Supercharger @ 100K miles? Worth it???

[DougZ]

Guys and gals: I am curious as to what everyone's opinion is about adding a supercharger to my 98 318ti @ 100,000 mies. The reason I am waiting until then is because I have the certified per-owned 100K mile warranty. Anything I do to the car just about will void the warranty. I have talked with the dealer and they even told me that anything I change on the car other than asthetical, will probably void the warranty. I am bringing it in for service(transmission service, I am not touching that) this week, so I took off my Brospeed exhaust and 17" wheels last week. I just wanna make sure that they don't say anything about anything. I take good care of the car, change the oil with synthetic every 4-5K miles, and don't really beat on it. I am expecting to try and get maybe 250K miles out of the car. SO, Is it worth it to add a super chager when the OD hits 100K miles? We all know about the lack of power these cars have, and nothing gets more bang for the buck the Downing SC. Thanks for any opinions.

[myred318i]

Doug,
What did you decide? I'm starting to wonder about the same thing? (See my post in Engine Swapping) I'm basically looking for the same things as you. More power, but not at the expense of a full-bore engine swap (M), but just something to help me get up to speed a little quicker on the highway... maybe even a little bit of a sleeper car... you know? I want to do something, but I don't want to jeopardize the motor that I've got.

[DougZ]

Myred318i: I think that I am going to do the Downing Atlanta Supercharger. I will probably wait to around 100K miles, just to avoid issue with the warranty and dealer, but I am going to do it. A lot of people on the boards say that is is better to do the M3 swap, and it may be...but it will cost a lot more money, time and aggrevation than just doing the S/C. I have 76k miles now and have recently relocated the office that I work from, so I am now saving 400 miles a week from the 600 miles a week that I was doing. I will probably do it about a year from now...provided nothing goes wrong with the car. I was think of getting a junkyard M44 and rebuilding it better( better pistons, ported head, three seat valves, etc) and then adding the S/C on to that and dropping it in. I think even that would cost less than the M3 engine, because all of the hardware would stay the same.

Keep me informed of what you end up doing.

[J!m]

I will have a 1998 1.9l available in 1-2 months if you are interested. The condition is excellent, as I'm the original owner and have all the receipts for work (including level 2, done at 50k). First oil change was at 750 miles. You will not find a better cared-for 1.9 for sale....

It has roughly 63k on it, and I'm entertaining offers, if you are interested.

E-mail me at jim.leach@sulzer.com