Superchargers 4 less -C5 Stage II installation Page 1-

Pictures, Tech Tips and Advice from our installation of a
Procharger Stage II Intercooled Supercharger system on a C5 Corvette.
Please call us for more information about any picture.
Superchargers 4 Less
Call for prices!
PH. 318-286-9169

The information given below is only intended to be a supplement to the instructions
that Procharger provides with this supercharger system. We encourage our customers to
always read the Owners Manual that Procharger provides with their system.

Join us we install the Procharger Stage II Intercooled supercharger system on our 2003 Z06 Corvette. We previously had the original Procharger HO Intercooled kit on this car. The HO kit did a really good job for the 47,000 miles that we put on it and it will keep on doing a good job for it's new owner. Update 6-19-09: The Stage II system now has over 44,000 miles on it and the car has over 101,000 supercharged miles on it with no damage to the engine or drive train.

Now let's discuss the improvements in the new Stage II kit. 1. It has a new thicker bracket which shows off more of the blower. 2. The new system has 3" tubing going to the new thicker twin intercoolers (4.5" instead the old 3.5" thick ones) The old HO kit had 2.5" tubing. 3. The new kit has a larger top mounted air filter that can be easily serviced and it flows better. The new filter shouldn't have to be cleaned as regular. The old system needed a air filter cleaning every 6,000 to 8,000 miles. The old kit had the air filter incorporated into the fan shroud that came with the kit. The biggest problem with the old air filter setup was servicing the filter, it took over an hour for the filter to be removed and replaced from the bottom side of the car. 4. The new Stage II system utilizes the stock fans, which are much quieter than the single large fan used on the old HO system. I think that the original fans cool better also. 5. The new system has better belt wrap on the supercharger pulley to reduce the chance of belt slippage and does so with 2 less idlers than the old system. 6. With the new system the drain plug for the supercharger oil is accessible, on the old system it was not possible to get to the drain plug without removing the supercharger. Procharger included a syringe with tubing on it so that the oil could be sucked out from the top on the old HO kit. 7. The blower is much easier to remove if you have to change a thermostat or do other service to the car. The supercharger can be removed without having get under the car and it can be done in about 15 to 20 minutes. 8. Ground clearance for the intercooler tubes is greater on the Stage II system.

Let's now talk about efficiency. The new tubing and intercoolers on this Stage II system have really made this system efficient. This system makes over 6 psi with a huge 4.75 inch diameter pulley, where the old HO kit used a 4.25 inch pulley to make 6 psi. If you were to put a 4.25" pulley on this new kit, it would probably make 11+ psi!!!

If you have followed our past installation of the HO Intercooled system, you may want to skip the part about pinning the crankshaft. Nothing is different about pinning the harmonic balancer to the crankshaft.

2. Pinning the harmonic balancer to the Crankshaft. The harmonic balancer on the LS1 engine is not keyed to the crankshaft, so it must be pinned to keep it from shifting with the added torque load of the supercharger. ATI and Vortech both supply the tools to accomplish this task.

Getting to the area that we need to work on is not so easy though. On a C5 Corvette the steering rack sits directly in front of the crankshaft bolt that retains the harmonic balancer.

We jacked up the car and removed both front wheels. With a 18mm socket on an air impact wrench we removed the nuts that hold the tie rod ends to the spindles, no problems so far. We unbolted the power steering cooler from the cross member and tied it up and out of the way with a piece of wire. We then removed the bolts holding the steering rack and the traction control unit. The traction control unit was easily raised and tied out of the way. The steering rack would not go up high enough to allow access to the crankshaft bolt. We pushed the rack toward the driver side of the car (rotating the steering wheel to the right seemed to help), we were then able to raise the passenger side of the rack high enough to allow us to get a break over handle and 24mm socket onto the bolt. We found that a piece of a 2 by 4 was perfect to hold the steering rack up and out of the way.

We removed the factory crankshaft bolt and then installed the provided ATI drill guide/alignment tool onto the end of the crankshaft. Clearance between the radiator and drilling area is very tight, so we used a flexible drill attachment (see picture above) on our drill to give us more room to work. We also wrapped our drill bit with tape at the pre-measured depth that ATI recommended, to give us a stopping point for our drilling depth. We checked the depth of the pin hole before we tapped the pin into place, it would be a real problem if we tapped the pin into a hole that was a millimeter to shallow.

3. Relocation of the coolant recovery hose: The coolant recovery hose must be relocated to make room for the blower. ATI provides hose menders and a length of heater hose to relocate the hose. We cut the hose as instructed, then loosened the hose at the engine and rotated it downward. We cut the new piece of hose to the required length and spliced it to the original hose ends.

4. Installation of 160 degree thermostat (optional): ATI recommends that you run a 160 degree thermostat. The problem with the thermostat recommendation, is that ATI tells you this after you have installed the blower (if you are following the order that the manual is written) The thermostat cannot be reached with the blower installed. If you want to change the thermostat you had better do it now.