Hey chris, I'll give you a preview...LOl.......GROWLLLLLLLLLL.. lol I wish I could hear how that car sounds also in person.

 

What did ESS say about the PSI you're getting? I don't buy the explanation given.

 

Hi jsimon7777. No worries: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=installed+heade...+boost+dropped

It might not be easy for some to understand how some changes on the exhaust side of the combustion sequence can affect things on the intake side, but if you feel like looking into it a little, here are a few links to get you started:

Here is a document that describes low boost troubleshooting with a supercharger:
http://kennebell.net/KBWebsite/Commo...esAndCures.pdf


Here is someone on the MB forum that understands the risks of headers/exhaust on a supercharged car and asks members if it's true/false before installing the kit:
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w208...ercharger.html

Here is a story where a Ford lost 2.8PSI of boost when installing headers on an already supercharged car:
http://www.musclemustangfastfords.co...2/viewall.html


Here is a FAQ for people like you:
http://www.weistec.com/faq.html#


Here is another FAQ on a 370Z forum:
http://www.the370z.com/forced-induct...ercharger.html


Similar story here:
http://ls1tech.com/forums/forced-ind...t-headers.html


Mustang guy claiming the same observation:
http://www.svtperformance.com/forums...ess-boost.html


ESS wasn't surprised. They told me the pulley it came with was good for the 6PSI and we talked about how to resolve the 2PSI loss with using a smaller pulley. I imagine they've seen this many times before.

Depending on factors that include valve timing/cams/overlap, some people might or might not see little gains when installing headers on a supercharged car, but pretty much everybody will see a loss in boost. In the case of the N62B48 with the ESS Stage 2 supercharger, we yielded the same HP that they advertise (something around 400hp at the wheels), but we did so more efficiently at lower boost.

 

What part of Cali did you move to? I make road trips down there every now and then.

Looks like me and one of the m5board guys are going to do a dyno here in the next week or so. He has one of those portable cameras and he loves using it. Perhaps we can get some runs between the two cars and hopefully the audio will sound good. The video on those little cameras is pretty darn good, imo.

 

The girlfriend and I put the smaller pulley on. Took us about 30 minutes since we had never done such a thing before. Finally running 6PSI on the supercharger now (nevermind the boost numbers in the dyno below). The dyno's boost gauge was suspected to be unreliable, so we put an analog boot gauge in parallel using a T-adapter and it read an peak of 6PSI. The important thing to note here is the AFR's look good. So that there is no confusion, the ~400HP is the run with the larger pulley, and the ~420HP run is with the slightly smaller pulley:



Here is a random photo taken with the phone from earlier today. Figured it was worth sharing.



Been playing around with radios and cars lately. Here are a few blanks and a fob showing up on an FFT.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8O8m2TPjHk

Fun fun fun.

Oh, the m5board guys let me hang out with them the other day. They took some photos as well. Here are a few photos from the meetup, courtesy of Thom5:









The full album can be found here:

http://photos.thomr.com/

Bunch of really great guys, too. Look forward to doing a drive with them soon. One of the guys wants to get some pulls between his modded M5 and my 550 on video. Hopefully we'll do that in a week or so. Here are his numbers and mine next to each other:

His Numbers: 436.60 HP @ 7150 and 344.20 ft lbs @ 6100
My Numbers: 419.78 HP @ 6500 and 392.18 ft lbs @ 4750

My guess is that the 550 will beat the M5 off the line, but he'll pass it after a short period. We'll see.

 

Nice pics

 

Dude, you better marry this girl if she is willing to work on your car with you. Sounds like a keeper.

EDIT: I'm also just a short drive up I-5 away, so when those of you in the PNW decide to meet up for a beer and talk cars, do let me know. Would love to see and hear your car in person.

 

Looking to buy the SC from ESS for my 545i, good luck on the build!

 

Good job West.

 

Would love to see some inside/outside/speedo acceleration vids. You also mentioned that you were going to do a run with some M5, it would be really good to see how you stand up to an M5