No More Leaks!

[anupaum]

At least, I HOPE so! I've had to modify my intercooler tubing quite a bit. Last month I ordered some short radius elbows, which are now clamped (with the BIG clamps!) onto my intercooler. I had to take some of my tubes down to a muffler shop to have their ends expanded because the tubing is 2.5 inches on the outside, while the short radius elbows are 2.5 inches in the INSIDE. It was a bit of a pain, but now it's NOT leaking!

I'm still worried about belt alignment, though. I've raised the nose of the blower with some spacers, but the belt doesn't look quite right . . . (Of course, it looked fine to my eyes when I first installed it, so who am I to judge?) There is no way to move the blower further back, as it's already hitting the heater fan, so if this doesn't work, I don't know WHAT I'm going to do!

 

[rurouni20xx]

sounds good, if and when you get a camera (thats if you choose to do so, no pressure) id like to see pics of this. its interesting looking at others setups for ideas on my own and so i can learn from others experiences. i myself have a v6 but i wont lie a lot of my ideas are actually 4 cylinder derivations modified for a 6 cylinder setup. as far as the megasquirt is concerned, im planning on running that myself on my turbo 3.3 build, hows it working for you? any pointers i should know about? its going on a 93 eec4 setup and i asked them to build me one that i will order at a later date w/ a single wideband and new harness, its the megasquirt 1 ill have to look up what build the unit will be.

 

[TireIron]

can you press the pulley onto the blower shaft a little bit more or is it all the way to the back already?

 

[anupaum]

can you press the pulley onto the blower shaft a little bit more or is it all the way to the back already?

No, it's all the way back. I THINK there may be a little bit of an offset in the position of the blower on the bracket. That's caused by the back end of the blower intake needing to clear the heater fan--in other words, the supercharger is ever so slightly twisted to the right in order to clear the fan. I did NOT have this problem when I first mounted the blower on the truck.

My set up can't stay this way. I clearly have no more leaks (and I need to re-tune the idle as a result, because the truck will simply die when I try to set the idle speed down to where it needs to be), but the vibration from the intercooler tubing rubbing against the hood is driving me nuts!

When I initially set up the system, I had the supercharger sitting directly on top of its mounting bracket. In order to clear the heater fan on the back, however, I've had to raise it with spacers, and this is causing all manner of problems. (It's scary to see how close that serpentine belt is running to the upper radiator hose!)

I spent two hours looking at every GM vehicle in the wrecking yard today. The Cadillac heater fan (which extends beyond the firewall about HALF the distance of the one I've currently got on there) that I picked up on e-bay will replace the other unit I've got bolted on there now, and hopefully that will take care of the clearance issue. However, I can't find a pigtail for this stupid thing!

Tomorrow I'd like to visit an RV shop with the heater fan in hand, to see if there is something there that will fit. Otherwise, it's going to have to be a "custom wiring job . . ."

I HATE wiring!

 

[TireIron]

Hey Robert, I was checking out the differences between the powerrise hood from the 01-03 rangers and my 94 and it looks like it will bolt up except for the latch. Something custom would have to be done for the latch to work properly, or hood pins could be installed on it. You would have to cut open the underside of the hood where you need the clearance though because they are flat inside just like the regular hoods, but as long as you dont cut through the outer skin you would be all set. It may be something for you to keep an eye out for sometime.

 

[anupaum]

That's not a bad idea. However, I'm thinking of a different solution right now. I had to raise the supercharger in order to accomodate the M90's intake on the back side. Even now it threatens to rub against the heater motor. However, I've got this heater motor from a Cadillac DeVille (this thing is a $400 item at the dealer--it's ridiculous--but I picked it up on e-bay for $70!) that extends only 1.25 inches from the firewall. On Friday afternoon, I went to an electrical shop and they not only made a "custom pigtail" for me (the factory one is over $80!), they also looked up a wiring diagram. It looks like the Cadillac heater fan has some kind of controller that goes with it because it's got a wire for 12 volt power, one for ground and one for "switched power." I'm not sure how to wire it up yet, but if I can swap my current heater fan with this Cadillac one, I should be able to put the blower back down on the pedestal mount and clear the hood without any more trouble.

At least, that's what I'm hoping!

My sweetheart is putting a LOT of pressure on me to sell the truck and get a Sport Trac. I don't know how long I'm going to be able to resist . . .

 

[anupaum]

I just HAVE to say that when I've got the bed of the truck heaped high with barn litter for the garden, it sure is nice to climb the hill without having everyone behind me honking the horn and gesticulating wildly!

My son and I re-tuned the fuel map. One DISadvantage of speed density is that any change in the system (including improvements, like getting rid of leaks!) requires modifying the fuel map. The truck is running REALLY well right now. The bigger intercooler tubing has dropped my max boost from 5 psi to 4, which isn't hurting anything. When I put my foot into the throttle, the engine responds crisply and doesn't feel like it's trying very hard to go fast!

We had a surprise snow storm on Wednesday. I can't start in first gear when there's snow on the road without winding up completely sideways. Because there are two main ways to get up the hill where I live, if we get snow in the midst of the day before the crews arrive to clear the roads, there's always a big mess around here. A school bus tipped over, blocking one road, and the other main way was so slick with ice, no one was moving.

My youngest son and I decided to "go the long way." There's a road through Ryder Lake that only residents take when the weather is bad, because most of the folk who live up there own 4 wheel drives and those who don't just stay home. We were following a Toyota RAV 4, with a V6 4WD Ranger and a Jeep behind us. As long as I had momentum I could climb the hill without trouble. When the Toyota slowed down I had traction problems.

Unfortunately, the Toyota owner lived on a steep section of hill. He / she (couldn't tell) slowed to pull into a driveway, forcing me to come to nearly a complete stop. I had some trouble getting started again, both of the 4WD vehicles behind me PASSED me while I was struggling to get going, but once I had the truck moving, my little Supertruck caught up with the other two and stayed with them without trouble.

It generally doesn't do well in DEEP snow, and even coming downhill I had to stay out of first gear. If the revs are up over 2 500 rpm, there's just too much torque to keep the back end straight. It's an interesting problem to HAVE while driving a 4 cylinder Ranger, right?

We got home safely. Once I can take care of the vibration problem I'll be good to go!

How long has this taken me, now? Sheesh!