The 2.6 Kenne Bell Big Bore is getting installed.

I'm about 8 hours into it, and right now, my friend called my garage a nightmare. The car is totally torn apart, up on jacks, and there are parts everywhere. Good thing the install manual is made for dummies, everything is going pretty well. The manual is very easy to read and understand, and a pic for every step. Some of it's pretty funny too, which is good, because when you're cutting and drilling and taking apart your Baby, you need a little comic relief.

Couple of things I've learned, even after you drain the coolant with the resevoir top off and vent plug out, everytime you remove a heater hose, another gallon of coolant comes out, especially the one behind the water pump. But it's all good.

The lower heater hose was kicking my butt for about an hour. I was trying to be gentle so as not to damage the heater core (the manual says "if you damage the core, you will cry." LOL!) but once I figured out how the retainer worked, the top one took 2 seconds. The trick is to pinch the top and bottom of the actual retainer, and not the two tabs that hold it in place. Live and learn.

The bolt the instructions call the Bolt From Hell (behind passenger head, holds heater hose bracket) wasn't bad at all. Just needed a deep well 13mm socket and a little 1/4" wrench and it came right off. Kind of surprised me, I had an arm's length of extensions and swivels all ready to go and had to take them all off, LOL!

Well, back to work. Hopefully Mustang Buster will come over today to lend a hand. I don't think I can lower the supercharger in place by myself, that sucker's heavy.

As soon as I get it in, I'll post up pics, vids, and dyno numbers. Hoping for 440 rwhp with 8 psi.

 

Sounds great! Good luck with the rest of the install and let us know how it turns out for you!

 

messy garage.... install.....

 

Congrat's on the blower Hatch! You will love it...

 

I'm not sure I want pictures of this carnage, LOL! But I'll snap some tomorrow. The car looks pathetic, no tires, no grille or bumper cover, etc. My neighbors just give me incredulous looks like "what is he doing to that car"?

Got lots done today, new idler pulley/alternater bracket, coolant crosspipe, heater hoses, relocated the PCM and fuse box, and tore apart the wiring harness to move the TAC, FRP, TPS. Also had to cut and extend the MAF to over under the bumper. And took the stock washer fluid pump and installed it in the new tank. Still, 9 more hours later for a total so far of 17, I'm still only half way through the manual.

But, it's coming along. Doing the intercooler tomorrow after work.

 

Quick question that I hope isn't too far off topic- did you have underdrive pullies before the install? If so I was just wondering how the reinstallation of the factory pullies went.

 

I never put on the underdrive pulleys since I knew one day I'd put on the belt driven supercharger and knew I would just have to swap them back out. Good question though, I've never heard anyone commenting on putting the stock pulleys back on.

 

Thanks for the info. Just so you know, I was asking because I've read a couple of stories where people have damaged their crank bolt-thread and/or broken the crank pully bolt inthe crank after installing pullies and then removing them for a blower install. I have pullies now, and am debating a blower next spring.......so I'm alittle leery already and was just wondering if you had any problems. Thanks again for the info.

 

Still installing, it's slow progress, though.

Had a few "clearancing" problems from the heat exchanger kit. The holes in the bracket weren't big enough for the KB supplied screws, so had to mill them out a bit. A heater hose wasn't long enough to reach a certain point under the frame rail, so I had to cut a hole in the radiator shroud and route it through next to the radiator. That was strange, because the hose was exactly the length the instruction book said it was, but it wouldn't reach on my car. Then it took me an hour to route the heater hose to keep it as far from the passenger side header as possible while working with the length of hose provided. Also, the bend in the bracket that the intercooler pump was too close to the mounting hole, so the supplied screw could barelly be screwed in because the supplied screw was rubbing on the bracket. What should have took 40 minutes took about 4 hours.

I'm not saying this isn't a great kit, it just needs a little "molding" to get it to fit right. Maybe I'm just making excuses for it taking so long, LOL!

 

Sounds great man! Make sure you're well stocked up on Brews and you'll be done before you know it!

Vegas, what's up bro! Those have got to be new numbers! What did you do? Were you at 10 psi before, because I remember when you were at 485rwhp or so....What did you do?

Take pictures of the issues within the book, and send them to KB. They will give you $50 per each change that needs to be made in the manual.

 

Hey Brad, Keep track of your total hrs. to install so I can decide whether I will attempt the install or pay. Kinda sounds like a nightmare but you are at a point where you can't give up.Keep at it and let us know if you would do it over again

 

Well, I'm 28 hours into it, and I'm still having a blast. I would definitely do it again. It's kind of a pain in the **** sometimes, but I'm looking forward to the final product. The good thing is, I can always say I did it myself.

Besides, if I did it again, I could do it in 12-15 hours, easy. This has been a big learning experience for me. Definiely worth it. Get one, put it in yourself. If you can change the oil, you can put this kit it. Just requires time and patience.

 

You out there drivin' yet?

Come on man, you've gotta feel that boost man!

 

Tick, tick, tick, tick......... 'bout done? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

Well, I'm just about done. I'm going to give the braided coolant hoses I ordered another day, then I'm going to go ahead and fire her up.

 

Well, I gave Jay a call at American Street Rod and come to find out, my hoses/connectors never shipped out, they are out of stock, and I guess they copied my phone number down wrong because the couldn't contact me. Anyway, I put it all back together and took her for a spin.

THIS THING HAULS THE CHILI! The boost is phenomenal, goes through gears so fast it's ridiculous. Didn't get on it too much as I'm getting a custom dyno tune on it soon, but I can tell I'm going to be really happy with it.

Here's some pics of the install:

Here's the KB Boost a Pump mounted in the trunk next to the FPDM. The directions said to mount it up back next to the driver's side tail light, but I thought it fit just fine next to the pump module. The relay mounted up just fine in the same location as well. I even coated the underside of the car where the mounting screws came through with 732 silicone to make sure they were sealed up. I'm thorough like that. I drove it around for a while, and the BAP and all the wiring was cool as a cucumber, so I don't think heat will be a problem in the tire well with all the new elecronics.
By the way, all the shiney stuff is Dynomat type of sound dampening.

Here's the stock tensioner. I ground off a bit of the stop tab, which I've heard prevents it from bending by giving it a little more travel. I've only heard of one person with th 6rib/8psi setup that's had an issue with it, but he didn't have the tab ground down, so we'll see.

 

Here's the new windshield washer bottle in it's new location. I test fit my UPR coolant cap, seems it and the new intercooler reservoir bottle lid are all the same size, just like KB said they would be, so I've got two more of these on order.

And pics of the new CAI beside the passenger headlight. This thing is in there TIGHT. It won't be dangling around any. There's about 1/16 of room of play between the headlight and the core support, though it looks like it's wedged in their in the pics. Couldn't be a better fit with the new 90mm Lightning MAF.

 

Here are pics of my 400hp/480tq work bench, my stress relief Thumpstar, some of the tools for the job, and my living room in a state of disarray.

 

And some pics of the intercooler pump and heat exchanger all mounted up. Wasn't crazy about the quality of the fit. The bracket for the premounted pump was bent in the wrong spot, making the pump mount too far too the rear, almost into the aircondition lines and the radiator, while barelly allowing enough room (after I milled it out) for the head of the screw to mount it to the bracket at the elbow. And, Kenne Bell was nice enough to supply enough electrical line incase I wanted to mount the pump in the trunk (WTF?) and the directions say to just zip wire the 3 extra fit of wiring to the coolant lines. But they could have just made it shorter. This wiring must be left over from another kit. Oh well, I'm nitpicking.

 

More pics of the final product later. Got to go to work.