First off I know all the benefits of changing my pulley to the 15%. I have spent a lot of time researching 15 vs 17 and understand the benefits and downfalls of both. My problem is that I now have 75K miles on my car. Should I do this with this many miles on it now? Question 2 while I have the engine up should i pull the supercharger and change the gear oil in it while it is up? And for those of you who have done this, are you able to pull the sc off of the car while the engine is up? Any helpful tips to prolong the life of my s/c and internals would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

 

I would go ahead and do it at 75k miles. It still has alot of life left in it. My first one lasted 190,000 w/ the 15% on it for the majority of the time. (~160,000 miles) As for changing the oil in it - I'm not sure the engine can be lifted high enough to do that. I think the whole front of the car (radiator forward) need to come off to deal with the supercharger oil. Could be wrong tho.

Get the pulley and enjoy!


Nik

 

No, removing the supercharger is quite a bit more work than doing a pulley install (having done both).

I know some who waited far longer than 70K miles to finally have a 15% installed.

The only reason I can imagine not doing a pulley would be if you run auto-x and like to be somewhat competitive. A 15% pulley puts a MCS into a class (Street Mod) where it needs a LOT more mods to stand a chance (although I've debated trying...).

 

alrightm thanks. I have just heard nasty things about superchargers not being properly lubed and didn't want to burn it up just for a few miles of fun

 

Some MCS superchargers have seals which lose the lube over time. It is not a universal problem. Some last viruatally forever with no maintenance. I checked the oil in mine at 70K recently - still good to go, so didn't do anything to it. A buddy of mine's was bone dry when we checked his (after he replaced it due to noise).

 

I had the 15% pulley installed at 105K miles on my old '02 MCS. I cannot recall the source, but the Eaton M45 supercharger is supposed to be designed to handle 15 lbs. of boost. That's why the JCW upgrade kit is covered under warranty. That means the stock supercharger is actually underdriven because it's only producing 10-11 lbs. boost from the factory.

As for longevity, any boostfed device can potentially fail at any time. Many people have stated they were able to get 100-120K miles before having to rebuild their supercharger. My advice is to pick up a spare.

Anything over 15 lbs. boost will start to eat into the longevity. 17 lbs. becomes the point as to whether you will need to upgrade to 380cc JCW injectors, getting the head reworked, etc. 17% will also produce more heat.

 

Neh, we don't really stand any chance, if you're actually competing against the nationally competitive set.

 

Yeah if you're going to step into street mod class, you're better off just going the whole 9 yards with your suspension setup, and not bothering with power mods, IMO.