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Mustang Supercharger

Summary

The Edelbrock E-Force is an awesome product. Mine has turned out well.

But unfortunately for anyone who installs one of these, Edelbrock’s kit has some “first year model” kinks in it which made the installation process a grueling one for me. On a more positive note, support from Edelbrock and JDM Engineering who sold me the kit has been outstanding. Edelbrock & JDM got me through all the install issues.

What still irks me is that the list of issues I’m about to list are  well-known by Edelbrock and Edelbrock completely failed in having these issues corrected at their points of sale. They really shouldn’t leave these issues out there for end customers to discover, debug, and attempt to fix – possibly making an unpleasant situation worse.

So here’s the dirt on E-Force serial number 160 which I have:

• The throttle body was an earlier, flawed model intended for E-Force serial number 123. Don’t know how I ended up with it and neither does Edelbrock. “Newer” serial numbers, including my serial number 160, are supposed to have an updated throttle body. Regardless, Edelbrock overnighted me a new throttle body.
• Bolt holes where the stock fuel rail bolts to the E-Force were mis-threaded at Edelbrock. I didn’t know this and ended up strong-arming (re-tapping) the included allen bolts into the holes. I stripped an allen bolt head, but got it out by the grace of God. Edelbrock overnighted me a new bolt.
• An alternator connector was mis-keyed. I improvised by re-using the alternator connector from the stock wiring harness which was to be unused in the new kit.
• The driver side PCV hose fitting on the E-Force was assembled at the wrong angle, causing my PCV hose to stretch and break o-rings inside the connector. Edelbrock overnighted me new hose. The fitting, which was attached to the E-Force in a compression fitting, was fixed by simply rotating it to the correct angle.
• The heat exchanger in the E-Force kit had been dropped at the factory (not in shipping). It was crushed at one point and had a bent fitting. Edelbrock overnighted me a new heat exchanger.
• Edelbrock failed to include bolts for the supercharger pulley. So they overnighted me more bolts.
• A vacuum line that connects to the back of the E-Force through a barrel fitting was completely unsealed. I discovered this months after installation. The fitting is in a VERY tight spot and I’m currently struggling to fix this.

I would still recommend an Edelbrock E-Force to anybody. However, I would insist that while ordering you ask your vendor identify the throttle body and replace it if it is indeed the older throttle body. Also ask the vendor to test fit a fuel rail bolt in all 4 of the fuel rail bolt threads. And ask the vendor to make sure the 3-pin alternator connector is keyed exactly like a factory connector (if not, no big deal, you can fairly easily re-use your factory connector).

I would also recommend JDM Engineering to anybody. The have reasonable, if not outstanding, prices and they deliver very high quality engine tunes and support. But they also require customer patience. They are very busy and can take time to get things to you. Have you ever heard the phrase, “quality, speed, price – choose any two”? JDM delivers on price and quality, so there you go.

I also have to get thumbs up to Dynospeed Racing who I eventually used for a dyno tune. I also bought a Centerforce DFX clutch and flywheel there and had them install it.

GT500 Fuel Pump Install

So here we go, on with the install. Click any picture to popup a larger version of the pic.

My first step was installing a GT500 fuel pump. Because the stock pump just can’t suck gas fast enough. Ha! This wasn’t that tough except the color codes on a couple wires didn’t match the instructions.

Two wires here removed from a factory connector and pinned into a new connector. Since the colors didn’t match the instructions, the solution here was to simply match the colors on each side of the connector – which is opposite is what’s shown here. Sorry…so blue lines up across from blue and green lines up across from green.

Ford didn’t label a single connector in the fuel pump kit (thanks!). Here’s what the connections in the trunk looked like in the end.

I drove around a week and a half on the new fuel pump before moving forward with the supercharger. Its good to make sure the fuel system works before moving on to the rest of the project.

Supercharger Install

Ooohhh, ahhhhh. On with the install. The stuff below isn’t meant to be an instruction book. These are just photos and comments from the process.

The first phase of the install is removing a bunch of factory stuff from under the hood.

Here, I’m disconnecting the fuel line to the fuel rails. I’d never done this before. I’d never done most everything I was about to do in the next couple days.

I used a tool like this to disconnect the fuel line. That tool presses against the inner ring inside the fitting on the right, allowing me to pull that fitting off the metal tube on the left. Not much gas dripped out of here.

Away with the fuel rails. The fuel injectors just pop right out of their fittings.

A good tip here and throughout the project is to keep a supply of masking tape, ziploc bags, and a sharpie. I labeled everything I removed and I bagged all the small pieces. I also wrote on the tag what step of the book called for removing that part.

Here, I have removed the fuel rails and I’m attempting to remove these clips which secure the fuel injectors. These clips will be reused. It took me a bit to figure this out, being careful not to mess up the clips.

To remove the clips, I turned the screwdriver counter-clockwise, and pried the screwdriver from right to left. Then I repeated this movement on the other side of the clip.

Wow, a lot of gas went all over the place on this step. I was surprised how much gas those fuel rails hold. Have a big towel ready for this step.

Here, I’ve got the stock intake manifold removed.

Here, I’ve taped over the heads to keep dirt out of the engine. notice the oil seepage from where the head mates to the engine block. It is more of a micro-mist that grime has collected against. I’m not sure how normal this is on a car with only 10,000 miles. Other mustang owners tell me they see this on their cars and JDM says they frequently see it too.

Before removing the alternator, I had to remove the serpentine belt. I’d never removed or changed a belt in a car before. It was easy. Using a large pry bar or torqure wrench with a 1/2 inch drive that tensioner I’m got the wrench attached to above just moves down. Its got an internal spring load. So I pushed the tensioner down, held it down, and pulled the belt off one of the pulleys.

Jack stands scare me. So I jacked the car up, slide a couple 2×12′s under the front wheels. Then jacked the car up a 2nd time with a 2×12 under the jack so I could put a third 2×12 under the front wheels. The car was in gear, emergency brake was on tight, and I had wheel chucks behind the rear wheels.

Its amazing how little holds this car together. The front bumper his held on by 6 small bolts – 2 up top, and 2 inside each fender.

The radiator was drained and then these upper radiator hoses came off.

This picture is of a heater hose on top of the engine valley. The water crossover is on the right. I removed this heater hose. It would later be replaced with another hose that routes the cooling system through the supercharger (intercooler).

You need a good sized towel here. Some coolant spilled out.

This thermostat was tough to get out. I went ahead and removed the water crossover (that the thermostat plugs into). I had to remove the thermostat with pliers.

Next, it was time to put in the heat exchanger which provides cooling for the supercharger’s intercooler. This is essentially a 2nd radiator that mounts behind the front bumper & in front of the larger radiator. Here, I’ve swapped factory bumper bolts for Edelbrock ones that are long enough for hanging the heat exchanger behind the bumper. (Note, I didn’t need to swap the bolts on the bottom, just the top.)

Here’s my my first “oh #*$^” moment. This heat exchanger arrived damaged from Edelbrock. It was not damaged in shipping. This hose fitting has been dented, and looks ripe for leaking. Edelbrock overnighted me another heat exchanger…the following week.

See, my 2nd “oh #*$#^” moment was realizing I shouldn’t have attempted this over a holiday weekend with no support until the middle of the following week. Ugh.

Don’t know if this is a big deal or not, but the top of the heat exchanger was slightly crushed. For the money I paid for this thing, I didn’t want a slightly crushed intercooler.

This was the first of several headaches that shouldn’t have happened. But I still have to give Edelbrock props for their support. They stood behind their product 100%. And Edelbrock overnighted me everything that needed to be replaced. They didn’t hassle me at all. I even got to speak several times with Rob Simons, the main engineer behind this supercharger.

I went ahead and hung this heat exchanger behind the front bumper. When the replacement arrived later, I simply swapped them.

This is on the passenger side end of the front bumper. Here, I’m mounting a water pump which pumps coolant into the heat exchanger.

That hose fitting on the bottom is the one that arrived dented. This picture shows the route I took to get the hose into the engine bay. Pretty much straight back and up and to the engine side of the frame rail.

The longest hose you see here on the lower half of the picture is the other end of that heat exchanger hose. Later it will bend over and connect to the front of the E-Force unit. I tie-wrapped it to those hard lines (brake lines?) at the bottom so it would stay away from the pulleys at the front of the engine and also the exhaust headers. I think the rigidity of the hose would have naturally maintained this separation. But I tie-wrapped it to be safe.

This is the harness I disconnected from the car’s computer. Its right there on top between the radiator coolant tank and the windshield washer fluid.

Flip the engine side of the connector over and this red wire with the yellow strip needed to be cut. The engine side of this wire was connected to a water pump relay wiring harness that came in the kit.

This is the Edelbrock water pump relay, the thing connected the wire I had just cut. This is below and between the back of the passenger headlight and radiator. Its in a real tight space. There is no room to seat a wrench around this nut – probably why the instructions called for blue loctite here.

This was also a PIA because the relay had to be unplugged to provide access for this nut. Unplugging that relay was a real bear. Plugging it back in wasn’t easy either.

Next, it was time for altering some electrical connectors. Some some connectors had to be replace with other connectors. Some connectors needed wires removed and relocated to a different connector.

These connectors generally looked like the above. You need a small pick tool to pry up and remove the colored plastic piece on top like so.

Here’s what a connector looks like with the wedge lock removed and all the pins taken out. Click on that picture to enlarge it. The little horizontal tab I circled in yellow is small and deep inside the connector. This needs to be pushed down (towards my thumb in this picture) to remove the pin above it.

You can’t see or feel this tab when you’re working with it. You just need to stick a small pic in there and wiggle it around while someone else tries to gently pull the wire out. It was easy to get he hang of.

This step frustrates a lot of people. My number one rule of advice for these steps is not to force anything. If it doesn’t come out easy, you’re not doing it right.

Here, 2 wires from a larger connector are being relocated to a different connector that came with the kit.

Here, I’m installing the coolant recover tank. The air conditioning service line had to be bent towards the passenger side fender to make room for it. Coolant from the superchager flows into there before the Edelbrock water pump circulates it into the heat exchanger.

That’s the passenger side headlight at the top. Here I’m routing hose from the coolant recovery tank 2 pictures above to the water pump whose fitting and clamp you can see at the bottom of the picture.

The instructions called for removal of the fat hose on top of the engine valley. This is a heater hose no longer needed because of the new coolant path through the E-Force supercharger. This hose is a hard line that is welded to a bracket which is also welded to a smaller hard line just below the larger hose. This bracket had to be hack-sawed in half so the two lines could be separated. LOL, had to think twice about hack sawing something from my engine bay.

See that electrical connector in the center of the picture? It is attached to a bracket which is attached to a hard line below it (which is the line that needs to be removed), which is attached to the hard line below it (which is going to stay) which is attached to yet another electrical connector not visible in this picture.

The instructions make no mention of these connectors, but support at Edelbrock indicates they should stay int the car. After removing this bracket and the hard line that comes out, I think I just tie-wrapped them together (since the bracket was destroyed in the process).

The aforementioned bracket that needs to be taken out is bolted to the engine behind the passenger side head. There it is on the end of my wrench.

Superchargers are hard on tensioner arms. There’s quite an afermarket for stronger-than-stock tensioner arms for just this purpose. The Edelbrock kit includes a brace which bolts on and hopefully strengthens to stock tensioner arm.

Time to put in the new spark plugs. Darn, I was sent the wrong plugs. This was an easy mistake for JDM to make because Ford used 2 different sets of plugs in 2008. JDM quickly sent me the right FRPP plugs and in the mean time, I re-gapped my stock plugs to 0.032. The stock plugs worked re-gapped but were not recommended for hard driving.

FRPP plugs were still needed to prevent detonation (pinging and engine damage) under hard driving conditions.

Here I’m getting ready to put the E-Force supercharger on top of the engine. I set some plywood on top of the radiator and engine block as a resting place before carefully lowering the unit into place. The E-Force weighs 90 pounds. A couple friends helped me with this step. Actually, they lifted and I supervised.

Here, the E-Force is mounted into place. Now we’re getting somewhere!

Here’s another crap moment. This alternator connector that came on Edelbrock’s new alternator wiring harness wasn’t keyed right. The solution was simple. Since by this point I had plenty of practice at re-pinning connectors, I removed the Edelbrock connector and moved the factory connector on to the Edelbrock harness.

I am told by Edelbrock that their supplier for this part has been fired and replaced with a more reliable supplier.

The big metal piece across the bottom of this picture is a fuel rail. That bolt holds the fuel rail on to the supercharger. Edelbrock mis-threaded all 4 bolt holes like the one above. None of the bolts fit without taking substantial measures of some kind. Not knowing the best solution, I strong-armed the bolts in there with a ball allen wrench, vice grips to hold the wrench, and a firm 2-hand grip on the vice grips.

Three bolts went in with significant effort. The fouth bolt is shown above. It went almost all the way in before having the allen head stripped. I am fortunate and blessed to have been able to back that bolt out.

I spent almost an entire day messing with these 4 bolts.

Edelbrock says the bolt holes were tapped from the bottom and the tapping machine didn’t tap completley through the hole. The threads stop just short of the top of the hole. So there are no threads for the bolt to grab. And once I pushed the bolt to thread depth, the bolt threads were already mis-aligned with the threads in the hole.

The solution is supposed to be to use a conical grinder tip for a dremel for drill to countersink the hole to the depth where the threads start. Then supposedly, the bolts will thread nicely.

Well, I learned that advice 2 days too late. At least I got the problem bolt out and Edelbrock overnighted me new fuel rail bolts.

While I commend Edelbrock on their support of this issue, the dropped the ball miserably in letting this get out to customers. Edelbrock knows fully well this problem is out there. I don’t know why they don’t recall the superchargers to fix this or at the very least pay or request that their distributors fix the problem. Instead, Edelbrock leaves the problem for their customers to discover and fix on their own. That’s terrible.

This is positively Edelbrock’s biggest screwup in my E-Force kit. Edelbrock’s first run of throttle bodies is defective. The defective ones all have an allen bolt recessed into the hole shown above. All of the good throttle bodies have this allen bolt replaced by a hex bolt which sticks out of the hole.

Why Edelbrock doesn’t have their distributors inspect their kits for this part and have these throttle bodies replace is beyond me. Instead, it was left for me, JDM, and Edelbrock support to discover.

Further complicating matters is that Edelbrock apparently has no method of tracking which E-Force kits have the bad throttle bodies in them. Nonetheless, in my opinion kits on the shelf now should be opened and inspected to determine if the throttle body is good or bad.

When the install was complete, the car wouldn’t start. JDM tried fixing the problem with tuning. This lead to a wild goose chase, as well as a ruined $100 set of spark plugs. Eventually Edelbrock discovered I had the bad throttle body and they overnighted me a new one.

Here’s another issue I had. You can see where his ribbed hose is bent at 90 degrees and crimped. This is the driver side PCV hose. At the bottom of this picture is is attached to a PCV hose fitting which is mounted on the E-Force at a bad angle.

The solution here is to put a screwdriver inside the end of the fitting and rotate it from right to left as pictured above.

But the issue broke the o-rings inside that PCV hose and Edelbrock overnighted me a new PCV hose.

I attached air filter, MAF sensor, and that big fat inlet hose to the throttle body. This was a tight fit. I recommend attaching the air filter, air filter housing, MAF, and inlet hose together outside the car. Then attach all that as one unit to the throttle body.

After attaching a bunch of hose endings and electrical connectors, I was done.

Then the “fun” began. It woudn’t start due to the bad throttle body. The new throttle body and FRPP plugs to replace the wrong plugs initially sent to me arrived at the same time. Then the car started, but ran horribly. It would barley idle and barely move while cold. Once warmed up, it drove fine.

JDM modified my tune, which pretty much inverted my hot & cold behavior – the car ran fine cold, but would not accelerate when warm. After warming up, the car felt like it was misfiring under anything but light throttle.

By this point, my new FRPP plugs were fouled up and I re-installed the re-gapped stock plugs.

About this time, JDM discovered that in all the tune shuffling, they had made a mistake which had me running a tune that was built for a  different MAF. I have no idea if that meant I was running lean or rich. But this incorrect tune with the new throttle body is definitely the configuration that fouled a $100 set of spark plugs which I replaced at my expense.

JDM then gave me a 3rd tune at that made a world of difference.  The car ran great. It turns out this 3rd tune was pretty much the 1st tune they gave me with a minor cold start fix, minus the throttle body wild goose chase.

But it was still on stock spark plugs, so I couldn’t run it very hard.

Later, my 3rd set of plugs for this project, my FRPP plug replacements arrived. And at long last, two and a half weeks after this install began, the car appears in good shape.

On 9/28, I’m schedule to get evaluated on a dyno to confirm the car is running right. Fingers crossed.

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• About...

  Shane Crowe is a proud Mississippi State alum and electrical engineer. He is married with two children. A retired ice hockey player, Shane loves college football, home theater, the Internet, and working out.

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