Right now no one is going the kleeman route, since a stock SRT6 can be had for $30-35K converting the Limited XF of to the lowboost Kleenman kit just doesn't make sense, might as well sell your limited and put the money towards the srt6.

And the Kleenman kit has no proven history on a stock 3.2, I have not heard of anyone who's done the conversion yet. And who knows how much they're gonna rape you for it. $12-15K is probably a realistic number with them.

If you go with a small centrifugal system, the price is much lower, but there are some obstacles to get through before going this route. such as building a new intake manifold, mounting brackets, larger injectors, fuel pump and a new timing map.

 

Interesting...I did contact the Kleemann USA rep and was told the low boost kit was $6,500 and a certified dealer could to the install for $500. 7K is substantially less than 12k and for +65 HP ($100 per horse) this route seems to be the best bang for the buck. Of course with no one to vouch for this particular mod it's the 'bang' I'm concerned about.

If the pricing is correct the mod could be done for less (not much) than a decently loaded SRT6. Most importantly (for my selection of a two seat sports car) I refuse to drive an automatic, and I doubt dropping a manual transmission in an SRT6 would cost less than making this mod to a 6 speed Limited. If I were going to drop 35k for an automatic I'd go for an LX with the 5.7 Hemi or spend 40K for an SRT8 charger (plus get two extra doors and a seat).

-August 30th 2005

Thank you for contacting KLEEMANN USA! Our new Low-Boost Kompressor system is indeed compatible with your crossfire. The new system is priced at $6,500.00 with installation being in the range of $500.00, depending on which authorized KLEEMANN dealer you choose to perform the work.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns, and thank you again for your interest in our line of tuning solutions!

Warm Regards,

Cory Umemoto
Technical Manager

KLEEMANN USA
3390-B Fillmore Ridge Heights Colorado Springs, CO. 80907

 

Well that doesn't sound too bad a deal, I say go for it!!!
Oh and the supercharger on the kleenmann kit is the intake manifold, that's the only way you could get the roots blower to fit.

Let us know how it comes out.

 

Thanks dynamicS, I still want to find someone that can testify that this thing works reliably before I jump on it, so I have more research to do. Since it's been out for over a year someone must have bought the thing to mod a 320 somewhere. The fact that the low boost kit doesn't have the intercooler is what concerns me the most from a reliability standpoint, but I guess they figure the reduced boost will not require the intercooler for reliable operation. Not sure I buy it, but I will be sure before I buy one! ;-)

 

Well your not compressing the air that much on the low boost system, probably 6 psi. The thing about the roots blower is they operate better at faster speeds mostly due to the gap sealing of the rotor against the housing, this is another reason I'm going centrifugal. If you get crazy your can change the pulley to 14 psi but you might want to order the AMG 32 pistons. That should get you up to 330 hp. After that the AMG cams are optimized for boosting, so you might get another 25 hp.

 

Just for reference, my local Kleenmann dealer sent me an email;

Hey Justin, there is a low boost supercharger available for the 3.2 Liter motor in the Crossfire. The supercharger increases the horsepower to 280 and increase the torque to 265.
Cost Breakdown: Kompressor $6,500.00
Installation $1,530.00
ECU Upgrade $1,500.00
Total: $10,150.00 installed, including tax.

looks like it's not as cheap as originally thought. ECU tuning is $1,500. lol what a joke! for that price I can buy my own ECU and tune it myself. RAPE! RAPE!!!

 

That is funny because I went to local Kleemann dealer here in town and they told me $13,500.00 installed including ECU and I would run approximately 320 hp. Interesting to see all of the different prices for the Kleemann kit.

 

320 hp is possible with the S/C cams from the SLK32 or something similar. Also Kleenmann sells an Intercooled version of the low boost S/C for $11,000.
So I wouldn't assume they're screwing you as long as the dyno proves their numbers.

 

Wow!!! Looks like there's a major discrepancy between what the distributor says installation will cost and what the Kleemann certified dealers are actually charging. At least the cost for the kit is consistent. $1,500 for an ECU upgrade is obscene! I'll see if I can get an out the door estimate from my local installer. More to come on the thread that will not die! ;-)

 

I know alot of you really aren't into the technical stuff, but is there any chance that someone on here would know of a way to cheat the engines ECU into retarding the timing during boost?

 

I would think playing with the knock sensor inputs would the easiest and have the most predictable results. As far as I can tell when knock is detected the ECU retards the ignition without affecting anything else. This is the problem with trying to trick the ECU in to certain behavior; you really need to know how they programmed the interaction between all the maps. I'll have a look into it.

 

Yeah the knock sensor sounds like a good idea for modifying but how will you be able to adjust for rpm set points on a graph? Sound like it's more work than necessary, might have to bite the bullet and get a stand alone ecu.

Does any aftermarket company make a piggyback system that can be hooked up in series so I can fiddle with the fuel/timing maps?

 

Well I did a little search and stumble across this: http://www.perfectpowerusa.com/. I just received an email back saying that their piggy back ecu will work on the crossfire with bosch motec computer, I will have to get more details later.

 

That sounds like it could be the way to go. Couldn't find anything on pricing though. Alternatively you could go down the Megasquirt route like me, but that doesn't immediately address all the ignition issues although it can be configured to run the ignition too. It depends on how deep into it you want to get I suppose.

 

perfectpower smt-6 is what i used on our SRT-4 ... it works.

 

I'll have to look into the smt-6... here's a couple pix of a mounting layout I'm thinking of using for the S/C on the Limited.

 

Dynamics when you get it all figured out how much are you going to sell the plans to us for lol. I have already started saving waiting for someone to figure it out i will follow your lead and i can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

If I get enough time to put it all together along side my school studies I will post everything online for free. There is no money to be made off this stuff, its all for fun. Even if I wanted to make money off a kit, some other company would just copy the design and sell it themselves. The hardest part will be making the brackets and matching the drive pulleys.

I still have my straight pipe exhaust I need to finish. one step at a time...

 

I think that is about the only place you have room to fit an SC on the xfire, unless you junk the inlet plenum and fit it between the V like the SRT. Something that has just occurred to me is whether there are any issues with running higher that atmospheric pressure on the plenum; the internal inlet tract switchover flaps/valves may not be designed to function with reversed pressure differential. I'm sure it will be OK but you never know. There's also the myriad of other actuators that are vacuum driven to consider. From the calcs I did a while ago for the Rotrex I don't think anything more than 3-5 PSI is practical anyway with 10:1 CR, so it may not be a problem. I'm hopefully tearing the plenum and heads down this weekend so I'll let you know what I find.

 

I think the variable intake plenum might create just a tad of lag in response time due to the volume change when switching between ports. I would like to weld up a S/C intake manifold at a later time, when everything else is mounted and proven.

Do you know how they managed to lower the CR to 9:1 on the SRT6? Are they using stock 3.2L pistons and connecting rods, or are the heads machined different?

I look forward to hearing about the teardown!