I just bought a 460 Vortech supercharger kit from a member of the board this week. I haven't even received the kit yet, but I'm wondering if anybody has information on how to intercool a Vortech charger on these trucks? I've tried some searching on the internet in general, but most of the information points me to the Mustang crowd.

 

You can install a methanol injection kit and/or drop in an air to air intercooler, like one from a powerstroke diesel. The meth kit requires alot less fab work and is fairly easy to install.

 

The meth kit also isn't maintenance free. Last thing you want is to run out of methanol while in boost and punch a piston out because of detonation.

We used a somewhat small ebay air-to-air in my friends Turbo 460 project, but that wasn't as big of a deal since the remote turbo helps cool down the air charge some.

 

At the moment, I'm looking at going only for the intercooler. I've got plans to rebuild a new engine for my truck, and it will be run by a MegaSquirt ECU. At that time, I may decide to add a water/methanol kit for added detonation protection since the engine will be a hotter build.

 

The people I know that run a water/meth kit have never run out because they check the level and add some if needed. If you're under the hood to check the oil, then check the water/meth reservoir.

The Powerstroke air to air intercooler is about the cheapest way to go. You'll need to cut the middle core support out and widen the openings on either side of the radiator to install it.







The methenol injection and intercooler would be the most ideal for charge cooling and it will help keep the valves and piston tops clean. I going to put one on mine this winter when I install the FAST system.

 

You might have to do some work to get other plumbing hooked up.

This was my '96 F350/460


With the output of supercharger going directly to the rear(to throttlebody), there isn't alot of room for other elbows. It was a short molded plastic piece just like the intake part that runs over the top. Most of the Mustang set ups, it hangs off to the side and you have room to play with tubing/intercoolers.

Just saying.

 

Blurry94, do you have any pictures of the pipe routing you took to run the intercooler piping? I don't think it will be easy on the 460 Vortech kit. From the pictures I'm finding on the 'net, it looks like the output of the supercharger housing has a 90° turn to point straight towards the throttle body. I'm not sure if i'll be able to fit an elbow in there, turn the air flow 180° and send it back to the front of the engine.

Freightrain, thanks for posting that picture. I was typing my response to Blurry when you posted. Do you think it's even possible to run an air-to-air intercooler setup with the supercharger as-is in the 460 kit?

 

I'll gather up some pictures of my intercooler setup tomorrow and post them up.

I never ran it intercooled with the factory TB, but if you re clock the blower so that the discharge is on the other side of the Headunit (looking from Freightrain's picture) than you should be able to run a 90* elbow off the TB tee.

Blower outlet side you just have to run it over the blower air inlet and back down to core support.

A cxracing (or equivalent) is what i suggest. Pressure drop on a PSD cooler is higher. I only lost about .5lb


Scott

 

I'm not sure you can reclock the output, as it's a casting and don't think you can rotate it to the other side?? Besides, the impeller would be blowing the air away from it instead of towards it(if that makes sense).

It all just fits over the distributor cap, so there is not alot of room to play.

With the stock 5-6# of boost, I don't really see a reason to have to intercool it? I ran mine all stock, came with boost retard. I had stock exhuast manifolds with a big turbo muffler/turn down out back. It ran really well, it was really noticable around town, like taking off from a light. It was quick and never really showed much boost(1/2-1# at most). Did have 4.10 gears.

Went 15.8's (and Lightnings were only mid-low 15's back then)


I even pulled my 40ft trailer with it:


I really, really miss that truck.

 

You can re clock the volute. Simply loosen the retainer bolts and clock Volute. Its not going to effect the impeller at all. People do it all the time. Plus it was my kit i know it can. I had it clocked, and intercooled. Their is no downside to intercooling other than a alight pressure drop. Cooler denser air = more power

 

Freightrain, I was thinking the same thing as you, but Scott (Bad97F350) and I talked last night and he showed me some pictures of his install. I looks like, despite the 90° turn on the supercharger outlet, there is room to run piping to an intercooler.

Also, I'm not so interested in intercooling on my stock motor per-se, but I do have plans to utilize the smaller pulleys that Scott included in the kit he sold me on a rebuilt motor I'm working on. The new motor will be built with boost in mind, so I will probably be pushing the supercharger to higher boost levels. It will probably be run with a MegaSquirt ECU, so with more tuning capabilities on hand, intercooling and water/methanol will help make significant impact on building a reliable boosted towing motor. I ask now because I may install the intercooler on my stock motor just because it's something I can fab up and have worked out before dropping in the rebuilt motor, and it can't hurt even on the stock tune.

 

Oops, I figured the whole back of the case was one piece. Didn't know(remember) that you could spin just the output. It's only been 16 yrs since I saw mine.

 

Here's a few mock up picks of mine.

 

Not sure how much that will help since the bracket I'm using is different as well as the upper intake manifold. Maybe you could change the volute out to a straight discharge to keep from having to put a 90 on it and that should give you a little more room.

 

Your case is completely different from the rear case on my 460 kit. Your output is straight out, mine had 90* built in to aim it backwards towards throttle body. Re clocking it won't help since it would still point to the rear.

Yours:


Mine:


Just not apples to apples.