2002 SSEi (VERY pic heavy) - update on P.2 & P.3

[ga93sle]

Suppose it still sits lower than Randy's car? lolol

27.75"

[nubuilder]

Lots of work has gone into this car lately but I'm sure it's all been well worth it!

Keep up the good work!

So far, all of it has been.

That's an amazing job. Did you have any problem with vibration at highway speeds before changing out the parts, and if so, did it go away?

Yes, before I even touched the car, I had a shimmy, however, some of it was due to at least one warped rotor. After replacing the brakes, There was still a shimmy. I don't remember exactly what speeds, but it was wide spread (anywhere from 50-65mph). During the work, before I did the cradle, I still had a shimmy in that same area. I can't say what fixed it for sure. That worn/torn bushing had to have something to do with it, but then there's the alignment not being perfect (but close) and getting new tires (and balanced).

The only way I could suggest removing a cradle to check the bushings is if you were already planning on getting an alignment. Shifting the cradle affects caster for sure, and most likely camber too.

Suppose it still sits lower than Randy's car? lolol

27.75"

What?? I thought I was still riding lower than you even with the new struts before....or maybe I was just lower in the rear with the worn out springs....

[00Beast]

Wow, that's a lot of work! Looks great Matthew! We'll have to get back together soon. I should have something new that everyone's going to want to check out I'm sure.

[nubuilder]

Intake Gasket Time!!!!!
This was all done as preventative maintenance (no coolant in the oil) and because I wanted to.


The work setup


Before the chaos begins


No supercharger


No intake or valve covers


All covered up and laid to rest


Bottom of my supercharger


Stock water pump


Earlier Series II water pump


To make myself feel better and more confident about tearing my supercharger apart, drilling and tapping the holes, and taking the snout apart, I bought a "donor" supercharger at a junkyard.

[nubuilder]

Let the cleaning of my parts begin!!!

Soaked the intake and blower housing in Purple Power to get them cleaned out. Besides that, all I used was a parts cleaning brush.









Wrinkle coat time!

I used VHT wrinkle coat. I couldn't find Krylon anywhere. Put the parts in the oven for 20min at 170 to pre-heat them (the snout and housing). After paint, put them back in the oven for another hour. The valve covers were not put in the oven. Instead, a hair dryer was used. To be completely honest, the wrinkle didn't turn out nearly as nice, but it is what it is.









After cooling for at least an hour, I top-coated everything with Duplicolor blue to match my car. The valve covers didn't turn out nearly as nice because I ran out of paint (note: 1 can of Duplicolor is not enough!).

[nubuilder]

Let the assembly begin!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but once you get going and the excitement and nerves kick in, pictures are the last thing on your mind.

[nubuilder]

In the end, the supercharger was painted and rebuilt, along with the fuel rail, thermostat housing, and all the bolt heads being painted a metallic silver (Rustoleum paint). I went with this paint scheme because I thought it would look cool with the contrasting colors.

Here's a list of what was done/used:

Intake gaskets ------------------------ 89017816 -- GM Dealer
Supercharger to LIM gasket --------- MS95744 --- Felpro
Throttle body gasket ----------------- 61024 ------ Felpro
Injector O-rings (3 packs needed) -- ES70599 --- Felpro
Thermostat (180 degree) ------------ 45847 ------ Stant
Water pump --------------------------- 252694 ---- AC Delco
Water pump gasket ------------------ 251664 ---- AC Delco
Water pump pulley ------------------- 300934 ----- Dorman
Coolant elbows ----------------------- GMA-CESH - Intense Racing
Valve cover gaskets & grommets -- VS50465R --- Felpro
Supercharger belt -------------------- 4060720 ---- Goodyear
Accessory belt ------------------------ 4060926 ---- Goodyear
Oil pan gasket ------------------------ OS30699R -- Felpro

Other things:
Modular Pulley System (MPS) - Intense Racing with 3.6 pulley
Ultra Copper RTV
Carb/Brake/Throttle Body cleaner
Supercharger oil (I used GM, but also have AC Delco yet too)

For the oil pan, the hardest part was getting the passenger side engine bracket out of the way (getting it off 2 studs at the same time). Another note to make is before unbolting the pan, remove the low oil level sensor. This actually sits above the oil pick-up tube and will make removal more difficult. With it out of the way, the pan will drop right out and go right back in without any troubles.

I'm sure I'm missing something....

This project actually spanned 2 months. Honestly, I can't tell you why, it just did. It kinda fell to the back of my mind. I tore it apart (then engine on 5/4) and then it sat. I finally decided I wanted to get it done by the 4th of July weekend so I did...pretty much. On 6/29, the car was back together. By 7/4, I had everything but the oil pan gasket done and had put a weeks worth of driving on it without issue. The car maintains 185 degrees as long as it's moving. I do not have a tune so the fans won't kick on until 220 like normal.

I'm very happy with how everything turned out. So far so good as to the paint sticking to everything. No leaks (that I know of).

[MattStrike]

Nice on the paint job! Looks good.

[1oldman]

Nice on the paint job! Looks good.

X2 - really like the color too. - BC

[WhiteArrow3800]

Looking awesome! I've had better results with the VHT wrinkle over the Krylon myself. Though some of that could be attributed to technique since I've done it a couple different ways.

At anyrate, there's a lot of progress with this car! It's coming along very nice!

[00Beast]

Looks great!!!

[nubuilder]

Thanks guys! I couldn't be happier with how the supercharger turned out. The blue turned out way better than I was expecting. I just didn't want to leave it black and look like every other wrinkle paint job.

Up next is trans pan drop and filter change. Hopefully that makes the shifting a little better. If not, I'll probably be worrying about the trans blowing next.....