TorqStorm Supercharger update

Just wanted to give an update as to how the TorqStorm supercharger install is going on my truck.

We started last weekend. After we had replaced my fuel pump we started on the supercharger install. We immediately ran into a problem. One of the first steps of the install is to remove the clutch fan. As some of you may know, this is a *****! There is a special tool you have to use or make and we weren't prepared for this. This sidelined the entire rest of the day.

Next day we started up again, this time with a couple new tools to try and get the clutch fan off. Luckily, the strap wrench we got worked and we were able to proceed. UNTIL the next step which is to mount the first support bracket. The EGR valve is in the way. The directions make no mention of what to do here. Because of this I had to order the EGR block of kit from Billet Tech. So we put everything back to the way it was and I ordered the part last Monday.

Part gets in, I drop the truck off at my buddy's place on Friday, plan is to do it over this next weekend.

Well the EGR block off plate is too big to fit with the mounter bracket so that doesn't work (but the piece for the intake manifold does so that's good). From our angle it looks like the mounting bracket may block off the EGR valve itself. But the only way to make this happen is to drill our own hole into the mounting bracket. So we did. And now it fits. I'll skip some of the other annoying stuff but we get everything bolted up. Head unit on, antifreeze reservoir moved, belt on and tightened.

I had a base tune installed on my predator from AJ (AJHemi as he's known on the LX forums) over at True Street Performance. This was just so the truck could run to be able to get it to the dyno for the actual tuning session.

I load the tune up and everything starts! YAY...or not...

The good news was that everything started right up. The bad news was I had an exhaust leak right at the EGR valve spot. We had hoped not to have this but then we kind of expected it too. The truck was also surging quite a bit and running pig rich with the tune. we decided to change the idle settings to see if this would help. It didn't change the richness at all but once the truck warmed up the idle did smooth out a bit. But it was still idling way to high for us to keep it that way. We decided to reset the idle to what it was originally at.

And here we ran into our next problem. And this one is all my fault...

I must have bumped the wire with my knee as the predator was writing the tune because it restarted the predator and would only let me load up my original backup tune. AND it deleted the supercharger base tune from the predator. So now my truck can't be turned on and its still not finished.

So here's the plan for this upcoming week. I've got to get AJ to email me the base tune so that I can get it put back on the truck just so we can move it out of the way for a few days. My buddy is ordering a few more EGR valve gaskets and we are going to stack them behind the mounting bracket (we already put one there to start with) and hopefully that should get rid of the exhaust leak. Next this will give us more time to mount the intercooler and figure out the piping for it before it gets tuned.

All in all TorqStorm's kit is made well but I don't think they did all of their research. I think once we get the exhaust leak fixed and the truck tuned properly that it will run just as well as any other supercharger though.

I'll report back once everything is figured out and I have more to update.

Here's a couple pics for what it looks like installed. I'll get some more once I'm done and it's daytime outside.

Damn I can't wait this this is done.

Looks great so far. I would think a few glitches are to be expected when doing a major mod like this. Looks like you've got a good handle on things.

BTW: I didn't know there was a special tool for the clutch fan, I've always used a short length of chain with an open link on one end to secure the fan pulley in place.

We made our own fan removal tool when adding my efan. So your gonna be getting a dyno tune at true street performance? They got some bad ass mopars Rollin out of there

Sooo.... What you gonna do with your bfi?

RonJon '06 said:

Looks great so far. I would think a few glitches are to be expected when doing a major mod like this. Looks like you've got a good handle on things.

BTW: I didn't know there was a special tool for the clutch fan, I've always used a short length of chain with an open link on one end to secure the fan pulley in place.

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Yea but TorqStorm left out a couple bolts/wrong size bolts. A couple other pieces weren't right as well such as the fitting to hold the MAP sensor (thankfully my buddy had an extra procharger one that we used). It looks like, from the pictures in their directions that the block they used to test fit and R&D on is different than mine.

ST-8 said:

We made our own fan removal tool when adding my efan. So your gonna be getting a dyno tune at true street performance? They got some bad ass mopars Rollin out of there

Click to expand...

When we ran into this problem I immediately went online to try and see what we could do to remove the fan and that's when I saw all the posts on the forums about the tool everyone made. I actually went out and bought the stuff the make the tool, long metal plating and some screws, but then we also bought a strap wrench to try that too. In the end the strap wrench worked before we could even try the other option. We've got some anti-seize on the threads now and we were ablt to get it off by just securing the pully with a drill punch.

I'll be doing the e-fan mod as soon as I can once I recoup some cash from this mod. I don't ever want to deal with that fan again

And yea True Streets shop is sweet. I was out there to get the base tune loaded to the predator and the whole shop is awesome. Mopar after Mopar, all with more power than the next.

ST-8 said:

Sooo.... What you gonna do with your bfi?

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I'm not sure yet. I want to make sure everything runs properly for a little while first so I know its stable. Then I can start getting rid of extra stuff. If or when I do sell it you'll be the first on the list

Completely understand. Just let me know when/if you decide to part it

Bfi vs S&B cai?

StaLL1oN said:

Bfi vs S&B cai?

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Bfi.

But good luck finding one. From my research I belive there are only 18 composite ones made. There were 70 metal ones made I believe but they were called the ramhammer.

What makes them so superior?

And you think the old tech. Is better than the new put into the S&B?

Gecko will you put up some pics of your BFI

StaLL1oN said:

What makes them so superior?

And you think the old tech. Is better than the new put into the S&B?

Click to expand...

Can't give you any specifics as to why it is superior but I know that most of the fastest 3rd Gen Rams run or have run the BFI/RamHammer. Everyone I've talked to has said they are the best CAI for the 3rd Gens.

This is a picture after I bought it last year. Use my computer for scale. This thing is larger than any CAI you've ever seen. It blew my mind how large it was in person.



Here is is installed



And here's a video of also showing it installed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3zIrCeP9bs

Where does the iat plug in on the bfi?

Somebitch sounds healthy Gecko

ST-8 said:

Where does the iat plug in on the bfi?

Somebitch sounds healthy Gecko

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IAT has its own breather filter and is zip tied to one of the posts behind the grill. It's not the best way to do it as it's not reading inside the tube, but it's close enough to the BFI's filter that it should be somewhat similar.

Just wait till you here is with the supercharger on it. When we started her up last weekend (before I deleted the tune...) it sounded a bit different than w/o the supercharger. I thought my cutouts were open when we started it...they weren't

A quick update before the weekend:

I got the supercharger tune emailed back to me from Jim at True Street. I've sent it to my buddy for him to have to be able to move the truck. He has ordered some more EGR gaskets and I'll be headed back out there early Saturday morning so we can start again to try and get rid of the exhaust leak and to get the intercooler set up.

Super nice! I'm jelous

If ST-8 doesn't buy it I have cash in hand.

So here's the latest update.

We originally intended to use multiple EGR gaskets between the mounting bracket and where the EGR bolts up. Instead my buddy to a guess and machined the EGR block off plate down to .094. We bolted everything back up and this seems to have worked. There is no more exhaust leak anymore. If you take a look at this pic you can kind of see something shining between the mounting bracket and head. That's the EGR block off plate.




We also took the tube that connects from the intake manifold to the EGR valve and cut it, crimped it, and welded it shut. Then we reused the stock clip to hold it back in the intake manifold. The plug for the intake manifold that came with the EGR block off kit had a self tapping screw and we wouldn't have been able to secure it into the manifold without causing another hole with the screw.



These were the 2 major problems we were having. So now that they are taken care of the truck runs. We took it for a small drive to see how it handles and the base tune is rough. It's pretty much just enough to make the truck run and that's about it. Everything is SUPER rich. My wideband wont ever read as low as we know we are getting. After playing with a couple of the idle settings on the tuner we were able to smooth out the idle while in Park.

Taking the truck for a drive was a whole new experience. Right now the truck pretty much auto drives itself. If I take my foot of the brake while in D the truck accelerates to somewhere between 25 and 40 mph on its own. when I do put my foot on the gas and barely touch it the truck does take off very quickly. The biggest obstacle was trying to stop the truck. I had my full weight into the brake pedal with my back pushed as hard as I could into my seat and the truck still wants to pull through it. I can slow it down pretty normally until it gets to about 10 mph and then it's like the truck doesn't want to stop. Only after it full shifts back to first does it let me fully stop moving.

Here is my next problem. The blow off valve isn't open at idle which means I'm creating boost while idling. We know the BOV works since we can see it open when we rev the engine. We think there may be a problem with the BOV itself so tomorrow night my buddy is going to try a Procharger BOV that he has lying around and see if that works. I'll be calling TorqStorm to see if they can send me another one this week or if they have any words about this.

I decided that with the way the truck drove it wasn't safe for me to be driving it home so the truck is still at my buddy's place in Long Island. I'm hoping to get it into the shop this week for the tune but we have to figure out the BOV first and I need to talk with the shop to check their availability.

I will still be doing an intercooler setup but that wont be going on till after christmas. We just want to get the truck running first and foremost and then we can add the intercooler.

Here are some vids of the truck. First one is with the cutouts open. The second is with the cutouts closed. Both of them have a surging idle that we did fix I just didn't get a video of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AgFXPwm058

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWvPE-FHcjo

Gecko said:

So here's the latest update.

We originally intended to use multiple EGR gaskets between the mounting bracket and where the EGR bolts up. Instead my buddy to a guess and machined the EGR block off plate down to .094. We bolted everything back up and this seems to have worked. There is no more exhaust leak anymore. If you take a look at this pic you can kind of see something shining between the mounting bracket and head. That's the EGR block off plate.




We also took the tube that connects from the intake manifold to the EGR valve and cut it, crimped it, and welded it shut. Then we reused the stock clip to hold it back in the intake manifold. The plug for the intake manifold that came with the EGR block off kit had a self tapping screw and we wouldn't have been able to secure it into the manifold without causing another hole with the screw.



These were the 2 major problems we were having. So now that they are taken care of the truck runs. We took it for a small drive to see how it handles and the base tune is rough. It's pretty much just enough to make the truck run and that's about it. Everything is SUPER rich. My wideband wont ever read as low as we know we are getting. After playing with a couple of the idle settings on the tuner we were able to smooth out the idle while in Park.

Taking the truck for a drive was a whole new experience. Right now the truck pretty much auto drives itself. If I take my foot of the brake while in D the truck accelerates to somewhere between 25 and 40 mph on its own. when I do put my foot on the gas and barely touch it the truck does take off very quickly. The biggest obstacle was trying to stop the truck. I had my full weight into the brake pedal with my back pushed as hard as I could into my seat and the truck still wants to pull through it. I can slow it down pretty normally until it gets to about 10 mph and then it's like the truck doesn't want to stop. Only after it full shifts back to first does it let me fully stop moving.

Here is my next problem. The blow off valve isn't open at idle which means I'm creating boost while idling. We know the BOV works since we can see it open when we rev the engine. We think there may be a problem with the BOV itself so tomorrow night my buddy is going to try a Procharger BOV that he has lying around and see if that works. I'll be calling TorqStorm to see if they can send me another one this week or if they have any words about this.

I decided that with the way the truck drove it wasn't safe for me to be driving it home so the truck is still at my buddy's place in Long Island. I'm hoping to get it into the shop this week for the tune but we have to figure out the BOV first and I need to talk with the shop to check their availability.

I will still be doing an intercooler setup but that wont be going on till after christmas. We just want to get the truck running first and foremost and then we can add the intercooler.

Here are some vids of the truck. First one is with the cutouts open. The second is with the cutouts closed. Both of them have a surging idle that we did fix I just didn't get a video of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AgFXPwm058

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWvPE-FHcjo

Click to expand...

Its coming together!!! Gonna be a bad a$$ truck dude..as far as the problems sounds like you guys have a good handle on it. Besides who ever said it was going to be easy!

Definitely agree it's your BOV, if it's manifold referenced (hard to see but looks like it is) it should be completely open at idle and when you should be in vacuum (basically anytime you're below 1/2 throttle), this is causing the vacuum brake booster to not have enough vacuum to work properly. I've found it needs at least 10in-Mg to work and was the driving reason behind me going to a hydro-boost setup. I'd be driving and the stock surge valve couldn't let off enough air and I'd stay in boost or at neutral and have no brakes... 3 times was enough for me to make a change. Hopefully changing to the surge valve works out for you, it helped in my situation when I went to a Big Red Race Valve but was not 100% and I didn't want to install an electric vacuum pump for the brake booster.

Now, you say it's opening when you rev the engine, but is it open at idle? It must be to bleed off the excess air that the blower is producing that the engine can't use and if it's acting like a BOV and not a surge valve then that's an issue. Forgive me if you already know this but it's a commonly misunderstood concept and presented as knowledge for evreyone: a BOV is mean to regulate max boost and will be open while under boost and closed at idle; a surge valve is meant to bleed off excess air when the throttle body closes and will be closed under max boost and open at idle. If they just mounted a BOV with a standard spring then THAT is the issue. Switching to a proper surge valve should clear that up.

StaLL1oN said:

Its coming together!!! Gonna be a bad a$$ truck dude..as far as the problems sounds like you guys have a good handle on it. Besides who ever said it was going to be easy!

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Unfortunately it does defeat the purpose of having a kit if you have to make all kinds of changes to the system to get it to work properly. Like so many things, they're using their consumer base as their R&D and while I've been part of several prototype processes I went into them knowing full well what was required.