TRD/ Magnuson 4.0 Supercharger Tips, Tricks, and Mods

I can’t thank you enough for the maintenance post. I am doing a full rebuild since I have yet to install the supercharger. I finally got the rear needle cup bearings out, holy crap that was brutal. I am taking some pics to add to the maintenance section if anybody wants to go that far later on. I did swap the pulley and c-clip, but I don’t think I am going to change out the nose cone bearings or seal.

 

Yes pics would be great. How did you get the needle bearings out?

 

Well because of the cold lately, I started by bringing the housing indoors. I tried propane on the backside to heat up the housin as well but don’t think this was much help. I didn’t want to remove the boost bypass valve again or damage it from too much heat in the vicinity as well (another story but I fixed that as well, the mounting plate was bent from resting the weight of the system on it).

Blind Hole Bearing Puller is the tool needed. The one at harbor freight will work but I found a cheaper one with more options on Amazon (pictured). I did not realize the needle bearings are completely cupped and you can’t damage the housing or machining. Don’t set the bearing puller at the bottom of the bearing. You want to catch the top lip of the bearing and then use a bunch a small taps with the slide hammer. There is a rubber/nylon synthetic casing that holds the bearings in place that will fall apart and become destroyed. It is fine and will often affect the seating of the puller so you may end up tearing it out banging away on the puller. I pinched the heck out of my hand which hurt like hell, but my taps became increasingly more angry as I channeled @Torspd build thread vibes. Eventually they come out, I used a small bit of anti seize on the new bearings to seat them in. I used the back side of a 3/8 ratchet extension that fit perfectly inside the cup to seat them. I also left them in my freezer overnight to help. I was told they only need to be .002” depth and can be as deep as .006”. I checked the depth often since just bottoming them out in the housing may be too deep.

More pics to follow

 

I’m curious how much the TRD intercooler displaces heat on a 2.5 or lower pulley on those 90 degree days. But You really are moving everything to the passenger side. Wish there was a completely broken blower out there to test cutting/welding on

 

My blower has around 90K on it. And most of that is on 2.55 and NST Kit. And my blower still purrs at idle. I think these blowers are pretty much indestructible. But it would be fun to dissect and rebuild. I don’t know of anyone that’s rebuilt the shaft bearings yet on the 2nd gen TRD.

 

My shaft bearings were replaced at 90k. I also had scoring on the shaft (drive side) that had to have a sleeve installed. I think they’re pretty durable but, certainly not indestructible. This was all on the stock pulley.

 

Who did your rebuild? I presume you swapped out new needle bearing too?

 

Yeah. Jon Bond did my rebuild. I was his first 4.0 S/C. Still running good at 176,000. I originally had a factory spring coupler fail, which is why I had the whole unit rebuilt.

 

Was the scoring on the shaft from the coupler spring?

 

I've seen a couple videos. It doesnt look difficult but a press and a few tools are needed.

 

2.85 pulley I would see a 20° delta at 75mph
2.5 pulley I see 25 to 30° delta at 75mph
Something to note is the above temps are when the engine is still in vacuum.

A hard run up to the speed limit yields a 45 to 50° delta.

Highest temps I've seen was when going up a long incline in a headwind with 112°F oat. 200° inlet and 140° outlet was observed and steady for at least a few minutes. Engine was running about 5 psi boost the whole time.
No issues, no knocking, nothing.
I would have felt much better with a small shot of methanol though!

 

I'm not sure. Sounds plausible, but I never really fully understood exactly what caused the scoring.

 

2.9L whipple supercharger

 

Is that a hole saw, with a bearing attached? Prototype genius!

 

Yes it would be nice but I'm not too worried about it.

 

I may have reached the limit of the TRD tune. Still waiting on the new O-Ring for the lid, but preliminary tests (leaking) showed much higher afr’s at part throttle with new plugs, new tensioner, closed bypass, and 2.5”. May have to go back to 2.6” until ov, fuel pump and bigger injectors.

 

Are you running FPR mod?

 

Are you still running the stock fuel pump or do you have a 255lph?