Need Advice on Supercharging

[zachow3]

Who did you end up getting it from and is there anymore? Thanks

I ordered mine from wakeperformance.com. They dont carry the kits anymore but they contacted Ford Racing and they sent me the kit with free shipping. Dont know if they have anymore. Contact wakeperformance. They did all the leg work for me and found me a kit when nobody else could.

 

[zachow3]

Well I picked up my S/C kit today. Everything was well packaged and IMO appears to be pretty good quality. Would have been nice if It came with a lsit of contents. And the installation manual is not very in depth. But there really isnt a whole lot to the kit in terms of parts so it shouldnt be to hard to figure it out. I think this weekend I will get all the brackets and pulleys mounted. Take my time and do it right.

 

[rocket 5979]

Take my time and do it right.

That is a good way of thinking that saves rework. Glad to hear things are working out for you. Remember to post pictures of the build.

 

[zachow3]

It,s way to early for me to be posting this. Just finished up a two week vacation. No alarm clock, until this morning. I did attempt to begin installing the supercharger a couple of days ago until I realized I didnt have all the tools I was going to need. They are at work and I wasnt going back to work any sooner than I had to.
It did give me a chance to try and decipher Powerdynes Installation "novel" and I still come away scratching my head. They have you removing parts and setting them aside for later use and then they never mention these parts again. It frustrates me. Powerdyne frustrates me, and yes I did contact them. Not a lot of words of wisdom there, trust me.
Anyway I will pick up some extra tools at work today and give it another go here in the next week or so. Thats my latest update, nothing accomplished.

 

[rocket 5979]

It,s way to early for me to be posting this. Just finished up a two week vacation. No alarm clock, until this morning. I did attempt to begin installing the supercharger a couple of days ago until I realized I didnt have all the tools I was going to need. They are at work and I wasnt going back to work any sooner than I had to.
It did give me a chance to try and decipher Powerdynes Installation "novel" and I still come away scratching my head. They have you removing parts and setting them aside for later use and then they never mention these parts again. It frustrates me. Powerdyne frustrates me, and yes I did contact them. Not a lot of words of wisdom there, trust me.
Anyway I will pick up some extra tools at work today and give it another go here in the next week or so. Thats my latest update, nothing accomplished.

Years and years ago when I installed a Powerdyne unit onto a 2000 5.0 Explorer I ended up basically making my own directions. Later I contacted Powerdyne with full revision instructions and pictures because what they had was nowhere near clear enough. I guess the rewrite never took place. Though it has been about 8 years ago, I can probably help you out if you need to know where some things go. There are others on this site that have installed those units as well.

 

[zachow3]

Years and years ago when I installed a Powerdyne unit onto a 2000 5.0 Explorer I ended up basically making my own directions. Later I contacted Powerdyne with full revision instructions and pictures because what they had was nowhere near clear enough. I guess the rewrite never took place. Though it has been about 8 years ago, I can probably help you out if you need to know where some things go. There are others on this site that have installed those units as well.

My manual says it for for '96 to '99 Explorers. I think the kit contains parts to do anyone of those years. For instance the in-line fuel pump, which I beleive ( if the instructions are correct) is for the '99 model year. I,m running the in-tank Walbro GSS342 as many on here recommended. The belt routing has me confused. Poor description and the picture is not at all clear on this. For anyone interested in seeing what I am talking about the Powerdyne website has the installation manual. I'ts the same one that came with the kit.
I did notice a picture in the manual showing a placard with the serpentine belt routing which differs from my '96. So I dont know what year Explorer they used but looking at the motor everything else looks identical to mine.
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[zachow3]

Rookie question!
The big nut that attaches the fan clutch to the water pump pulley, does that loosen clockwise or counterclockwise? (looking from the front of the truck). Even my trusty Chiltons manual doesnt seem to be sure.

 

[CDW6212R]

The fan shroud is supposed to be labeled to tell you that. I think that it is clock wise, right hand threaded.

 

[rwenzing]

The 5.0 Ex fan clutch nut is RH thread, so loosen CCW.

The inline pump in the kit is only for the Mechanical Returnless Fuel trucks (99~01). The intank pump upgrade is all you need for your 96.

The FEAD belt routing is similar to factory except the tensioner moves up by the blower and the alternator moves low and the belt is shorter. Also, the belt goes over the idler by the thermostat instead of under (needs to be changed from a smooth pulley to a grooved pulley, which may not be included in the kit).

Regarding your instruction and installation problems:

Actually, describing the Explorer Powerdyne as a "kit" is kind of a stretch. It is more a box of supercharger related components that may or may not fit the intended application and probably is incomplete. Kind of like you tried to piece together your own setup from parts and made some mistakes along the way. Instructions? Poor. Parts list? None. Expect to do some minor fabricating, parts hunting and cussing to install this "bolt on".

 

[zachow3]

The 5.0 Ex fan clutch nut is RH thread, so loosen CCW.

The inline pump in the kit is only for the Mechanical Returnless Fuel trucks (99~01). The intank pump upgrade is all you need for your 96.

The FEAD belt routing is similar to factory except the tensioner moves up by the blower and the alternator moves low and the belt is shorter. Also, the belt goes over the idler by the thermostat instead of under (needs to be changed from a smooth pulley to a grooved pulley, which may not be included in the kit).

Regarding your instruction and installation problems:

Thank you rwenzing,
You answered several questions I had and it's beginning to make sense. Just to clarify, is the original tensioner used for running all the accessories? I know the S/C has its own tensioning pulley. Wish I had a picture to look at.

I did upgrade to Elite Explorer in hopes of showing photos of what I am trying to say. Sometime my words dont fully explain what I'm trying to explain.

 

[rocket 5979]

Thank you rwenzing,
You answered several questions I had and it's beginning to make sense. Just to clarify, is the original tensioner used for running all the accessories? I know the S/C has its own tensioning pulley. Wish I had a picture to look at.

I did upgrade to Elite Explorer in hopes of showing photos of what I am trying to say. Sometime my words dont fully explain what I'm trying to explain.

There will be a little swing arm tensioner that will take care of tensioning your regular serpentine belt. You will have another slidebar tensioner that will handle the blower belt itself.

A note on the regular serp swing arm tensioner. If you have issues getting the serp belt tight enough without squealing then I suggest you check the rear of the swing arm to see if it is contacting another mounting bolt that will be down below where it swings to when tensioning. When I installed that PD kit I had issues with the belt being too loose and squealing a bit. I finally looked under there and realized that I could not tighten it anymore due to the bolt stopping the tensioner. Once I cut the excess length of that bolt off the tensioner cinched the serp right up and no squeal.

A side tip to get your serp tensioner real tight is to get the tensioner pretty tight and tighten the locker bolt enough to hold the tensioner swing arm in place but not too tight. Then take a 1x1 board and a mallet. Place the tip of the 1x1 on the tensioner arm and smack the other end with a mallet. The tensioner will move down even tighter and will not back off. Then after you have it as tight as you want it then just go back there and lock the tensioner fully down by fully tightening the locker bolt all the way. That will be key to not having any annoying squeaks or squeals from your regular serpentine belt.

 

[zachow3]

So in this first pic it seems like I would need the Blower belt to go over the pulley and down to the crankshaft pulley. Which means I would need a grooved pulley. In the second pic is this the swing arm tensioner for the regular serpentine belt? And what are the two threaded holes aft of the supercharger mount for? I hate to make this more complicated than it probably is but I've never done this before so please bear with me.

And no that is not my bedspread, it's a guest room for my neice's.

 

[rwenzing]

The factory tensioner is not used with the kit. Both kit tensioners apply pressure to the smooth side of the belt, so both use smooth pulleys.

The picture above is the blower belt tensioner. The picture below is the accessory drive belt tensioner. The bolts in the long slots in the blower tensioner shown above mount to the two threaded holes in the blower bracket shown below.

 

[zachow3]

I actually understand it now! The Powerdyne manual was leading me down a path that did'nt make sense to me. This might actually turn out to be easier than I thought. At least I hope so. Thank you for clarifying it for me.
Now I need to figure a way to connect my 90MM MAF up and I still need an Intake filter, but that can wait.

 

[zachow3]

So this it what it should look like? (minus the install and belts of course).

 

[rwenzing]

So this it what it should look like? (minus the install and belts of course).

That looks right.

 

[rocket 5979]

That looks right.

Sure does.

 

[zachow3]

The FEAD belt routing is similar to factory except the tensioner moves up by the blower and the alternator moves low and the belt is shorter. Also, the belt goes over the idler by the thermostat instead of under (needs to be changed from a smooth pulley to a grooved pulley, which may not be included in the kit).


Do I then still need to swap the smooth pulley by the thermostat for a grooved one? There wasnt one supplied in the kit, And if so any recommendations on where to get one?

 

[rwenzing]

Do I then still need to swap the smooth pulley by the thermostat for a grooved one? There wasnt one supplied in the kit, And if so any recommendations on where to get one?

From Powerdyne's site:

Step 12. Remove the upper idler pulley above the water pump. Next remove the retainer holding the bolt to the pulley and discard the washer. The bolt will be used later.
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Step 15. Locate and install the six ribbed idler pulley supplied in your kit above the water pump using the bolt that you set aside earlier.

So, they didn't supply the 6-rib pulley in the kit? I guess that's no surprise.

There's a ton of different diameters of 6-rib pulleys used on Ford vehicles that all have the same zero offset and use the same center bolt setup. You'd just have to do some research at a good Ford parts department. I'd be looking for something maybe 3.5"~4" diameter. Or maybe you could use the smaller idler that was at the bottom of the discarded factory FEAD bracket on the passenger side - not sure if that one is large enough though.

After you get the pulley figured out, you might also have to experiment with belt length if the pulley diameter isn't a close match to Powerdyne's design intent.

 

[rocket 5979]

You reuse a pulley or two from your stocker discarded stuff. I cannot recall exactly which ones. Once you look at how the belt should route you can pretty much determine where a grooved or smooth pulley has to be.