

 

I will start, even though it's sorta meaningless since mine was just installed, motor seems fine so far lol...

 

21,492 total miles

about 600 miles with the blower

whipple HO kit

ford racing tune

3.25" pulley, est 11-12lbs of boost

519rwhp/484tq

295/30/20 rear tires, normal summer performance, spin on demand....

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Sounds to me like you are looking for an excuse to go ahead and pull the trigger on the FRPP block with forged internals. I say go for it, just tell the Mrs. that because you have already spent the cash on the Whipple and you cannot let that money go to waste by risking a blown motor. Then add that you will be increasing the value of the SGT by conserving the OE motor. Finish up by telling her she looks pretty and has obviously lost weight. :confused:

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I hear you Randy, I'm not expecting to melt a piston or anything, but I'm pretty sure the rods don't car about a/f or tune issues, they will only take so much torque before breaking I would think...

 

It was pretty damn cold that morning, I drove thru snow on my way there... so that may explain some of the higher numbers....

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I have installed probably 40+ Whipple kits on 05-10 Mustang GT and 07-08 SGT'S and have yet to see a failure with the Ford Racing/Whipple tune. Many of my customers drag race, road race, and drive aggressively on the street with no issues. One friend of mine has a daily driver 08 SGT that we installed the Whipple 550 on at 1700 miles, and the car now has 64K miles of street driving, road racing and drag racing, no issues either...as long as you leave the tune alone and keep up with maintenance, you wont have any issues for many miles...

 

Alex

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I hear you Randy, I'm not expecting to melt a piston or anything, but I'm pretty sure the rods don't car about a/f or tune issues, they will only take so much torque before breaking I would think...

 

It was pretty damn cold that morning, I drove thru snow on my way there... so that may explain some of the higher numbers....

 

 

 

That or you may just have a sweet mill...happy%20feet.gif It happens, as you know some just run harder than others....

 

IMO if you stick with the FRPP tune you should be ok for a good while...they have some pretty sharp mechanical engineers at Ford checking out that stuff and I have full confidence in Whipple, especially after Dennis Whipple posted his 2 cents a while ago on TS...they would not want to release a product that would lend to a bad rep...in fact FRPP really has thier stuff together...I ordered the brake cooling kit for the Brembos and man what a nice piece...hand fabbed and powdercoated backing plates...they have a stellar program there...

 

The cost of a blown shortblock is not so bad in the grand scheme of things...we will see how they hold up, I run mine into boost alot and it is flawless...it does smell pretty rich at startup however and I have been told that the tune is conservative....I'l check and see how many miles I have put on it since then and post...

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wow! 64k miles is great! hope mine goes half that long lol!

 

and yes, a shortblock is pretty cheap IMO... my a/f seemed to be on target based on what I see online and the guys at brenspeed said it was right where they'd want it too, so I'm comfy about the tune issue... but I've noticed the tailpipes are consistently black inside since the blower, even after cleaning them a few times...

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I may be the mileage leader - 06 4.6 3V stock internals, HO FRPP Whipple installed at 28K miles. Current mileage - 72,500 miles!

 

Mobil 1 every 3 to 4k miles, upgraded MMR fuel rails with larger volume cross over fuel line (I have heard of failures due to fuel starvation on right side engine bank under full boost). Everything operates as installed. Car has been tracked, dragged and daily driven.

 

The only FRPP equipped 3Vs that I have heard with issues were modified in some other fashion.

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I may be the mileage leader - 06 4.6 3V stock internals, HO FRPP Whipple installed at 28K miles. Current mileage - 72,500 miles!

 

Mobil 1 every 3 to 4k miles, upgraded MMR fuel rails with larger volume cross over fuel line (I have heard of failures due to fuel starvation on right side engine bank under full boost). Everything operates as installed. Car has been tracked, dragged and daily driven.

 

The only FRPP equipped 3Vs that I have heard with issues were modified in some other fashion.

 

 

 

What pulley are you running?

 

I ran the whipple fuel line under the blower, I talked with Mike at whipple first, and he said it'd be fine either way, but I've been thinking about changing it and/or the rails at some point.

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I have installed probably 40+ Whipple kits on 05-10 Mustang GT and 07-08 SGT'S and have yet to see a failure with the Ford Racing/Whipple tune. Many of my customers drag race, road race, and drive aggressively on the street with no issues. One friend of mine has a daily driver 08 SGT that we installed the Whipple 550 on at 1700 miles, and the car now has 64K miles of street driving, road racing and drag racing, no issues either...as long as you leave the tune alone and keep up with maintenance, you wont have any issues for many miles...

 

Alex

 

 

 

Sweet Alex!

 

What specific maintenence are you referring to? Or do you mean the oil change schedule?

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Sweet Alex!

 

What specific maintenence are you referring to? Or do you mean the oil change schedule?

 

 

Oil changes every 3K with synthetic, pull plugs and inspect every 15K, fuel filter every 10K, clean air filter every oil change....always use Chevron or Shell 91 octane or higher when possible...

 

Alex

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Very gratifying to hear the stories of the guys with 10's of 1000's of miles post SC!

I have about 15,000 total with 7500 post Whipple. No engine issues, although my blower-to-intake gasket had to be replaced recently.

I have the 3.25" pulley with 10-11 lbs/boost and a H3LL of a lot of fun! I also have hit the rev limiter a few times but don't "live" there... You can see my dyno numbers below.

Good thread.

Dan

 

edit*** BTW, canned FR tune that came with the SC. Oil change with filter every 2500 milles, Mobil 1 5-20w.

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So for us "non-welthy" guys that cant just go buy one this weekend...how exactly do you save up enough for the SC without the temptation of buying all the other goodies along the way :shrug:

 

 

 

Funny you ask, I built up to it, I did wheels first. Then I did a bunch of interior and exterior upgrades. Got it to look the way I wanted then did the SC when Dennis was running a great special a while back. Runs GREAT

 

I have the Whipple 550, installed with around 4k miles, have just over 10k now 2 years later. Ford tune that came with the Whipple, numbers are in my signature.

 

I was told my numbers were high for the 550, 2 people on this post have me beat.

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So for us "non-welthy" guys that cant just go buy one this weekend...how exactly do you save up enough for the SC without the temptation of buying all the other goodies along the way :shrug:

 

 

That was my very first mod, pretty sketchy on the 235 tires....but real hooligan that's for sure...I just chucked a little away bit by bit in a ING savings account and still do for motörhead stuff

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10 psi boost ... 20 drag strip run,s 6 dyno pulls, and many aggressive street runs custom tune but still on the rich side 7k miles

you just got to keep it from living in the redline!!!!!!

I really think most people cant drive to the limits of the performance of their car... If you need more or want more some drag radials,a clutch,driveshaft, and practice is the key...

I dont race pro nor do I want to but I can beat the average comp equipped car. lol

6,500 total miles

about 4000 miles with the blower

whipple HO kit

custom tune redline 6.5k

3.5" pulley, est 9.5-10.0 psi boost

512rwhp/471

275/30/20 285/35/18 rear tires shred on demand 12.2 et

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Oil changes every 3K with synthetic, pull plugs and inspect every 15K, fuel filter every 10K, clean air filter every oil change....always use Chevron or Shell 91 octane or higher when possible...

 

Alex

 

 

 

Thanks Alex...I appreciate your post...you obviously have some great experience with these cars and I dig the quality of your work, if I ever had a shop I would aspire to your level...Cheers!

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after reading thru all of these, I think I need to have someone do some "tweaking" on my sc. Numbers are below with canned tune..... :headscratch:

 

 

A lot depends on the dyno you use, air temp, altitude, gearing etc. I run the Saleen SC'er. It is Brenspeeds Stage 3 kit that was supposed be about 530 crank or 450ish at the wheel.9-11 lbs of boost. My altitude and the dyno had my first pulls at 400rhwp/ 398 rwtq only getting about 5.5-6.5 lbs of boost. . I went down one pulley size 3.4 to 3.2 (7-8 lbs of boost) and my hp jumped to 440 and the tq jumped to 435. I have since gone to a 3.0 pulley (9-10 lbs of boost) and long tube headers. I have not dyno'd it yet but my guess based on the previous gains by changing pulleys is 480-495 at the tires. I just changed back to the 3.2 as the boost jumped to 12-13 psi with the colder weather. I'll dyno the car in the spring with 3.0 pulley just to verify. My tune is very safe so I feel comfortable with my numbers and the motors survival. I run 91 as that is what we can get. When I know I am going to be in the gas a lot (racing) I add some race gas to decrease the chance of detonation. On street tires at 4800 feet I have run multiple 12.4 1/4 mile runs, and flogged it multiple times on the road course.

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What pulley are you running?

 

I ran the whipple fuel line under the blower, I talked with Mike at whipple first, and he said it'd be fine either way, but I've been thinking about changing it and/or the rails at some point.

 

 

3.125, it shows 12.5-13.25 #s of boost on the dyno.

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So for us "non-welthy" guys that cant just go buy one this weekend...how exactly do you save up enough for the SC without the temptation of buying all the other goodies along the way :shrug:

 

 

I actually received a credit card with 6 months no interest on my first purchase, so I bought the supercharger and used the credit card as my "saving" and paid it off in 6 months. Bottom line is, be as creative as possible and it will happen for you.

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