Super or turbo-charging a gas engine will permit more power for a given displacement at the compromise of greater stress on the load bearing parts. There is no free lunch. The more stress, the faster the wear, the sooner the failure. Positive pressure induction also allows piston engines to operate efficiently in rarified atmosphere, which is why the American WW2 P-51 Mustang was able to accompany bombers all the way to Germany and back once the stock GM Allison V-12 was discarded and replaced with the British Rolls-Royce Merlin supercharged V-12.
One thing that super or turbo charging will not do is make a gasoline piston engine more efficient so that it consumes less fuel for a given output. Never has.
You are wise to see that the company selling the stuff will make any fanciful claim in order to sell their product.

 

supercharging an engine will put a little more stress on it but it is usually the driver that wears out the engine. my cousins lightning has close to 130,000 on it with no problems yet but he doesn't dog the truck. i installed a kenny bell on my excursion and it has worked great for over 40,000 miles so far. it's kinda hard to keep your foot out of it though. i would pick a roots blower anytime because the ones like procharger and paxton keep boost on the engine all the time but the boost goes up as you mash the gas on a roots so it's not running around under boost all the time. under normal hwy driving mine isn't hardly ever under boost.

 

forgot what the post was about. nope it doesn't help gas milage any.

 

I had a 99 F150 4x4 with a 5.4 and it got mediocre mileage, 15 highway if I was nice to it. I put on a Powerdyne 6lb supercharger and it got mediocre mileage still, but it was frickin fun to drive.

Now I have a twelve ton crew cab 4x4 Duramax Silverado, and it gets better mileage than the Ford ever did and pulls the camper a lot better.

 

I don't know if anyone told you this but, change your spark plug wires to accel 8.8 wires. just this mod increased my mpg by 8 , went from 12 mpg to 20 with the best mileage being 22 with the tail gate open. not bad for a 350ci 2500 4x4

 

not sure if that was a joke or not? if you get an 8mpg increase out of changing your plug wires then the old ones were in pretty bad shape. the reason for changing to a heavier plug wire is to handle the extra voltage some of the after market ignitions like MSD put out. run a set of stock wires with a 6AL system and it will look like a lightning storm under your hood after a few weeks. if you get your wires wet very much or especially if you blow a radiator hose and get them soaked with antifreeze the insulation will start to break down and not deliever as much power to the plugs. if you have many miles like 50k or more a good tune up will gain you a mile or two.

 

I have a 69 Gruman body step van built on a Chev 3/4 ton chassis. This truck has so many miles on it I don't remember if it is over five or six hundred thousand. Been used as a service van for all it's life till last year.

Over the years it has had a number of small blocks in it, 283,305,350 and lastly a 400. Two wheel drive and Turbo 350's or 400's. Suckered into a "gas saver torque converter" on a special built 350. What an expensive joke that was. We have tried two and four bbl carbs, after market ignition, fan clutches and all kinds of stuff to get better milage. It just don't happen. Best power has been the 400 (Duh!) with the 4bbl Edelbrock carb. All the engines had duel exhaust. Milage has been right at 10 MPG no matter the setup. Being loaded or empty could make maybe one MPG differance but so close it would be tough to really prove. Any speed from around 45 to 65 and it was all the same. Somtimes a little lower or higher depending on head/tail winds up and down the Columbia Gorge. I really believe that brick would get 10 MPG on it's way to the bottom if I pushed it off a cliff with the engine off and the brakes locked.

Bottom line it seems to me would be to keep your engine in tune, keep the speed reasonable and keep the tires aired up. Milage on a 4x4 of that era is going to suck.

 

Should have changed the plug wires on that old brick. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

touche

but that also depends on how many psi is being pushed into it. the more psi, the more stain, all untill detonation. KABOOM!

 

LMFAO[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]