My 03 has about 124k on her, with the supercharger oil topped off about 20k ago.
I was thinking how nice it would be to install a remote reservoir for the PTO side, similar looking to the brake fluid reservoir on a motorcycle's handle bars.
That way, if that ended up getting low, you could easily see the level dropping and fill it up rather than wait for the supercharger gears to get starved of oil and eat themselves, thus needing an entirely new supercharger.
Would simply tapping that plate, installing a brass nipple and running an oil line to it work? Is there anything I'm missing?

 

You do not 'fill' the cavity; it takes a very specific quantity (1.4 oz) of oil. How do you plan to determine how much to add from your 'remote' reservoir? Someone else has recently posted a solution similar to what you describe, but his incorporates a dipstick.

 

If it's leaking to the point where you have to keep adding fluid.....you should probably pull off the SC and find out why it's leaking, and replace the seal(s) and/or gaskets.

I've got 150,000 miles on my SC and I've never cracked it up to check/add oil. At this point...I'm just going to run it. Knock on wood.....

 

Thanks for your responses.
As far as I've read, threads such as https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ge-how-to.html indicate that you fill the supercharger until the oil weeps out of the filling plug hole- not a precise amount.
So if you tapped a hole at that level and attached a remote reservoir, if the oil drops below that due to slow consumption (and as IQRaceworks pointed out, many don't consume much) the oil would be automatically topped off once the oil level inside the PTO chamber fell below the tapped inlet hole. Thus never running dry and self destructing.

I am just looking for reasons that this wouldn't work, thanks everyone

 

For your idea to work, you would have to mount your oil reservoir at the same level where the weep hole was on the SC.......and that's going to be hard. If you put your oil reservoir above the SC.......it's going to fill the SC above the weep hole...all the way to the top.

It doesn't matter where you tap into the SC.....if there is oil in a reservoir mounted above the SC, gravity is going to force oil down into the SC...and it's going to fill until it cant' fill any more.......

 

I think (IMO) the reason behind the fixed amount of fluid in each side is to avoid over pressurizing and blowing the seal out.
If so, and that being said, you could put in two lines on just the PTO side to a reservoir. One at the fill port and another at a point somewhat higher in the chamber(return line). This allows the fluid somewhere to go when heated. Specifically, to be pushed back into the reservoir.
I agree it also allows easy monitoring of fluid level and hopefully seeing a leak before the supercharger self-destructs. But I think it gets really hot under prolonged boost so a metal reservoir might be the ticket.


Little googling shows superchargers with connections to engine oil systems, I.E. Paxton supercharger "A direct-to-gear, constant circulation, oiling system provides optimum lubrication and cooling, even under sustained boost conditions."
http://www.paxtonauto.com/product.php?id=157


Long diatribe on S/C failure - after reading twice it may back the thoughts above.
http://www.kennebell.net/KBWebsite/C...nd_Analyze.pdf
If I had a spare S/C I might give the reservoir idea a go. Hmmm.....

 

You guys are trying to fix a problem that doesn't really exist.....how many superchargers have you heard failing from low oil, a few ...but not many. Most are going well into the 150,000 mile territory.......

They are a wear item, they are not designed to last forever. If you are going to take the time to pull the supercharger off to drill and tap some holes in the housing for an oil reservoir hose.....if it's leaking, just fix the darn leak. Bam...problem solved

 

Thanks BruceJ! Very helpful, and good to consider the heat factor. And thanks for the pertinent info in the link!

 

No arguments that it's a wear item or that it's not a major mini failure point. Just looking at it from the viewpoint of life extension prior to rebuild vice just sending it in for rebuild at an arbitrary mileage number. Going until it starts making bad noises really makes me think I'll have added expense of finding a new core, and or paying for new gears vice just a rebuild on the existing unit.
In the end though, a dipstick will do the same thing.

 

How many miles are currently on your mini?

 

122K miles

 

I pulled my original supercharger at 190,000 because I got nervous, still had oil in both ends of it. Put it on the shelf until I did my engine rebuild last winter. Then I put it back on, so currently my original supercharger has over 202,000 miles on it, all but 30,000 with a 15% reduction pulley, and the last 12,000 with a 2% overdrive too.

Nik

 

....I think most people drive there cars into the ground before the supercharger dies. I don't know a whole lot of people who have mini's with over 200,000 miles on them.....and I know less people who have had their SC's fail. I think as long as you don't have a leak and there is oil in the reservoirs, you are good for a long time.

 

Thanks Ian