What Kit ESS 550 or VF 540 Kit

[k3silk]

After Doing a lot of research on a bunch of bolt ons Akra pipes/ Test Pipes and or supercharger for what I intended to do with car I have decided between ESS 550 or VF 540. For the price it hard to beat at $6400-6500 for both kits plus did not want to hack anything to make intercooler fit. Which kit is better and why? Im looking for 480-520 rwhp.

Only mods at this time I have is BMW Performace Exhaust.

[Bomiz]

If you want that kind of power, prob going to have to open up your exhaust

[squartus]

Yea think the 550 is only like 470 rwhp, test pipes/primary cat delete will help though.

[k3silk]

[Sered]

Originally Posted by k3silk

After Doing a lot of research on a bunch of bolt ons Akra pipes/ Test Pipes and or supercharger for what I intended to do with car I have decided between ESS 550 or VF 540. For the price it hard to beat at $6400-6500 for both kits plus did not want to hack anything to make intercooler fit. Which kit is better and why? Im looking for 480-520 rwhp.

Only mods at this time I have is BMW Performace Exhaust.

If you're doing the work yourself, the ESS kit is easier to install and IMO put together better. I've installed several of each. Power wise, you won't see much difference between the two. The VF kit will be more prone to heatsoak due to the manifold being significantly heavier due to it being thick cast aluminum. But since it's all unintercooled anyway, it won't make much of a difference.

[BNBM3]

You are not going to get anywhere near 520hp with a 550 kit.

[sales@ESSTuning]

You should expect to gain about 120-130 whp over stock with our VT1-550 kit. This will put you into the high 400 whp range on a dynojet. I would not expect to make 500+ whp unless you go to a VT2 setup. Below are pretty typical before and after gains of a VT1-550.

[k3silk]

Originally Posted by BNBM3

You are not going to get anywhere near 520hp with a 550 kit.

480-520 doest seem to far away from what I am seeing... Might need some test pipes but once again I don't car to much for the power as long as it feels good. I think I will be installing this my self this go round unless I find a deal for the free installation. I thought about the 625 kit but I swear I don't want to have anything hacked to fit an intercooler and from recent post from a forum member he said that much cutting would be needed to fit the 625 kit. Plus the cost. wll looks like for me and my budget less 550 kit will be all I need....

[kevin @ eas]

Originally Posted by BNBM3

You are not going to get anywhere near 520hp with a 550 kit.

Well definitely not normal to see this high, we have hit 519 on our dyno

[kevin @ eas]

Originally Posted by Sered

If you're doing the work yourself, the ESS kit is easier to install and IMO put together better. I've installed several of each. Power wise, you won't see much difference between the two. The VF kit will be more prone to heatsoak due to the manifold being significantly heavier due to it being thick cast aluminum. But since it's all unintercooled anyway, it won't make much of a difference.

X2, the ess kit is way easier to install. Hardware wise both very similar but support and tuning is far superior with ESS.

[BNBM3]

Originally Posted by kevin @ eas

Well definitely not normal to see this high, we have hit 519 on our dyno

So your 550 kit is outperforming or on par with a 625 kit?

[pbonsalb]

Originally Posted by kevin @ eas

Well definitely not normal to see this high, we have hit 519 on our dyno

The 519 is in STD but would still just barely break 500 in SAE.

[kevin @ eas]

Originally Posted by BNBM3

So your 550 kit is outperforming or on par with a 625 kit?

On the 625 kit we generally see about 540-560 hp with an x-pipe

Originally Posted by pbonsalb

The 519 is in STD but would still just barely break 500 in SAE.

Here is SAE

[k3silk]

Nice here on the east coast no 91 Oct for us 93+ But Im not looking for crazy HP number anyway Just looking for a nice bump in power and have a fun car with some useable power. I recently sold a 604 HP 602TQ CTS V coupe 6spd 3 pedals.... And it was a blast to drive but kept thinking about my old e92 so I sold it picked up a 2011 comp pack. with 20k miles. and was going to do exhaust headers and test pipes but after adding the price up I was like might as well do low HP supercharger kit. for the price.

[Bomiz]

Originally Posted by k3silk

Nice here on the east coast no 91 Oct for us 93+ But Im not looking for crazy HP number anyway Just looking for a nice bump in power and have a fun car with some useable power. I recently sold a 604 HP 602TQ CTS V coupe 6spd 3 pedals.... And it was a blast to drive but kept thinking about my old e92 so I sold it picked up a 2011 comp pack. with 20k miles. and was going to do exhaust headers and test pipes but after adding the price up I was like might as well do low HP supercharger kit. for the price.

Not sure about the shops around you, but there's quite a few places that offer free ESS supercharger installations as well.

[W Cole]

Originally Posted by kevin @ eas

X2, the ess kit is way easier to install. Hardware wise both very similar but support and tuning is far superior with ESS.

x3 ESS software is way better. 100% safe and stock like driveability. Roman and AJ at ESS have been super responsive to all my requests.

[Nero_M3]

Hey Guys,

A couple of months ago I was in this same predicament between both ESS an VF kits. I ended up going with the VF engineering kit and have been pleased ever since.

The two kits are very similar in hardware but VF customer service was above an beyond on. Before I purchased the kit I had the pleasure of talking with Gabe @ VF engineering and he was able to answer all my questions that I was unsure about. They were also kind enough to take me for a drive and walk me through the shop and show me how the kit installs and how they tune each kit.

I was thoroughly impressed an placed my order shortly after. I have had the kit on my car for 3 months now and this hot Socal summer hasn't factored into any heat soaking on the car.

Here are some photos of the kit Installed:

[k3silk]

What kind of HP and TQ did you put down? What fuel are you running 91, 93+?

[Harry Da Hamster]

Originally Posted by kevin @ eas

X2, the ess kit is way easier to install. Hardware wise both very similar but support and tuning is far superior with ESS.

In what ways is it easier to install?

[Sered]

Originally Posted by kevin @ eas

X2, the ess kit is way easier to install. Hardware wise both very similar but support and tuning is far superior with ESS.

You can quote this man on that reality. Kevin is da man.

[Sered]

Originally Posted by FNG

In what ways is it easier to install?

VF uses a shoehorned bracket, a weird lower bracket mount using a stud, and huge metal spacers; some of which are very difficult to line up properly and tighten the bolts due to where they place the bracket in the engine bay. VF uses a different belt tensioner as well while ESS uses the stock one. The ESS pulley, in case of an upgrade, is easily accessible without removing the blower or bracket. If you don't have a VF620/650 kit, the VF pulley is too large of a diameter to be removable without rotating the blower clockwise about 90 degrees (which means its removal from the bracket, a serious PITA).

They also add a support beam that attaches to the exhaust heatshield and is a total PITA to install. I had to pull and refit, loosen bolts in spacers, etc all so I could get the bracket to mount up. Even after installation, not all the bolts were 100% tight as I couldn't reach them all.

The ESS bracket just goes right in, all of the spacers are at or under an inch in length and are mounted to the bracket (VF ones are free-spinners and will fall out if you pull the bolt). As an engineer, I can tell which bracket design and layout had the real work put into it. ESS's bracket is smaller, lighter weight, and significantly easier to install.

I can keep going

[Harry Da Hamster]

Originally Posted by Sered

VF uses a shoehorned bracket, a weird lower bracket mount using a stud, and huge metal spacers; some of which are very difficult to line up properly and tighten the bolts due to where they place the bracket in the engine bay. VF uses a different belt tensioner as well while ESS uses the stock one. The ESS pulley, in case of an upgrade, is easily accessible without removing the blower or bracket. If you don't have a VF620/650 kit, the VF pulley is too large of a diameter to be removable without rotating the blower clockwise about 90 degrees (which means its removal from the bracket, a serious PITA).

They also add a support beam that attaches to the exhaust heatshield and is a total PITA to install. I had to pull and refit, loosen bolts in spacers, etc all so I could get the bracket to mount up. Even after installation, not all the bolts were 100% tight as I couldn't reach them all.

The ESS bracket just goes right in, all of the spacers are at or under an inch in length and are mounted to the bracket (VF ones are free-spinners and will fall out if you pull the bolt). As an engineer, I can tell which bracket design and layout had the real work put into it. ESS's bracket is smaller, lighter weight, and significantly easier to install.

I can keep going

Thanks for the information. Along with the OP, i am also trying to make a decision on which SC kit to run. Not looking for a popularity contest. Your insight is much appreciated.

According to the ESS website, the VT1-550 kit produces 6 PSI and the VF engineering kit produces 4.5 PSI. Has anyone actually measured this with a boost gauge to confirm this is correct for both kits?