RIPP Supercharger Real World Owner Experience
#12
JK Freak
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Boulder County, CO
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I had a Ripp for the past year. I've got 5.13's. I ran 35" tires for a good portion of the year. My mileage was typically 15-18MPG street. I got about 12 on the trail. When I switched to 37" tires I got a decrease of a couple MPG. When I ran 33" I got closer to 20MPG (4.10 gears).
Living in CO I run through the mountains all the time. The RIPP made the difference of whether I could travel at hiway speeds or not.
I am swapping my engine for a 5.7 hemi (should be ready Friday). The RIPP is going into one of my friends JK. If it wasn't going in his, it would go into my wifes JK. It is a good product. Huge difference in driving on the hiway. On the trails it matters too--particularly on really steep hills running bigger tires.
When the RIPP was first installed, it took a while to get the settings right. I think the high altitude created a hassle.
Living in CO I run through the mountains all the time. The RIPP made the difference of whether I could travel at hiway speeds or not.
I am swapping my engine for a 5.7 hemi (should be ready Friday). The RIPP is going into one of my friends JK. If it wasn't going in his, it would go into my wifes JK. It is a good product. Huge difference in driving on the hiway. On the trails it matters too--particularly on really steep hills running bigger tires.
When the RIPP was first installed, it took a while to get the settings right. I think the high altitude created a hassle.
#14
JK Freak
Directly from Jack himself at Avenger
"Our kits targeted boost is 4.5-5.5 pounds of boost.The boost is controlled by a internal by-pass valve.When engine vacumn is high the boost is recirculated at the back of the blower,as you get into the throttle and vacumn drops then the boost goes to the enginemso the engine is not under constant boost only as needed.We use a eaton M90 blower that sits on top of a air to water intercooler that is a stand alone system.We use a unichip piggyback system that controls fuel and timing,the piggyback unit that uses a 2 bar map sensor as the lead sensor to make adjustments to the engine.The dyno shop closed its doors and do not currently have hard copies of the dyno results.The dyno that we used was a inertia loading dyno the Jeep was a 2007 Jk 4 dr with 37" Bfg Ktm with 5:13 gears.
We had a peak increase of 82 Hp with close to a 50% increase of torque across most of the operating range of the engine.We are currently redoing our web site and will be doing dyno work again in last part of Nov.With the two test Jeeps we have about 38,000 accumalated miles.Carb certification depending on the economy we hope to have done by this spring as it is a expensive process(we were the first to certify and are currently certified thru 2001)The dyno runs we will be doing does include a 6 speed.Any other please call or e mail. "
Now once again I'm not going to be easy on Avenger. The two numbers that he listed in his response to me do not match up scientifically speaking. Reason I say this is that atmospheric pressure is roughly 14.7 PSI at sea level (give or take). Therefore assuming a targeted boost of 5 PSI he listed, between the small thermodynamic boost and increase of absolute pressure in the intake (thus air charge density) from 14.7 to 19.7 PSI, the likely boost in torque would be approximately 40% instead of 50%. So the two possibilities is that his targeted boost pressure on his dyno run he cites was slightly higher (you would need closer to 7 PSI to get a true 50% increase in torque) or 50% was meant to be 40%. But with that said if I had to buy a supercharger (or had the money to do so) right now I would go Avenger with the current offerings just due to the power delivery that would keep from needing to downshift to pass on the highway. Knowing everything I do about engines, 9 PSI boost and 5500 RPMs scares the sh!t out of me and gives me visions of rods blasing through the hood or oil pan Plus Looking at the power curves having the Avenger kit would literally result in the 3.8 having VERY similar performance to the 4.7 H.O. offered in the WJs which would be a perfect engine for the JK in my opinion.
By the way just for everyone to have all the info I have to make their own educated decision I have attached the dyno sheets I have from Ripp. The first two are a 6-speed and the third is a comparison of an auto. The thing to notice is with the 6-speed read what the torque (the flatter of the two curves) is at 2000 RPM (highway engine speed). At most it looks like a 5 - 10 lb-ft (out of 200 lb-ft) boost. Just make sure to read the engine speeds at the bottom as the bold lines indicate different engine speeds on different graphs.
"Our kits targeted boost is 4.5-5.5 pounds of boost.The boost is controlled by a internal by-pass valve.When engine vacumn is high the boost is recirculated at the back of the blower,as you get into the throttle and vacumn drops then the boost goes to the enginemso the engine is not under constant boost only as needed.We use a eaton M90 blower that sits on top of a air to water intercooler that is a stand alone system.We use a unichip piggyback system that controls fuel and timing,the piggyback unit that uses a 2 bar map sensor as the lead sensor to make adjustments to the engine.The dyno shop closed its doors and do not currently have hard copies of the dyno results.The dyno that we used was a inertia loading dyno the Jeep was a 2007 Jk 4 dr with 37" Bfg Ktm with 5:13 gears.
We had a peak increase of 82 Hp with close to a 50% increase of torque across most of the operating range of the engine.We are currently redoing our web site and will be doing dyno work again in last part of Nov.With the two test Jeeps we have about 38,000 accumalated miles.Carb certification depending on the economy we hope to have done by this spring as it is a expensive process(we were the first to certify and are currently certified thru 2001)The dyno runs we will be doing does include a 6 speed.Any other please call or e mail. "
Now once again I'm not going to be easy on Avenger. The two numbers that he listed in his response to me do not match up scientifically speaking. Reason I say this is that atmospheric pressure is roughly 14.7 PSI at sea level (give or take). Therefore assuming a targeted boost of 5 PSI he listed, between the small thermodynamic boost and increase of absolute pressure in the intake (thus air charge density) from 14.7 to 19.7 PSI, the likely boost in torque would be approximately 40% instead of 50%. So the two possibilities is that his targeted boost pressure on his dyno run he cites was slightly higher (you would need closer to 7 PSI to get a true 50% increase in torque) or 50% was meant to be 40%. But with that said if I had to buy a supercharger (or had the money to do so) right now I would go Avenger with the current offerings just due to the power delivery that would keep from needing to downshift to pass on the highway. Knowing everything I do about engines, 9 PSI boost and 5500 RPMs scares the sh!t out of me and gives me visions of rods blasing through the hood or oil pan Plus Looking at the power curves having the Avenger kit would literally result in the 3.8 having VERY similar performance to the 4.7 H.O. offered in the WJs which would be a perfect engine for the JK in my opinion.
By the way just for everyone to have all the info I have to make their own educated decision I have attached the dyno sheets I have from Ripp. The first two are a 6-speed and the third is a comparison of an auto. The thing to notice is with the 6-speed read what the torque (the flatter of the two curves) is at 2000 RPM (highway engine speed). At most it looks like a 5 - 10 lb-ft (out of 200 lb-ft) boost. Just make sure to read the engine speeds at the bottom as the bold lines indicate different engine speeds on different graphs.
Last edited by tpm152; 01-12-2010 at 02:56 PM.
#15
JK Jedi Master
tpm152, if you don't have a Ripp and don't have an Avenger, why do you care? The op was looking for real world experiences with the Ripp, not a who's better, Ripp/ Avenger thread. And not a Jack said this or a Ripp rep said this and that, but actual feeback from Ripp owners.
#16
JK Super Freak
Join Date: Jun 2007
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And you mentioned using a smaller pulley and blow off valve, etc with the RIPP kit, which both should be really easy swaps I wonder if anyone has done this yet?
I can't remember if they mentioned it in a thread, but I know RIPP is working on a stage two for their SC kit, and I'm wondering if it involves the pulley or BOV. I hope to find out more about that very soon.
And to the person who asked about Avenger Dyno sheets, as far as I know I don't think any have been released. If I recall the Avenger kit was talked about even before the RIPP kit and yet it's still not really to market. I suppose you can look at that as they're really testing the hell out of it or they've had lots of problems with it, depending on if you're a glass half full or half empty kind of person.
#17
JK Freak
tpm152, if you don't have a Ripp and don't have an Avenger, why do you care? The op was looking for real world experiences with the Ripp, not a who's better, Ripp/ Avenger thread. And not a Jack said this or a Ripp rep said this and that, but actual feeback from Ripp owners.
You clearly know more about boost than I will ever know, but could you tell everyone what makes you an expert? I'm not doubting, but I'm interested in your background on the subject.
And you mentioned using a smaller pulley and blow off valve, etc with the RIPP kit, which both should be really easy swaps I wonder if anyone has done this yet?
I can't remember if they mentioned it in a thread, but I know RIPP is working on a stage two for their SC kit, and I'm wondering if it involves the pulley or BOV. I hope to find out more about that very soon.
And to the person who asked about Avenger Dyno sheets, as far as I know I don't think any have been released. If I recall the Avenger kit was talked about even before the RIPP kit and yet it's still not really to market. I suppose you can look at that as they're really testing the hell out of it or they've had lots of problems with it, depending on if you're a glass half full or half empty kind of person.
And you mentioned using a smaller pulley and blow off valve, etc with the RIPP kit, which both should be really easy swaps I wonder if anyone has done this yet?
I can't remember if they mentioned it in a thread, but I know RIPP is working on a stage two for their SC kit, and I'm wondering if it involves the pulley or BOV. I hope to find out more about that very soon.
And to the person who asked about Avenger Dyno sheets, as far as I know I don't think any have been released. If I recall the Avenger kit was talked about even before the RIPP kit and yet it's still not really to market. I suppose you can look at that as they're really testing the hell out of it or they've had lots of problems with it, depending on if you're a glass half full or half empty kind of person.
I have heard of the stage 2 for the Ripp kit but I wasn't terribly happy with the prospects. Mostly because they listed things like headers and other little mods like that as their additions for stage 2 and their way of solving the low-end torque problem with their system.
#19
JK Newbie
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Join Date: Jan 2009
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Thanks LeftHandRubi for the input, i was on the phone with RIPP again yesterday & they are as confused as i on the lack of mileage etc as from yours & others input & the manufacturer themselves mine is quite low. And thank you to the others that turned my simple request for "real world experience" into a pissing contest on who has more technical background on superchargers, especially the brand/style that i dont have & is not in question.
#20
JK Enthusiast
Join Date: Apr 2009
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i have been thinking about a sc kit for a while now... my thing is my jk is a DD and rarely sees the trail is a sc kit good for a DD? and do you need to run a higher gas?