Well, the supercharger part is done. I was going to put the cold air kit on, but the directions for that piece sucked and did not make sense. I can leave it off and use the stock air filter for now.
Has anybody put on KB's cold air kit? Can you maybe throw a little info my way? Any pics of this? It looks like a cob-job to me. The quality of the cold air kit does not keep in-line with the quality of the supercharger. Hmmmm, do you think it was an after-thought? They do not replace the stock piece between the MAF and throttle body. Hmmmm, not good folks. The filter will also hang loose inside my fender. WTF? I am anal with having things bopping around on my car; everything must be fastened down! I might have to send that cold air kit back and get something better. I will wait and call KB on this at a later time.
I have to put the intercooler on and install the fuel pump boost kit, then she will be ready to fire up. I have a few things to do today before I can get back to it, however. And I want to take my time with the intercooler radiator piece that has to be mounted behind my Saleen front bumper.
Thanks for all of the support Stangers! As for the web cam idea, I had thought about it, but believe me, this install process can be BOOOORING to watch! There is a lot of "dead time" reading and re-reading the manual, documenting changes and problems, and fitting pieces.
It's funny the way things work out. My oldest son was supposed to help me put it on. As luck would have it, he got a job the day the blower came in. We are both bumming over that and it has slowed me down; doing most of it by myself. Now, with that said, picture this..... me, my wife, and my 13 year old son trying to pick up the main blower unit and put it on the engine. Now, THAT would have been a Web Cam shot for sure!
As a note, the unit can not go straight down. It has to go over to the passenger's side about 1/2 inch, then down and back over to the driver's side, then down for the final contact. My wife is a saint, I tell ya! Kinda funny, the first KB 2V install and it was partially done by an old lady.
Hey, at least I got it on. I am greatful for the little help I got. Not many wifes out there would even be speaking to their husbands after such a purchase, much less help to lift it on. (and no, she is not burly and has never worked on a car in her life) I think she felt sorry for me.
I sure hope that intake gasket on the driver's side survived. When we tried to go straight down, the bottom of the blower unit kept hitting the inner edge of the intake gasket near the thermostat flange, flipping it up and out of the alignment pins. We had it lying flat and in place when we finally figured out that the unit had to shift over, go down a little, shift back over, then down. We were as carefull as could be expected when you have 75 Lbs of dead weight being suspened only by arms that are fully extended. In hind-site, an engine hoist would be great if there is one lying around. I also would not mount the fuel rail and injectors outside of the car. It just added extra weight and got in the way of the EGR tube, which caused other problems with getting the blower on. The EGR needed to be bent a little out of the way. A forth set of arms would have helped to keep that out of the way.
All-in-all, it is still going well. As I said before, there were a couple of documentation errors, but very few. I am sure KB will polish up the procedure each week as the field information comes in. I plan to document a lot of the changes for them. That will be my contribution to the fellas/gals/old-wives that install after me. I will also suggest to KB to put in one extra bolt or nut for each type needed. Pictures of bolts, like the Tiawanese manuals include, would also be helpful, along with an inventory of parts. I like to lay out all of my parts ahead of time before I start, so if there are parts missing, it is not in the middle of the install. I also wish they would have bagged the parts differently. Each bag should have the bracket or part WITH the related hardware (clamps, nuts, bolts, etc.). This would save a lot of time looking and measuring and re-reading to be assured you have the right nut, or other piece of hardware. Labeling the bags would also be part of that as well.
Somebody mentioned the alternator. The manual said there were no fabrications, or grinding. Well, the alternator has to be ground down in one spot. This is very easy to do, however. If the alternator goes bad on the road, I will have to remember to do this. I don't like that part. Because of the placement of the alternator, I don't see a way around it, but I did not spend any time trying to figure out a better way. Alternators are very reliable these days, so it will probably never be an issue.
I have never installed a centrifugal blower, but from looking at others' pictures, I have to conclude that the twin screw is at least twice as difficult to install. It is a serious installation. NOT hard, just very time consuming. I can't imagine doing it with bad directions (or worse, NO directions). Even thought there were some documentation mistakes, they really did try to do a thorough job. My notes will help and I hope they integrate them.
One note I made is critical. The manual states to tighten down some bolts to draw the intake forward, after which you have to torque the intake down. If you do that, the front of the intake will not tighten down in the front! The draw-down bolts in the front MUST be slightly loosened (not loose, just not tight) so as to hold the intake forward, but allowing the front of the intake to be torqued down. If this is not done, then write the job as "hosed", because that intake will surely leak. I caught this mistake only because I analize everything to-death and I used to be a mechanic. I have built hundreds of engines and have seen my share of screw-ups. That intake also had to be torqued at least 4 times before no changes were noted in the torque. Take your time with this step; it is crucial! I still want to go out and get a new tool for one VERY difficult to reach bolt that can not be torqued down because of where it is. I might be able to make the tool myself when I have time. KB needs to also put that bolt in place BEFORE putting the blower onto the intake. Otherwise, you will have to grind the bolt head like I did. The draw-back to this is trying to position the whole unit when placing it down onto the engine. The bolt sticking through might get in the way. To get around this, put a rubber band around the shaft of the bolt so it can't slide down.
Well, I gotta go if I am ever going to get this done. I just wanted to take a few minutes to update everyone because there is so much interest. Stay tuned, the Red Dragon is waiting to breath!
Just read the next post after Tait.
hopefully???
