Refresher: ProCharger redesigns its Stage 1 and Stage 2 superchargers for 5.3L and 6.2L GM trucks and SUVs

Today’s Daily Planet by Planet X Performance

Heads-up for 5.3L and 6.2L GM truck and SUV owners: ProCharger redesigned its centrifugal supercharger systems for 2019-up GM 1500 pickups and 2021-up Tahoe, Yukon, Suburban and Escalade over the summer, and they now come in two stages. A centrifugal supercharger is a belt-driven blower that compresses air and feeds it into the engine.

The problem is that boost plans tend to grow. Stage 1 runs off the factory 6-rib belt drive and is aimed at street-driven trucks. Stage 2 moves the blower to its own 8-rib drive for higher-horsepower builds. More ribs on the belt let it drive a harder-working blower without slipping, and an open race bypass valve, which bleeds off extra boost, is optional. Both get a larger air-to-air intercooler, which cools the compressed air before it enters the engine, and revised charge tubing.

The MAF sensor, the mass airflow sensor that tells the computer how much air is coming in so it can add the right fuel, moves into the charge pipe in a blow-through setup. That means it sits after the blower, in the pipe carrying boosted air, which ProCharger says gives tuners more room as owners add fuel, engine and power upgrades. ProCharger quotes 45-50 percent more power on 93 octane.

The factory-airbox High Output design stays available. ProCharger’s CARB list shows an emissions EO, the California approval document, for that system on 2019-20 GM trucks and SUVs, and a dealer listing says the redesigned Stage 1 isn’t CARB legal.

ProCharger's new, larger air-to-air intercooler mounted behind the grille of a white GM truck — Photo: ProCharger

Hand seating the black charge pipe with its blow-through MAF sensor next to the ProCharger supercharger head unit — Photo: ProCharger

Are you planning a street tune on the factory belt, or building toward the dedicated drive?

Sources

Photos: ProCharger