1. Procharged C7 Installation Manual

Procharged C7 Installation Manual

Procharger instructions pdf H.O. 2001 ATI, ALL.I am looking at going procharger, but would like to take at look at the install manual to see If its something I want to do or take to somebody else. Procharger installation instructions camaro.

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Are manufacturer claims just a bunch of hot air; the fevered prose of some PR flack on a caffeine jag? The answer is an unequivocal, 'Sometimes.' As in, 'Sometimes yes, sometimes no.' As in, 'Who you gonna believe?' Or as in, 'Let's find a car, do an installation with before and after tests, and publish whatever the results are--good, bad, or ugly.' You wouldn't believe how often, at that point the manufacturer suddenly doesn't have parts available or comes up with some equally lame excuse.

The flip side of that equation is the occasional company that makes some pretty substantial boasts about what their product(s) can do, and wants us to put them to the test. That's fun! It's even more fun when we set the rules of engagement; i.e. we provide the car, we control the testing, and we arrange for (or at least oversee) the installation. When a manufacturer says, 'Yeah, let's do it,' we're rarin' to go.

Over the span of six or so months last year, we were going through exactly that situation with the gang at Accessible Technologies Inc., developers/manufacturers of the ProCharger supercharger. We nailed down the details (the car we'd use, what we'd do before and after dyno tests and installation at the Primedia Tech Center here in Southern California, and who'd come out West from ATI to do the actual install) during the SEMA Show in early November, and we did the deed just before Christmas.

What we planned on doing (and did) was to install one of ATI's P-1SC superchargers, complete with dual (one per side) air-to-air intercoolers on an otherwise basically stock, LS1-powered six-speed C5. ATI builds centrifugal superchargers and supercharger systems, and has been building systems with intercoolers since 1994. We've gone into superchargers, how and why they work, and what they do several times, most recently in the February 2003 issue. This time, however, we're not going to do yet another treatise on blowers themselves. The key here is 'intercooler,' a word that you've seen many times on the pages of this and other publications, including quite often in VETTE's July 2002 'Force-Fed and Fast' issue.

WHY INTERCOOLED?
Air gains heat as it is compressed; the scientific term is 'adiabatic expansion' (I first heard of it in a lower division college science course, more years ago than I care to admit to). The more a unit of air is compressed, the hotter it gets. Heated air is less dense than cooler air, thus it contains less oxygen. And the oxygen in the atmosphere is what gets mixed with gasoline in an internal combustion engine to cause those little explosions in the cylinders. Thin air (i.e. higher altitudes) and hot air contain less oxygen than dense air (sea level) or cool air and does not produce as much energy when burned with fuel. You've probably noticed how crappy your Corvette seems to run up in the mountains or on a hot and humid day compared to at lower elevations or on a cool evening. It's the air density.

An intercooler acts like a radiator of sorts, except that instead of being used to remove heat from engine coolant (by running the heated coolant through tubes in a core and moving outside air through and across that core), it's used to cool the compressed air from a supercharger or turbocharger. A good example of the effectiveness of intercooling comes from, of all things, Dearborn. In the early-'80s, Ford developed several turbocharged versions of their Pinto-derived, 2.3L SOHC four-cylinder engine. With electronic fuel injection and NOT intercooled, the engine made 155 hp in '83-86 Thunderbirds. The same engine, with an air-to-air intercooler, was offered in the '84-86 Mustang SVO and produced between 185 (initially) and 205 hp, from the factory--not bad at all for a relatively unsophisticated 140-cid engine.

There are two types of intercoolers--air-to-air and air-to-liquid. An air-to-liquid system will, for a brief period (a matter of minutes), offer more effective heat reduction to the air charge than will an air-to-air system, but to do so requires an extremely cold (ice and cold water, for example) coolant that will have an effective life span of mere minutes. An air-to-liquid system is the more complex system, requiring a recirculating pump and heat exchanger for the liquid and relating plumbing, in addition to the heat exchanger for the charged air and all that setup's necessary ducting. And, once the liquid cooling medium picks up heat it cannot even be cooled down to the ambient air temperature, as it's being cooled by outside (ambient) air blowing across and through a heat exchanger. Air-to-air systems are much more beneficial and effective for street cars than air-to-liquid setups. Well-engineered air-to-air systems are not especially complex--at least in comparison to air-to-liquid systems--and depend only on a constant stream of outside air to maintain their cooling efficiency. That efficient and consistent cooling of the air charge allows higher levels (as measured in pounds per square inch or psi) of boost, all else being equal, and promotes more thorough combustion, which in turn yields more power, lessened emissions, and reduced detonation.

TO BLOW, OR NOT TO BLOW
Centrifugal superchargers are driven by the crankshaft via a belt. The compressor itself can be internally driven by gears (like ATI's ProChargers, the various Vortech blowers, and the Paxton Novi), cogged belt (Powerdyne), or with a planetary ball-drive (like the old Paxton/McCullough units). The ball-drives were not particularly reliable and required a lot of maintenance. Internal cog belt units seem to be good for street applications, but appear to be limited in peak power output. However, they are fairly reliable and need little if any regular maintenance. The gear drive blowers seem to be the best compromise between durability, power production, and necessary service, and have proven to be the ultimate design for many drag racing applications.The downsides to these units have been a sometimes quite high noise level from the gear drive systems, and the need for an outside lubrication source, which usually is the engine's oiling system. This, in turn, adds additional heat to the engine oil, and the lubrication/cooling chores for the blower end up being handled by extremely hot oil. Plus, running lines to the supercharger from an oil source in the engine and back, often to a plug added to the oil pan, is a source of potential leaks.

ATI's latest street ProCharger, the P-1SC, is self-contained and uses an internal reservoir and pump to hold and circulate a special synthetic oil that was formulated to handle the high speeds and heat a supercharger generates. This, according to ATI, equates to cooler operating temperatures and more power production. And their drive gears, while still straight-cut (for maximum strength), have been re-engineered for quieter operation.

Their claims are substantial--50-plus percent horsepower gains for most intercooled applications and, specifically, 535 hp (!), on pump gas, on an otherwise stock Corvette LS1. We shall see..

The C5 supercharger system looks great, with a finely polished, very handsome compressor that mounts to the LS1 (also LS6) on the right-front corner via an exquisite CNC-machined and highly polished billet aluminum bracket that just happens to also look bulletproof. The ATI crew came up with a clever way to locate the intercooler--instead of the expected single, radiator-sized unit hung up front, ahead, or in the general vicinity of the radiator shroud and the OEM engine air inlet (and, not coincidentally, a lousy spot for airflow), ATI engineered up a pair of small, but still high flow, intercoolers and located them in the front corners, right behind the openings in all C5 front bumpers that direct outside air toward the front brake rotors. The ductwork for this arrangement is semi-nightmarish--you still have to bring air in from outside to feed the engine. Said air, once it's filtered, goes to and through the compressor, then is ducted downward behind the radiator and fan shroud into a 'Y' where the air is split into left and right ducts that work around to the intercoolers. Once the charge air has passed through the intercoolers, it wends back to the center of the car, into another 'Y' and upward over the forward fan shroud (where the original air box once resided) to the mass airflow sensor, throttle body (both in original positions), and onward into the engine. But, it, the ducting, intercoolers, etc., is neatly done and, somehow, everything fits in place.

The packaging of the entire system is very well done. No major components have to be relocated (one system we previewed about three years ago required the battery to be relocated into one of the storage wells in the cargo area, not bad for weight distribution, but a major hassle, nonetheless), the stock hood remains untouched, nothing (with the exception of a couple wires in the original electric fan harness) has to be cut or drilled. It is entirely conceivable (although we can't imagine why) that one could install a ProCharger on a C5, drive it for a couple years, then remove the blower and return the car to completely stock appearance.

GETTING DOWN TO THE NUTS AND BOLTS
Funny thing--it doesn't take a lot of persuasion to get someone to volunteer his or her car for a project like this. I have yet to meet anyone who'd answer, 'No, I'm not interested,' if you asked them, 'I need a C5 to use for a supercharger installation article. I think your car would be perfect, are you interested?' Indeed, the first person I called from my list of local loonies jumped at the opportunity so fast that, well, I think his, 'Yes!' was supercharged. Of course, it does help that the list of potential recruits is made up primarily of speed-crazed hot rodders and racers. So, we ended up with Tony Correia's silver '99 convertible to once again serve as our editorial guinea pig.

In many respects it was both perfect for this sort of undertaking and was highly representative of what we see as a typical candidate for supercharging. Tony's '99 is not his primary transportation. The '99 was very well maintained and essentially stock, with its only power mods being Flowmaster cat-backs and the VaraRam induction that we'd just installed a couple months earlier, and we already had baseline dyno tests recorded on the Primedia Tech Center's Dynojet from that installation. It also helped that Tony is a hard-core car nut, an owner/builder (for years) of street rods, and seriously whacked out when it comes to horsepower--in other words exactly the sort of person who'd scrimp and save or max out the plastic pesos to buy an extra 150 horses that shouldn't affect the car's overall driveablity.

So, we penciled in a couple days to use the Tech Center, for both dyno work and the installation. Our installers would be ATI's president, Dan Jones, and in-house racer, Jim Summers. Well ahead of time, we obtained the VIN from Tony's car so a new PCM (Powertrain Control Module, the engine management computer) could be programmed correctly for that specific vehicle. And, about a week before our appointed date with destiny, a really big box showed up, stuffed with blower, brackets hardware, and a plethora of plumbing. The PCM arrived just in time, shipped separately and very carefully packed.

ATI says that an experienced installer should be able to handle the job in around 12 hours, maybe a little more. While Dan and Jim are both extremely experienced with the ProChargers and with installing them on a wide range of vehicles, neither had so much as actually read the 42-page instruction manual for the C5 system. We (Dan and Jim spinning the wrenches, Tech Center Manager Dominic Conti pitching in on the few occasions when an extra hand or two would help, and yours truly with the cameras and tape recorder) started off around midday on a Monday, spent most of Tuesday at it, and wrapped 'er up Wednesday morning. The P-1SC kit for C5s is well thought out and very well crafted, but in my humble opinion, installing one on is certainly NOT something to try at home--unless home includes a fully-equipped shop with a lift and you've got a lot of experience with projects a lot more complex than changing spark plugs. I would leave this installation to the pros, and I've personally installed superchargers on several 'Brand X' cars back when I was on the editorial Dark Side.

This will be an overview of the installation, enough to give you an idea of what it takes to put a P-1SC on a C5, but not an in-depth how-to-do-it article. After all, there's not much that I can do in six to eight pages that won't be explained in more detail in ATI's 42-page installation manual. And while we're on the subject of the manual, ATI is revising it, as well as some relatively minor aspects of the installation kit as this is being written, to reflect areas that Dan Jones and Jim Summers felt could or should be improved. I'm impressed by an open-minded, how-can-we-make-it-better approach, especially when it's taken with an already very good product.

AND THE WINNER IS..
On Wednesday morning, Dan and Jim swapped out the stock PCM for the re-programmed unit, refilled the cooling system, reconnected the battery, and gave the entire installation a final and very thorough once-over. And then the moment of truth was at hand as the newly supercharged C5 was fired up.

It was actually rather anti-climactic--the car started immediately, ran perfectly, and there were no rude or worrisome noises. The only discernable new noise was a slight, but noticeable, whirring noise from the gear drive in the P-1SC, and I can't imagine any Corvette-loving gearhead who'd find the faint and purposeful sound of straight-cut gears at all offensive.

Then, Dan and Jim took the '99 out for a test drive. A few minutes passed, then a few more. I was beginning to wonder if something had gone wrong when the Kansas crew pulled back into the Tech Center, wearing two enormous, absolutely ridiculous grins! Okay, my turn.

At light throttle, just putting around, normal sorts of driving, the car felt just like any other six-speed C5. But, get it up over 2,500-3,000 rpm, even under part throttle, and you'll know immediately that there's a whole lot more under the hood than normal--the response is almost instantaneous and it is substantial. Once, rolling away from a stop in first at around 20 mph I nailed it. The power hit so hard and so fast that I laid down about three car lengths of rear tire rubber before the traction control began to respond. After that, I switched the traction control off. While rolling along a local major (three lanes each way) thoroughfare at around 45-50 in Third--with the traction control off--I floored it, lit up the tires, and cranked some opposite lock into the steering to compensate for the rear slewing around to the right as the beast unleashed itself. I glanced at the speedo (a heads-up display ought to be mandatory with this) as the needle arced around..55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, I better slow down NOW, about as fast as you can read this.

Wow! This thing is fun. This kind of power is addictive. I could get a serious ticket real easily, and I know I was probably grinning like an idiot.

Okay, it's time to get down to business, time for some verifiable tests, time to quantify the results. We knew that our dyno numbers would probably be a little on the low side because there would be no rush of air blowing across the two intercoolers with the car stationary, and because we don't have fans powerful enough to duplicate the effect of the car being in motion. Then, Dominic strapped the C5 onto the Tech Center's Dynojet 248C, hooked up the controls, and ran the car through the gears into Fourth. At slightly under 2,000 rpm, he floored it, backing off at just over six grand, just before the rev limiter could kick in. He made a total of three pulls, with the results varying by no more than about 1 percent. Here are the results of our best supercharged pull and the baseline (100 percent stock except for a set of Flowmaster mufflers), corrected by the Dynojet's computer for variances in temperature, barometric pressure, and humidity.

All right, let's take a deep breath now. There are a couple things to bear in mind--these horsepower and torque figures are what was measured at the tires, i.e. the power that's actually reaching the road. These numbers are at least 15 percent less than what you'd measure on an engine dynamometer, where you have no drivetrain frictional losses. And, with the car sitting stationary on the dyno, we did not have the benefit of outside air to remove a lot of the heat from the charge air as it passed through the intercoolers. If we go by our conservative 15 percent frictional loss, then the blown and intercooled C5 is making 533.4 horsepower and 516.2 lb-ft of torque--50-state emissions legal. Extrapolating from our baseline tests on the same car, we picked up 176.1 hp and 150.8 lb-ft of torque at the flywheel, gains of 49.3 and 41.3 percent, respectively. That's kinda staggering. It appears that ATI's claims are close to reality.

We had one final round of tests to perform--prove or disprove the effectiveness of the intercoolers in removing heat from the pressurized air charge. Dan Jones had brought gear along so we could measure the air temperature at various points, including outside (ambient), supercharger air inlet, supercharger discharge (post-blower/pre-intercooler), and at the throttle body inlet. With the sensors in place and hooked up, we headed out onto the streets once more. We took our measurements at as close to redline as possible, at wide-open throttle (i.e. full boost), and in Second gear. At this time, according to a local bank's time and temperature sign, the outside temperature was 77 degrees. Here are representative results:

AIR INLET TO BLOWER
(AIR FILTER EXIT) 82 degrees

BLOWER DISCHARGE
(BLOWER OUTLET) 185 degrees

THROTTLE BODY INLET
(INTERCOOLED) 102 degrees

In this sample, the air temperature increased by 103 degrees as it was supercharged (compressed), and the intercoolers reduced the temperature of the air charge by 83 degrees. If my calculations are correct, the intercoolers extracted roughly 80.6 percent of the heat created by the supercharging process. Sounds good to me. There was just one final test--the owner's reaction. After Dan and Jim had packed up and hit the road, I called Tony. Initially, out of sheer orneriness, I asked him what dealer or shop he wanted the car towed to for an engine replacement--and couldn't convince him that we'd toasted his motor. I wanted to watch and listen to his reaction, so I drove the car to his place, made him take a drive (that didn't take much effort!) and, after getting his impressions (took an hour or so), had him drive me back to the office so I could pick up my car and go home (it was about 9 p.m. by then).

Tony immediately noticed the faint geardrive noise and, hot rodder that he is, liked it. He didn't get into the throttle initially, but after about the third time through the lower gears, and having gone around a corner, he momentarily went to about 3/4 throttle. The car surged forward, Tony's eyes went wide open, and he breathed a mild expletive. That was followed, once we found some streets with zero traffic, by more explorations of the car's newfound responsiveness, each one a little more vigorous and each of those followed by wide open eyes and bigger grins.

The next day Tony called me. Some of the more repeatable comments (I do have to keep this toned down below a PG-13 rating) were along the lines of, 'That thing's better than sex,' 'Who needs Viagra,' and 'I'll never again drink a beer or a glass of wine and drive that car. You gotta be stone cold sober with that kind of power.' For some quaint reason, I've gotten the feeling that ol' Tony's rather impressed. And yours truly? The C5 has a sort of Jekyll and Hyde temperament now. Driven moderately, it acts like any other C5. It doesn't run hot and it doesn't ping or show any rude behavior traits. It's absolutely, well, normal. Until you go to wide open throttle--and then the raging beast takes over in a rush of sound and fury that's all the more impressive out of a mild-mannered, silver convertible. I like it, a lot! This is definitely an instance where a manufacturer's claims are not just so much hot air.

29

Early steps of the ATI ProCharger installation include removing the stock air inlet ducting, the serpentine belt, and the belt tensioner.

The stock dual electric fan and shroud assembly is also removed. It will be replaced by a custom unit.

This is very important whenever you do any removal or replacement of fuel injectors. Always be absolutely certain that you have both O-rings with each injector. If an O-ring gets stuck in the fuel rail or intake manifold you will have a problem.

The arrows show a missing O-ring on this stock LS1 injector, and where it is supposed to be positioned. This one stuck in the fuel rail. The stock injectors are replaced with higher output, 38 lb-hr pieces.

Once the P-1SC supercharger and its mounting bracket are bolted up to the passenger side of the engine, and the belt tensioner has been repositioned, a new and longer serpentine belt is installed.

The blower is driven from behind on this particular system. After the belt is in place, the supercharger gets filled with a pre-measured dose of synthetic oil.

This is the replacement custom fan shroud, viewed from the engine side. A single larger-than-stock electric fan bolts in place in the large circular opening. The rectangular section on the right is the new location for the air inlet and air filter.

A K&N filter is held in place over the rectangular opening by a fabricated metal frame that bolts to the shroud, and a short section of hose will link the air box to the air inlet on the supercharger.

One small air-to-air intercooler is mounted in each front corner. This is the right side unit.

The air charge from the supercharger routes down, behind the radiator shroud, and into a fabricated metal 'Y' that in turn directs the air toward the intercoolers in the corners.

Here's a look at the completed ducting from the 'Y' out to the corners.

The cooled air charge is fed from the intercooler back to the engine via ducts that fit into the corners ahead of the stock forward radiator air shroud, where the framerails and front frame crossmember meet.

Those ducts come together in another 'Y' that in-turn feed the air charge to the stock mass airflow sensor (in its original position) and ultimately the stock throttle body.

ATI supplies a pair of pre-cut front corner access panels to allow clearance for the ducting from the supercharger to the intercoolers. This is looking up toward the left (driver side) panel.

One of the final steps is to replace the stock PCM with one that's reprogrammed to work with the specific car and the timing and fuel needs of the supercharged LS1. The PCM is accessed through the right fenderwell.

Even with very limited air flowing to the intercoolers with the test car strapped onto the Dynojet, our newly supercharged '99 convertible slammed 453.4 hp to the rollers. That, very conservatively, equates to well over 530 flywheel horses. Yeehaw!

Dan Jones, president of Accessible Technologies Inc, seems to be having altogether too much fun as he and Jim Summers drained the coolant from the soon-to-be-blown '99 convertible. If you have any creative, off-the-wall, or off-color replacement captions for this photo, e-mail them to vette@primedia.com. We'll try to con ATI out of an ATI Racing polo shirt or something equivalent for the best (worst?) caption.

Here's a look at the right side stock and ATI-supplied front corner access panels. Having a replacement part pre-trimmed to fit is a nice touch.

This photo shows how the K&N filter element fits in the custom fan and fan shroud assembly.

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'I know this belt goes in here somewhere.' Seriously, this was early in the disassembly process, as Jim Summers was removing the original serpentine belt from the LS1.

Horace the three-armed assembly assistant trims an OEM hose to size. Several coolant and vacuum lines need to be trimmed before the supercharger installation is completed. (Those Kansas boys gotta stop marryin' their cousins.)

This is the same line, after being modified for the new application.