McGehee/Forza Supercharger Install!!!

Hmm, haven't measured... and it's so much fun, I don't know and don't care!!! Maybe Scott or Mark have done that with theirs since they've had them longer...

 

I know yours is a different animal, but where is yours set?

 

We *think* those CF parts are the last of what it will take to finalize this installation... Scott is supposed to take them to be shipped to me today 2nd-day air, so they should be here Tuesday or Wednesday along with the new cam belts!

Also, thanks to Sean (Luckydynes) who did the final machining on the adjustable pulley set. Looks great (now we just hope he was given the right dimensions so they fit).

 

It lives (again)!!

The rebuilt blower unit is a LOT quieter than the original ever was... which must have had some kind of internal problem since the beginning. The sound at idle is no longer an annoyance and is merely the "whirrr" of the vanes rather than metallic like a bad diesel.

Scott has been travelling and we still have some minor things to work out. One of the new carbon fiber pieces (the "U") is ok, but the other doesn't fit no matter how you try to fit it. I'm still using the original metal setup there to connect the SC to the CIS. There's also some improvements that were agreed to in the oil line fittings (it could really use a banjo bolt) and other small stuff I haven't gotten from him yet that's not keeping it from working, but would improve the installation and the next time it has to be r/r'd.

Unfortunately, we didn't get the new adjustable cam pulleys and belts on... my local mechanic I've been using for almost 15 years is closing down his shop! The building was sold, and the new landlord is doubling the rent, and didn't have time to get that done before having to move out. It may be several months before he's available to do work for me again. I have to find an alternative for awhile.

I've really missed this car! The delay it getting back together has also caused me to miss a recent track event where I wanted to really give it some exercise. I'm participating in a charity event at a private racetrack this weekend... looking forward to that.

I'm back in the saddle again... at 300+ hp!

 

The tool is here... thanks... I have it to send back to you. The charity event is at Dunlop's private racetrack... it's not the "big" event which they won't be able to do for us until Spring, but we'll still be taking a few kids with muscular dystrophy around the track, along with interested immediate family members. Of of the wheelchair bound kids had been asked, "if you could do anything you wanted, what would it be?" He wanted to take a ride in a Ferrari! That's what kicked this off. We're glad to be able to do this... early-onset MD kids often don't live past their early 20's...

For the Spring event, we'll have more kids, cars and track time. But if you're going to (or want to be) up in Huntsville this Sunday afternoon with your 308, it would be great to have you join us.

 

Yes, starting at 1:30pm, if you don't have a game conflict...?

 

Look for a PM from me...

 

If you do, you'll finally get to experience the supercharger in action! Give me a call...

 

Tommy got a ride and got to feel the supercharger accelleration in action on a private test track today. I'll let him give his impressions.

We were at a charity event and busy almost the whole time or he'd have gotten to drive it too... but I'll make sure he gets another chance soon!

 

I took the 308 for a back-roads drive yesterday... what FUN that car is. It's as well-behaved as ever when driving through town, but when you punch it, the ~300 rwhp really kicks in.

I never did get the adjustable cam timing pulleys in, but when I finally do, and adjust the timing to get rid of some of the valve overlap, it should get even better! Under full throttle with the euro fuel distributor I've got an 11.5 a/f ratio, so there's room for more boost and I will also do another dyno session at that time to fine-tune the advance curve. Actually, Scott needed that pulley set for another client, so I shipped it back to him. He's having some more sets made so I'll get one of those *AND* I'm hoping he'll come out to install it and help me fine tune the entire setup.

Also still to do, but certainly not keeping me from driving: 1. Scott is having one of the carbon fiber pieces remade -- the piece connecting the blower's output to the CIS needed to be longer (taller?), so I'm still using the original aluminum setup there. He's also going to provide a short piece of silicone tubing as a "coupler" for the hose going into "U" from the air filter -- the opening of the "U" was the same size as the air corrugated air hose so I had to use black duct-tape to fit them together for now. 2. Scott (actually, it should be Nick, but I'll let them work that out) has promised me a replacement trigger wheel that has the "proper" mounting holes/slots. The original one from Nick wouldn't line up and had to be mounted 2 teeth off from proper zero. It's not too big a deal to adjust all the timing in the XDI by +6 degrees to compensate, but I shouldn't have to.

 

Update:

Still waiting for the replacement/refitted custom carbon fiber piece going from the SC to the CIS... haven't put on the new belt system with adjustable pullies nor adjust valve timing -- that will likely wait for winter again since I'll have to take the system aprt to do it.

Earlier this week I fixed an oil leak that had been bothering me (and caused the car to really smell when I took it out for a drive), and while nosing around under the hood we found that when the gas pedal was fully depressed there was still another 1/4 inch of travel available on the throttle, so we adjusted it so that so full throttle really is full throttle now. That made a little difference, though not all that much.

Yesterday Scott sent me a new WinTEC4 file for the XDI-2 with a new advance table he'd optimized during a full day at the dyno on another car with the same setup as mine including tweaks for the 3-bar map sensor. I programmed that into the XDI-2 last night, and took it out for a drive this morning -- a VERY noticeable seat-of-the-pants additional improvement in accelleration again -- and I didn't think the car could still surprise me!

 

Update: In working on the engine for other issues, I found that the o-ring was missing from around the cold-start injector. Not only may this have been a contributor to a hot-restart problem, but adding one moved my peak boost from just a touch below 7 psi with the current pulley, to right at 8 psi boost! I didn't really expect that, but today is the first time I took the car out where I could really exercise it safely and thought it was odd that it seemed to have more power -- of course, that's not a bad problem to have. Couldn't figure out what it might be until I checked the "peak boost" function of the gauge, and it said 8 pounds! I reset it to zero and then did another aggressive run, and sure enough, again 8 pounds peak pressure, reached at redline under load! I'm still getting around 12.0-12.5 air/fuel, too. Happy camper here.