Roots blowers vs. centrifugal superchargers
We found a whitepaper on Vortech’s website comparing roots style superchargers to centrifugal superchargers really informative. Of particular interest was an article in Road and Track ‘Corvette Fever.’ It compared the 2012 Corvette ZR1 with a roots style blower vs. the normally aspirated Z06. The ZR1 was actually slower down the straightest part of the track due to heat soak. This is despite the fact the ZR1 of the time should have made 133 more hp than the Z06 and that the straight line acceleration is where the ZR1 should have shined the most.
A roots blower makes power down low in the RPM range where traction is already an issue. Centrifugal superchargers make power that rises with the RPM of the engine. The interesting thing for those supercharging an engine with a stock bottom end is, the roots blower is adding more boost during the engines torque peak right wheen cylinder pressures are already at there highest point. This adds a decent amount of stress to the stock bottom end. The centrifugal blower is giving the most boost at higher rpm when the engines VE is falling off and the cylinder pressure is dropping. This subjects the bottom end to less peak engine breaking cylinder pressure. Centrifugal supercharges also tend to have higher efficiency as well which means less parasitic loss from the crank and less intake charge temperature.
Do your research and then do it again
We didn’t intend on a roots vs. centrifugal supercharger discussion; but it’s important to do your research when considering forced induction for any car. No mater what you end up choosing for your particular build understand the limitations of each choice you make. But, if your project path is entirely different it could invalidate many of the arguments we’re making here.
As a suggestion start with tuning shops that work on your particular car. Each shop will have their own preferences based on their experience. It would be best to call a few before making a multi thousand dollar investment. We did not take this advice at first and sifted through thousands of forum posts to find out some of these options no longer exist. Believe it or not we found some information on the internet is opinion only. With all this in mind we asked ourselves, how much usable power can we put down with 91 octane fuel?
Stillen partners with Vortech
Stillen has been in the business of making Nissans and Infinitis fast for decades. They in turn went to Vortech when they built their 50 state emission legal supercharger system for the 370z/G37. At the heart of the system Stillen uses the Sci trim of the V-3 supercharger. The Sci trim compressor is a more compact unit built for smaller displacement engines. This is the one that comes standard with Stillen’s supercharger kit. One of the remarkable achievements of the Vortech V3-Sci is that it achieves a turbo-charger like peak efficiency of 75%. With a maximum HP rating of 725HP at 17psi of boost, this may be plenty of power for your build.
Our conclusion the Vortech V3 SI supercharger
In the 9+ years since Stillen’s supercharger system was released there have been a lot of advances in terms of cooling the air charge and fueling options. These advances open up more potential for power on the stock bottom end. Vortech recommended the V3-Si trim supercharger as it will provide more pressure and cfm at the same impeller speed as the Sci trim. The Vortech V3 SI supercharger is commonly found on domestic V-8 supercharger systems. It has a peak efficiency of 78% with a maximum HP rating of 775HP and maximum of 22psi of boost. This increased compressor efficiency provides greater air density while robbing less power from the engine to drive the supercharger. Since there’s so much headroom left on the SI we won’t have to push it hard to make impressive power.
13 comments
Glad you liked the article! I’m looking forward to making more progress.
Our experience and exposure to various forced induction builds of course is subjective. There are a lot of reasons I chose to go down this particular path. The primary reason is that it was a proven path many had gone down before. I’ve gone down the other not traveled path and ran into headaches I didn’t want to deal with this time Turbo Sentra SE-R.
There has been enough learned since the time the original Stillen supercharger kit was developed to make some various upgrades like the supercharger compressor and air to air intercooler that seemed really interesting to me personally. I could have had similar discoveries down the turbo-charging path as well. There are a lot of forced induction options for the VQ37VHR just like there are for the LS motor. I was also drawn to the low noise of the Vortech V3-SI supercharger because of the low noise and the turbo-charger like peak efficiency.
I’m not trying to be evasive but you can build a turbo or supercharger setup to build power down low in the RPM range or up high if your shooting for huge power numbers. Again it’s a subjective choice. I was trying to find that sweet middle ground given that I’m forced to use 91 octane pump gas and I’m pretty much maxed out on a 10.5 inch rear tire to put that power down.
I’m not an engineer but generally speaking drift cars spend a lot of time at high RPM’s where turbo chargers are really spinning and make the most sense with all those exhaust gasses flowing. Those ‘big iron’ drag cars need to make immediate power off the line and that’s where those roots blowers really shine.
Glad you liked the article! I’m looking forward to making more progress.
Our experience and exposure to various forced induction builds of course is subjective. There are a lot of reasons I chose to go down this particular path. The primary reason is that it was a proven path many had gone down before. I’ve gone down the other not traveled path and ran into headaches I didn’t want to deal with this time Turbo Sentra SE-R.
There has been enough learned since the time the original Stillen supercharger kit was developed to make some various upgrades like the supercharger compressor and air to air intercooler that seemed really interesting to me personally. I could have had similar discoveries down the turbo-charging path as well. There are a lot of forced induction options for the VQ37VHR just like there are for the LS motor. I was also drawn to the low noise of the Vortech V3-SI supercharger because of the low noise and the turbo-charger like peak efficiency.
I’m not trying to be evasive but you can build a turbo or supercharger setup to build power down low in the RPM range or up high if your shooting for huge power numbers. Again it’s a subjective choice. I was trying to find that sweet middle ground given that I’m forced to use 91 octane pump gas and I’m pretty much maxed out on a 10.5 inch rear tire to put that power down.
I’m not an engineer but generally speaking drift cars spend a lot of time at high RPM’s where turbo chargers are really spinning and make the most sense with all those exhaust gasses flowing. Those ‘big iron’ drag cars need to make immediate power off the line and that’s where those roots blowers really shine.
Glad you liked the article! I’m looking forward to making more progress.
Our experience and exposure to various forced induction builds of course is subjective. There are a lot of reasons I chose to go down this particular path. The primary reason is that it was a proven path many had gone down before. I’ve gone down the other not traveled path and ran into headaches I didn’t want to deal with this time Turbo Sentra SE-R.
There has been enough learned since the time the original Stillen supercharger kit was developed to make some various upgrades like the supercharger compressor and air to air intercooler that seemed really interesting to me personally. I could have had similar discoveries down the turbo-charging path as well. There are a lot of forced induction options for the VQ37VHR just like there are for the LS motor. I was also drawn to the low noise of the Vortech V3-SI supercharger because of the low noise and the turbo-charger like peak efficiency.
I’m not trying to be evasive but you can build a turbo or supercharger setup to build power down low in the RPM range or up high if your shooting for huge power numbers. Again it’s a subjective choice. I was trying to find that sweet middle ground given that I’m forced to use 91 octane pump gas and I’m pretty much maxed out on a 10.5 inch rear tire to put that power down.
I’m not an engineer but generally speaking drift cars spend a lot of time at high RPM’s where turbo chargers are really spinning and make the most sense with all those exhaust gasses flowing. Those ‘big iron’ drag cars need to make immediate power off the line and that’s where those roots blowers really shine.
Glad you liked the article! I’m looking forward to making more progress.
Our experience and exposure to various forced induction builds of course is subjective. There are a lot of reasons I chose to go down this particular path. The primary reason is that it was a proven path many had gone down before. I’ve gone down the other not traveled path and ran into headaches I didn’t want to deal with this time Turbo Sentra SE-R.
There has been enough learned since the time the original Stillen supercharger kit was developed to make some various upgrades like the supercharger compressor and air to air intercooler that seemed really interesting to me personally. I could have had similar discoveries down the turbo-charging path as well. There are a lot of forced induction options for the VQ37VHR just like there are for the LS motor. I was also drawn to the low noise of the Vortech V3-SI supercharger because of the low noise and the turbo-charger like peak efficiency.
I’m not trying to be evasive but you can build a turbo or supercharger setup to build power down low in the RPM range or up high if your shooting for huge power numbers. Again it’s a subjective choice. I was trying to find that sweet middle ground given that I’m forced to use 91 octane pump gas and I’m pretty much maxed out on a 10.5 inch rear tire to put that power down.
I’m not an engineer but generally speaking drift cars spend a lot of time at high RPM’s where turbo chargers are really spinning and make the most sense with all those exhaust gasses flowing. Those ‘big iron’ drag cars need to make immediate power off the line and that’s where those roots blowers really shine.
Glad you liked the article! I’m looking forward to making more progress.
Our experience and exposure to various forced induction builds of course is subjective. There are a lot of reasons I chose to go down this particular path. The primary reason is that it was a proven path many had gone down before. I’ve gone down the other not traveled path and ran into headaches I didn’t want to deal with this time Turbo Sentra SE-R.
There has been enough learned since the time the original Stillen supercharger kit was developed to make some various upgrades like the supercharger compressor and air to air intercooler that seemed really interesting to me personally. I could have had similar discoveries down the turbo-charging path as well. There are a lot of forced induction options for the VQ37VHR just like there are for the LS motor. I was also drawn to the low noise of the Vortech V3-SI supercharger because of the low noise and the turbo-charger like peak efficiency.
I’m not trying to be evasive but you can build a turbo or supercharger setup to build power down low in the RPM range or up high if your shooting for huge power numbers. Again it’s a subjective choice. I was trying to find that sweet middle ground given that I’m forced to use 91 octane pump gas and I’m pretty much maxed out on a 10.5 inch rear tire to put that power down.
I’m not an engineer but generally speaking drift cars spend a lot of time at high RPM’s where turbo chargers are really spinning and make the most sense with all those exhaust gasses flowing. Those ‘big iron’ drag cars need to make immediate power off the line and that’s where those roots blowers really shine.
Glad you liked the article! I’m looking forward to making more progress.
Our experience and exposure to various forced induction builds of course is subjective. There are a lot of reasons I chose to go down this particular path. The primary reason is that it was a proven path many had gone down before. I’ve gone down the other not traveled path and ran into headaches I didn’t want to deal with this time Turbo Sentra SE-R.
There has been enough learned since the time the original Stillen supercharger kit was developed to make some various upgrades like the supercharger compressor and air to air intercooler that seemed really interesting to me personally. I could have had similar discoveries down the turbo-charging path as well. There are a lot of forced induction options for the VQ37VHR just like there are for the LS motor. I was also drawn to the low noise of the Vortech V3-SI supercharger because of the low noise and the turbo-charger like peak efficiency.
I’m not trying to be evasive but you can build a turbo or supercharger setup to build power down low in the RPM range or up high if your shooting for huge power numbers. Again it’s a subjective choice. I was trying to find that sweet middle ground given that I’m forced to use 91 octane pump gas and I’m pretty much maxed out on a 10.5 inch rear tire to put that power down.
I’m not an engineer but generally speaking drift cars spend a lot of time at high RPM’s where turbo chargers are really spinning and make the most sense with all those exhaust gasses flowing. Those ‘big iron’ drag cars need to make immediate power off the line and that’s where those roots blowers really shine.
Glad you liked the article! I’m looking forward to making more progress.
Our experience and exposure to various forced induction builds of course is subjective. There are a lot of reasons I chose to go down this particular path. The primary reason is that it was a proven path many had gone down before. I’ve gone down the other not traveled path and ran into headaches I didn’t want to deal with this time Turbo Sentra SE-R.
There has been enough learned since the time the original Stillen supercharger kit was developed to make some various upgrades like the supercharger compressor and air to air intercooler that seemed really interesting to me personally. I could have had similar discoveries down the turbo-charging path as well. There are a lot of forced induction options for the VQ37VHR just like there are for the LS motor. I was also drawn to the low noise of the Vortech V3-SI supercharger because of the low noise and the turbo-charger like peak efficiency.
I’m not trying to be evasive but you can build a turbo or supercharger setup to build power down low in the RPM range or up high if your shooting for huge power numbers. Again it’s a subjective choice. I was trying to find that sweet middle ground given that I’m forced to use 91 octane pump gas and I’m pretty much maxed out on a 10.5 inch rear tire to put that power down.
I’m not an engineer but generally speaking drift cars spend a lot of time at high RPM’s where turbo chargers are really spinning and make the most sense with all those exhaust gasses flowing. Those ‘big iron’ drag cars need to make immediate power off the line and that’s where those roots blowers really shine.
Glad you liked the article! I’m looking forward to making more progress.
Our experience and exposure to various forced induction builds of course is subjective. There are a lot of reasons I chose to go down this particular path. The primary reason is that it was a proven path many had gone down before. I’ve gone down the other not traveled path and ran into headaches I didn’t want to deal with this time Turbo Sentra SE-R.
There has been enough learned since the time the original Stillen supercharger kit was developed to make some various upgrades like the supercharger compressor and air to air intercooler that seemed really interesting to me personally. I could have had similar discoveries down the turbo-charging path as well. There are a lot of forced induction options for the VQ37VHR just like there are for the LS motor. I was also drawn to the low noise of the Vortech V3-SI supercharger because of the low noise and the turbo-charger like peak efficiency.
I’m not trying to be evasive but you can build a turbo or supercharger setup to build power down low in the RPM range or up high if your shooting for huge power numbers. Again it’s a subjective choice. I was trying to find that sweet middle ground given that I’m forced to use 91 octane pump gas and I’m pretty much maxed out on a 10.5 inch rear tire to put that power down.
I’m not an engineer but generally speaking drift cars spend a lot of time at high RPM’s where turbo chargers are really spinning and make the most sense with all those exhaust gasses flowing. Those ‘big iron’ drag cars need to make immediate power off the line and that’s where those roots blowers really shine.
Glad you liked the article! I’m looking forward to making more progress.
Our experience and exposure to various forced induction builds of course is subjective. There are a lot of reasons I chose to go down this particular path. The primary reason is that it was a proven path many had gone down before. I’ve gone down the other not traveled path and ran into headaches I didn’t want to deal with this time Turbo Sentra SE-R.
There has been enough learned since the time the original Stillen supercharger kit was developed to make some various upgrades like the supercharger compressor and air to air intercooler that seemed really interesting to me personally. I could have had similar discoveries down the turbo-charging path as well. There are a lot of forced induction options for the VQ37VHR just like there are for the LS motor. I was also drawn to the low noise of the Vortech V3-SI supercharger because of the low noise and the turbo-charger like peak efficiency.
I’m not trying to be evasive but you can build a turbo or supercharger setup to build power down low in the RPM range or up high if your shooting for huge power numbers. Again it’s a subjective choice. I was trying to find that sweet middle ground given that I’m forced to use 91 octane pump gas and I’m pretty much maxed out on a 10.5 inch rear tire to put that power down.
I’m not an engineer but generally speaking drift cars spend a lot of time at high RPM’s where turbo chargers are really spinning and make the most sense with all those exhaust gasses flowing. Those ‘big iron’ drag cars need to make immediate power off the line and that’s where those roots blowers really shine.
Glad you liked the article! I’m looking forward to making more progress.
Our experience and exposure to various forced induction builds of course is subjective. There are a lot of reasons I chose to go down this particular path. The primary reason is that it was a proven path many had gone down before. I’ve gone down the other not traveled path and ran into headaches I didn’t want to deal with this time Turbo Sentra SE-R.
There has been enough learned since the time the original Stillen supercharger kit was developed to make some various upgrades like the supercharger compressor and air to air intercooler that seemed really interesting to me personally. I could have had similar discoveries down the turbo-charging path as well. There are a lot of forced induction options for the VQ37VHR just like there are for the LS motor. I was also drawn to the low noise of the Vortech V3-SI supercharger because of the low noise and the turbo-charger like peak efficiency.
I’m not trying to be evasive but you can build a turbo or supercharger setup to build power down low in the RPM range or up high if your shooting for huge power numbers. Again it’s a subjective choice. I was trying to find that sweet middle ground given that I’m forced to use 91 octane pump gas and I’m pretty much maxed out on a 10.5 inch rear tire to put that power down.
I’m not an engineer but generally speaking drift cars spend a lot of time at high RPM’s where turbo chargers are really spinning and make the most sense with all those exhaust gasses flowing. Those ‘big iron’ drag cars need to make immediate power off the line and that’s where those roots blowers really shine.
Glad you liked the article! I’m looking forward to making more progress.
Our experience and exposure to various forced induction builds of course is subjective. There are a lot of reasons I chose to go down this particular path. The primary reason is that it was a proven path many had gone down before. I’ve gone down the other not traveled path and ran into headaches I didn’t want to deal with this time Turbo Sentra SE-R.
There has been enough learned since the time the original Stillen supercharger kit was developed to make some various upgrades like the supercharger compressor and air to air intercooler that seemed really interesting to me personally. I could have had similar discoveries down the turbo-charging path as well. There are a lot of forced induction options for the VQ37VHR just like there are for the LS motor. I was also drawn to the low noise of the Vortech V3-SI supercharger because of the low noise and the turbo-charger like peak efficiency.
I’m not trying to be evasive but you can build a turbo or supercharger setup to build power down low in the RPM range or up high if your shooting for huge power numbers. Again it’s a subjective choice. I was trying to find that sweet middle ground given that I’m forced to use 91 octane pump gas and I’m pretty much maxed out on a 10.5 inch rear tire to put that power down.
I’m not an engineer but generally speaking drift cars spend a lot of time at high RPM’s where turbo chargers are really spinning and make the most sense with all those exhaust gasses flowing. Those ‘big iron’ drag cars need to make immediate power off the line and that’s where those roots blowers really shine.
Glad you liked the article! I’m looking forward to making more progress.
Our experience and exposure to various forced induction builds of course is subjective. There are a lot of reasons I chose to go down this particular path. The primary reason is that it was a proven path many had gone down before. I’ve gone down the other not traveled path and ran into headaches I didn’t want to deal with this time Turbo Sentra SE-R.
There has been enough learned since the time the original Stillen supercharger kit was developed to make some various upgrades like the supercharger compressor and air to air intercooler that seemed really interesting to me personally. I could have had similar discoveries down the turbo-charging path as well. There are a lot of forced induction options for the VQ37VHR just like there are for the LS motor. I was also drawn to the low noise of the Vortech V3-SI supercharger because of the low noise and the turbo-charger like peak efficiency.
I’m not trying to be evasive but you can build a turbo or supercharger setup to build power down low in the RPM range or up high if your shooting for huge power numbers. Again it’s a subjective choice. I was trying to find that sweet middle ground given that I’m forced to use 91 octane pump gas and I’m pretty much maxed out on a 10.5 inch rear tire to put that power down.
I’m not an engineer but generally speaking drift cars spend a lot of time at high RPM’s where turbo chargers are really spinning and make the most sense with all those exhaust gasses flowing. Those ‘big iron’ drag cars need to make immediate power off the line and that’s where those roots blowers really shine.
Glad you liked the article! I’m looking forward to making more progress.
Our experience and exposure to various forced induction builds of course is subjective. There are a lot of reasons I chose to go down this particular path. The primary reason is that it was a proven path many had gone down before. I’ve gone down the other not traveled path and ran into headaches I didn’t want to deal with this time Turbo Sentra SE-R.
There has been enough learned since the time the original Stillen supercharger kit was developed to make some various upgrades like the supercharger compressor and air to air intercooler that seemed really interesting to me personally. I could have had similar discoveries down the turbo-charging path as well. There are a lot of forced induction options for the VQ37VHR just like there are for the LS motor. I was also drawn to the low noise of the Vortech V3-SI supercharger because of the low noise and the turbo-charger like peak efficiency.
I’m not trying to be evasive but you can build a turbo or supercharger setup to build power down low in the RPM range or up high if your shooting for huge power numbers. Again it’s a subjective choice. I was trying to find that sweet middle ground given that I’m forced to use 91 octane pump gas and I’m pretty much maxed out on a 10.5 inch rear tire to put that power down.
I’m not an engineer but generally speaking drift cars spend a lot of time at high RPM’s where turbo chargers are really spinning and make the most sense with all those exhaust gasses flowing. Those ‘big iron’ drag cars need to make immediate power off the line and that’s where those roots blowers really shine.