is it true that supercharging a car shortens the engines life? i have 55k on my S and my friend said if i supercharge it, its gonna feel like i got 80k right off the bat!! what the hell? is this true? does it really kill the engine? what if i were to get stronger pistons and rods? would it help? thanks

 

i'm sure someone with a lot more knowledge than i will follow up, but the short answer to your question is no. the only extra stress that is put on your engine kicks in once you hit vtec. under 6k, you're basically still driving the same car so unless you vtec from every red light, you're not putting much more stress on your engine. turbocharging, however, is a different story. however, if you go sc, i'd suggest getting a reinforced differential.

but, again, i'm new around here and still learning so if someone with more knowledge feels like disagreeing, i won't agrue too much.

 

Turbo charging will put more stress on the engine but anything over stock will shorten the life of any engine. For your friend telling you that it will make your car feel like it has 88k, it would really be more like a 110K, no just kidding. In all seriousness here are plenty of members on here running a SC which put over 30K on their S without any problems. Like wortham said you will get a lot of feed back on this.

 

It won't make it immediatly feel old. It will just age faster. The thing is though. If properly tuned and taken care of, it's a Honda and so the difference won't be a big deal.

 

The S has not been around very long and certainly not many supercharged ones can be considered "old". Whenever you add nearly 50% more output from an otherwise stock engine, something is bound to happen in terms of wear, BUT, is this going to be "significant"? Like already said, if you redline every chance you get and draw upon that extra output, then you can easily see how this would significantly shorten the life of the engine but again, how much so?
Although noone can really say how long this engine will last when not abused constantly, let's say on a hypothetical basis (by other Honda standards) that our engines can go 150,000 miles without any big issues. If a blower, put on at 50,000 miles will shorten the life down to 130,000 miles, I could live with this. Of course, anything you get that is stronger will help, but will you also do something to help out the tranny? The diff? It could on and on.
And BTW, what does a 55,000 mile S2000 feel like compared to what a 80,000 mile S2000 would feel like?
As for my car, after the S/C install, it felt super strong and continued to run very well. In fact, right now, the car is running as good as it ever has (touch wood).
Just as you see examples of supercharged cars breaking things, you must remember that there are plenty of examples of stock cars being broken. In some peoples' hands, anything will break. I'm not sure at this point, if you are asking a lot of questions on this subject because you are trying to educate yourself or if you are trying to comfort your fears. If it is the latter, you may not be ready to take the risk. This is not a cheap mod. It is not a simple, carefree mod. It is not without due consideration to several issues, some of which may not readily come to mind.

 

well said Mr. Xviper. i rarely beat on my car if i dont have to and therefore drive like an old lady cuz i figure why beat the shit out of the car at every red light? so i do take it easy on it. but then again, i bought it used so i dont know what the previous owner did. but thats a whole different story i guess. im also worried by the time i pay this car off, since i bought it a year ago yesterday, it will have like 130k or somethin like that and will break down. but i guess if i maintain it, it will run fine. i can always put a new motor in, right? and ur right, xviper, this is not a cheap or easy mod. but ive been thinkin about it for sometime, but i dont know if i should take the risk or not. since i said i was gonna go n/a. but things change. just out of curiosity, how much does the installation cost and the tuning so if i ever do buy it, ill be prepared. thanks
Danish.
BTW, thanks for helpin on the 02 sensor xviper. i got it fixed yesterday, found the right bolt and everything. the check engine light went away just like that and the noise stopped and the car felt great! thanks alot man!

 

I've seen posted here, some guys have paid about $500.00US for the Vortech install. I did my own so I can't confirm this. As for tuning, the Vortech kit runs just fine out of the box but you have to know how to "feel" for how it is running and to check things like spark plugs, etc, regularly, if you don't get it tuned.
Herein, "could" lie the problem that some people may have. The Vortech kit comes already as a very reliable system as is. Once you start "tuning", some people go a little nuts and try to extract every last bit of HP out of it. They begin to lean out A/F, mess with VTEC point, play with timing some more, put in big injectors. The list goes on and on. If you go this route, that is your perogative but realize that all of this stuff may affect long term reliability. In fact, when some people begin to mess with this sort of stuff, they tend to have breakage and failures fairly soon and then the "tuning" never ends.
I'm one of those who don't need every last HP. The kit is very good just bolted on and after checking all the "telltale" signs I spoke of, I leave well enough alone an already good thing.
Thinking about "tweaking and tuning" and long term relibility "may" be a hard end to achieve.

 

xviper is right on with everything he said. There have been many stock s2ks with blown motors due to miss-shifts, or just driver abuse, so anything in the wrong hands can break. If you look at the dyno chart from the comptech kit for the s2k, it doesnt start spiking up til later on, and makes max output at a lofty 8800 rpms, so driving it around town pretty easy may not effect the longevity of the motor. Even though its not a turbo, any type of forced induction is asking the motor to do more than it was designed to do, however, with the correct installation and you not beating it to death, you should be ok.....

 

any comments on the comptech kits? is it ready to go out of the box like the vortec?

 

Maybe he meant it'll feel like a V8 right off the bat! It won't, it'll feel more like an F1 engine.