Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader) - Page 4 - Photos & Media Forum

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Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Monday, July 02, 2012 8:21 PM
Ok guys onto the updated photos.

I completed the 2 piece passenger side bracket, and am pretty pleased with the outcome. I managed to save the stock oil filter position so I won't be needing a relocation kit... I'd like to add I'm shocked at how strong 1/4" MDF is, that somewhat heavy charger is held on there quite sturdily.

I still need to cut the belt side bracket down at the bottom but can't do so until I order, receive and install the idler pulley that I need to add to the belt system.

Onto the photos:

Belt side bracket, the bottom 2 bolts won't be on the final as the L-brackets will be welded to the back:




Oil filter side bracket:










Oil filter installed:




Clearance with the H.O manifold - shims installed between manifold and head to account for the phenolic spacer on my car:








Belt lined up:




This picture shows where I will add the extra idler pulley so I get more belt wrap on the charger:




Oil feed line and return banjo... engine is tilted back so this will be far more level on the final and will gravity feed to the pan:






Final overhead shot of the charger fully bolted up:




Overall I'm pretty happy at this point... I can't do much right now other than to drill and tap the pan for the oil return line and mock that in. I am going to order a new gates idler pulley so I can mock that in and finish the belt side MDF board off, and I need my crank pulley back from Darren so I can final align the pulley and make 100% sure it lines up with two splined pulleys. After all that it sits a while while I learn to weld and cut metal.... lol

Again any comments, tips or help are welcomed. Thanks again all for the advice so far.

-Chris-



-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...

Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Monday, July 02, 2012 9:15 PM
Your blades last longer and cut better when you oil your steel on the tracing you will be cutting, much like when you drill metal



Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Monday, July 02, 2012 9:40 PM
I have been trying to get that pulley back to you for a while now. You seem to be impossible to track down.
PS - order me one of those idler pulleys aswell and let me know what it costs.



Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Tuesday, July 03, 2012 1:47 PM
whats awesome is you're doing something totally custom and doing it all yourself. I respect that! But the question I have is with all this extra work, what do you expect to get out of this kind of setup on that motor?
Cant wait to see this thing running...Im curious as to the vibrations/heat effecting how everything is going to hold together, but Im sure it'll be longer than the blower itself might actually last

my other question is, are there rebuild kits still available for this if it does go out sooner than expected? but like i said, i cant wait to see a vid of this sucker running!


04 Cav. 2dr. 5spd. My DD. 'Nuff said.
Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Tuesday, July 03, 2012 5:10 PM
SweetnessGT wrote:While I have a migpak 140 I have converted it back to flux core due to not having a tank for the mig gas... I think it will still do the job it'll just be a bit harder to learn due to the heat... at least that's from what I understand?


Flux core is typically more difficult to work with, especially with cheaper welding setups... I would go price out a tank of argon/Co2 mix... you can buy a small one thats only about 2ft tall and about 3" round... You will be surprised how much easier it is to get a good looking weld thats functional.

Post some pics once you get started of your welds, I can help you get everything set right and tell you if your doing anything wrong. You can try the flux core, but I think you would be much happier renting a tank and getting some standard wire instead of the flux core.



Buildin' n' Boostin for 08' - Alex Richards
Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Wednesday, July 04, 2012 7:19 AM
Alex, thanks kindly for the tip, I will see what I can do to get some mig wire and a tank so I can convert it back. I had heard that it was far easier to control with the shielding gas, so I'll see what i can do. I may still start with flux in the next week or so just to play with the unit a bit and get a feel for it... I'll post pics so you can tell me where I'm screwing up - all help is appreciated!

blu04D - Thanks for the kind words. The entire point of this is to challenge myself and do it myself - hell this is how Fetter got started and now look at the stuff he puts out. If i can even get to 1/10th that talent I'd be happy.

As for what I expect out of this kind of setup... the G-charger flows slightly more CFM than an M45 at a different mapping rate, so it's a comparable charger. The biggest difference is that I can intercool the living hell out of it to get the efficiency up - you should see the Delta-T values when you intercool this unit over an M45, the improvement is staggering. Based on my pulley calculations with MD-LD9 (now MD-LG0, haha) it seems I will be churning the charger to about 13,500 rpm at redline which should net me a good CFM to make this worthwhile.

I'm not in it for power - I have a car that made power back in the day when I actually cared. If this thing only gets me 175 whp I'm fine with that because the fact I even hit that # means I was able to fabricate and complete the project successfully in my own 2 car garage, and to me that's worth more than horsepower. I do fully expect it to hit about 210 whp though, as I recently tuned a GMSC at 8.5 psi with no meth to 207 whp and the IAT's were through the roof. This charger should be at about 10-12 psi, depending on the flow variance between the G60 engine and the LD9, as I know the TwinCam flows far better.

I plan to rebuild it before i final install it - there are still crappy ebay kits out there and some very good kits with new OEM spec bearings and viton seals. Even if I don't fully rebuild it I plan to open it up and make sure everything is good inside... just turning the pulley by hand pushes air out the inlet so I imagine it is still sealed up pretty well, I just want to make sure the magnesium displacer is still good and not chipped or cracked.

Darren, I ordered an idler pulley yesterday but I'm 99% sure it wont work for you, I do have the gates part # though if you want it. You need to find out the GMSC idler pulleys diameter, width, bearing inside diameter and whether it has a sleeve in it and what size that is. I realized there is a lot to consider with something as simple as an idler.

Scott - Love you!


More updates once I get some parts and make a bit more progress. Every time I walk in to the garage and see it bolted up I smile, then I frown when I think about how little space there is to install it in the engine bay. That's next spring's hurdle.

-Chris-



-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...
Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Wednesday, July 04, 2012 11:50 AM
One thing I noticed nobody mentioned is with using your welder on 1/4" plate I'd put a bevel on the plate leaving roughly 1/8 not beveled. This way you can ensure your getting 100% pennetration and also make sure you place tack welds on either side of the plates in an alternating pattern to help keep everything in place.






Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Wednesday, July 04, 2012 4:37 PM
JUCNBST wrote:One thing I noticed nobody mentioned is with using your welder on 1/4" plate I'd put a bevel on the plate leaving roughly 1/8 not beveled. This way you can ensure your getting 100% pennetration and also make sure you place tack welds on either side of the plates in an alternating pattern to help keep everything in place.



Good tip but it works better for butt welds... not so much for welds on an angle...

If your butt welding two plates together on the same plane definitely follow this suggestion... IF your doing a 90 or something like that, tack them together at the lower edges and fillett weld the gap.



Buildin' n' Boostin for 08' - Alex Richards
Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Thursday, July 12, 2012 7:29 PM
Haven't gotten much done, been busy.

I DID get my metal finally, 1/4" plate is friggin expensive. I managed to weld for the first time this weekend - did up a welding table top for my portable workbench. Took me a while to get a feeling for the wire feed speed but the welds aren't the ugliest things on earth and I got some purple on the other side of the 1/4" plate so it looks like it was penetrating fairly well. I plan to do some practicing in the next few weeks as I get some time.

I haven't had time to put the Racetronix pump in yet, but I hope that happens in the next few days. I dread removing that damn tank. Ugh.

I received my idler pulley and mocked it in tonight - now you can see that I have much more belt wrap. All I have to do is get my crank pulley back and I can measure out the belt and order a larger belt so I can finish that part of things... then I have to remake the wood brackets 1 more time so they are perfect and then move to metal. I'm quite happy with how things have gone so far considering I have 0 experience at this.

The pics:










It's not much.... but it's a bit of progress. As always any comments are welcomed.

-Chris-



-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...
Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Thursday, July 12, 2012 7:52 PM
Some progress is better than none. looks good!




Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Thursday, July 12, 2012 9:42 PM
Chris, if you don't mind me asking, how many sq ft of the plate did you get and what was the price? PM me if you don't want others to know.

also, I'm quite excited to see how this thing turns out. quite the build you have there.


I need a new sig.

Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Friday, July 13, 2012 10:38 PM
Well, another small update.

Managed to get a 1/8" barb fitting and some high pressure fuel line that I will use as the oil drain. I assume that since this line will handle fuel and all its wonderful properties that it would be able to handle a gravity drain feed from the supercharger. Anybody think this is a bad idea?

Anyway I drilled and tapped the pan as low as I dared for the gravity feed and ran the line and clamped it all into place. I also confirmed that the banjo fitting on the feed side is indeed 1/8" NPT as shown in the photos.

Before the turbo guys question the pitifully small drain - that is the drain size that comes stock on the G-lader. The supercharger itself sees only 5 psi of oil pressure which is restricted by the banjo fittings and the inner oil feed line diameter, so the amount of oil that comes out is tiny. I know, I thought this was pretty small myself at first until I researched it.

Onto the pics!

Gravity Drain:








Oil Feed:






I celebrated this milestone with a home made beer from the kegerator:






If you're wondering, the magnets say "English Bitter", the other side says "Cerveca"... I figured it was the easiest way to label the taps so that people knew what they were pouring for themselves.


Sadly my celebration was premature. I took a few measurements and realized that pushing the rad as far forward as possible would give me the space I need BUT... wouldn't fit between the headlights. Outer J-body radiator endtank measurement is 31.5" give or take and there is just under 27" between the headlights. Looks like I need a smaller rad... great. That's a hurdle I'll jump next spring, for now it will sit in the back of my mind.

-Chris-



-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...
Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Saturday, July 14, 2012 4:17 AM
Couple things buddy. From the pics, it doesn't look like that is much of a gravity drain, how much of a slope is it on?
As for the rad, is it possible to have it on an angle like I had the oversized one in my sunfire? Or does the supercharger sit too high for that?
I will come by this week, I really wanna check it out.



Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Saturday, July 14, 2012 5:38 AM
Maybe you could try one of those Civic rads?
Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Saturday, July 14, 2012 7:24 AM
Darren - you'd be surprised but it's on a downward slope the whole way, I can possibly shorten the line an turn the banjo a bit to get a bit more of a slope but considering it's a trickle of oil going into the charger I know it isn't going to need much to drain. I didn't dare go too much lower on the pan with the fitting. You'll see when you see the setup.

Phil - I thought about that too. I came to find out that their rads are about 19" x 14" x 1"... that just seems SO small to me considering our stock rads are about 31.5" x 16" x 1".... I'm worried it won't be near enough cooling.

I looked around and I think I found a 26" x 16" x 2" aftermarket rad... or I could go with a 24" x 16" x 1.5" one I found... I'd have to pair that up with a slim fan but those are dirt cheap.

This goes against my "budget build" concept for this but it looks like it's really my only alternative. The biggest benefit to me is that I can now fit pipes around the rad without having to go around the frame rails which looks really important for the supercharger Intake. I'd been pondering for 6 months what I was going to do as the intake was going to run into the frame rail on one side and the rad fan on the other within 1" give or take. Problem solved. lol.

Oh and Darren - I can't just tilt the rad I have to move it all the way forward, the supercharger and pipes need the room. I measured and re-measured for 2 hours and there is no way around it. It took a few anger beers to calm me down. haha.

-Chris-



-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...
Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 7:45 PM
My old motor = a @!#$ champ.



My Cav
I give up...
i'm buying a VW those people love trees, so they should love eachother too... "Andy"
Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 7:46 PM
Also, I can't wait to here it ! / See it sexy man !



My Cav
I give up...
i'm buying a VW those people love trees, so they should love eachother too... "Andy"
Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 6:43 AM
Short Hand, i thought you moved on to the civic crowd...traitor



Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 9:23 AM
and then............







Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 9:32 AM
......there were termites!



Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 9:37 AM
HO NOES!!!!!!







Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 12:37 PM
Sorry guys - but yeah Scott is bang on. I've been really busy the last few months and am now in an uphill battle against termites. A good chunk of my house is ripped out and my focus right now is to get the affected sections re-framed and the house finished. The other half of my focus is to get rid of those little b@stards. I found them also invading my garage. MY GARAGE! This is war.

I have the metal and have practiced some welding. Once life is back to normal I am going to re-cut the final plates out of MDF and then test fit everything... once that's done I can move to metal. I have everything mocked up now including the belt, tensioner, idler etc.

You probably won't see any movement on this thread until Feb-March 2013, sadly.

-Chris-



-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...
Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 3:31 PM
thats ok man just dont let those termites eat your current brackets.



I choose the technology built for land speed records... not the technology built to save on emissions and gas mileage.
Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 4:05 PM
I can bring a Co2 laser and we can burn those bastards!!



FU Tuning



Re: Sickness - Supercharger Retrofit (G-Lader)
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 4:25 PM
Nuke the lil suckers!



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