The following is a factual running diary of a (fairly)mechanically ignorant man, his Bentley manual, and a bad supercharger. Along the way, there we be laughs, tears, and advice from the forums(thank you!). Only one thing is for sure.. This R53 will never be the same...

 

Day 1
The garage door opens and the air of a misty, cool Texas morning wafts in. I look down at the front of my Indi blue R53, and I can almost hear her say back to me, "wait, you're going to try to do what?" So what if it took me five hours to change a power window regulator last year? I can save myself a lot of money by doing this myself. Take things apart, put things back together, easy as that.
Even though I knew it wasn't as easy as that, I knew i had to keep a positive outlook to get through it. I grabbed the Bentley manual, and off I went.
Step 1, remove the negative battery terminal. Hell yeah! I can do that. If there's one thing i know, it's car stereo and how to disconnect a battery terminal. On and on we go. The splash guard comes off, the bumper cover pops off, off comes the bumper itself. Little paper towels start to litter the garage floor with random screws and clips on them. Each towel is scrawled with a Sharpie describing the origin of it's dirty metal paperweight.
Oh crap, I'm missing football! I steal the girlfriend's Verizon phone and plug some speakers in, out in the garage. I listen contently as Peyton Manning, my fantasy football QB, dismantles the Raiders. This is nice. Working outside, doing manly things. Frickin' A!
The last Torx T30 bolt strains to hold it's ground in the intercooler, but finally succumbs to the added pressure of a socket wrench adapter. Off the intercooler comes and with it comes a giant dragonfly-looking bug that looks like it has had a front row seat on the road for the last couple years. The garage floor gets more cluttered, and nervousness starts to set in. Holy hell, I really hope i can get all this together again. Nope, not going to think about it. I took it apart, i can put it back together.
The girlfriend comes out into the garage and scans the wreckage before her. With a nervous smile, she ask's "how's it going?" I try to reassure her everything is going nicely and she lovinigly offers to go pick up some Subway sandwiches, which I greatfully take her up on. As she pulls out of the driveway with what is now our only running car, I go back to the Bentley book.
Losing focus, but eager to keep moving, I go to the next section of book. "disconnect fuel rail". Wait what? Thinking back to all the threads i had read about superchargers, I don't remember anyone ever talking about fuel lines. I skip ahead to make sure this is somehow related to the supercharger. The fuel rail is connected to the intake manifold, the intake manifold is on top of the supercharger output air duct. Makes sense. I guess. I feel the least confident of the day as I pull the tube out of the fuel pressure regulator and a little bit of gas pours out which I quickly mop up with some shop rags. As I'm wiping it up, it still bothers me that I don't remember any talk of fuel lines in supercharger threads. As I sit there surveying my ever shrinking engine bay, I'm hesitant to go inside and get on the computer. If I deviate from the book, how will I know what I did? This is my journal that's already written for me. Following it is how I'll know how to get everything back together. Be like Luke Skywalker and stay on target.
Off come the fuel line mounting bolts. "Pull off fuel line with fuel injectors". I wiggle the fuel line and everything is pretty loose. C'mon out. I pull and something catches. I take the flashlight and search all around the fuel rail. I don't see anything holding it on and give it another yank with the same result. Again I grab the flashlight and take a look. The only thing I can see holding on the rail are the fuel injectors, but they're moving around loosely in their shafts. I give the rail one more angry yank and catch myself. Take it easy, this is your car. I think to myself, this is probably good time to call it a night. The sun is setting as I close the garage door, and I hear the inviting crowd of the football game on TV as I walk in for the night.


Day 1

Mood: perplexed but confident

Questions: Why is my fuel rail possessed?
Why do I draft players from the Cleveland Browns?

 

Subscribed. Sounds like a great read already!

 

looking good so far! as for the fuel rail just needs some convincing they usually get stuck if they have never been removed before. on my jetta the first time i pulled the rail and injector Assembly out i had to use a long screwdriver to pry it out. had to be careful though because it was plastic didnt want to break it. dont know about mini's though.

 

I'm tuned in for the next episode. Will the supercharger submit??

 

Yeah trust me, you didn't miss anything but the Broncos kicking some Raider butt. I didn't even bother watching 4th quarter because it was already over

On-topic: You've got me hooked as well since I'll probably be performing this swap sooner than later...

 

Subscribed too & looking forward to more.

On a FFB note: I have Greg Little on my roster and blame it solely on the idiot (me) who started doing shots of Patron (multiple) before our draft even started.

 

Yea Broncos game was a blow out.

And I just did my supercharger oil for the first time, no need to pull fuel rail or intake manifold. Sounds like a bunch of extra work.

 

subscribed.

 

Day 2 - A Short Night


As you get older, I think you recognize more easily when it's time to take a break, and come back later. Last night was one of those nights. I work normal hours during the week, so I was coming into the garage at 7pm facing something that stumped me yesterday. Not a great situation, but a good night's sleep can make all the difference.

I yanked on the fuel rail, she didn't budge. No prob, it's a new day. Ok, start wiggling. Just then, LMFAO's "Sexy and I know it" pops in my head. "Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle ya" I sing as the unfortunate image of Redfoo thrusting his junk in a leopard print speedo from the video runs through my brain. I'm singing and watching the video in my head when I'm snapped back to reality by the fuel rail releasing from it's metal master of the last nine years. Sweet! i stick the rail in some plastic bags and stash it on the back of the engine.

Next up, "Detach air intake bypass valve from intercooler output air duct". "That's a mouthful" I think to myself, but the Bentley manual provides a nice diagram. Yesterday I had chosen not to take the modular front end of the car off completely, but instead extend it away from the car on long bolts. This wasn't providing a lot of room to work with, but I eventually got the visible two bolts off the air intake. Looking at the diagram, I can see there's another one directly underneath the air duct. It's completely blind, but I feel for it and find it. The next 30 minutes go by painfully slow as I try every adapter and universal joint I can find to get the last bolt off, but there just isn't enough clearance.

I finally accept the fact that I'm stuck until I pick up a 1/4" drive ratchet on the way home from work tomorrow. I sigh at the limited amount of progress made, but the frustration melts away as I walk in and smell the girlfriend's baked spaghetti cooking in the kitchen. I still have time to watch the 4th quarter of Monday Night Football, and I accept the fact that life isn't all that bad.

 

Until you're getting everything all together and that one bolt snaps as you're tightening it... oh wait, that was me.

 

Until you realize you have Romo on your fantasy team...

 

Day 3 - The Impossible Bolt

Yesterday after the girlfriend came home, she told me that her tire pressure light came on, and asked me look at her tires for her. The weather had been getting cooler, so I wasn't too worried about there being a problem, probably just needed a few more PSI in each one. My Sears air compressor wasn't the fastest thing in the world, so I popped the hood on her Nissan Rogue to let the engine cool off while it was running. I had spent so much time under my hood lately, I couldn't believe the contrast I saw on the Rogue. The engine bay looked like the Grand Canyon. Wide, nicely spaced components. Big, accessible bolts just inviting you to put a socket on them.

I had picked up the badly needed 1/4" drive ratchet and took about 20 minutes to get the last bolt off the bottom of the air bypass valve to get it off of the intake manifold. So here we were then! The last great barrier to the supercharger. I grab my ratchet and attack the intake manifold. The Bentley manual orders me to go at the left most bolt first..

Holy ****ing ****, have you guys seen this bolt?!? The intercooler exhaust curves right around the back of it like Bill Clinton's *****. Seriously, the socket only goes half way on because it runs into the intercooler output. I cannot believe this car. It's like 1% reward and 99% **** you. I have absolutely no idea how to get this bolt off. I feel like the Bentley manual has directed me to approach the supercharger completely from the wrong direction. I would love to hear how people got this bolt off with the supercharger still attached.

Day 3
Mood: saksfdkljaf;kljdf
Questions: THIS BOLT?!?

 

I'm not going to lie, for this job, with the direction it's taking you, I would not be following the bentley manual if it's making you remove all of this stuff.

I recently did mine and followed some of the posted DIY articles. Yes I had to remove the entire front modular end, but everything was straight forward after that and everything I needed to removed was easily accessible and in clear view. Took me around 8 hours to do it the first time by myself (that included messing with my belt tensioner), but after doing it once, I'm sure I could get it down to 6 hours or less.

The way the Bentley manual is telling you to do it, just sounds a lot harder then it needs to be. Sorry to hear that you are having such a pain, and wish I could give some insight, but I haven't pulled the intake manifold yet, so I don't know which bolt is causing the headache.

Good luck!

 

Manual? Whats a manual?

I did mine back in Febuary, my only regret was I couldnt keep the damn garage warm enough and I didnt notice my idler pully's bearings exploded and backed it out of its spot on the block. Had to wait a week to get the part. Def dont want to do it ever again. Its an interesting journey, but man it made me want to punch the designer in the face for the cluster**** that the enginebay is.

I wish I could help, I cannot picture what you're fighting with. I had more problems getting the new charger back IN the then I did out. I've blacked out most of the experience because it made me hate my car a lot. I dont remember any of the bolts holding the SC to the manifold being that much of a problem. you arent removing the whole intake manifold with the charger are you? Also, you have WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more room if you loosen up the modular front end, and let it hang away from the body of the car. I didnt want to disconnect my AC so I let it hang away like this: https://i.imgur.com/2xvMm.jpg

 

Yeah, I have my MFE pulled away similar to how you do. The problem is the left-most intake bolt that goes into the block. I don't think the SC is actually attached to the intake in any way, just curves around it. The bolt would be directly below where you hand is in the picture. I'll just have to give it some more thought. If I can't get it off, it's time to start all over and go from the bottom instead of the top.

 

just remove the supercharger with the left side (side that 04liquidS' hand is near) of the intercooler exhaust attached. All you have to do then is get the waterpump detached from block or the waterpump detached from the supercharger. After you've dealt with the waterpump you just unbolt like four bolts holding the supercharger to the block, unbolt the tensioner to the SC and you can pull it straight off.

 

From what I understand the intake doesn't need to come off like the manual says. one of the guys in our club did his SC and didn't take the intake off.

 

the intake (black plastic part that attaches at the lower part of the SC DOES need to come off, the metal SC exhaust part on the other side that attaches to the top of the SC doesn't need to come off, just disconnect it from the intercooler and remove it attached to the SC.