Decisions.....Turbo, Supercharger, or Phantom ESC???

[MugenRep]

The time for my project has come.....

I've recently gotten the approval from my wife to do a type of forced induction on my project. I'm approved for a all in budget of $6,000 that will be available by summer, as we have finally paid off all our debts sans mortgage. Being quite a high budget, I don't necessarily want to spend it all on a forced induction system and I'm trying to thoroughly check pros and cons of each setup.

Before anybody says anything else, I know $6000, plus selling or trading in my car would free up enough money to get something sportier, but I have decided against this path, and only want to continue with this car at this time.


My options so far that I've concluded are a little large, and I've not come to a clear decision on which would be the best path. Also now that you've read this far, I'll make it clear that the vehicle in question IS NOT a Yaris. It is actually a Toyota iQ, but since it uses the 1NR-FE, which is pretty much a backwards lower displacement 1NZ-FE and according to Gazoo and Motorweek the suspension is based on the Yaris, so being the cousin to the Yaris, I thought perhaps folks in Yaris World would be willing to be helpful to my questions.




Options



1. Zage Turbo Kit

Cheapest option new at $1500 shipped

I really like this option, and Focus_Sh1ft has shown how versatile the option can be. However, on the 1NR-FE engine there are a few concerns.



-The oil filter, is no longer a canister style and it now a Wix insert filter into the metal oil housing. This makes an oil feel line more complicated as I can't do a simple oil sandwich and run it to the turbo.

-The 1NR-FE is MUCH higher compression at 11.5:1. Not out of the question especially since it's port injection and from the factory can run on 87 octane, so the stock ECU is used to retarding the timing in order to not detonate. I also have a CamCon and Emanage blue for fuel and timing control and would not exceed 4-7psi after a tune.

-Since the block is rotated 180 degrees on the iQ, more than likely I'd have to get a different turbo manifold and I'm unsure of what would work. Is this a TD style flange, some sort of custom Zage flange, or something different?



2. Power Enterprise iQ specific Rotrex kit

Most expensive option at $3500 shipped from Japan

-Although this is specific to the chassis/engine, it's still not a bolt on to the vehicle and requires wiring extensions and modification to the Rotrex idler pulley on LHD versus RHD. Sounds strange, but it's true.



-This is the exact same kit as what is supplied with the GRMN Gazoo Racing iQ and the only gentleman in the US who has it has posted it has made 110whp/101tq at 5psi with the Power Enterprise P-Map piggy back ECU. Recently he purchased a smaller pulley, ran E85 (I'm never going to) and made 139whp, so more than enough to be sufficient to a 2000lb. vehicle, just not sure the cost is worth it if the Zage or Phantom can do similar.

-With this kit, I'd also need to get a header made to take full advantage and I've been quoted around $150 for one.

-Rotrex supercharges, I'm unsure of how reliable they are or what the cost of a rebuild will be or what and how often I'd need to change the Rotrex oil or cost associated with it.


3. Phantom ESC supercharger

Second most expensive at $1600-$1900 used

-Definitely the least known here, but have been following this project for years on FT86 forum. Essentially it's a ebay turbo intake housing attached to a brushless RC motor that spins to 50000 rpms with 2 Deka ETX16 batteries used as "dump packs" and a starter battery for the vehicles ignition/electrical system. I know anybody reading this is going to think it's a crock of sh!t, but if you look at the ft86 boards, you'll see the hundreds of pages associated with this.



-This is a more ON/OFF systems and requires either WOT or 75% throttle to engage and the higher up in the RPM band you go, the low the boost as it is not variable and only spins at one speed, 50000rpms. The more rpms you run the less efficient it is. It starts around 5psi and around 6000rpms boost drops to 2psi. So it's only really good for low to mid range power and since an iQ uses a CVT, it almost negates the entire boosted system.

-Easiest to set up, basically fits on the end of the air intake or throttle body, disregards the factory battery to be replaced by 3 other batteries and can be used on any car for the most part.

-Phantom has stopped production temporarily with the FT86 chassis in order to make a better brushless motor controller allowing linear boost as well as to set it up for the new ND Miata chassis, so getting any help with replacement parts or info, or otherwise wouldn't be possible until the engineer has finished on the ND chassis

4. 1ZZ TRD Supercharger

- The cons to this are that it will need another extension, like the TOOTER spacer in order for the M45 to clear the valve cover on the iQ, however this seems to be the most reliable option IF IT CAN BE MADE TO FIT.




-Because of the Lotus crew along with other Toyota people, this kit is hard to find and almost always over $1800 used now that Toyota has discontinued them it's become even harder to find.

-Being an Eaton blower, lots of pulley choices from the Mini, GM QuadCam setups, etc. so boost would be easy to determine/fix if needed.

-With no ability to check measurements or otherwise, it'd be a gamble of $2000.00 theoretically, require a lot of downtime for my iQ (no longer daily driven), and may or may not work.

5. Blitz Supercharger

-Again, like the 1ZZ TRD, would need a spacer to be used to extend my intake manifold to make it clear the valve cover.



-Measurements are the same for the 1NR and 1NZ for the snout to accessory pullies, although I'm unsure what crank pulley would do with Blitz bp psi-wise.

-Rebuilding the Ogura supercharger is a nightmare looking at CrankyOldMan's threads, so that alone may instantly eliminate this option.




I'm just curious of others opinions, experiences with certain forced induction, etc. Thank you in advance for reading this and I appreciate the feedback and opinions.