5250 High Performance Dyno Shop Blog

Let's talk about Supercharging | Power at 5000+ altitude

[fa icon="calendar"] Mar 9, 2018 7:30:00 AM / by Mike Wiener

Snip20170202_8.pngIf you want big power gains out of your vehicle, you are going to have to look at forced induction.

This would mean a turbo or supercharger system. Let’s look at Supercharging.

Superchargers | There are several manufactures of bolt-on and go supercharger systems, and each have their strengths. One of the biggest differences between the kits, is what type of blower they use. A supercharger's spin is directly tied to the speed of the engine, so which supercharger works best in Colorado?

We have been working with several supercharger manufacturers and we are beginning to see differences between them that go beyond which one makes the best power. Living at 5000 feet or more above sea level presents challenges that some of these manufacturers haven’t gotten it right yet.

Most supercharger kits are sold with a specific boost level in mind. This is usually 5-10psi for most performance systems for OEM applications. Just like the advertised power numbers, these boost numbers are for a vehicle at sea level.

When we run these kits at our altitude, we often see 3-5psi less boost than expected. This is due to our lower atmospheric pressure which causes the blower to become very inefficient and not make the big claims that you would have at sea level.

When these systems only make 2-5 psi instead of the expected 5-10psi, the motor will sometimes have a minimal net gain in power. This is because the low boost is only making enough power to overcome what it takes to actually spin the supercharger.

It's not complicated to get good power gains while living at 5000 or more in altitude. A simple mechanical change to a smaller blower pulley is all that is required get back to the advertised boost pressures.

ProCharger Horsepower | Out of all the manufacturers we work with, we are grateful that Procharger Systems understands our altitude and has worked with us to get positive gains at altitude. Procharger will supply a smaller pulley whenever we tell them the vehicle is at a higher altitude.

Procharger ColoradoThey'll even ask us to specify exactly what altitude the vehicle will spend most of its time at and select exactly the correct pulley to make the advertised amount of boost. They don't void their warranty and they understand that the tune will be mostly unaffected by the smaller pulley, since boost doesn't go any higher then specified.

When you choose to go the forced induction route, know the facts of how systems will work at Colorados altitude. We have built both supercharger and pro charger systems. Get the power you expect.

Learn more about ProCharger

Topics: Superchargers, procharger

Mike Wiener

Written by Mike Wiener