scalbert

Not to mention continuous bottle refills, not being available when you are needing it or using it on enthusiastic back road drives.

Quite honestly I am tired of hearing a comparison to nitrous; they are not to be compared for this application. If we wanted a drag strip queen we would have bought a different car. Nitrous is great for the strip or street races but has no relevance to most of our driving. You don’t use nitrous at part throttle but you do use the blower.

If we want to equate the cost analysis and usage; so be it. I would be spraying about five times per day to equal the use I get from the blower and this is being modest. So I would be refilling the bottle at least three times per week. At about $20 per refill that is $60 per week. With fifty two weeks in a year that is $3120 per year. After three years that initial $600 investment now costs $10,000.00. Hardly a cost advantage unless you get your bottle refilled for free. :P

scalbert

So even though it can give a greater power per $$ ratio than headers it is not worth it??

If someone has the disposable income, it is a nice way to enhance the cars ability.

blader

Good god, my friend .. I can obviously see you are not a fan of nitrous, but that seems like a high number for bottle refills. Thats alot of wide open throttle. I drive my car fairly aggressively, but I don't drive at a drag strip every day. the all motor 260 HP I make is quite a bit to make every day driving fun. I have no complaints about my car. I wish it was faster on some occassions, but that would be those times I'd turn that nozzle .. or get the remote bottle opener even. As far as filling, a 50 shot doesnt eat up a 10lb bottle the way you probably think it would. Obviously it also depends how long you maintain WOT and spray .. The guy I know who has it on his 02 CLS is a fairly aggressive driver, and it is also a lease so he doesn not tend to care about it. He sprays often. And he usually only fills every 3-4weeks. Obviously if he went to the track or something that week it would be more often ..
And for the costs .. before you start yelling I just want you to know I'm somewhat ignorant on some of the info on the CT S\C .. because I have not researched it. I'm just going by my friends Whipple charged 454 TBI .. I know that once he installed that S\C, gas mileage went way down. Mainly because his foot got heavier, and secondly because with the increased air in the engine you need to increase the fuel and fuel pressure. With that power under his foot all the time, his Sunoco bill definetly saw it. Scalbert, do you see any decrease in your MPG as opposed to stock with the CT S\C? Do you spend significantly more? It might offset the bottle fills ..
Anyway thats just my 2 cents .. I was just offering up nitrous as an option I'm sorry Scalbert and did not mean to offend you in any way .. I guess I underestimated how much you hear about the S\C vs. Nitrous debate ...

scalbert

First off, no ill will intended, this is just a simple discussion. So no yelling was intended or implied.

But actually, I am a fan of nitrous as I am any power adders. But each has their own specific application and nitrous is nearly solely used for racing. The CL-S is not a good car for drag racing. This is why I find the comparison irrelevant.

The turbo versus SC is applicable though as both are always available to pull you out of a turn quicker; always there for more power regardless of the roads. Plus, they are used at part throttle. The added torque also allows you to hold a higher gear in a turn or on the highway for passing. You do not use nitrous just to pass cars while cruising on the highway or when on the back roads.

If your were to compare the power used between nitrous and the blower it would be enormously weighted to the blower side. I agree my comparison was an exaggeration but meant to show the difference in usage. The blower is always used, nitrous is not.

As for decreased mileage, yes I do spend more on fuel now and it was expected. On highway drives there is not noticeable difference. But around town I do get in it decreasing the fuel economy. However, once again the lower use of nitrous is apparent. If nitrous was used as much as the blower there would be an increased amount of fuel burned; possibly moreso.

I have heard the comparison numerous times and still find it irrelevant with these cars, just IMO...

ModAddict

My gas milage went up with the blower,...when I'm cruising.

And the thing about a weekend car,....my weekend car is used every day, all day, and to me that is getting much more out of my $3900 S/C kit (w/trans cooler) not to mention the car itself, then only using it on the weekends. Besides that I allready tried the weekend car bit, and I wanted to drive it all the time, so I did. Then I traded it for the TL-S.

As I said before, if you don't have $4k to spend on something you really don't need, you probably shouldn't get it.

blader

An odd little thing I learned from my friend with the Whipple charger .. when the S\C is not making boost and in vacuum, it actually robs a little under 100 HP from his built 454 .. and he still makes his peak tq at like 2300RPM of 529WTQ .. the S\C helps him hold it top end though. All the way to redline the TQ curve is almost flat along with HP. the charger really helped him keep his low end power through the whole rev range. I have no doubt Scalbert your top gear passing is great because his is the same way in OD

scalbert

Wow, that is alot. The MP62 Eaton blower used in the Comptech kit robs very little power when under vacuum (not in use) and the bypass valve is open. It is on the order of about 5 HP.

BoostedM3

For that price, S/C for 6sp would be worth it, but for the 5AT it would be a hard choice. If you went with any more mods after the S/C (i.e. 3.5L, etc.), you would probably need to think about upgrading the tranny and that's not cheap.

I went through this same dilemma before I bought my C32...would it be worth modding out the 5AT CLS anymore? Here's my cost breakdown (I already had I/H/E/spring/sway/BBK):

S/C ~$4000
Stage II Tranny ~$3500
3.5L stage III upgrade ~$4300
Miscellaneous (plugs, pulleys, etc.) ~$250
Labor ~$3000

Approximate Total Cost = $15,050 + $4,200 (mods I had) = $19,250

It all comes down to what you want. IMHO, if I can get a car with the same performance stock, rwd, more features, and spend less money, there's no point in modding the CLS anymore.

ModAddict

I can't do the rear wheel drive here in the snow belt. And I'm planning on keeping the stock tranny alive for a while. It is one of the newer ones, so we'll see.

sidemarker

OK new dillemma

i can get everything SC kit, tranny cooler, flush tranny system, new battery, b-pipe, and installation for $5000 EVEN!

Problem

SCARED TO DO IT BECAUSE OF THE TRANNY!!!!!!!!

i called both my acura dealership and that 1-800 number for acura customer service regarding warranty coverage with the comptech supercharger

they both pretty much gave me the run around, my dealership said it would automatically VOID my warranty and the acura customer service said my dealership is full of shit and that it wont but its under the disgression of the dealership to decide whether or not to cover it under warranty if it breaks

so my next step is to find a near by acura/honda dealership that would honor the tranny warranty if i install the comptech horsepower maker!

sidemarker

randomwalk101

For the love of GOD don't do it man....car is the worst investment you can make...use it on your business or something...especially with the POS tranny, it's going to blow anytime when you have that SC installed...hell, it's going to blow anytime without the SC install...the POS tranny can't even hold it's own power (stock) much less SC.

Nashua_Night_Hawk

have it in WRITING!

nashua

Nashua_Night_Hawk

I will do :

1) consider a electric Turbo Application for the CLS.
2) Wait for a SC Application from Jackson Racing
3) Wait for a SC Application from Vortech
4) Have a custom Turbo for like $3K

Nashua.

scalbert

And then Hell freezes over before any of those four occurs...

But I question why you would make these statements other than having an affinity for disliking Comptech products.

There are no real electric turbos that produce any real power. Electric turbo assist system are coming into true use but that is just an assist. Full on electric turbos are still a ways out and when available are either off or on and provide diminishing gains as the revs climb.

From what we are aware of, JRC have no plans for our application. Plus, all of their kits use the M45 which is too small for our size motor. So a deviation from the standard offering would need to be made.

From what I understand, Vortech is not interested in our application. Plus, since we are limited to about 8 PSI anyway due to the high CR a Vortech blower would be a downgrade. A centrifugal compressor would provide little benefit down low and would not provide any significant advantage up high over the Eaton unit. If boost were able to be turned up this would change. But at the modest levels we are running, the Eaton unit provides the same maximum gains up high but also yields significant power down low.

Also about Vortech, their 350Z kit is about $5500 not installed; about $6500 installed. Ours would be as high if not higher due to a lower potential market and the need to have a cross engine drive shaft.

As for a custom turbo for under $3000; you would be buying used parts and doing all welding your self.

scalbert

If you are worried about it, then I suggest not doing it. There are no guarantees either way and there is no point in constantly worrying about it.

If you can relax about and accept the possibilities and it is not a stretch, go right ahead. But be sure it is acceptable and you have the means in case of the worst scenario.

sidemarker

i guess if there were not people on the board with 5 or 6 trannies then i wouldnt feel too worried

I totally understand that installing a device like this should have affects on other parts like the engine and powertrain and in a sense it my own responsibility to get something fixed if the SC is the root of the problem but i guess its the fact that

1. there are tranny issues and no one knows exactly which cars have them until it finally dies

2. im still on my original tranny so im not sure if im lucky or the time is nearing for it to go

3. i am willing to pay for a brand new tranny if dies with the SC installed but bottom line i will only pay for ONE replacement!

sidemarker

CLS2001_97124

Why don't you look into the Tranny package provided from Dean? Aren't those tranny's better than stock? (please correct me if I'm off)

ModAddict

It's supposed to be. If I'm buying, that will be my choice, but at this point it's new and there's not much history.

kevin79925

do it!!

TL_Type_S

I've accepted that my tranny will continue to fail me (third one now) ... but I continue to mod, b/c as Scalbert stated, I've accepted, and moved on, and continue to enjoy my car and deal w/ the consequences. Granted, the S/C can potentially lead to an earlier tranny death, but if you can find a dealership that'll warrant the s/c if they install it, maybe it'll be worth it to you in that case, so long as you're still guaranteed new tranny's up to 100k miles.

Chemmech

I did the install myself. If my tranny goes I'm gonna get the car home and uninstall the s/c before going to the dealer. It still runs great though, no problems with the tranny.