I am looking to put a supercharger on my engine what do I need?

I am looking to put a supercharger on my engine what do I need?

We have a range of kits that are aimed at different price points and intended use.  

Budget kit


At the bottom of the range is our budget kit. This is designed to use your existing serpentine belt setup along with an S&S carburetor. This is not a high performance or high boost option and is not suitable for larger capacity engines but is a reasonably priced option that works well with stock capacity engines and the stock AMR500 drive pulley diameter. This kit will produce about 5 or 6 psi of boost.

It can also be made to work on capacities up to 1776 with a smaller drive pulley but if you already have or are planning to build a larger than stock capacity engine or run higher boost then our performance AMR500 kit is a much better option.

The Basic kit is supplied with manifolds, drive belt, supercharger mount, hoses, throttle connection kit and our custom S&S velocity stack.
Supercharger and carburetor are available to purchase separately.
You need to provide your own serpentine setup.

Fitment: Bus, Bug, Ghia, Thing, Brazilia etc


Performance Kit


Our performance kit is the outcome of years of development which initially started off as the budget kit. This has larger aluminium manifolds and higher flowing square blower ports and can be supplied with a range of carburetors for either the AMR500 or AMR300 supercharger. The kit uses a dedicated PK6  drive belt that is wider than the belt used on serpentine setups and is suitable for those wanting to run more boost. The dedicated belt also takes the load off of the generator bearing. Generally you will see a 60% increase out of the box and 7 or 8psi with the standard pulleys supplied.

This is the go-to kit for performance applications and can support up to 12psi with an AMR500 on a 1776 using one of our cams. We have one customer making 138hp with this setup. 

The Side-Draft kit is supplied with crank pulley, blower pulley, manifolds, drive belt, supercharger mount, hoses, gaskets and throttle connection kit
Supercharger and carburetor are available to purchase separately.

Fitment: Bus, Bug, Ghia, Thing, Brazilia etc
NOTE: DCOE carburettor requires decklid standoffs when installed in a bug.


Vintage Kit


Our carbureted AMR vintage kits are designed to work on 36/40/50hp upright style Type 1 engines using a 34 Pict carburettor and either an AMR300 or AMR500 supercharger. Featuring dual dedicated drive belts to help give that vintage look and eliminate slip and overcome the excessive load on generator and alternator bearings found with single belt serpentine setups. The kit includes a custom throttle linkage setup that hooks up to the standard throttle cable. This kit will produce between 5-8psi of boost depending on drive ratios. It will work well on stock 1200/1500/1600 engines and can also be used on mildly tuned engines. 

The kit is supplied with a custom distributor cap that allows the blower to sit lower down, this means that it will clear the decklid on a beetle. This kit requires a modified 205 style vacuum distributor, these are common standard fitment on 60's VW's. Full instructions on how to modify the distributor are included in the kit.

The Vintage kit is supplied with billet blower and crank pulleys, custom modded 34Pict 3 carby,  velocity stack, manifolds,  hoses, drive belts, distributor cap and custom throttle linkage
Supercharger is available to purchase separately. This kit will not work with your existing carburettor.

Fitment:  Bug
Unfortunately due to the height this kit is not suitable for Busses, Ghias or any other application where engine bay clearance is an issue.



Dual Blow through kit


Our dual blow through kit uses dual IDF carburettors and is a blow through configuration. This kit offers the same performance as our side-draft kit with DCOE but is packaged to fit under the decklid of a bug. We recommend that this kit is used in conjunction with our ignition / WMI systems to help manage the elevated intake temps that are found in blow through setups.

The Dual Blow Through kit is supplied with crank pulley, blower pulley, manifolds, drive belt, supercharger mount, pressure hats, bypass valve, hoses and throttle connection kit
Supercharger and carburetor are available to purchase separately.

Fitment: Bus, Bug, Ghia, Thing, Brazilia etc


Custom solutions


We offer a range of custom solutions and can build a system to suit any application. Common solutions include larger Rootes style blowers or centrifugal blowers for larger capacity engines. Prices start off at AU$4000 for Rootes kits and AU$4700 for the centrifugal kits depending on blower used.

NOTE: If you are looking for a supercharger solution for a larger capacity engine (1776cc+) it is worth noting that the AMR500 supercharger cannot be used. Whilst other suppliers will tell you that the AMR500 will work on 1915 and 2 litre+ engines, the reality is that at maximum rpms you can spin the blower at is 16,000rpm. So for a performance engine reaching 6,700rpm or more, you can only achieve a drive ratio of 2.4 or less. This means that the maximum boost you will be able to generate is about 4psi. Even less for large capacities. When you tally this up in HP/$ it is not a viable solution.

Just like turbocharger applications you must size the blower for the engine capacity, and whilst it is true that you can adjust the drive ratio to tweak the output for the boost required and engine capacity, you cannot make it produce more boost than it's capacity and rpm limits allow. Larger capacity engines require larger blowers.


Ignition Control


Ignition control is an important factor when running forced induction. Essentially the higher the pressure of the charge in the cylinder, the quicker it will burn. This means that you need to start the ignition event later in the engine cycle to ensure that peak cylinder pressure occurs at the optimum rod angle.

The simplest way to achieve this is to limit the overall advance that your distributor can move, this is easily done by making a small modification to your existing distributor. This simply mod will help to manage ignition control when running low to moderate boost levels and is great for a budget option, but is not the most optimal solution, especially when running higher boost.

When targeting higher boost levels you are at a much higher risk of detonation, a small error in ignition timing can be very detrimental and so we recommend that you consider running a computer controlled ignition system to more accurately manage spark advance and also provide additional detonation protection. 

We recommend our own distributor-less ignition control system which comes complete with a custom developed ignition map tailored for use with our supercharger systems. Our ignition system is available as a bundled kit including ECU, loom, coil and sensors. The ECU will work for all road and race VW applications, both boosted and normally aspirated, and comes packed with additional features such as Water Methanol control / Turbo boost control / Nitrous control / etc. Of course any boost referenced ignition control system will work, the main goal is to be able to control the exact ignition advance based on both engine RPM and Boost level to ensure that the ignition occurs at the optimal time.


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