So, You Want To Put A Blower On Your Car...

[mlschultz]

Update - Ryan called and said that the long stud bolt that goes through the Vortech bracket, idler pulley, and into the engine block managed to strip the threads in the engine block.

They are going to helicoil the engine block, and put the thing back together.

The alternator and t-trim took a hit, but they think they will be ok.

Can you imagine what would of happened if I was doing 120mph at the drag strip and this happened?

Crap, I was doing maybe 10mph pulling into the parking lot when the pulley locked up.

The parts are in, and the idler pulley Vortech sent is totally different than the one that locked up on me.

Aric is going to load up the manual shift tune in the car, and test it to make sure it is working properly for the track when I race at SSHS10 on November 6. No more leave it in drive for me at the track.

If all goes well, I should have the car back tomorrow.

 

[LaserSVT]

Excellent! Glad to hear it mang. Bummer about the block getting dammaged though.

I was in a "mood" yesterday and took the car for a speed run on a closed road and after passing 160 I thought about how bad it would be if I lost a tensioner at that speed.


Anywho since you been through this so many times. if it were me I would have some extra material welded on that ear of the bracket to help it hold.

 

[Mark8Murder]

Excellent! Glad to hear it mang. Bummer about the block getting dammaged though.

I was in a "mood" yesterday and took the car for a speed run on a closed road and after passing 160 I thought about how bad it would be if I lost a tensioner at that speed.


Anywho since you been through this so many times. if it were me I would have some extra material welded on that ear of the bracket to help it hold.

How did you know you were going 160? Was Sapperfire running next to you??

 

[Silver_LS]

What does the speedo in a Mark go to? The LS is 160, though I'm sure an LS has never hit 160.

 

[mlschultz]

Went to see the progress today. Miller said he will have it running before he goes home today.

The helicoil went well, but he could not use my spare serp belt in the trunk. He had to send for a new one and trade my spare for the next size larger belt.

That said, apparently, the idler pulley must be larger too.

Here are some nasty camera phone pics.

 

[LaserSVT]

How did you know you were going 160? Was Sapperfire running next to you??

Sapperfires car wont do 160 and wouldnt matter cause the first gens speedo stops at the same place as the second gens.

That being said, I knew I hit 160 the same way I knew when I hit 178. Cars NAV system has a GPS speedo.

 

[Sapperfire]

The only reason my car won't do 160 is because it's owner isn't a waterbaby

 

[Mark8Murder]

Sapperfires car wont do 160 and wouldnt matter cause the first gens speedo stops at the same place as the second gens.

That being said, I knew I hit 160 the same way I knew when I hit 178. Cars NAV system has a GPS speedo.

160+ is flying dude! I know neither one of the speedos go to 160, in was screwing with you and making Sap jealous he wasn't with you. Any clue what RPM you were at, not sure I'll never get that mph with 4:10's no matter what F/I package I go with.

 

[Roadboss]

I know mine hit 140 MPH in 3rd gear on the rollers right around 7,000 RPM. That's with no wind interference and I also run 3.73 gears so it could be possible for 160 MPH, but I would (on paper) be tapped out.

 

[LaserSVT]

160+ is flying dude! I know neither one of the speedos go to 160, in was screwing with you and making Sap jealous he wasn't with you. Any clue what RPM you were at, not sure I'll never get that mph with 4:10's no matter what F/I package I go with.

I was at 5500ish when it stopped pulling. Not sure what I was at doing 160 but think it was just over 5000, maybe 5150 or so.

I know mine hit 140 MPH in 3rd gear on the rollers right around 7,000 RPM. That's with no wind interference and I also run 3.73 gears so it could be possible for 160 MPH, but I would (on paper) be tapped out.

Sure ya can! If you can rev to 7000 and the car has enough power to pull 4th to redline then you could see 215mph!

They rolled mine to 130 in third on the rollers and that freaked me out. In my tune its out of third by 120.

 

[LaserSVT]

I just realized thats the fastest I have ever driven on the street! I took a Henessy Venom 850 to 187 on a track before but never on the st...... a closed road course.... yeah, closed road course!

 

[kustomizingkid]

You are :q:q:q:qing crazy.... fastest I've ever gone is around 135 mph on my bike...

 

[mlschultz]

The Mark is back in action. I picked it up at 5:30, and put it back in it's cave. Miller said everything went well, and the 114" belt fits perfect with the new pulley.

The Gen 3 Vortech bracket with the new idler setup is part number: 4FK100-002. Part number 7U313-133 is the stud and 7F008-020 is the nut for the idler.

Aric loaded up the manual shift tune, and it is ready for the track

I will post some pics later. Glad to have it back. For those wondering, the bill came to $517 including the tow.

 

[LaserSVT]

You are :q:q:q:qing crazy.... fastest I've ever gone is around 135 mph on my bike...

Yeah, I have a death wish but seriously, there is a 2.2 mile section that is arrow straight. There are no trees or bushes near it (animal hiding spots), not a single driveway or sidestreet and the road is perfectly flat. I discovered it a while back but never went for a balls to the wall speed run.
The car got a vibration at 120 but by 130 it went away. The car got to 140 so quickly though it blew me away so I turned the GPS speed screen on and watched it only take another 10 seconds or so to reach 170. Last glance down showed 178 and a second after that I was off the gas and slowing her down for the corner coming up.
It was more exciting then the drag strip.

 

[BAD97LSC]

not bad at all mike we all know it could have been a whole lot worse!! glad you got it back and ready for the track, hey i am a poet and i dont even know it!

 

[LaserSVT]

114" ? And I thought me 107" belt was redonkulously long! That must not be a cheap belt at all. You go Goodyear on that?

I still think you should have some extra material welded on the ear that holds the idler.

 

[mlschultz]

The bracket and pulley are the latest and greatest from Vortech. I hope they got it right this time.

Although the bracket did fail, it was not the root cause. It was downstream a little.

The pulley failed first. The pulley bearing seized and stopped spinning. Why? Who knows - belt too tight, poor pulley design/alignment, wrong bolt, etc. Your guess is as good as mine.

*Apparently, Vortech seems to think it is their design, since they keep changing the pulley and bracket design.

Anyway, that caused the sleeve to start spinning, and the sleeve welded itself to the stud. That in turn locked up everything and the serp belt then ripped the pulley out of the vortech bracket and engine block.

Once the pulley was ripped out, it jammed itself into the supercharger compressor and alternator taking a gash out of the compressor, and a chunk out of the alternator case housing. lol again, all this happened while turning into a parking lot.

I am not to quick to re-engineer Vortech's stuff just yet. I will start to think that if I throw/snap another belt though. BTW, I think it is a 114" NAPA belt on the car now. The last couple belts I bought were around $75-80 bucks each for the 112" ones.

 

[mlschultz]

I spent a little time driving The Mark today with the manual shift tune. It is going to take some time getting use to it.

From a stand still, the car will stall if i try to start off and go in third gear. I have to move the shifter to 1st to get the car moving.

When I shift to second gear, it is a hard and fast shift. About a second or so after the car goes into second, the torque converter locks up as hard as the shift itself. Aric told me that he has no control over the lock up force of the PI triple disc torque converter. It is either lock or unlock - with authority.

He said the TC has to unlock, shift, lockup in both second and third. Apparently, you can't keep it locked during a shift. I do not like the double bang of the shift and lockup, so I am going to have him turn off lockup after the second gear shift, and only do the lock up after the shift into third.

The car always breaks the tires loose and wants to turn left during the 1-2 shift, and I do not think locking the tc up is wise while I am correcting the wheel and trying to keep the car going straight.

Atlanta Dragway has a Saturday morning T&T on 10-9 from 11 to 8pm, and I hope the rain stays away so I can get all this stuff sorted out before SSHS10.