Fiero with Mercedes c230 supercharger

I just started putting my 85 Fiero project together, it's had about 3 months of drive time now sense 1998, been sitting a while! I got the car 10 years ago, wanting to put a super or turbocharger on the 2.3l quad-4 from 90 grand am I have in it now. I had a turbo and got a 3.8l supercharger from some Pontiac. I figured a supercharger would be easier to tune and look cooler :-) But a couple weeks ago a customer asked if I wanted to trade his 99 Mercedes C230 kompressor sport for some work I did on another car of his....YES! It has a blowen head gasket so it's salvage price. Well the supercharger on the Benz has a clutch on the pulley like an A/C compressor, bolts to side of the engine and has a valve in the air induction that switches from boost to naturally aspirated.
Get a dual chip adapter and run some ducting!!

I haven't looked at the specs for car yet, like engine compression or pounds of boost it makes but it looks very doable!!!! Fiero weighs 2300lb stock, quad-4 make 165hp-195hp, I've read they make up to 400hp boosted, I would hope for 250-300!?!?!?

Just thought I would share cuz I thought that was a pretty cool supercharger setup and should b fun!!! :-)

Check what size supercharger you have there. Could be an M62 (~250 horsepower at the wheels) Or an M45 (~190HP at the wheels). Depends on year and engine fitment.

The clutch can't be "engaged" mad-max style, it will slip and burn up. You also can't change the pulley ratio easily, since the pulley is integral to the clutch assembly, so whatever boost you get, is what you get. Go over 10-12lbs of boost and you start making a LOT of heat that will drastically shorten the life of your engine. The bypass valve is active at idle and cruise to keep charge air temp and power loss to drive the supercharger down, not *really* there for "NA/Boosted" switching in the sense you are implying.

Turbo will make more power easier than the supercharger will in a streetable setup. Supercharger will be more reliable in a conservative, lower maximum power setup.

When does the clutch engage? I figured turning it on at a stop light when someone revs there engine at me. I can fabricate!!! I will make a pulley whatever size though i would have to go bigger for added boost. It has an intercooler, but I'm not sure how much boost I will apply, 10-12 psi sounds a tad higher than what I was trying to get. I'm gonna start small :-) , Reliable power and drivability is more the direction i was going, I have a 78 Buick Regal with a full roller 455 I drive when I need an anxiety attack, I am collecting pfi parts and info for it so when I get other 2 vehicles tuned and I got this tuning stuff in my head I will start that project.

I havent researched the Benz system yet to see exactly how it works, I was just speculating on the parts I see and How I can set them up.

Maybe I can find a way to beef up the supercharger clutch to make it a Mad Max!!

Just speculating, I haven't even takin the car apart yet, I like hearing others ideas

i think you would need to be in the 8-9PSI range to hit the 250HP figure if you're starting with a 180HP HOQ4.

I have l.o. :-( at the moment!! As soon as I see one at pull a part I'll get it. I was reading in quad-4 forum (I think) that supercharging one high output or low cams didn't make that big of difference but I am by no means an expert to know different. I figured 8 psi max to start. See if that try's to melt a piston or play hades with knock sensor, I have another short block but I port matched the head to a stock 4-2-1 header and cleaned up the intake ports and runners plus swirl polished valves and stuff, I wanna keep the head so I'm trying to be gentle :-)

would like to find w-41 cams, suppose to be 190hp

you may be better off with LO cams for a boosted build... I seem to remember the HO cams having a pretty healthy amount of overlap, with the W41 cams being even more so. the HO also has different pistons(from what I'm remembering) that bump compression ratio up to ~10:1 compared to ~9.5:1 on the LO?

you may have a better starting point as-is. I don't know what kind of custom cam sprockets(or regrinds) you might have available, but that may be an option as well.

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Originally Posted by BigBanks78

When does the clutch engage? I figured turning it on at a stop light when someone revs there engine at me. I can fabricate!!! I will make a pulley whatever size though i would have to go bigger for added boost. It has an intercooler, but I'm not sure how much boost I will apply, 10-12 psi sounds a tad higher than what I was trying to get. I'm gonna start small :-) , Reliable power and drivability is more the direction i was going, I have a 78 Buick Regal with a full roller 455 I drive when I need an anxiety attack, I am collecting pfi parts and info for it so when I get other 2 vehicles tuned and I got this tuning stuff in my head I will start that project.

I havent researched the Benz system yet to see exactly how it works, I was just speculating on the parts I see and How I can set them up.

Maybe I can find a way to beef up the supercharger clutch to make it a Mad Max!!

Just speculating, I haven't even takin the car apart yet, I like hearing others ideas

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The OE system had the clutch engaged at idle, and the supercharger was turned OFF above a set engine speed or if the engine load dropped below a set threshold. Think low RPM torque augmentation, NOT increased high-RPM horsepower. They are known for having the supercharger clutch fail, and the clutch is about 300$ to buy a replacement. The clutch is integral to the pulley, you can't change the pulley size without destroying the clutch (assuming it still works already!) Remember, you're going to be seeing a 45HP load on the belt when the engine is putting 250HP on the ground.

Yes, an M62 supercharger running 10PSI and moving 300HP of airflow DOES INDEED require about 45HP to drive. The belt slip is already going to be an issue you have to solve, don't complicate it with a clutched system. Think of how much clutch you really need to be able to engage it at any RPM and transmit 10-50HP at 2000 to 3000 supercharger RPM, without slipping the clutch or the belt.

You can use the M62 Merc unit, but you'll need to fabricate a custom non-clutched pulley and set the drive ratio appropriately. I personally would look for a unit from the 2.0L Cobalt supercharged, and fab a new intake manifold for it and the intercooler that's integrated into the intake. Same supercharger, but better form factor.

Also may go for the Jag M90, it's remote mounted, but would be *slightly* large. Will have some lag, wheras the M62 will not show a lag. Yes, Eaton superchargers DO have lag! They're not Instant-Torque like is commonly thought unless you overdrive the snot out of them. You need to hit the critical rotor speed (speed at which the super pumps enough air to negate backflow losses) without over-speeding the drive assembly (14000RPM for a stock M62). The reason that the big GMC-style blowers don't have appreciable lag is that they're so oversized for the usual application that they need to be underdriven just to keep the amount of boost under control-and it helps with the relatively low maximum rotor speed they can handle.

Hmmm well I wonder if it has a maximum rpm or airflow, limiting it to an engines lower rpm range needs? Then not have the output capibilitys for engines high rpm range. I'll get vin here in a bit and see what I can find out, s.c. # and stuff.

What I meant was I wonder if the maximum air flow of the supercharger would be enough to supply the engine at 7200 rpm.
I'll get vin and see what I can find out.

Well I guess I'll set it up like stock and put a turbo on it to take over after supercharger stops :-)!!!