I recently got a Saleen supercharger, so got bye the stock horsepower dulldrums.
The charger is easy to install...I would recommend anyone who can turn a wrench to do the install themselves. Don't take off the hood. You can do everything with one person, except lift the charger into the engine bay. If you really work at it, you should be able to work a day and a half to get the install finished. The instructions are very thurough, but the pictures were a bit low in quality from their printer. You can look at there instructions online for better photos, but the online revision of the instructions if not the same in a few areas....
I had to put stock pulleys on my car so I listed my Saleen pulleys on ebay if anyone wants them??
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Salee...QQcmdZViewItem

 

Congrats!

 

I'm new to mustangs and way new to SC'ers. Can you explain what you mean and why ?

I'd greatly appreciate the education.

 

Hey Tim, do you live in Cailfornia

 

Ric,
Everyone has to start somewhere and these forums are the best place for a quick education. Since I originally had Saleen underdrive pulleys on my car; the entire accessory belt on the front of the engine that controlls the water pump, a/c compressor, alternator..etc was moving at a slower speed due to the underdrive pulleys. All aftermarket superchargers are powered off the accessory belt and are designed to run off the stock pulley system. The stock system spins the supercharger at a specific speed in order to produce a set amount of boost pressure. Since my system had a slower belt drive due to the underdrive pulleys, I had to restore my system back to stock in order to get the supercharger to operator at the proper speed. The underdrive pulleys would not of spun the supercharger fast enough to make adequate boost pressure.

2005sonicBOOST,
I am north of you..up here in Portland, OR. Maybe one of these days I will be in CA, but Portland is really a great city.

 

Hey Tim,

Thanks for starting this thread, I have a Saleen waiting back in the states to be installed and I'm very interested in your experience. Did you have any issues with the wiring for this install? After a lot of reading I found there are seven things about this install that make me want to take it to JDM, maybe you can shed some light.

1. The wiring is time consuming and you have to splice a few things in the engine bay. I guess the biggest being routing power for the I/C pump. I also read that JDM uses a different relay than the one Saleen uses, so that the pump always comes on with the ignition. Did you use this as well?

2. Did you reclock the alternator and turn it around to avoid stretching the wire across the top or did you do something else?

3. JDM modifies the I/C pump bracket to raise it up into the engine bay to avoid curbing, did you see any clearance issues with the I/C pump?

4. Were the isntructions for the Vaccum line upgrade very clear?

5. Any issues installing the fuel pump upgrade yourself? Specifically, did you have the tools necessary to easily remove the locking washer over the tank or did you have to bang that out?

6. Did you get a gapping tool for your plugs or have someone else handle it?

7. What did you do about a fuel pressure guage fitting, did you go with something like Metco Fuel rails or did you just add an adapter?

Obviously, I would love to do this myself if possible to save some jack, but I'm also interested in this thing being as relaible as possible cause I don't have 8 grand to get a built bottom end right now....

-Darth

 

D,
The instructions look daunting because they are very long and have a bunch of steps, but I would say don't let that discourage you from attempting it on your own. I would say the installation level of difficulty is not more than any other routine work you would attempt on your car. If you change your oil and can change spark plugs, then I would say you are qualified to install the charger. If you have every changed out suspension components, then you are definitely qualified. In my opinion, the only difference in the supercharger installation is the amount of steps required to achieve the end goal, none of the steps are any more difficult but the time required will be much longer than a routine oil change.

You will need a torque wrench to get everything to spec, a few allen (hex keys) for some bolts, and the ford fuel disconnect tool. You should be able to obtain this stuff at any auto store.

1. I basically got all the install done but the wiring for the intercooler pump. I got tired and didn't have the will power to finish since I didn't have my ECU back from Saleen. I did look over the directions and it doesn't look bad. The pump gets wired directly into a wiring harness that goes to the ECU, the Saleen kit no longer comes with a delay/timing module for the pump. I assume the pump will be on any time the car is on. The wire spicing is not hard, you have to lenghten four wires for the alternator. You just cut them and add the supplied extension. They have crimps, but I couldn't find my plyers so I hard soildered all the connections. The main + alternator wire is huge, about the diameter of your pinky. I was able to crimp the supplied wire extension into my system with a pair of channel lock plyers. You basically need some plyers that will smash the crap out of the crimp. There is also one other connector you splice into the mass air harness...piece of cake though.

2. Don't do any reclocking, I doubt it would work. I don't think the wires are long enough to reach the new alternator position...hence the extensions. Don't worry about it. It fits great in the new position.

3. I doubt there is any issue. Saleen designed these kits well and use them as is on all their cars.

4. My vaccum lines were mostly done when I recieved the charger. I can see how this part might be a little confusing because I would say this is the only place the directions fall short. Just send me an e-mail and I will take a bunch of pictures of the installed lines if you want. After you see them installed, you will think no problem...it is just not worded very well in the instuctions with enough pictures.

5, 6, 7 = I just have the regular kit...none of this stuff was included.

You can always take your time with the kit install also if you have a secondary means of transportation or a friend to ride with....All and all it is a good expierence and I bet you will be happy after you accomplish it.

The only area of the charger install that is difficult is there is a mounting bolt located at the rear of the charger by the firewall on the passenger side. It is located under the bypass valve and it is nearly impossible to tighten...it is very difficult to reach with any tool. I was able to crame my hand behind the engine with a closed wrench and turn this bolt about 1/12 of a turn at a time...I spent about 15-20 minutes trying to get this bolt on. ANYONE have any secrets for tightening this bolt???
Good Luck,
T

 

Howdy

I just installed my Saleen SC about a month and a half ago. Here's my opinion.
Download the instructions and read them about 3 times, any point you don't understand ask a question here on the forums.
When I ordered my SC kit, I pulled my car into the garage and started the tear down even before I got my Kit. I got to page 20 something out of 60 pages before the kit got to my house.
Look at the tool list, check off what you got and buy what you need. A hose clamp pliers made the job alot easier. Also metric flex head racheting wrenchs. Reading the other members input the back passenger bolt took me about 30 seconds to put in.
The wiring is no big deal. The water pump for the inter cooler is just a wire back to the fuse panel in the passenger side foot well. I needed to take off the tire and inner fender and bought a add-a-fuse from the auto store. This took at best 1 hour.
My major problem was Saleen forgot to include the tool to take off the stock pulley off the alt. yon need to turn the alt. 180 degrees and the stock pulley has a bearing that allows it to spin backwards with out engaging.
If you want the Saleen SC to come alive forget about sending the computer back to Saleen, contact a good tuner like Brenspeed to put a killer tune in or just buy his kit and he will include it.
The vaccum lines go different than the directions from Saleen. The line from the Brake canister goes to the bottom side of the SC. The fuel vaccum goes to a tee, one side to the top side of the SC and the other to the boost canister on the passenger back side of the SC. You will need about another foot of (i think) 3/8 vaccum line.
Because I knew I would always want more I added 39lb injectors, a 3.6 pulley, a Brenspeed tune, HT0 spark plugs, a GT supercar Fuel pump, a Kennie Bell Boost-a-pump. All of this costing more $$ over the base kit.

I did the install by myself, Lifting the SC wasn't easy. Took me 1 day to tear down the stock items, 1 1/2 days to install (10-12 hours), 1 1/2 days looking for a way to remove the stock Alt pulley.

The car runs great and tomorrow I will get a HP numbers going to Brenspeeds Dyno day.

Any more question feel free to ask.

 

See you at the dyno, dly!

 

Congrats man!

Welcome to the F/I Saleen Series VI club

I'll tell ya - I futzed with that bolt myself on mine and ran into the SAME exact situation you did - it impossible to see what you are doing back there and hard as *#$&*$^# to reach back then and use any kind of torx wrench or tool back there..... I'd love to know if there is a trick to tightening that bolt

 

Great replys guys!! I'm feeling a lot more confident about doing the install now, figure with a canned tune from JDM I should be able to drive until I get to a dyno, maybe even take a trip up to see Doug!!

 

On that back bolt you guys did remove the boost canister right??? And then the stop bolt.

 

Thanks Bro!

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by dly
Howdy
Look at the tool list, check off what you got and buy what you need. A hose clamp pliers made the job alot easier. Also metric flex head racheting wrenchs. Reading the other members input the back passenger bolt took me about 30 seconds to put in.

Where did you get the flex head wrench, is this a common tool? I have one of those very cool Stanley socket wrenches that you can rotate the handle to tighten in hard spots.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...ools&adCell=A3
Here is what Sears has, same tool

My major problem was Saleen forgot to include the tool to take off the stock pulley off the alt. yon need to turn the alt. 180 degrees and the stock pulley has a bearing that allows it to spin backwards with out engaging.

How did you ultimately get the pulley off? Is this something you could rent at autozone or buy cheap?

Attachment 34760

I used a deep wall 1/2 socket and tack welded it to the pulley, It came off easy. nobody have a tool, not even my Ford (Saleen) dealer.



The vaccum lines go different than the directions from Saleen. The line from the Brake canister goes to the bottom side of the SC. The fuel vaccum goes to a tee, one side to the top side of the SC and the other to the boost canister on the passenger back side of the SC. You will need about another foot of (i think) 3/8 vaccum line.

Thanks very much for this explanation!

Because I knew I would always want more I added 39lb injectors, a 3.6 pulley, a Brenspeed tune, HT0 spark plugs, a GT supercar Fuel pump, a Kennie Bell Boost-a-pump. All of this costing more $$ over the base kit.

How difficult was it to get to the fuel pump? Did it take 5 hours like they suggest? Any special tools needed?

MMM....no it took about 15 minutes. Take out the lower back seat, pull the rubber grommet off, tap off the retainer ring, disconnect 2 plugs, pull out the fuel pump half way and disconnect another line, and it's out. No special tools needed.

 

Ahh, no dual FPDM setup, I get it! I got a Saleen dual pump kit from another forum member and i'll have to wire up the second FPDM, but it's good to know the hard part will be running wire and not removing pumps!

-Darth

 

I will most likely go with the JDM tune and upgrade kit instead of the Saleen 475hp kit. I bet the JDM tune is more aggresive and they seem to have a fantastic track record and history. I might go for the dual pumper kit if I can find a good deal.

 

JDM's rep with the Series VI is second to none

 

What is the main benefit of re-routing the vaccum wiring? I seem to remember it being a more accurate A/F ratio...but I am not sure.
I routed them a way Saleen had them so I will need to change them.

 

OK, maybe it's the 5 empty beer bottles sitting on the desk next to me here but at first glance of this thread I though Tom traded in his Vortech for Saleen.

 

Hah!