Whipple time

charonblk07 said:

Well, I hope to see this in person some time then, we can compare notes on blower setups. I'm in Calgary but am down in Lethbridge and the Pass every couple of months. I should actually be down in just over a week, I'd love to see the Whipple kit in person.

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For sure, can't have a whipple and not show it off lol.

Tach Tech where abouts in Southern Alberta are you? Are you a member of Southern Truck Club,it's a fb group based out of Lethbridge

Not close to me then! Please take as many step by step pics as you can stand to without slowing the process too much. Any notes, tips or info on what to expect or look out for would be great. The directions always seem to leave out something or skip worse case scenarios. I can't wait to hear first hand how it went and not manufacture propaganda. Nothing against whipple, but if this stuff was easy(and a little cheaper) everyone would do it. I want the skinned knuckle, cursing, wrench throwing truth! You can of course leave out any crying for the sake of your dignity.

Well yesterday was a long day with a few issues but everything has worked out in the end. Both trucks are done and running great. I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to but I will share what I got and some pictures my buddies wife took as well. She was there the entire day with us, from 7:30 in the morning till they were running at about 10pm. My gf was working so she only got to be there from 3pm, either way it was a long day for everyone.




First issue we ran into was with the programming, mine worked fine. My buddys truck we spent 2 hours trying to get it to work. We even had our friend that will be doing the tuning remote access his lap top to try to figure out the issue. Turns out either HP or Whipple when they made the tune, the serial number in the tune file and the serial number of his MPVI interface were not the same. After that was sorted we were good to go.

Next we removed intake manifolds and set to changing out the spark plugs to the ones provided. No issues there. If you're going to do this yourself, I highly recommend purchasing a proper spark plug gap tool. We had 32 spark plugs to gap down to 28". Tapping the plugs on a vice works, just takes forever.

Finally we were on to installing new parts. First up was the lower intake manifold. No issues here, just try not to drop any bolts down the intake, more on that later. Both the upper and lower intake use O-ring seals against each other. Use a bit of silicone spray when installing the manifolds so If you shift the manifolds they wont grab the O-ring. The lower intake uses a cometic paper type gasket for the seal to the cylinder heads.


Next came the upper intake manifold. This is where I accidently dropped a bolt down an injector hole, luckily that intake valve was closed so it was easy to get it. I'm sure we would have been able to get it out if it did fall into the cylinder it just would have a been a big pain in the ass. Here you can see the O ring seal to the blower. You can also see the intercooler as well the coolant fittings on the back of the manifold. There are also two bolts that have to go in through the top of the upper manifold into the lower, We had to make a bit tool that was skinny enough to fit through the holes. If your doing this yourself, when it comes to attaching the coolant hoses. One side of the hose uses AN fittings with a 90 bend in it. Make sure you push the hoses as close to firewall was possible while you tighten them down, otherwise the blower will not line up with the bolt holes.


Next we set on replacing the existing plastic idler pulley with the supplied metal pulley. We also installed the adjustable idler pulley that comes with the kit. Here the whipple instructions are very vague and don't provide much insight with how the pulley goes together with the various spacers. The bracket has numbered holes with numbered spacers, which is great. Just the pulley instructions were a little vague. You can see the bracket/pulley here. The pulley is attached with a couple spacers and a sliding T-bracket. What they also don't tell you in the instructions is that the T-bracket is longer on one side, and it has to be in a certain orientation or you will never get the belt on as there will not be enough slack to get it on. To the top of the bracket you can see the spacer bracket for the alternator, it moves the alternator for clearance of the blower.


This is a picture of the reservoir for the heat exhangers. There is the one under the blower and one that gets mounted in front of the A/C condenser. I don't have any pictures of that installation as we did it during the week after work to try to save some time. As well as pinning the crank, I have no pictures of that. Both are fairly straight forward if you follow the instructions, and yes drilling into the crank is a slightly nervous process. The kit comes with a jig and a properly set up drill bit with a stop so you don't drill to far. It is fairly fool proof.

It was finally time to install the blower. Only issue was as I said before with the coolant hose fittings having to be pushed towards the firewall for clearance. The driver side hose could be a couple inches longer as once its installed its just barely long enough to fit. I may add a extension at a later point. The hoses are nice pieces though, they have nice fittings, comes with the OE style spring clamps, and come with braided hose covers already installed. I don't have any pictures of when they were put on last night, but I took some this morning.




After the blower was installed it was on to the breather/PCV hoses. This is where we would like to strangle whipple. We opted for the whipple cold air intakes with out kit. Now the hoses they provided either are wrong or we weren't shipped the proper ones. The blower is designed to use the stock box as well so it comes with a hose to join the breather hose to the factory air box. With the whipple intake the breather hose is supposed to be attached to a barb that you drill a hole for in the intake tube. Neither of us received any barbed fittings for the hose, or any hose that would work for this. We also received no hose that would fit on the supplied PCV valve. The PCV valve is a factory mopar PCV valve, as is many other parts in the kit. So this was about 7pm at night, we had access to our parts department, but the cleaning ladies locked in on us so after scrounging the shop we were left with Canadian tire. We ended up spending about $100 bucks on various hose and fittings with the idea of 2 or 3 possibilities to set up the breather and PCV hoses. In the end we got it all sorted out. This is a picture of the barb fitting and hose going into the intake tube for the breather hose.


After this was the arduous task of the Whipple cold air intake. Honestly neither of us would really recommend it. Its a pain in the ass to install and isn't really sealed very well. We also never received the weather strip that is supposed to seal off the top of the box. It does however use the factory snorkel that takes air from the wheel well. A closed box system like the factory or S&B would be much better. Biggest issue we fought with was there is a little step down tube about 1 1/2 inches long that is used to go from the filter to the intake tube. The clamp surfaces are so small that its extremely difficult to tighten the clamps enough to actually hold the adapter without squishing out the air filter. You really need to degrease the inside of the air filter so its completely bone dry. We also sanded down some of the finish on the adapter to give a bit more bight on the clamp. We eventually go it to hold and it's solid now, but its more hassle then its worth. Although it lets you really hear the whine. Both of us plan on changing it out in the future. Luckily with the deal we got from whipple we pretty much got the intakes for free.

All that was left was the belt, pulley for the supercharger, and tidying up the wiring. The kit comes with factory style connectors to extend the air intake temp sensor as well as for the throttle body connector. The wiring for coolant pump is very straight forward with nice connectors as well. Gets power from the fuel pump fuse with a proper fuse tap and uses a ground near the fender.

Both trucks started up without any issues. Idled and ran great. We did a quick oil change to full synthetic and were on to a road test. First road test had pretty much no issues, buddies truck experienced a slight buck on the first half throttle pull but that's it. We drove them around for probably an hour and were probably a little bit meaner to them then we should have been lol. Both trucks seem to have a flutter noise during light to medium load acceleration. The whine from the supercharger kind of flutters. I believe this is due to the bypass valve, but I'm not sure. However it does seem to be pretty common with this type of set up. I will be interested to see the dyno numbers, but so far my truck accelerates much quicker now going up a hill then the stock truck ever could going down a hill.

We are trying to keep these trucks as sleeper like as possible but we wanted to put something on them so if you know what you're looking at then you have an idea what is inside.


I don't really have many good videos, just a couple of initial starts and short video of a quick romp leaving the shop.

https://youtu.be/

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Those trucks sound incredible!

There is nothing 'sleeper' about those trucks, that blower whine is unmistakable. So, did it come with a boost-a-pump or is it still running on the stock fuel pump setup? And it looks like it's a single belt setup, they don't run a standalone belt, correct?

If you haven't already got one, I'd highly recommend picking up a catch can and getting that plumbed in, you'll be amazed at the blow-by on these engines when boosted and you don't want that running back into the blower if you don't have to.

Awesome write-up Tach Tech,looking forward to making the trip down to check out both trucks.Kurtis when do you want to go for a visit down south,lol.Who's tuning it for you?
Rick

That's awesome.
Congrats and enjoy.

charonblk07 said:

There is nothing 'sleeper' about those trucks, that blower whine is unmistakable. So, did it come with a boost-a-pump or is it still running on the stock fuel pump setup? And it looks like it's a single belt setup, they don't run a standalone belt, correct?

If you haven't already got one, I'd highly recommend picking up a catch can and getting that plumbed in, you'll be amazed at the blow-by on these engines when boosted and you don't want that running back into the blower if you don't have to.

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You're right about the whine lol, I'll play it off as the alternator bearings lol.

No boost a pump or anything. All factory. A catch can is first on the list of next things. Just the one belt as well.

Wild one said:

Awesome write-up Tach Tech,looking forward to making the trip down to check out both trucks.Kurtis when do you want to go for a visit down south,lol.Who's tuning it for you?
Rick

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Local guy who runs LA dyno service across the street from my work is going to do it for us.

Tach_tech said:

Local guy who runs LA dyno service across the street from my work is going to do it for us.

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I've heard of the shop,got a buddy down there who runs a 900hp Mustang and they're his tuning shop to. Tuning your 8speed to work with the whipple should make a noticeable difference in drivability. Curiousity might drag me down next Friday evening,i'm not racing till Sunday,lol.

Great write up and job well done. Hard to justify that price though. Having to go after your own fittings after paying that price would of warranted an email to whipple. I bet it's hard to send though after driving with it installed. Lol Would you say it's worth it?

sking2001 said:

Great write up and job well done. Hard to justify that price though. Having to go after your own fittings after paying that price would of warranted an email to whipple. I bet it's hard to send though after driving with it installed. Lol Would you say it's worth it?

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It's 100% worth it for me. We're going to call whipple on Tuesday and see what they say. Other then that hiccup with the breather and PCV hoses it's a very well put together kit. It's not like a couple feet of 3/8 hose and a few brass fittings was very expensive either, was like 20 bucks.

I'm most impressed with the tune they provided. Haven't had any issues with it.

Congratulations on getting them both done in a day! I really think the pics and info is going to help a lot of guys when they start researching these kits. I know when I google Ram related stuff it brings up this site a lot. Hopefully if you relay the few issues you had to Whipple they will correct the problems so there won't continue to be write ups online about the same issues causing people to decide not to buy their kit. It already sounds like I'm out on the CAI from them based on your experience. Thanks again for sharing your install.

Well last night was dyno night, and it went better than expected.

Whipple claimed around the 500whp mark with their cold air intake. I'm at about 3000ft above sea level where as whipple is around 300. So we set a goal of 450ish in order to meet their numbers.

Buddies truck was first on the lie detector, first pull was 475 at the wheels uncorrected. Mine made 486 first pull, but this was also later at night with a good drop in ambient temp. So right there we surpassed our goal. Both trucks were also making 7-7.5psiWe made several pulls with his truck with some tweaking. Not a lot was changed but we found the whipple tune to be on the lean side, especially after a shift. Which caused it to knock retard pretty hard pulling about 2 degrees of timing.

So after tweaking a bit he hit a final number of 504whp. Overall gains from the whipple tune were great. The best gains were made right after a shift, it picked up close to 50whp in those spots.

Mine made a final pull of 498, but I was suffering from a bit more knock retard than my buddy. That's ESSO gas for you. I usually run shell but last tank was esso. I was loosing about 1.5 degrees of timing every now and then which is worth about 30whp. This is 91 octane fuel as well. We figure if we run 94 we should be able to get rid of most if not all the knock retard.

So it was a great dyno session, our expectations were surpassed so we're both ecstatic with the results.

I called whipple and they said their kit would bolt up to a 2009-2012 and can be custom tuned, but it was not factory tested on those years so the warranty would only cover defects in the product itself and nothing that could happen to the truck.

I guess if you were going to swap your trans to a manual 6apd or maybe a 4L80E then you would be good


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Nice results and congrats! I called Whipple and asked what they were pushing on the dyno graph on their site. The guy said 8.5 psi. I figured I'd get around 6 at 6000 ft with the stock pulley. But we'll soon see. My techs are doing the kit on a 2017 Ram right now. Decided to wait and see the results, plus can't get one before end of season anyways. I look forward to your track results.

As to fuel... I've had issues in the past with winter formulations up here with the Jeep. Ran like crap and lots of ST knock. So I tried a bottle of Lucas Octane Boost. Within a few miles all was right again. Always thought boosters were snake oil, but the Lucas actually works. I ran it year round with my race tune always loaded for a few years. Never a problem and outperformed the 104 and 116 Sunoco race fuels, for a fraction of the cost. Who'd have thought... Since then I've switched to a Snow water/**** setup and haven't needed the Lucas. But as we've pushed the tuning on the Ram, the ST has raised it's ugly head again. Two weeks ago I was getting 3-5 degrees. So I decided to try the Lucas fix again. Last week, 0-1 degree. I'm sold on the stuff. However Royal Purple has their own booster now, and the reviews have been positive, so I picked up a bottle to try next week. This will be a temp fix though. If I put a blower on the Ram I'll likely get another Snow kit.

wink

It's a bit of a drive for you TT,but Castrol is running their 3 day Full Throttle Street Legal Drags next week-end.

Castrol Raceway Events

Petro 94 seems to be what my truck liked the most for straight pump gas. The 10% ethanol is actually a good thing in our builds.

charonblk07 said:

Petro 94 seems to be what my truck liked the most for straight pump gas. The 10% ethanol is actually a good thing in our builds.

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Wish I could get that up here, or even the Shell 93 we used to have. But 91 is all the tree huggers will allow now. The Lucas essentially ups the 91 to 94 octane.

wink