Am I Crazy? OK I know the answer but....

I just scored this whipple Supercharger for $150 Its in great shape with no wear on the rotors. A friend just bought a used Chevy truck and the guy said he had a supercharger for it but it wasn't installed. Needless to say it was missing the mounting hardware and was just the blower. Asked what he was going to do with it and he said sell it! I of course opened my big mouth and asked what he wanted to which he replyed $500 and he asked if I was interested. I of course said sure but not at $500 and low and behold I'm the proud owner of this gorgous paper weight for the time being. Question is? Think I could mount this on my Malibu? What do you think it would do? Might not make much of a difference for wakeboarding but it'd sure be cool for bragging rights on the launch ramp!

Robert,

I gave some serious consideration to putting one on my Nautique last winter. I even called and talked to Dustin Whipple down in Fresno. The short answer is yes, you can put it on your boat. I expect it would do very well too. You will need the manifold, pulleys, maybe an oil cooler, maybe a new throttle body and you will also need to reporgram the MEFI 4 controller. I would guess that you will be into it for another $3-4k before you are done. Whipple routinely does the Mercruiser marined 5.7 small block so your stroker motor won't be much different. After I discovered all of these marine motors have 2 bolt mains I decided not to invest $6k blower system on top of a 2 bolt motor worth less than that.

It's a good deal for the pump. Problem lies in the fact that you have no mounting harware, fuel management system,and the critch is the manifold to bolt it to. All that stuff is gonna run you same serious cake and you may end up being not such a good deal in the long run.

They make a full kit for the Mercruiser.
The first thing you need to check is the torque rating on your transmission and on your v-drive. If they won't handle the torque you run an expensive risk.
With a supercharger you can get almost any boost you want. You could add 30 hp to your engine or 100. They are well suited to a wake boat application. Just remember that all parts are stressed more than they used to be. If you are currently running regular fuel the boost can be compensated for by premium. If your engine is set up for premium now you need to deal with the added boost by reducing timing, cooler temperatures, or cooling through things like alcohol or water injection.

Thanks to Zane, he brought his supercharged X-Star to the Collegiate Wakeboard Southern Regional in Gainsville. My chief judge, Matt Steele, reported that is was amazing with all the weight! Matt and I are really good friends and he called me durring the event to tell my how I really needed to get the motor in my boat. I say go for it!

I think I'm going to give Whipple a call in the morning and see what it would cost to finish this system off. I could really care less to add 100 or 150hp. It would be neat though! Just thought it'd look great and have a bit of that wow factor. Plus would probably help my hole shot! I'll report back and let you know what I find out from whipple!

So let me ask you this....How does your boat run now?? I'm guessing perfect. I'm guessing other than an oil/impeller/fuel filter change once a season you never even need to open up the hatch unless you just want to look in there. All that would change if you did this. I am all for modding stuff, but our boats are kind of like suburbans, you want them to get you there in comfort and style reliably. They aren't built for speed where this would help it go faster. I think adding this to your motor would open a can of worms that would screw up your boat until it was put back to all stock again.

Just my opinion....... Build a rat rod around that supercharger with a junker 350 or better yet see if it would help out your 427 blazer project (I think that was you??). It would be like slapping a supercharger on a bone stock pickup, it may improve its performance a little, but won't turn it into a performance vehicle. Again just my thoughts, a reprop would probably be more noticeable if you haven't already.....

Scott, your right the boat runs perfect know and I've already re-propped. I was thinking more for the wow factor than out of necessitiy.

The last thing I need is another project vehicle right now! lol I don't want to add it to the Suburban, that 427 is putting out over 500 ponies now and its going to my almost 90 year old Grandpa!

Like I said I'll give the boys at Whipple a call in the morning and if its feasible and can be made reliable I'll probably pull the trigger, otherwise it'll sit in the shop collecting dust untill I get around to something that could use it!

WOW Whipple wasn't much help at all! They said they don't make an intake that fits my boat? Which makes no sense since its a chevy small block? Then they said they don't really sell any parts to finish the kit to install it on the original 93 chevy truck anymore? So its starting to look like an expensive paper weight! I'm going to talk to a Buddy at Team Eagle Fabrications and Racing as he builds custom everything and see what it'd take to make a mount for this but it's starting to look like its not going to be feasible!

That's a bummer man, I hear ya on the wow factor. I wonder if the 5.0 mustang crowd would be in to getting their hands on one of those? You could probably at least double your money on it at a Goodguys swap meet, so is it mainly for EFI applications? It looks like its meant for throttle bodies... I have been looking into turbocharging my latest project over dumping cash into a HP small block or supercharger, seems thats where the industry is headed, you can just blow up alot of parts getting them dialed I think.

Robert,

There is a whipple supercharger forum just like this is wakeworld forum: http://www.whippleforum.com/

I found a ton of information and have seen lot's of guys that have successfully pieced together systems like you are doing. The manifolds are going be a bit of a challenge but they are definitely available. Not sure who you talked to at whipple but they were actually pretty helpful when I talked to them. I guess they were looking at me as a $6k customer and they are not seeing you in the same light? Still it's disappointing that they don't even seem to want to help you.

They don't want to help him because they see it as opening a can of worms is my guess. Yeah the "wow" factor is kool for about an hour but in the end for all the work piecing it together, then just to bolt it on an otherwise un-prepped engine/trans, I think you are asking for a totaly different "wow" factor a little ways down the road, or lake as it may be. Like for example," wow" I just blew up my ______. (fill in the blanks)

As I said in my first post: "After I discovered all of these marine motors have 2 bolt mains I decided not to invest $6k blower system on top of a 2 bolt motor worth less than that."

Lots of guys do it with good results in go fast cars and boats but I decided against it in a wakeboard boat. Before I spent $6k on a blower I would replace the whole motor with a DART 409 small block with good pistons and a good cam. The stock manifolds can support the extra cubes with different injectors. I had a quote to build AND TUNE a custom 409 long block for about $7k, that's where I would have spent my money before I decided against making that additional investment in my current boat.

http://www.flagshipengine.com/

I have know the Flagship guys for 20 years. They build allot of their stuff in-house and are boat specific performance engine builders. They also are distributors for GM's racing development products that will not be found on the shelf at NAPA. If anybody could tell you the feasibility of using that exact blower and what potential snakes lie in the wood pile it's these guys. Very helpful every time.

Nice paperweight though, anyway. Good conversation starter.