superchargers for bmw e46

Bmw.wp

Active member
Hi Guys

If possible can you guys lay out which superchargers works for the e46 6 cylinders

I googled superchargers for sale in south africa and get a lot of hits but knowing how easily one can buy the wrong one just need to hear your guys out on the subject.

There are toyota superchargers mercs and jaguars one and so on.

Thanks
 

Bmw.wp

Active member
Hi Alexander

Thanks. Yes i read his post. Bit for now i am noþ able to afford the charger now.

Just wants to know and learn a bit more of chargers for in future when i am able to afford one would know what to look out for and what chargers will works best.

Thanks
 

Gizmo

Banned
In my honest opinion if you want boost, buy a x35i as it was built for it from the factory and in turn will return ok fuel economy. NA cars with aftermarket boost always need tinkering of some sort and will never return good fuel economy again, especially a supercharged vehicle.
 

Crash_Nemesis

///Member
The x35i engines return good fuel economy, but we all know this guy is going to tune it, and then, it's no different to having a boosted e46. I actually got better economy with my 323i on the highway when it was supercharged, funnily enough. Ha ha but gizmo is right, the car is thirsty when boosted. Gotta pay to play.
 

bac

Member
lil off topic guys, who is very clued up and can help out on superchargers, besides RGM, its been fitted and plumbed correctly on a S52, but the car refuses to boost, charger is spinning/working etc
 

Crash_Nemesis

///Member
RGM will rape you. Bring it past me. I'll have a look. I have a supercharged e46 M3.


bac said:
lil off topic guys, who is very clued up and can help out on superchargers, besides RGM, its been fitted and plumbed correctly on a S52, but the car refuses to boost, charger is spinning/working etc

Possibly wrong pulley wheel sizes. What kit? ESS?
 

Vikash M3

New member
Crash_Nemesis said:
RGM will rape you. Bring it past me. I'll have a look. I have a supercharged e46 M3.


bac said:
lil off topic guys, who is very clued up and can help out on superchargers, besides RGM, its been fitted and plumbed correctly on a S52, but the car refuses to boost, charger is spinning/working etc

Possibly wrong pulley wheel sizes. What kit? ESS?

Howsit. just out of interest, what was the cost of this supercharge and what was the increase in kw? Nice to know for future mods
 

Crash_Nemesis

///Member
I imported the charger through Project Shift when the Rand was R7 to the dollar back in 2011. The supercharger kit was also on sale from VF engineering at the time. So I paid around R45k for the kit. Today, the same kit as I have it on my M3 now, is worth R100k with customs and import. If you add a charge cooler, make it R130k with 9psi.

Installation will cost you aswell depending on where you did it. I had mine installed locally between Project Shift and Axis Engine works. Some fabrication was needed as mine is a custom supercharger job (bigger injectors, Blow Off Valve installed) and Axis did the fabrication work. Project shift did the tuning. I am running a custom Alpha N file.

I am running 4psi at the moment with no intercooler or water meth. This was just a temporary setup. I have a 6psi wheel and water meth, I just need to get time to install them.

With 4psi, I have raced and beat an RS3 and the new F80 M3 on rolling runs.

Bare in mind, I also have a fully blueprinted engine with lightweight internals built for boost. I also have a 3:91 diff which creates more usable low down torque and lifts RPM's in each gear, which in turn creates boost sooner. My application may differ from yours.

At 4psi, you're going to see a jump from 340hp to 420hp+.

At 6psi you are looking at 480-500hp.

9psi you are looking at 550-570hp.

THese are figures seen with the Vortech V3 supercharger, which I am using. Both ESS and VF engineering use this supercharger. RGM use the older but still capable V2 charger.
 

bac

Member
i contacted Pieter on the forum, will swing pass friday to see if he can assist me, its def a wiring or vacuum issue on mine
 

Crash_Nemesis

///Member
bac said:
i contacted Pieter on the forum, will swing pass friday to see if he can assist me, its def a wiring or vacuum issue on mine

Again... what kit are you running, what size pulley wheel do you have?
 

Alain

New member
I also had my kit done locally, between psi developments and tuning done by project shift, my kit was the development unit but now we have all patterns and jigs built,

Exactly as crash said depending how you set it up you can get different hp out of the kits, my unit is a 500hp unit as we felt that was safe without doing internals. Total cost was about 90k, that excludes all the other stuff Burgy and me have done :roflol:
 

bac

Member
Crash_Nemesis said:
bac said:
i contacted Pieter on the forum, will swing pass friday to see if he can assist me, its def a wiring or vacuum issue on mine

Again... what kit are you running, what size pulley wheel do you have?

its a old 99/01 year RGM kit based off there vortech V1 race charger. Not to sure on the pulley size, i just removed it out from a RGM car, transplanted with the motor/charger/ecu.Upon installation could of missed or incorrectly fitted a wire or vacuum line.
 

Crash_Nemesis

///Member
bac said:
Crash_Nemesis said:
bac said:
i contacted Pieter on the forum, will swing pass friday to see if he can assist me, its def a wiring or vacuum issue on mine

Again... what kit are you running, what size pulley wheel do you have?

its a old 99/01 year RGM kit based off there vortech V1 race charger. Not to sure on the pulley size, i just removed it out from a RGM car, transplanted with the motor/charger/ecu.Upon installation could of missed or incorrectly fitted a wire or vacuum line.

Thanks for the reply. I think what I am about to type below might be your problem.

What car did you take the charger off? What crank pulley size does that car have? Is it bigger or smaller than your cars crank pulley?

The reason I ask is that the crank pulley size also determines the impeller speed of the supercharger. If your engine's crank pulley is smaller than the car the supercharger came from, you will be running less boost.

To increase boost you can either have a larger crank pulley or a smaller supercharger pulley. If that supercharger came off an e46 330i for instance, the crank pulley on the 330i is larger than the pulley on an e46 M3 for example. So, lets say the 330i was boosting 4 psi, that very same supercharger setup will run 1psi or less on an M3 engine if using the same pulley on the charger. So unless you change the supercharger pulley to a smaller pulley or change the M3 crank pulley to a larger pulley, the car will make less boost. Also, volumetric efficiency comes into play. An M3 engine is more efficient than a 330i engine. You'll make less boost there too. In other words, you need to spin the impeller faster on an M3 engine to make more boost.

I hope this is making sense.

Let me know what car the supercharger came off from. THen we can start calculating what size pulley wheel you need. Also, find out what PSI that car was running. This will help too.
 

bac

Member
Crash_Nemesis said:
bac said:
Crash_Nemesis said:
bac said:
i contacted Pieter on the forum, will swing pass friday to see if he can assist me, its def a wiring or vacuum issue on mine

Again... what kit are you running, what size pulley wheel do you have?

its a old 99/01 year RGM kit based off there vortech V1 race charger. Not to sure on the pulley size, i just removed it out from a RGM car, transplanted with the motor/charger/ecu.Upon installation could of missed or incorrectly fitted a wire or vacuum line.

Thanks for the reply. I think what I am about to type below might be your problem.

What car did you take the charger off? What crank pulley size does that car have? Is it bigger or smaller than your cars crank pulley?

The reason I ask is that the crank pulley size also determines the impeller speed of the supercharger. If your engine's crank pulley is smaller than the car the supercharger came from, you will be running less boost.

To increase boost you can either have a larger crank pulley or a smaller supercharger pulley. If that supercharger came off an e46 330i for instance, the crank pulley on the 330i is larger than the pulley on an e46 M3 for example. So, lets say the 330i was boosting 4 psi, that very same supercharger setup will run 1psi or less on an M3 engine if using the same pulley on the charger. So unless you change the supercharger pulley to a smaller pulley or change the M3 crank pulley to a larger pulley, the car will make less boost. Also, volumetric efficiency comes into play. An M3 engine is more efficient than a 330i engine. You'll make less boost there too. In other words, you need to spin the impeller faster on an M3 engine to make more boost.

I hope this is making sense.

Let me know what car the supercharger came off from. THen we can start calculating what size pulley wheel you need. Also, find out what PSI that car was running. This will help too.

You make sense, just that i removed the motor with charger attached, dint split the 2 apart. Also was running perfect in the prev car
 
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