Supercharged Noob questions

Hey guys, I picked up a supercharged first Gen with 102,000 miles and I have a few questions.

First and foremost, the previous owner has never installed any fuel upgrades, like the 7th injector kit or even a upgraded fuel pump. I’m not seeing any issue with RPM ping, but would I increase my power by upgrading the fuel system? URD quotes 30-40 HP, but idk if that including the SC as well.

Question #2:
This truck has a cone, oiled style air filter installed. What’s the best filter to run with the SC?

Any insights you guys can provide will be awesome!

 

#1 Possibly but too many variables to tell for sure, if nothing else your new rig will appreciate the maintenance, don't forget to replace the fuel filter as well it's about the size of a Coke can about halfway along the frame if I remember correctly black cylinder easy to do if you got a 10 mm or possibly 12 mm flare wrench.

speaking of maintenance, it's a good idea to figure out which version of the supercharger you have, if it's the boxy gray one it's a gen 1, if it's the black curvy one it's a Gen 2 either way it's a good idea to do the snout maintenance which involves the snout oil change more than likely it has never been done.

As far as making more power goes again it depends on a whole lot of other variables beyond fuel management, but the 7th injector helps seal the impellers in the supercharger which gives you a slight increase in boost as well as the extra fuel helps keep things cool.

The best filter to run is always going to be the OEM Drop in style filter.

if you have an oiled filter it is highly highly recommended you get some CRC mass air flow cleaner and carefully clean your mass air flow sensor when you go back to the dry paper style filter.

 

Solid info! Thanks. I have the Gen 2 black SC, and it’s been installed for 60,000 miles. I read they need changing every 100,000 or so, but with the truck being 17 years old, it probably wouldn’t hurt.

as far as the air filter, so you wouldn’t recommend the stage 2 style filters from URD, and you’d just stick with the stock one right?

This truck will be a trailered play toy, but I still want it reliable. Would a pulley upgrade be smart? Or would it introduce too much boost to be reliable?

 

The supercharger for these engines was designed to be bolt on and go, but a lot of folks myself included found that we were running lean without any added fuel modifications.
If you're not hearing any ping that's good, I was hearing it bad under boost which was what led me to installing the 7th injector, which includes a larger flow fuel pump.

You can't truly know if you're running lean or not unless you are able to monitor your AFRs with a wideband sensor/gauge. To do this, I recommend getting a wideband AFR gauge kit which will come with the wideband o2 sensor.

Sensor gets installed just before your first cat converter, wires up to the gauge which you put near the boost gauge. This will allow you to read your AFRs under closed/open loop. Open loop (wide open throttle usually) is where you want to know what your AFRs are.

Larger fuel pump isn't really necessary unless you do the 7th injector or larger fuel injectors. Stock pump is capable of the demands of the stock supercharger setup.

 

If you go to a smaller pulley you will most likely/certainly need to install fuel mods to compensate for the higher boost

 

And I hope it goes without saying but just in case, never run anything under 91 octane