Installing Procharger HO Intercooled System - Hemi Under Pressure

Like baseball goes with hotdogs, or apple pie with ice cream, a Hemi engine and a blower just seem to be a good match. Even in the early years of racing, adding a supercharger to a Hemi engine simply gave the racer a seemingly unfair advantage over the competition. So it's little wonder that sanctioning bodies would either ban or severely handicap the Hemi engine when it would dominate a racing class, giving the other competitors a chance. This process led to Hemi-powered cars eventually competing against themselves in classes like SS/AH, which happens to be the quickest and fastest Super Stock class on the NHRA roster. Blown Hemis were relegated to a similar fate, as they also now primarily compete against themselves in Top Fuel and Fuel Funny Car classes, powering the quickest accelerating cars on the planet regardless of which manufacturer's body is affixed to the chassis.

Another place the Hemi ended up is at the Chrysler or Dodge dealership in your local area. Knowing the efficiency of the hemispherical combustion chamber, several years ago Ma Mopar decided to reintroduce the Hemi engine in trucks and passenger cars, and made up for the somewhat smaller than 426-inch displacement with modern components like fuel injection, aluminum cylinder heads, a roller camshaft, and two-plug per cylinder high-energy ignition. Last September, we picked up a new '09 Dodge Challenger R/T from our local dealer, Citrus Dodge in Dade City, Florida, and were immediately impressed with the well-rounded vehicle, not to mention the power of the 5.7-liter Hemi engine. After several months of driving, however, we knew we simply wanted more horsepower and torque than our factory Hemi was giving us. Knowing our friends at ProCharger had spent extensive time developing their gear-driven centrifugal superchargers for the new Hemi, we called to see what they had for the new Challenger.

As one of the leaders in Mopar supercharging systems, ProCharger was one of the earliest manufacturers to provide complete supercharging kits for the new Chrysler 5.7- and 6.1-liter electronically fuel injected Hemi engines. Since then, they've made hundreds of dyno pulls on their chassis and engine dynos, refining supercharger technology for the new Hemi. Their centrifugal superchargers and associated hardware have outstanding fit and finish, and mount under the hood for a clean, OEM look. During previous installations we've learned that ProCharger really does their homework, designing powerful supercharger kits that don't sacrifice drivability or reliability, so when they told us they had a new HO intercooled system for our '09 Challenger that would add about 100 additional rear-wheel horsepower at only six pounds of boost, and that they were willing to prove it on our chassis dyno, we had to take them up on the offer.

ProCharger actually offers two levels of performance for the new Hemi, the HO and the Stage II, but we decided their HO system would best suit the needs of our daily driver. The HO system offers intercooled performance, and utilizes ProCharger's P-1SC-1 supercharger to make six pounds of boost for an approximate 100 rear-wheel horsepower gain. Other nice features of the HO kit are the simplicity of a shared serpentine belt drive, and the fact that other than swapping the injectors, no fuel system modifications are necessary. Once installed, the supercharger and related bracket and components look as if they could have been installed at the factory, and even the stock engine cover is retained though slightly modified.

When the kit arrived at our shop, we unpacked it and found everything to be nicely protected in the shipping containers. We ran the baseline dyno test on our Challenger (which is modified with a Magnaflow cat-aft exhaust system and K & N cold air kit) the day before we planned to install the kit, making 309 horsepower and 333 lb/ft of torque at the rear wheels. Once Jeff Lacina and Shannon O'Connor from ProCharger arrived, we unpacked the parts and started the installation. Besides removing the car's front fascia, which really isn't that big a deal, the supercharger kit simply bolts on with basic hand tools. Since balancer/lower pulley on the new Hemi is only pressed into place on the crankshaft, with a bolt, but no keyway, ProCharger sends a pinning kit with the necessary drill bit, fixture, and pin to prevent the balancer from slipping on the crank.

We found the kit to be well thought out and nicely engineered, and basically watched and took pictures as the ProCharger team had our system installed easily in about 8-10 man hours. Since we began the project in the afternoon, we had time to finish the installation the next morning, upload the new Diablosport tuning, then test drive and dyno the car in the afternoon. The ProCharger kit included everything we needed, and the car fired immediately after the work was complete, sounding crisp. Since our car is a daily driver, we chose the quiet gear drive option so that with the hood shut, there's no indication of the power-adding air compressor hiding underneath.