Supercharger or Turbo oh noe!

Since buying the Echo I've had my heart set on the BLITZ Supercharger.

After reading numerous forums and reviews, it turns out TRUST/GReddy also do a supercharger but they also bundle their e-Manage piggyback Engine Control Unit (ECU) with it! The BLITZ Supercharger has its own little ECU box but is not as tunable as the e-Manage so I switched my sights to the GReddy supercharger! But...

Comes with everything including a black box that alters fuelling.

via BLITZ

Again, comes with everything except you get an e-Manage and an Eaton MP45 supercharger.

via TRUST/GReddy

From further reading I found that Zage Turbosystem Inc has produced a turbo kit for the Yaris, which shares the same motor as the Echo! To add to that, it was cheap... Cheaper than the supercharger kits by at least AU$2,000... I thought to myself what other parts would I need to make it work..? Exhaust flange adjustment to suit the Echo.. New ECU.. Nuts and bolts... I think it would be possible..!

Complete with turbo, intercooler, oil pan, BOV, pipes and fittings. But you'll need to provide everything else, including an ECU.

via Zage Turbosystem Inc

BUT! The installation was not as simple as the supercharger... All you needed to do with the supercharger was to remove the front, remove the intake, remove one of the belts, attach the new intake manifold, install the supercharger, install new belt tensioner, install belt, install computer and rock and roll!

Installing the turbo would require:

• Removal of the old intake
• Removal of the old exaust headers
• Installation of the new exhaust manifold, turbo, piping
• Relocation of the existing carbon canister
• Installation of new injectors
• Replacement of the existing oil pan
• Installation of the new oil pan
• Running new coolant and oil lines
• Fabrication of intercooler brackets
• Installation of the intercooler (making sure it doesn't obstruct the front bumper).
• Install an aftermarket computer
• Tuning... Before any rock and rolling could begin..!

It sounds like a lot, but it's even more so if you start to think of the procedures to remove and install individual component.. There's a lot of bolts to remove (and replace if they're rusty) and some bolts are very difficult to get to, which means a lot of under-the-car-time.

I estimated it would take me a weekend to install the GReddy supercharger kit, while the Zage turbo kit would take me about two or more weeks (because I have work)... That's a lot of down time for a daily drive...

While looking at both kits I thought to myself, which one really is the most flexible and beneficial? Which one would be the most fun to install? Which one would allow me to do upgrades in the future? And importantly which one is the cheapest...

The supercharger would be very easy to install but there wasn't much upgrades available after that. The few things you could do after would be to retune the computer or rebuild the blower (which is dam expensive). The gain would be about 30-40 HP.

The turbo would be a pain to install, but possibly more fun and after installation you can up-the-boost using a boost controller and retune for more power. The gain would be 50-60 HP minimum.. For cheaper too..

Dammit. I've had my heart set on a supercharger since it would be totally unique! But the gains (as well as price and flexibility) offered by the turbo is sooo hard to ignore.

So I've decided to walk the path of the... Turbo.

Let Project-T begin!