KW SC vs SOS SC
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,820
Likes: 1
From: LI, NY
i guess i should add some flavor into this mix.
i have driven and installed both kits on s2k's. i personally own an SOS blower with a 10psi pulley, aftercooler, and the front mount heat exchanger upgrade.
i have found the KW kit to be a little bit too messy in terms of the finished product in the engine bay. you are stuffing the blower, its custom bracket, a new serp belt and tensioner oil relocation, a front mount intercooler, oil lines for the blower, its own oil cooler and filter, and intercooler piping into the engine bay. it makes for quite a busy area. the simplest of maintenance can become quite a headache with this kit.
on the other hand, you won't get low end torque with another supercharger setup like you will with the KW kit. if you are looking for that 'almost turbo' kind of setup this one is for you. there are stories of the blower unit itself being overspun with the use of the high boost pulley, but i can't confirm that one.
the SOS kit is based off a much simpler approach. it is basically a CT kit re-engineered to actually make more sense. you dont have to modify the car. the majority of the kit can literally be removed in 5 minutes to gain access to all things stock on the car. the 1220SL unit is completely self oiled and does not require external cooling. the biggest advantage to me? there is no modifying the stock oil system in the car. ask any turbo guy (myself included!) what a joy that is!
the SOS kit gets to be expensive, though. to really do it right you need standalone management. that means an ECU, fuel, and a proper tune. the KW kit for DBW cars includes all of this. i use kpro. that means i bought the tuner SOS kit (4k) plus management (2k) plus a tune (600). i'm just about into turbo territory in terms of money, and i'm making less power.
i am, however, making up for that power loss in reliability. i have heard no ill complaints about the KW kit's reliability but more moving parts means more things can fail. my SOS kit contains mostly big blocky pieces that either 1) can't fail or 2) will not affect my ability to get home should they fail. no oil relocation means i dont have to worry about oil pressure or filters taking shots from road debris. coming from an inline pro turbo kit i will tell you my biggest fear of all is an oil related issue.
i've had my SOS kit for about 10 months now and i've had to do no 'surprise' maintenance on it. zero. ok, fine, i don't drive the car a lot, but there is something to be said about not having to tighten any bolts or fixing loose ends every month or so. i check tension on the belt every couple of months and i just changed my supercharger oil for the first time - no sweat. all areas of this supercharger can be checked, maintained, installed, and removed without jacking the car up. if i ever needed to remove the system while on the road all i'd really need is a 14mm open end and a flathead screwdriver.
weigh the options out. a kw kit will give you things the SOS wont, and vise versa. just dont expect low end torque out of an SOS kit or 450whp out of a KW kit and you'll be just fine!
i have driven and installed both kits on s2k's. i personally own an SOS blower with a 10psi pulley, aftercooler, and the front mount heat exchanger upgrade.
i have found the KW kit to be a little bit too messy in terms of the finished product in the engine bay. you are stuffing the blower, its custom bracket, a new serp belt and tensioner oil relocation, a front mount intercooler, oil lines for the blower, its own oil cooler and filter, and intercooler piping into the engine bay. it makes for quite a busy area. the simplest of maintenance can become quite a headache with this kit.
on the other hand, you won't get low end torque with another supercharger setup like you will with the KW kit. if you are looking for that 'almost turbo' kind of setup this one is for you. there are stories of the blower unit itself being overspun with the use of the high boost pulley, but i can't confirm that one.
the SOS kit is based off a much simpler approach. it is basically a CT kit re-engineered to actually make more sense. you dont have to modify the car. the majority of the kit can literally be removed in 5 minutes to gain access to all things stock on the car. the 1220SL unit is completely self oiled and does not require external cooling. the biggest advantage to me? there is no modifying the stock oil system in the car. ask any turbo guy (myself included!) what a joy that is!
the SOS kit gets to be expensive, though. to really do it right you need standalone management. that means an ECU, fuel, and a proper tune. the KW kit for DBW cars includes all of this. i use kpro. that means i bought the tuner SOS kit (4k) plus management (2k) plus a tune (600). i'm just about into turbo territory in terms of money, and i'm making less power.
i am, however, making up for that power loss in reliability. i have heard no ill complaints about the KW kit's reliability but more moving parts means more things can fail. my SOS kit contains mostly big blocky pieces that either 1) can't fail or 2) will not affect my ability to get home should they fail. no oil relocation means i dont have to worry about oil pressure or filters taking shots from road debris. coming from an inline pro turbo kit i will tell you my biggest fear of all is an oil related issue.
i've had my SOS kit for about 10 months now and i've had to do no 'surprise' maintenance on it. zero. ok, fine, i don't drive the car a lot, but there is something to be said about not having to tighten any bolts or fixing loose ends every month or so. i check tension on the belt every couple of months and i just changed my supercharger oil for the first time - no sweat. all areas of this supercharger can be checked, maintained, installed, and removed without jacking the car up. if i ever needed to remove the system while on the road all i'd really need is a 14mm open end and a flathead screwdriver.
weigh the options out. a kw kit will give you things the SOS wont, and vise versa. just dont expect low end torque out of an SOS kit or 450whp out of a KW kit and you'll be just fine!
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 1,941
Likes: 47
From: Baraboo, WI
Originally Posted by TelosHedge,May 7 2010, 12:13 AM
there are stories of the blower unit itself being overspun with the use of the high boost pulley, but i can't confirm that one.
Brian
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,820
Likes: 1
From: LI, NY
Originally Posted by 06S2k07Si,May 7 2010, 06:51 AM
This issue has been corrected due to an 8200rpm limit vs the old 8500rpm limit.
Brian
Brian
regardless, it's good to know that issue was corrected. kind of scary!
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 1,708
Likes: 3
From: Work , School , Home
I love my KW kit. I have not driven the SOS kit. But I will tell you that its nice NOT to have to redline to get good boost. While cruising around city or highway i dont downshift i just step on it at like 3 or 4k rpms and get an immediate 4-5 lbs of boost. This is with the High boost kit. My engine bay is so clean to . It looks like there is nothing there i have seen some people even relocate the oil cooler to the botom of the cross member and its almost an empty bay..
BTW i dont know if this matters or not but i just drove the KW kit on a 1000 mile nonstop trip to the dragon and it behaved very well. Im still untuned btw.
BTW i dont know if this matters or not but i just drove the KW kit on a 1000 mile nonstop trip to the dragon and it behaved very well. Im still untuned btw.
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 459
Likes: 2
Originally Posted by TelosHedge,May 6 2010, 10:13 PM
i guess i should add some flavor into this mix.
i have driven and installed both kits on s2k's. i personally own an SOS blower with a 10psi pulley, aftercooler, and the front mount heat exchanger upgrade.
i have found the KW kit to be a little bit too messy in terms of the finished product in the engine bay. you are stuffing the blower, its custom bracket, a new serp belt and tensioner oil relocation, a front mount intercooler, oil lines for the blower, its own oil cooler and filter, and intercooler piping into the engine bay. it makes for quite a busy area. the simplest of maintenance can become quite a headache with this kit.
on the other hand, you won't get low end torque with another supercharger setup like you will with the KW kit. if you are looking for that 'almost turbo' kind of setup this one is for you. there are stories of the blower unit itself being overspun with the use of the high boost pulley, but i can't confirm that one.
the SOS kit is based off a much simpler approach. it is basically a CT kit re-engineered to actually make more sense. you dont have to modify the car. the majority of the kit can literally be removed in 5 minutes to gain access to all things stock on the car. the 1220SL unit is completely self oiled and does not require external cooling. the biggest advantage to me? there is no modifying the stock oil system in the car. ask any turbo guy (myself included!) what a joy that is!
the SOS kit gets to be expensive, though. to really do it right you need standalone management. that means an ECU, fuel, and a proper tune. the KW kit for DBW cars includes all of this. i use kpro. that means i bought the tuner SOS kit (4k) plus management (2k) plus a tune (600). i'm just about into turbo territory in terms of money, and i'm making less power.
i am, however, making up for that power loss in reliability. i have heard no ill complaints about the KW kit's reliability but more moving parts means more things can fail. my SOS kit contains mostly big blocky pieces that either 1) can't fail or 2) will not affect my ability to get home should they fail. no oil relocation means i dont have to worry about oil pressure or filters taking shots from road debris. coming from an inline pro turbo kit i will tell you my biggest fear of all is an oil related issue.
i've had my SOS kit for about 10 months now and i've had to do no 'surprise' maintenance on it. zero. ok, fine, i don't drive the car a lot, but there is something to be said about not having to tighten any bolts or fixing loose ends every month or so. i check tension on the belt every couple of months and i just changed my supercharger oil for the first time - no sweat. all areas of this supercharger can be checked, maintained, installed, and removed without jacking the car up. if i ever needed to remove the system while on the road all i'd really need is a 14mm open end and a flathead screwdriver.
weigh the options out. a kw kit will give you things the SOS wont, and vise versa. just dont expect low end torque out of an SOS kit or 450whp out of a KW kit and you'll be just fine!
i have driven and installed both kits on s2k's. i personally own an SOS blower with a 10psi pulley, aftercooler, and the front mount heat exchanger upgrade.
i have found the KW kit to be a little bit too messy in terms of the finished product in the engine bay. you are stuffing the blower, its custom bracket, a new serp belt and tensioner oil relocation, a front mount intercooler, oil lines for the blower, its own oil cooler and filter, and intercooler piping into the engine bay. it makes for quite a busy area. the simplest of maintenance can become quite a headache with this kit.
on the other hand, you won't get low end torque with another supercharger setup like you will with the KW kit. if you are looking for that 'almost turbo' kind of setup this one is for you. there are stories of the blower unit itself being overspun with the use of the high boost pulley, but i can't confirm that one.
the SOS kit is based off a much simpler approach. it is basically a CT kit re-engineered to actually make more sense. you dont have to modify the car. the majority of the kit can literally be removed in 5 minutes to gain access to all things stock on the car. the 1220SL unit is completely self oiled and does not require external cooling. the biggest advantage to me? there is no modifying the stock oil system in the car. ask any turbo guy (myself included!) what a joy that is!
the SOS kit gets to be expensive, though. to really do it right you need standalone management. that means an ECU, fuel, and a proper tune. the KW kit for DBW cars includes all of this. i use kpro. that means i bought the tuner SOS kit (4k) plus management (2k) plus a tune (600). i'm just about into turbo territory in terms of money, and i'm making less power.
i am, however, making up for that power loss in reliability. i have heard no ill complaints about the KW kit's reliability but more moving parts means more things can fail. my SOS kit contains mostly big blocky pieces that either 1) can't fail or 2) will not affect my ability to get home should they fail. no oil relocation means i dont have to worry about oil pressure or filters taking shots from road debris. coming from an inline pro turbo kit i will tell you my biggest fear of all is an oil related issue.
i've had my SOS kit for about 10 months now and i've had to do no 'surprise' maintenance on it. zero. ok, fine, i don't drive the car a lot, but there is something to be said about not having to tighten any bolts or fixing loose ends every month or so. i check tension on the belt every couple of months and i just changed my supercharger oil for the first time - no sweat. all areas of this supercharger can be checked, maintained, installed, and removed without jacking the car up. if i ever needed to remove the system while on the road all i'd really need is a 14mm open end and a flathead screwdriver.
weigh the options out. a kw kit will give you things the SOS wont, and vise versa. just dont expect low end torque out of an SOS kit or 450whp out of a KW kit and you'll be just fine!
From what I've seen when comparing the two you're trading lower rpm TQ (KW) for higher max HP (SoS). I don't know how it is to work on the KW but the SoS is uber simple and low maintenance. When you go with the black SoS SC the install looks very clean. As if OEM.
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,149
Likes: 17
From: Raleigh, NC
I relocated my External oil cooler for my KW kit to under the cross memeber, this cleaned up the engine bay quite a bit, and it was a simple procedure. In fact this leaves much more room in the engine bay and IMO makes this the cleanest install of all S/C kits.
The KW kit doesnt have any more moving parts vs any other s/c kit. It is also self lubricated and quite honestly I 100% prefer the air/air intercooler for the simplicity of it and the fact that after long hauls the temps will always remain low with no relying on fluid temps of an air/water system.
The KW kit doesnt have any more moving parts vs any other s/c kit. It is also self lubricated and quite honestly I 100% prefer the air/air intercooler for the simplicity of it and the fact that after long hauls the temps will always remain low with no relying on fluid temps of an air/water system.
Registered User
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 946
Likes: 1
From: Planet Earth....Welcome!
I have the SOS kit and its a very nice kit. Though I would like more power as I have max boost with the kit but I will just go turbo. I dont think you could go wrong with either one its just depends on what you want for power. Do you want low end or top end? SOS has more ability to upgrade at a cheaper price.
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 8,044
Likes: 6
From: South Florida
Originally Posted by 518135,May 9 2010, 10:28 PM
I have the SOS kit and its a very nice kit. Though I would like more power as I have max boost with the kit but I will just go turbo. I dont think you could go wrong with either one its just depends on what you want for power. Do you want low end or top end? SOS has more ability to upgrade at a cheaper price.
DO IT!