Need Advice on Supercharging

[Saleen_SR71]

That sucks Utah does a visual to but its just to look for cats. Even if you hollow them out but "look" like them then you are fine. Haha, it does have to pass emmissions but if it does they leave it like that.

Yeah I got to see if my friend will test my truck with the charger to see if it will pass and then use the Powerdyne CARB number if it is needed.

 

[zachow3]

Made some progress,

Got my vibration problem fixed. Had to bite the bullit and take it to a shop. They balanced the powerdyne harmonic balancer. But it was only 10 grams off. The culprit was the fan nut spacer. Pushing the fan forward(about an inch) was not doing my waterpump shaft any favors. To much stress. So I went with an electric fan. Had to make a snap decision on that one since this is my daily driver. I dont even know what make the fan is, but the shop had it on site. Came with a controller and so far I am impressed. Though I havent had a chance to really stress it yet,i.e. towing.

But as I was talking to the shop owner, telling him about my plans for the truck, I mentioned the 42 lb injectors I was going to install. He seemed a little leary about going that big for the power gain I had in mind. He thought there could be drivability issues. I guess I need to get this resolved so I dont install them only to find out their just to much for my truck.

They finally got an AWD dyno around here. Only 4 miles from my house. So if the truck blows up it wont be that far of a tow. They mainly cater to imports but they will let you run anything. Of course I have to get the motor built before I get to that stage. Though I might do a "before" run just for fun.

Also I had mentioned earlier about replacing my intake and exhaust gaskets with better quality ones and then I read a post about different lenght bolts and washers for the TMH's. I remember all my bolts being the same length and no washers. I e-mailed Bob about getting a new set, but he must not check his inbox very often. I havent heard a word.
I may not even change my header gaskets since they dont leak. That wouldnt hurt my feelings any. I have new gaskets if I ever need them.
Also it was physically impossible to torque all the header bolts. But my instructions say 30 ft-lbs.

Gotta go clean out the garage. I seem to have misplaced some important parts.

 

[Saleen_SR71]

Made some progress,

Got my vibration problem fixed. Had to bite the bullit and take it to a shop. They balanced the powerdyne harmonic balancer. But it was only 10 grams off. The culprit was the fan nut spacer. Pushing the fan forward(about an inch) was not doing my waterpump shaft any favors. To much stress. So I went with an electric fan. Had to make a snap decision on that one since this is my daily driver. I dont even know what make the fan is, but the shop had it on site. Came with a controller and so far I am impressed. Though I havent had a chance to really stress it yet,i.e. towing.

But as I was talking to the shop owner, telling him about my plans for the truck, I mentioned the 42 lb injectors I was going to install. He seemed a little leary about going that big for the power gain I had in mind. He thought there could be drivability issues. I guess I need to get this resolved so I dont install them only to find out their just to much for my truck.

They finally got an AWD dyno around here. Only 4 miles from my house. So if the truck blows up it wont be that far of a tow. They mainly cater to imports but they will let you run anything. Of course I have to get the motor built before I get to that stage. Though I might do a "before" run just for fun.

Also I had mentioned earlier about replacing my intake and exhaust gaskets with better quality ones and then I read a post about different lenght bolts and washers for the TMH's. I remember all my bolts being the same length and no washers. I e-mailed Bob about getting a new set, but he must not check his inbox very often. I havent heard a word.
I may not even change my header gaskets since they dont leak. That wouldnt hurt my feelings any. I have new gaskets if I ever need them.
Also it was physically impossible to torque all the header bolts. But my instructions say 30 ft-lbs.

Gotta go clean out the garage. I seem to have misplaced some important parts.

If you ever want a bigger crank pulley I was talking to someone but could not acquire the information needed for the guy to make a pulley. He said he would be more than willing to attempt making a larger pulley but he would need to know from the front of the dampener how far out the new grooves need to be on the new pulley.

If you want his info or if anyone would like to attempt a larger crank pulley for their powerdyne or custom supercharger setup let me know and I will post his info.

 

[ttbit]

Glad you got it fixed. Oh...and the 42s will work, but you just need to get a good tuner that understands all the tables for driveability. You don't just tell the computer what injectors you have and it is done. I had my 5.0 KB setup smoother and getting better gas mileage on 36s than the 19s when stock. Then again...I tuned it myself over several weeks. Tuning for peak power is easy. The rest takes time.

 

[CDW6212R]

That's good to know about the spacer, and another shame on the makers of the kit.

You have a stock Explorer balancer yes? Those are a pain because of the integral pulley. An Australian brand makes those also, even an SFI balancer. I have my custom balancer at my machine chop, the second one is done. I started with an OEM balancer in 28oz, to match my 347. You can do the same with a 50oz. balancer if needed. My machinist here is much better and more reasonable than the first source I used.

My balancer thus has a bolt on pulley, the 94/95 Mustang pulleys. I have a Cobra version for now, it's the same diameter as the Explorer crank pulley. I can have a custom pulley made later in a larger size for a supercharger.

 

[zachow3]

Glad you got it fixed. Oh...and the 42s will work, but you just need to get a good tuner that understands all the tables for driveability. You don't just tell the computer what injectors you have and it is done. I had my 5.0 KB setup smoother and getting better gas mileage on 36s than the 19s when stock. Then again...I tuned it myself over several weeks. Tuning for peak power is easy. The rest takes time.

Well I hope the 42's are ok. I,ve seen other members running them and actually they were recommended from someone on this site. I do believe this shop owner knows his stuff, I just dont know how familiar he is with tuning a 2+ ton SUV. He had drag cars in his shop. With parachutes on the back. I assume that means their pretty fast. I do have another shop in town that has SCT certified tuners. Thats where I plan to go.

I have had an issue with the SCT Live Link datalogging software and my laptop which runs Vista. It doesnt seem to recognize it when I hook my Livewire to it. At this point I would not feel comfortable at all making any tuning changes but I suppose if I could get my datalogging to work I might be able to learn somthing.Could my operating system be the issue?

 

[zachow3]

Think I jumped the gun. I found a Vista compatible software/firmware update for the Livewire and a much newer Live Link update. But it says to disable UAC in Vista...what is that and how do I do it?

I,m so used to XP.

Disregard, I figured it out.

Hopefully I can give it a test tommorrow.

 

[ttbit]

Think I jumped the gun. I found a Vista compatible software/firmware update for the Livewire and a much newer Live Link update. But it says to disable UAC in Vista...what is that and how do I do it?

I,m so used to XP.

Disregard, I figured it out.

Hopefully I can give it a test tommorrow.

UAC in Vista is a pain. Glad you found how to disable. I am running Livewire on Vista and it is working fine. I had to upgrade mine also. A good SCT tuner should know how to tune for driveability. I have the Xcal 2, but don't have the tuning software for it. I don't have a tune for the Explorer at this time. It was for my 2006 Mustang. Might do something more later this year though. I tuned my '95 Mustang with an EEC Tuner and GUIEEC software. I was really happy with it.

 

[4jrfox]

Supercharger for sale

Hello, I have a powerdyne original kit for sale. There is a difference the brackets fits better and the lower alt bracket is different. This is better than the Ford Racing amd the motorsport. I have two setups one new and one used. The new I used on my explorer and the used my brother purchased and never used. It only has under 15,000 miles on it. Still has the 6 pound stock pulley on it the case has the inspection tabs on it and never opened. Tight and quiet. They say you can go up to 9 pounds on your stock bottom end. This comes with all clamps and brackets bolts. I think for around 100.00 you can using this. He has $2,000.00 in the kit also comes with 3 sets of instructions new powerdyne overflow bottle. This is the easiest way to bolt on power without waisting more gas. Only when you have your foot in the gas you will be using more. This is a way to Conserve gas when you want and to have the extra zip when you need. If interested write and I'll send you some pic's John ...4jrfox@sbcglobal.net.........281-451-8884

 

[turboexplorer]

I would suggest talking to James on here. He has a 12 second truck on here. He has tuned all of the fastest trucks on here. I have talked to him many times. Check out the need for speed thread on 1/4 mile times his screen name is jah81592 and web site is www.hensoneperformance.com He does almost everything with SCT and does that for all of these trucks.

 

[zachow3]

Well I got a tune for my supercharger setup. It's only a preliminary tune until I can get the truck to the dyno. Time and lack of funds are working against me.

My electric fan gets a work out for the next few days. Supossedly 100 degrees or higher. Not unheard of but not a common year to year event around here.

Depending on how the truck temp runs will determine whether or not I put my fan shroud back on(with a little modification). It's nice to have all that room up front without the shroud there.

I have a slight ticking noise in the engine. The last shop I took it to said it was probably worn pushrod guides since I have quite a few miles on the engine. Just more of an annoyance to me, it's not very noticable.

My buddy who was going to help me with the final install is finally back to work after a couple months off with a broken heel. I'm hopeful within a couple months this will come together. Certainly before winter.

I would certainly like to post some results by then.

 

[zachow3]

Was thinking about these. Put them in place of the primary cats and at some point getting the electric cutouts so I can operate them from inside the truck.
I remember when I installed the TM headers and drove up to the muffler shop with them uncapped. Sounded like a race car

Probably would be a little performance boost too. I have my rear 02 sensors turned off so there should'nt be an issue throwing codes.

 

[CDW6212R]

Check out Jon's truck, he has electric cut outs on it. There's a clip of it also. Note that you really could use another PCM program if you do it for performance. The engine will pump more air with cut outs, and that means running leaner. It's fun to listen to, but more fuel would make it faster.

 

[zachow3]

Actually this cat might be an issue. I have these magnaflows and the this one is tucked up pretty tight to the engine/trans. Looking closer, putting the cutouts in place of the secondary cats looks pretty staight forward.
This is a pic of the cat and the tight bends plus the 02 bungs are really close together.

 

[CDW6212R]

Is that an Explorer cat pipe that only has one cat in it by design? Interesting,

 

[zachow3]

Check out Jon's truck, he has electric cut outs on it. There's a clip of it also. Note that you really could use another PCM program if you do it for performance. The engine will pump more air with cut outs, and that means running leaner. It's fun to listen to, but more fuel would make it faster.

Jon went electric? I had heard he was going with manual cutouts. I know plans change...Mine have countless times during the build.

The tune will change with any mods. To keep costs down, I want to do them all at once. I have the parts and at some point help to put it all together. The tune I have ready to install now is based on all the mods I will be incorporating so I can have the truck driveable to get it down to the dyno.
Whats nice is the cost of this tune rolls into the dyno tune, i.e. free tune

 

[zachow3]

Is that an Explorer cat pipe that only has one cat in it by design? Interesting,

That is the drivers side. The passenger side is seperate.

 

[CDW6212R]

I think it's electric, I remember him posting pictures of them, and then the video to let uis hear it was up.

 

[turboexplorer]

I have a slight ticking noise in the engine. The last shop I took it to said it was probably worn pushrod guides since I have quite a few miles on the engine. Just more of an annoyance to me, it's not very noticable.

Your ticking in the engine for sure or the common factory manifold exhaust leak? Probably already checked but throwing it out there.

 

[zachow3]

Your ticking in the engine for sure or the common factory manifold exhaust leak? Probably already checked but throwing it out there.

Yeah,

It's an engine tick. This shop owner has been building engines from stock rebuilds to full race for many years. I asked him when I took it to him if it could be an exhaust leak. He could feel a vibration that I could'nt, hence the balancing of my aftermarket harmonic balancer. He also said the tick was not an exhaust leak. Just normal wear on a high mileage engine. I have a few bottles of STP oil treatment lying around and thought about trying that. I have a fairly fresh oil change so I thought I would wait until my next one.
Note: It could be my hearing but I dont seem to hear it all the time. At higher RPM's I cant hear it but that could just be the exhuast noise drowning it out. Most noticeable at idle..when I hear it if that makes sense.