We have a 1996 Land Cruiser with 138,000 miles on the system. We're trying to find some extra horsepower for pulling our camper and somebody suggested adding a TRD Supercharger to the vehicle. Does anybody have some insight into the supercharger on a 1996 LC? The cost seems rather steep ($5K), for some undecided benefits. Will this harm the engine on an older vehicle? How much worse can my gas mileage (MPG) become? Can I expect a significant gain in horsepower for highway towing?
Thank you!!
adding a forced induction system (blower, turbo, etc) adds extra stress to any OEM normally aspirated motor and will cause your MPG's to go down some. HP gains depends on the boost which is dictated by the s/c pulley used.
+15psi basically doubles your HP output. you would of course not run +15psi, more like 3-6psi. i would also suggest you invest in some headers.your mileage is not that high, so if it has been taken care of a s/c should be fine (though i would not stomp the gas too often). see if Alpine has a s/c kit, they usually supply and extra fuel injector that gets installed to balance the extra air pumped in by the s/c.
but remember, the s/c can break the weakest link....
Older engine or not, anything that adds more than 10%~15% torque or HP to your driveline can tear it up pretty quickly. Usually when you get a stock turbo (for example) the engine under it may have the same castings, but it has different valves, bearings and other internals that make a big longevity difference under stress. I know the Buick 231V6 turbo in the Grand Nationals is the same block as the 231 used in their other cars, but if you just stuck the turbo on a non-turbo motor, you'd rip it to shreds. Superchargers aren't quite as brutal as turbos, but they're similar in the fact that they also put a far greater load on the internals that you can only replace with a complete tear down of the engine.
For the most part, real power gains come from helping an engine breath better since internal combustion is really just a big air pump. Superchargers and turbos do that, but you have to have someplace to go with all that extra breath. Headers are an obvious requirement to get the air out, but expect to invest more $$$ in your valvetrain and heads as well. There's a whole bunch of 'stuff' inbetween the intake and exhaust and there can be a serious bottleneck in there making all those pretty intake parts contribute little more than added weight.
Of course, some of the folks who sell aftermarket performace stuff might tell you there's nothing to worry about and you can make your $5k check out to .... ;) The really good ones will try to sell you all the other stuff to make it work and last. There's a reason that performance engines cost so much more from the factory. There's usually a lot more to them.
Good luck, - Jeff G
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