Progress Thread 1998 Gt Procharger Build--dyno And Track Numbers Inside

[squeak93]

Yeah, I'm casually looking for a nice set of PI heads or a set of ported heads someone took off for trick flows.

I keep chasing demons away. Yesterday I hit 12/13lbs in 1st gear. That felt freaking amazing. I still don't hit that in 2/3 gears so I'm going to swap all the worm gear clamps to t bolts today and install the tubular front bumper support in an effort to get more intercooler and radiator flow. The stock bumper support blocks 1/3-1/2 of my intercooler. I'm also going to rig up a way to pressure check the intercooler for leaks.

Still looking good daily driving it right now. Other than it using a LOT more fuel (I have a heavy foot right now lol) it drives pretty much like stock until I hit the happy pedal.

I'm still waiting on shipping confirmation on the tensioner so I'm doubting I'll get it in and installed in time for the track. We are looking at an excellent DA night this fri (980 track elevation but the air is usually in the 2500-3000 ft range due to humidity).

 

[squeak93]

Well good news bad news for any of those that are reading lol

I found a boost leak. The new maf pipe (sct ba5000 sensor and pipe) were leaking when I reverse pressurized the system. I couldn't even get 5 lbs of air into it. I'm amazed the car made any boost at all. But now I know. I was able to pressure check the intercooler and it checked/held pressure just as it should have. So that's great news.

I also got the tubular front bumper mocked/temp installed. I wasn't thinking at all but obviously I loose my fog lights with this setup so I'll have to fabricate a bracket to mount them to the same place the bumper support mounts too. No way I'm giving up the fogs, I think it makes the sn cars look killer with parking/fog lights on only for evening night shots. I'm not too concerned about the weight as I did the tubular bar for air flow and not weight savings.

I was finally able to track down the correct t bolt clamps. I am not messing with worm gears anymore. I just don't trust them and am tired of not making the right amount of boost in 3rd gear (makes 12/13lbs in first but only 8/10 max in third).

Anyway I'm still waiting on lethal to ship/drop ship the billet tensioner, had I known it wasn't in stock from them I would have just ordered from Thumper directly.

I sadly won't make the track this Friday as I'm taking a step back and ensuring I button up this small crap so maybe I don't have to jack with it anymore for a while and I can actually enjoy the car and dollars wasted on it.

 

[squeak93]

 

[squeak93]

I made some fog light brackets last night. I wasn't a fan of loosing them even though it added some weight back to the front end.

 

[squeak93]

Well I got it all back together. Car makes boost easier (5lbs at 2500 it seems, which it never did before). However, I chucked my 7th or 8th belt last night. Shredded it again.

It is only chucking belts when I let off the throttle under boost (high rpms). My best guess is that my tensioner is unable to hold up and allows the belt to slip off either the water pump or the tensioner pulley itself. Then it gets caught in something else and shredded. It have never tossed itself while under boost. Always after I let off the throttle. And only when I let off at WOT in high rpms. I can do a quick blast in the mid range and it's fine.

So I'll call Lethal Performance and ask where they billet tensioner I ordered a week ago is (the one they said was shipping Tuesday but UPS still doesn't show it)

 

[squeak93]

Good News is the car made 10lbs in second gear at the shift.

Bad news is either UPS lost my tensioner or Thumper/Lethal performance are lying about it shipping out earlier this week. No one will open a case on it or help me until next Tues.

So I think I'm going to tear this damn thing down one more time. I obviously have to remove the blower to get to the stock crappy tensioner. I think we are going to go ahead and replace the seals on it since I have a tiny bit of oil on the discharge tube. Plus I've shredded enough belts imagine my pulley seal is fuked.

So more down time.


Any of you (who might be reading still) ever do a mod to your car, plan it out, don't cheap out on stuff needed, do everything right and still get boned? I feel that way about every single project. lol


Yes I know if it was easy everyone would do it. However, I'd like to have a good string of luck once in a while.

Ok pity party over. Time to put the car in time out for a while.

 

[Scubastevesstang]

Are supercharger kits usually difficult like this? It seems like a bolt on kit that would go pretty smooth? I've been following the build...hope luck comes your way.

 

[squeak93]

For 99% of the population yes.


However I've learned that what can go wrong will go wrong for me

If 5% of people experience an issue I will 100% of the time. Haha.

It's just how crap goes for me.

On a side note my luck got better. My alternate took a random dump on me on the way home. It sounds like its bearings are now a box of rocks.

It's comical at this point. It really is. Haha.


The blower does what it's supposed to do. Nothing else does it seems. Haha

 

[squeak93]

I got the alternator replaced over the weekend.

The old one was SO bad that it snapped the nut off the pulley and it was spinning on the shaft. This could be a source of my belt issues if the Alt has been going bad for a while and causing issues. There was a ton of belt debris so there goes another belt. That really doesn't matter as the new alt has a smaller pulley on it (old pulley was obviously trashed) so I get to play the "guess that belt size" game again. I'm guessing this will allow me to run the Procharger recommended 112 vs the 113 I was able to get on.

And UPS finally opened a claim Sat on my missing tensioner. I'm stuck until it either shows up or Lethal/Thumper decide to do the right thing and ship another one out so a guy can get racing.

I also realized that I had no core support shroud for my Radiator/air flow. So I had an old fox one laying around that I redrilled a few holes on, did some trimming and now I magically have a new (to me) shroud. This should ensure maximum air flow over the rad/intercooler now.

That's it until it shows up.

 

[Mattstang04]

Sorry to hear about the complications with the parts. Good catch on the alternator. One more fix crossed off the list. Don't you just love the look of the intercooler in front of the car. Almost makes you hate to cover it up.

 

[squeak93]

The intercooler is killer looking. The sn bumpers really don't show much if any of it. You have to know it's there in order to see it. It tucks in there so nicely.

My tensioner is out for delivery so here's to hoping it actually shows up today.

My plan is to replace the rear seal on the blower (the one the belts like to smack when they shred), and put it all back together tonight. Once I get the right belt length I'll order up either a gates green HD belt or a continental (gatorback) of the same length. I'm tired of messing around with normal gates/cheap belts.

All in the name of boost and fun. Now my luck will still be I'll get all this done to run a 13.5 or something pathetic.

For the record it ran 14.18 @98 before the blower on a 3500da night. So not exactly a power house to begin with. We will see.

 

[Mattstang04]

14.18 isn't bad for a non PI head naturally aspirated car with mild cams.

 

[squeak93]

14.18 isn't bad for a non PI head naturally aspirated car with mild cams.

An auto to boot.

 

[squeak93]

This gem finally showed up today.

 

[squeak93]

And as expected the spacing is different so I'll have to do the whole belt alignment gig again

 

[squeak93]

Well we got the spacing as accurate as we could. Holy crap is this tensioner soooo much tighter than the stock one. It had me shaking holding it open while my buddy fought the new belt.


I took it for a test drive. Flogged it. Made some boost. Let off a few times to see if it would kick it and so far it's good. But time will tell.

It's a dang shame that nice piece is hidden in the motor. Lol. For it's price you want to show it off.

 

[Mattstang04]

Yeah. Billet is pretty. I feel the same way about shifters. You get a nice aftermarket shifter and it's polished to a mirror finish and gleaming. Then you hide it under the car. Shameful.

 

[squeak93]

So another day of ripping on it and all is well.

If the weather clears out in time I'm going to head to the track tomorrow evening for some shakedown passes. I'll be happy (but disappointed at the same time) with a 12.50 or better. I'm really shooting for 12.teens or better but I know i'm typically disappointed.

I'm on nitto drag radials and some suspension (lca, adjustable shocks etc). But it's a stock stall auto.

 

[Mattstang04]

In most of my drag racing and dyno endeavors, I have more often come up short of my expectations. As long as you see improvement, it's a victory. There's always more stuff to buy and things to fix. It never ends. Got to love the hobby of vehicular performance.

 

[squeak93]

If it's someone else's car that I work on, they always seem to exceed expectations (For example our 98 n2o car runs 11.90s on a 125 shot, pi swap and small cams).

In actuality my 03 mach 1 ran 12.60@108 so I'll be really bummed if this doesn't smoke that as the mach was na.

I'm still softly looking for a nice set of fox lake pi heads on the cheap or a fresh set of pi heads. I may have them worked over. A stall is on the list for the winter too.