Ok, I am having a little trouble here. I can not figure out if my supercharger is working or not.

I have searched, and I have read a lot of posts saying if the IC pump is out it will not accelerate like it's supposed to. The problem is, my old car had 150ish horsepower and weighed a lot more, so even if the supercharger isn't working it would still seem fast.

So is there a foolproof (me being the fool here) way to check and see if it's working or not? I have my suspicions it is not.

And just to verify, the IC pump is the thing (this is if you are in front of the engine looking down at it) to the right of the right-side intake and to the left of the radiator fan control box thing, right? If so, it says Bosch, so I assume it has not been replaced, and the car has approaching 60,000 miles on it.

Thanks guys!

 

If the car was 100% working when you first had it then you would notice if your supercharger not working. I had a couple problems with taking traction totaly out and then my supercharger failing. Its a major difference its like going from sprinting to walking. Im not sure how safe this is but take the air intake plastic parts off and take it on the road and give it all its got. With the air filters off you will be able to hear if the supercharger is working.

 

The IC pump is down behind the front bumper on the passengers side. If you the search feature, you can find photos of it and step by step "how to" replace it.

 

when you first start the car, and take off...everything is cool, SC should work. When you build heat that's when sensors will shut down the SC to protect it. You might feel a power surge, then power cut out when this starts to happen. It's real noticeable...you will know when this happens. As Blkfin stated...the IC pump is located lower right hand side of car...you either access from below, or by removing right front wheel to gain access...you can't see it from the top side...you are looking at different pump

 

yeah, it's probably not. compared to your old car, even with the accelerator only half way depressed, you should feel like you're in a multi-stage rocket. so, yes it's bosch and yes by 60k it has likely failed and yes it's where oledoc and blkfin indicated.

 

if you put your foot on the brake put the car in gear and rev it up to approx 1200 rpm , listen carefully you will hear the clutch on the pulley CLICK when the s/c engages. its subtle but you can hear it

 

When the intercooler pump dies, the horse power dies along with it, or so it seems. Flooring the gas pedal revs the RPMs up but you are doing good if you can maintain your current speed; just forget about accelerating. The only workaround I find is to downshift manually with the autostick. The car still feels pretty dead but at least there is some acceleration.

I changed my pump two weeks ago and took a few pictures while doing so. I'll post several in case you want to change your pump yourself. The forum instructions posted on this don't quite match our cars. I'll point out some of the differences.

The first thing that needs to be done is get a Johnson pump vs another Bosch one. The Johnson is $150 - $180 from several vendors while the Bosch is $600 from MB (though the Bosch can be bought from Ebay for around a hundred). However, the Bosch will fail again, well actually the Johnson will also eventually fail but will supposedly last far longer than the Bosch.

The right front wheel needs to be removed, or the car be placed on a lift and the plastic belly panel removed for pump access. Obviously I went the wheel route.

I could not pull the access panel off completely because there is a securing bolt right next to the alternator that was too much of a posterior pain to remove. I was able to pull the panel back enough to have room to work - I duct taped the right panel edge to the brake disc to hold the panel open.

My pump (not sure of others) had what looked like a vent line attached at the rear end. This was merely pulled off (the other end terminated by the alternator).

I used padded vise grips as clamps on the inlet and outlet hoses to seal them. I then popped the hose clamps off and pulled the hoses off the pump. I found the plugs on the Johnson pump fit the hoses nicely so I plugged them to completely stop coolant leakage. By the way, do yourself a favor and chuck the old hose clamps and replace them with screw type ones.

The wiring was then unplugged and the pump and bracked removed. Try to plug the pump itself to keep internal coolant from pouring out. If nothing else, have rags handy to soak up the mess.

Assuming you get the Johnson pump, it's quite a bit smaller in diameter and will not fit the original pump retaining bracket unless you modify the bracket or use the bracket supplied with the Johnson pump. I chose to use the Johnson bracket, which requires a hole to be drilled since the bracket doesn't match the original pump bracket holes. I aligned the Johnson bracket with the bottom hole, and marked off where the upper hole would go. I then drilled the upper hole.

After that the Johnson pump was installed. I used the old bracket screw for the bottom hole and used a number 10 sized screw and nut for the upper hole. The attaching screw supplied with the Johnson pump was too long to fit in the upper hole. I also used large washers under the screw heads for maximum contact area with the bracket. The inlet and outlet hoses were then pushed onto the pump and clamped down. The hoses fit OK on the Johnson pump, not real snug but good enough to be clamped and not leak. Note that the forum instructions call for swapping the ends of the Johnson and original pump but this couldn't be done since they are different sizes.

The Johnson pump does not have any sort of plug for its wires - the power and ground wires come straight out of the pump. I cut the plug off the car wires and then butt spliced the pump wires to their respective car ones: red to red and black to brown. In the picture only one splice is visible but two are actually there. All wires are plenty long enough to be cut several times over the life of the car so I didn't bother with rigging up a new plug connection.

After that the wires and vent line were secured and tidied up with tie-wraps, the engine was ran for a couple of minutes to check for leaks, and the wheel was put back on.

The intercooler pump will run for a few seconds after shutting down the engine so this gives you enough time to check if the pump is actually operating or not. Start the engine, run it for a couple of minutes, turn the engine off, and feel the pump. When running it has a soft but detectable vibration. Look and feel around the hose connections for leakage - if so, then tighten the hose clamps and rerun the engine.

Some coolant will leak out and collect on the belly cover. If you see a puddle of coolant under the car but can't find any leaks then the coolant came from the prior spillage.

Add distilled water or coolant to the system to make up for spillage. And the wheel gets torqued to 81 in-lbs.

This is not a difficult job at all. The biggest problem is getting the correct tools and parts - torque wrench, floor jack, splices or plug connectors, clamps - but the actually work is fairly easy. Final note - the various nuts and bolts that have to be removed are in metric, size 10 mm. An 11/32 in wrench fits fine if metric tools are not available. Also the panel is held on by several torx screws. I believe they require a size 15 torx wrench. I don't know how well a similar sized allen wrench will work.

 

Ok, I think I'm going to do it. I experienced the same symptom you talked about today. The engine revving but very little power. So I guess I'll just replace it.

But I'm always low on money. So I guess the most affordable one is the one I need. What would you recommend?

Seems like I read somewhere this one works? If that's true this is probably my best bet. yes?

Ford Racing SVT Lightning Intercooler Pump M-8501-L54:eBay Motors (item 290344929761 end time Sep-06-09 10:22:35 PDT)

Oh, and thanks for the walkthrough brent, I appreciate it. I will be using it.

 

cm30 from apeusa.com 149$ if you go ford or cm30 you need to wire it . use the oem plug from the bad pump. solder and use heat shrink tape. the cm30 doesnt need the end changed the ford pump does. but some have used the ford ends with band clamps. make sure to bleed the system, a couple runs of 30 mins should do it the ford pump is still a bosch pump it WILL fail just like the oem
if theres any way to swing it a supercooler from tighed1 or needswings will make a MAJOR difference in the i/c temps. with these you wont worry about s/c cutout again

 

The Ford Lightning pump is the Bosch pump. Figure your total costs with shipping and Ebay fees at around $110. The cheapest I found the Johnson pump was on APE.com for $145 plus free shipping. That was a month ago and the price may have gone up. Figuring new clamps and splices, the Johnson will run about $50 more, not a trifle amount. Plus, the Ford pump will be a drop in replacement where the Johnson will require a little work to fit. But......

The Johnson is reputed to last longer then the Ford/Bosch pump that historically starts failing at 30K miles. The Johnson also has a slightly higher flow rate than the Bosch which helps a tad with cooling (though too high of a flow rate actually hinders cooling).

If you are tight for funds then get the Ford and just plan on replacing the pump again in 3 or 4 years. But if you can swing the extra cost then go with the Johnson for the extra longevity. Either pump will do the job - buy the one that will get your car performing today, not 3 weeks from now.

If you do decide on the Johnson pump, there is one for a 24 volt system and one for a 12 volt system. The 12 v pump is the one to get. I don't have the part number handy but a vendor will have the different versions clearly noted. I'm not trying to imply that you don't know at what voltage our electrical systems operate at, it's just that after working years in aircraft maintenance, I've learned to cover all bases and leave no stones unturned.

 

to be done properly the ford pump requires more work than the johnson. drop in it isnt. the screws on the ford pump are brass and very soft and easy to strip. both pumps require a plug rewire. for 50$ and peace of mind the cm30 wins every time
reuese the oem plug and clamps and the price diff is now 35$

 

Ok, I'm going to have to go with the ford pump, because I am tight on money, and an I need an oil change soon as well, so save a penny here or there.

So if I get the pump from ebay, what else will I need to buy to install it? I already have (read "can borrow") the stuff needed to take the wheel off etc, but what will I need in terrms of clamps or whatever else?

 

give goodgenes79 a shout. he has a srt-6 in huntsville and is a great source of info. try to find the extra bucks for the cm30 its better in the long run.

torx bits pliers clamps plug for the pump coolant runs approx 26$ gallon distilled water drain pan solder gun solder flux phillips screwdriver metric sockets

 

Ha, I do need to change that. I'm not in huntsville anymore, went to auburn for school. But max is here, and I'll just bug him until he helps.

Even if he shuts the blinds, just ring the doorbell enough and he'll answer. :P

 

and remember save pennies on food not srt-6 parts!! use quality synthetic oil adn only fleece filters. 8 qts oil and new o rings for the filter

 

Definitely won't cheap on oil parts. The cheaper pump may need to be replaced sooner, but bad oil parts would be really, well bad.

 

32Krazy is right about the Ford pump NOT being a drop in replacement. The fittings are different and you'll wind up spending time and money getting it to fit as you would on the Johnson. So I recommend you spring for the Johnson.

On the wire connections, some members solder them. Others install a new plug. Me, I took the lazy way and crimped them together with splices. Your call on how you want to do it, but make sure to have the power wire connection insulated.

One other option for you is to wait and save money for Johnson. The car won't be hurt by driving, only your pride as you watch mopeds and strollers beat you off line.

 

think of it this way. the old pump is toast. so tear it apart. takes about 5 -8 minutes and all you need is the plug. use a solder gun and heat the solder 2 screws and the solder the plug comes rite off. now comes the easy part. solder the cm30 OR the ford wires to the plug . of course + to+ and - to -. i use solder and then some heat shrink to seal the connections up. this whole process takes about 15 minutes and cost is maybe 2$ it will look fantastic and you wont have to worry about corrsion wires coming loose or slicing the factory harness. best part if you left some slack from the wires then you can reuse it over and over if you get the ford pump!!!
there is a small capacitor soldered to the plug. reuse the capacitor as it absorbs the power surge when the pump kicks on. this will help the pump live a long productive life

 

I used the Ford pump from EBAY when my pump went out about a month ago. I got the pump, switched the ends, and used female connectors to get it running, aprox. 30mns. It was pretty much drop in. I ordered the correct plug from ebay but haven't put it on yet, for connectors are working and I keep forgetting to get to it. Good luck and call if you need help.