[tribone]

So I am in the market for a SuperCharger for my 2015 1LE. I have been doing a lot of research on them before making my decision. With that said, I am fortunate enough to have many of the top SuperCharger manufacturers being located in California. So I made a call to Magnuson on Monday July 6th and asked them what the difference was between their TVS2300 and the new HeartBeat 2300? I was in luck. They were going to have 2010 Camaro SS that had one of their original SuperChargers for that particular test on Thursday. WooHoo!! Road trip! (ok, maybe just a cruise, hahaha)

So when I show up there what do I see? Fellow Camaro5 member Urr2slo’s Blue Monster. I should’ve known I would see his car here. His TVS2300 was the 3rd one installed by Magnuson back in 6/09. The car at the time had 240 miles on it. So it has been SuperCharged its entire life. It currently has 115000 miles showing on the odometer and it still has the original stock bottom end. Amazing! Especially considering that he is not known for going easy on his vehicles. So as I made my rounds and introduced myself to everyone, I found out that they were doing the comparison between their 2 offerings for the Camaro – the original TVS2300 and the new HeartBeat. I really like the HeartBeat so I’m excited to see how it compares. Super Chevy Magazine was in the house as well to cover the comparison. (see the upcoming Nov issue) Being that this is one of the oldest and highest mileage 5th gens, it is the perfect candidate to show that superchargers don’t wear out engines and that additional gains are still to be had with newer technology.

As much as Urr2slo likes to say that his car is “Stock”, here is the list of additional major power adder mods:
And they are ADM custom grind cam, ADM twin fuel pump, DynaTech long tubes with High Flow Super Cats, a full 3" Magnaflow Comp Exhaust, RotoFab cold air intake, ID850 injectors, 160 thermostat, Snow Performance Meth kit, CSF Racing radiator, and CenterForce DYAD twin disc clutch. All of the mods on this Camaro were all completed before the car had 7k on it, so it’s been performing at a higher power level for over 100k. Very impressive considering that it is still the stock original bottom end and original transmission. The clutches in the diff wore out at 104k and the left axle was starting to fail from the inner joint, most likely do to the amount of road course duty this car has seen. So Urr2slo swapped out his old diff for a fresh diff he had sitting on the shelf with 3.25 gears and replaced his axle with 1LE axles. It has over 70 track days, mainly road course but some drag racing and autocross events as well.

At one point it was running 10.8 pounds of boost and making 713 RWHP. For the sake of longevity the boost was turned down as this car has been a daily driver for the last 4 years. The Meth has always been used and it has always been tuned as a safety feature and not a power adder, this way if it failed or it ran out it wouldn’t hurt the motor. For this comparison No Meth was used and the stock Magnuson heat exchanger was reinstalled so an accurate IAT comparison could be made between the 2 power units.

So now the fun begins! Let’s find out how much better the New Kid On The Block does on a high mileage motor vs Old Faithful? We are about to find out!
Magnuson had one of their leading dealers in AZ., J&R Performance Center in Phoenix, come out to help find out what gains would be seen with the new HeartBeat. Before the install, Magnuson shipped certain components to J&R for custom finishing. When the car arrived, the first order of business was the dyno. Just a basic cam, header, supercharger package. In its current state on pump gas it made 633 RWHP @ 8 lbs of boost. Not bad for a daily driver!

After the Blue Monster cooled down, the J&R Team proceeded to remove the TVS2300. While everything was apart, they installed a pair of custom finished valve covers and a ‘13 and newer heater hose relocater kit for a cleaner look. After cleaning the valley area, the new HeartBeat 2300 was installed. This was the first HeartBeat installed on a 2010 Camaro by Magnuson, so everything was documented to make sure it would be a straight bolt on for future sales and for earlier cars with Hydraulic Power Steering. Once the Heartbeat was installed, it was back to the Dyno. As both units are 2.3 liter superchargers and we would be running the same size pulleys, we didn’t anticipate having to make any tuning changes. RotoFab did provide a prototype HeartBeat intake tube and the only tuning changes made were for the MAF reading due to the change in the intake tube. The new HeartBeat put down 646 RWHP. IAT's were 10 degrees cooler as well as the recovery time was much quicker. Not bad and pretty impressive! Especially the recovery time and cooler temperature. J&R had also brought along one of their new patented GripTec supercharger pulleys and after a quick swap it was run again with a 651 RWHP results. Boost levels on the 3.3 HeartBeat pulley was 8.8 lbs of boost while the GripTec pulley registered 8.9 lbs of boost.

That was pretty impressive and I am definitely leaning toward getting the HeartBeat now. So I thanked everyone at Magnuson and J&R Performance for their awesome hospitality and for giving me the chance to see this in person.

On Monday I emailed Rick at J&R Performance and asked him how the car was performing with the HeartBeat. This is what he responded with:
“I am very impressed with this new unit! I can’t believe how well it’s done in Phoenix where the ambient temperature difference from Ventura is 40 degrees hotter. We’ve been monitoring the IAT's and they are 20-25 degrees cooler with the new HeartBeat when doing WOT pulls in 110+ degree temps and they cool down really quickly afterwards so it’s definitely more efficient. There is a very noticeable difference in the midrange from seat of the pants feel. The car pulls much stronger now. Overall, the drivability is much better! The additional torque is real nice to have when putting around in traffic or simply to go to the grocery store.”

While 18 RWHP may not seem like a lot, the biggest difference was seen between 3300 to 5400 RPMs. At one point around the 4500 rpm area, the HeartBeat made 75 ft. lbs. of torque and 55 RWHP more than the TVS2300. WOW!!!

Apparently Urr2slo is still not done with his “Stock” Camaro. It will be re-tuned after reinstalling the larger dual pass heat exchanger and Meth so some additional increases will be seen. “Stay tuned”, was all he said.

-Guillermo

TVS2300 "Old Faithful"


HeartBeat with 3.3 Pulley



HeartBeat with 3.3 GripTec Pulley