Have you heard a twin-screw blower yet? There is nothing in the world like the giant slide-whistle scream of the new batch of positive-displacement superchargers for late-model engines. It's like being duct-taped to the hood of Scotty Cannon's Pro Mod with your head in the bug catcher. The whine turns to a whistle, then a shriek as the engine starts to make power.
We love 'em, but up until now, you had to own a newer Cobra Mustang, GT500, or Corvette to share the fun. Now, Vortech Engineering has introduced a Lysholm twin-screw tuner kit for use on anything with an LS-series engine swap. Since the '64 El Camino shop truck has a GMPP LS1 and a Keisler A41 transmission, we got to play with the first one. The Vortech VTS is a tuner kit, so you'll need to know how to wrench on your car, or take it to a guy who does, to get the whole thing to work. But trust us, it's worth it.
The Vortech VTS tuner kit is designed for any LS-based engine with cathedral ports like truck engines or the LS1 or LS2, unless you have an L92 (square-port) head on it. The Vortech VTS uses a Lysholm head unit mounted on a charge-air cooler. The Vortech VTS is different from the high-helix Roots because instead of rotors, it uses a twin-screw design that compresses air inside the housing. Intake air is fed through the back of the head unit, then forward through the screws and down to the manifold through a window in the front of the housing. Theory says that if you ran a Roots-style and a screw-style side by side with the same rpm and same cfm, the screw-type would be more efficient with less temperature gain, which means more power. The charge-air cooler adds density to the air charge, allowing more air and fuel to enter the combustion chamber, also creating more power.
The 2.3L VTS tuner kit is designed to supply 7 to 8 pounds of boost with the supplied 3.8-inch pulley, providing as much as 5 pounds as low as 3,000 rpm and works using a stock LS1 fuel pump. It is advertised to deliver 40 percent more power but is capable of much more. The limit of boost and power is going to be determined by the octane of the fuel you use and the fuel system's ability to deliver it.
We got the VTS tuner kit installed on the car, but deadlines prevented us from getting the car to the dyno, so we are going to split this job into several issues. Since the El Camino already made 380 hp at the wheels, we should be seeing close to 500 with the VTS. That should keep us competitive in traffic.
Parts Description PN Source Price Throttle body gasket 12570168 ACDelco $6.50 Fuel fitting 949086 Earl's $30.57 EV1 male to EV6 female adapters N/A Five O Motorsport $74.00 Kwik alternator, P/S drive K10168 Kwik Performance $287.00 VTS Tuner Kit 2310010 Vortech Engineering $5,500.95