HBC

Thinking of investing in a RIPP for my 50,000 mile engine. Tired of towing a popup into the Rockies with my foot on the floor. Anyone out there want to chime in? Should I drop a newer engine in first or will the older engine hold up? Is it too much power for rock crawling? THX, HBC

Piginajeep

I'd use the same engine, they are known to get alot of miles on them..

and if it does blow, a used JK motor is cheap with low miles

tpm152

I would recommend looking into an Avenger supercharger for towing applications. It will give you boost where you need it (1200 plus RPM) so you can actually use your upper gear(s). The Ripp is a really nice system, but you only get significant power/torque boost above 2500 RPMs (more of a racing oriented system). So if you find yourself constantly downshifting from cruising RPMs around 2000 to the 3000s in lower gears to get up hills the Ripp isn't going to prevent this. Plus to get significant power in the upper 2000s the boost of the Ripp system at 5000 RPM is around 9 - 10 PSI. I understand Ripp has done extensive testing to make sure it is safe, but in an unmodified engine I get nervous anytime boost is over 6 - 7 PSI. Compared to this the Avenger system is designed to put out 5 - 6 PSI over the entire engine operating range (as mentioned from 1200 RPMs on up). This gives a nice 40% boost in torque without needing high RPMs, giving MUCH lower chance of blowing the engine. The best description I can give of the performance of the Avenger system is that it would be like having the 4.7 V-8 that the grand cherokee in the wrangler without the HUGE project of swapping an engine.

I am saving up for this mod currently if it helps

ItlnJeepStln

What would the gas mileage be with a supercharger like that.

Piginajeep

from everything I've read and been told. it gets better gas mileage. Atleast with the Ripp anyhow

tpm152

Gas mileage with either the Ripp or the Avenger supercharger, just like without the supercharger, is 99% determined by the way you drive it. If you drive it nicely you will more than likely get almost the exact same fuel economy as you are currently getting. Some have even reported fuel economy increases. However, if you drive it like you stole it, since your engine goes from the ability to produce 200 to about 280 horsepower (at the flywheel) by adding the supercharger, you have the potential to use that much more fuel.

So to sum it up, drive it nicely and either one will more than likely maintain current fuel economy. Drive it hard and you will probably lose a few MPG compared to what you currently get.

lowrpmtork

a roots style lung (Avenger) will deliver linear torque which is better for towing as opposed to peak torque that a centrifugal blower (RIPP) produces.

Both have their pros and cons. Personally, I've always been a bigger fan of roots blowers on the street because they deliver so much more usable power.

$0.02

RIPPMODS

Thanks for posting the question, we will do our best to deliver our message across and address the issues at hand.


08 JK Rubi 33X13.5 AT's with 4.11 gearing. Towed 04TJ from DC to NYC

Towing with our system on your JK will be a blast – we’ve done high weight, high speed, long distance testing with our original test mule which delivered 60000 miles of boosted testing before we sold it off to its new happy owner. As of August of 2009 whenever we have a client located in a high altitude market, we point them to a performance shop with tuning capabilities. RIPP has been good at many things but assuming we can tune for altitude was wrong. Over the last 4 months clients who have had systems either installed or re-tuned for altitude have found 40more HP at the wheels than what we provided to them as a turn-key solution. It seems that the tune was just too rich and needed proper trimming.


07 JK 5.13 Gearing 35x12.5 Mud T's Towed 4k lbs communications tower from Maryland to Virgina.

RIPP has turned an enormous amount of proven miles out on JK’s and the 3.8 has taken well. Applying our philosophy to the 3.8 we project many safe powerful miles. We know Vortech can and will go well over 100k miles, we have clients with our other supercharger program who have eclipsed 150k… We think when you take all things into account our solution is the most logical.

Thank you for your points, they are valid – but a bit out of context. The 3.8l V6 found in our JK’s are a narrow angle design. By nature they do not make any power at lower RPM. There simply isn’t any rotating mass there to help it along. Hence going with boost – when we approach any new program we take it seriously and with the JK community we took it even further…

RIPP, as previously stated is firstly a hands-on performance shop and secondly a manufactures a forced inductions systems. We know exactly what both of you are implying and why you would bring these points up. It goes without saying that choosing a positive displacement blower like a roots unit would bring power is sooner, and tuning from the ECU out delivers sound results – but there’s valid if not proven point why we went our way and not the other.

Consider how Jeepers use their Jeeps, where they go, how far they are from home on any given weekend. It’s for that reason we chose to routes we did. Secondly consider who installs ad tunes these kits and lastly if something should go wrong what would need to be done to get you home safely.

We chose a centrifugal because they deliver liner manageable boost at precisely the correct RPM and exactly when the engine can handle it. Vortech Superchargers build boost based on volumetric efficiency. Meaning as the engine goes up in RPM it increases its ability to move air. As it moves air it build boost increasing the power band by a nominal amount, in our case 100-120 rear when HP and 80lbs or torque. The best thing about this is its efficiency, it takes a mathematical 7-11 crank HP to deliver that meaning it’s the most efficient belt driven blower on the market. Also by being so liner the ECU deems it a consistent and works with the additional air. ECU cooperation means all the OEM safety systems are still present and all fuel trimming and ecological trimming at part throttle are 100% active. This delivers both better than stock fuel mileage and reduces your carbon foot print (for what its worth).

A roots unit will build boost real early in the RPM band, in fact below the 2200rpm we deliver at, however by experience the consequences (when it matters) far outweigh the pros. Given the narrow angle and lack of volume at lower RPM, cramming 4-6psi at 1500-2500 rpm causes havoc. Firstly it builds a tone of cylinder pressure the engine cannot displace, often leading to bent rods, blow head gaskets and a host of other pressure related issues including cracked ring landings. Secondly while the boost has been built as you go up in RPM the blower loses its efficiency,( which is ironically counterproductive) it actually starts to take more crank HP to power it – as much as 30hp to produce 4-6 psi – so the efficiency simply not there. Additionally throwing boost at lower RPM also requires much more tuning. You need a lot more fuel and timing control correction to make it smooth which leads us to our most important point the tuning.

With our system you’ll note we provide you with a pre-programmed controller, 2.5bar map sensor and two supplemental injectors. With this style system the end user is not required to install a fuel pump, regulator or larger injectors. This makes the initial install easier and by default fewer things can go wrong. But what it really delivers is security. Security because you’re not relying on a re-flashed ECU which can and will get canceled out with one trip to the dealer. Instead we approached it from the sensory side, translating the language of boost electronically to the ECU – so the ECU does the tuning for us and monitors the entire running condition, the experience is OE with more power. This provides the security you need knowing when your off road if you should ever need to take our system out of the loop you simply remove the supplied belt and reinstall your stock one and you’re up and running again. With the suggested roots blower, larger primary injector, fuel pump and regulator approach, if something goes wrong you’d better hope you have cell service. If the ECU is flashed for more fuel and air and suddenly the air that’s needed to lean out the fuel isn’t there - it’s not likely you’re going to get it home without a significant amount of work. On the trail you can’t HP tune your 440cc injectors to work!

So ALL things considered – we stand by our initial statement – ours kit is a logical choice for Jeepers.

As per end users in this community gas mileage typically goes up 2-4 more per gallon – if you drive it looking for fuel mileage we’ve seen 6 – but its hard to drive it that way.

Question welcome
RIPPTECH

john smack

When the time comes I will be buying a RIPP!

JK Rocker

I've never seen this system explained like that.
It looks VERY appealling.
I'll be seriously considering this in the future, but I won't do it until my warranty is up.