Probably around 1000 fun-filled miles. Yes, identical. I understand Scott had to get his blower unit replaced early on also, though I don't recall the reason... Of course, I can just take the belt off, reprogram the advance curve, and run just fine without it (just accellerating quite a bit slower!)
There should be no need to change anythign in the ignition curve. It will read the MAP sensor and know to give you full timing.....at least that is how it's supposed to work.
the original had a bad seal, so it started to dump oil into the air stream within seconds of running. thankfully it was the first startup and it wasn't plumbed into the manifold. it was replaced that same day. so far I have 10k+ miles of zero trouble.
Ah, good point, thanks! I do have to remember to also reconnect the vacuum line to the upper chamber of the WUR.
I just realized today that this was your car Mike. Yes, I'm a little slow. Now I'm REALLY sorry you didn't have your car back last Saturday. You could've really had fun with me by not saying anything and then driving off and leaving me in your dust. Can't wait to see and hear it this Saturday at the track.
See you Saturday... I'll also give you a ride in it so you can see what our 3X8 cars can do when pushed, even WITHOUT my supercharger hooked up. But it's going to be difficult getting used to running it with 100 less horsepower again!
Perhaps this is somewhere else in this thread, but why is the SC going to be disconnected? I assume you have a spare helmet?
It just started making noises indicating bad bearings... It's going to have to be replaced under warranty. Scott is going to handle it for me, probably through Nick at Nick's Forza. For now, all I did was disconnect the belt that drives it, so I'll be running with normal aspiration. I am bringing a couple of spare helmets for guests to use... no problem!
Latest: Now that the blower unit has been removed and shipped back under warranty, it appears that the problem doesn't appear to be bearing-related after all, but instead might be an internal balance or alignment issue. After opening the case to examine the parts, the noise was coming from the internal vanes starting to rub against the case wall, also causing them to deform. It's definitely something covered by Vortech's warranty. They normally do a complete rebuild in a week or less... we'll see what they do with this -- Scott is working with Vortech on this for me. The real delay comes from shipping across the country -- it takes a week normal ground in either direction, and the thing is too heavy to justify shipping it expedited. But I'm also waiting for the last pieces of the cam pulley/belt upgrade now anyway, and I want to have that put on before the supercharger goes back on.
You have made me wonder about something that I have never thought about with aftermarket products before; What if that thing broke on John Smith's 308 2 or three month's after he brought it home? I can see the warrenty covering the product but will they pay the labor the R&R it? That could be very expensive and John Smith's mechanic isn't going to pull it off and put it on again for free. What about the two way shipping?
It's like most things of that nature... including our Hayden fan upgrades or our Brembo front brake system upgrades... they'll cover the parts but not the labor of the remove/replace on the car. And shipping back to them is on your dime, but they'll cover shipping to you.
That could be a MAJOR out of pocket expense if the product has ANY realiability issues. Everyone should know this up front before they buy.
As far as labor goes, I could have easily pulled the blower unit off myself, though I let my mechanic do it since I was having some other work done anyway. It's the initial install of the whole package (oil lines, harmonic balancer, ignition package, etc) that takes a a good bit of time. Removing and replacing just the blower itself once the rest of it is all in isn't that big a deal, thankfully.
in the design I made sure that if one needed to remove the headunit for service or otherwise that it would not entail alot of work. it takes about 15mins to remove the headunit from the engine, it actually takes more time to get the car up on stands and the wheel and liner off than it takes to remove the headunit.
UPDATE: I am *STILL* waiting for the return of my rebuilt blower/head unit! Scott offerred to send me his off his car, but I told him 'no' figuring the return of mine should be imminent! Vortech had told me that they normally do a complete rebuild with 1 week inhouse turn-around. I'm also still waiting for the upgraded cam pullies/belt kit, which is also supposed to be "any day now"... I wanted to change that out before putting the S/C back on. Finally, I'm also still waiting for the carbon-kevlar pieces to give the install a more finished look, and an improved fit...
Mike, You must have read my mind, i was just about to write and ask "What's happening??" LOL BTW These guys ,Vortech, are they in Europe? Cause you know over there they take 2 months for "Holiday"
Nope, they're in California... so I guess they have their own set of excuses! Scott (and I think maybe Nick also) have done all the interfacing with them on my warranty rebuild, or I'd call them and try to push it myself.
Report from Scott: Vortech has rebuilt the supercharger blower unit under warrantee -- it will be shipped to me UPS ground on Monday (and then it will take about a week to get here) -- EXCEPT that Scott needs to check with them on Monday first to confirm that it has what they call the "super quiet" (SQ) gearing in it. It hopefully is fine, since what I originally ordered was a 2D118-020 which shows up on the VortechEngineering.com website as an SQ model, but it's a little confusing because the website ALSO says that it has a straight-cut spur gear, which is *not* SQ technology... it should be a Helical cut gear. Hopefully the adjustable cam pulley set that uses the upgraded belts will ship at the same time, since it has to go on before the supercharger does, otherwise the SC has to be pulled off to do that work.
Head unit showed up yesterday, yeah! it'll head out on Monday to you. I checked it out i.e. turning it, much much quieter now I'll get an exact answer from Vortech on Monday for you. I also went to visit the carbon fiber shop and the first parts will be off the mold on Thursday next week, finally some progress. as soon as the pullies are ready to go I'll get those out ASAP, 2nd air to you. have a great weekend. i'm off to collect 2 lifts for the price of 1/3 from a shop that's closing it's doors, craigslist has some great treasures! brand new too!
In this setup, it's "standard" (because all of the particular V9-G clockwise rotation blowers are supposed to be set up that way. Some people like the supercharger noise. I actually don't mind it at speed, but I didn't like the old noise at idle... but it may have been that noisy at idle because it had the problem in the first place.
I've received the warranty-rebuilt Vortech blower unit back... and Scott tells me I'll have the adjustable cam pulleys and new belts in my hands on Friday, along with the new carbon fiber parts for the supercharger install and some miscellaneous revised/improved mounting pieces. I'll get those down to the shop so the reinstall can proceed next week. What we need to decide on beforehand is what to change the cam timing to in order to get rid of some of that "air-pig" valve overlap issue that is apparently worse in the USA model QV than in the euro. Suggestions?
