Edelbrock E-force Owner's thread and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

[BirdTRD]

Thanks to @toast and @devtec for the idea, I made a part today. I was initially going to make it out of Aluminum and try my hand at anodizing... still might (I have a 1.25" x 2" piece of bar stock) but I thought Nylon would be lighter easier to work with since I'm doing it by hand. I do have a cheapy Delta band saw and drill press so that helped. The holes for the in and out fittings could have been a bit straighter but tapping those holes by hand was rough.
Still waiting on the harnesses so I can make this plug and play, with this sensor measuring intake pressure and the Edelbrock stock sensor measuring IAT. Going to put it right inline with the bypass valve line. I should have it done in a week or so.

[BR-ZED]

@BirdTRD that's cool. Is it just a solid piece of Nylon with a hole drilled though in one direction with a second drilled 90 degrees to meet it (forming a T?) And then the first hole was tapped to screw in the vacuum nipples? Did you use any gaskets to seal the nipples or map sensor bung?

[Proracing]

I have the kit tuned by Delicious tuning on e85. Great kit!!

[BR-ZED]

OK, so I now have my kit and bypass upgrade kit #15001 in hand, so I was able to look at the instructions and the kit and make sense of them.

Has anyone done this install?

You can find the instructions here:
https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...postcount=3396

It seems simple until you get to step 11. This step reads:

11. Check the gap using a .002” (.051mm) feeler gauge as
shown below. Using a 5/64” Allen wrench, adjust the bypass
blade until the feeler gauge is snug but can still move freely.
Once the adjustment has been made, tighten the jam nut with
an 11/32” wrench. This will ensure the bypass is in the
correct position when closed. If loose, too much air will blow
by, causing little to no boost. If too tight, the blade may bind
inside the bore.

Questions:
1. In the picture, it shows a feeler gauge stuck between the yellow bypass blade and the bore. But I don't see how you can fit a feeler gauge in there without taking the whole supercharger assembly apart (6 bolts on the front, disconnecting the throttle body / pulley from the rest of the supercharger. I don't even know if that will work. So if you can't get the feeler gauge in there I'm not sure how to adjust it properly.

2. Even if you could get the feeler gauge in there, how do you adjust the blade? I guess it is OK to thread the allen screw in and out (thereby rotating the lever that moves the blade)? This would technically count as moving the bypass valve manually (instead of with a vacuum) so wasn't sure if that could damage it or not.

Maybe I'm overthinking it, but this is a brand new kit, adjusted from the factory by Edelbrock. It kind of sucks I got one with the old bypass... all i can think of is doing the entire install only to find one or more issues, and if the bypass blade is incorrectly adjusted it would mean tearing everything apart just to readjust it and then install it all again. Worst case the blade is too tight and gets jammed inside the bore and causes permanent damage to the unit...

Edit: After thinking some, my new thought is to cannibalize my brand new feeler gauge set... cut out the .002 one, bend it 90 degrees (but at an angle, if that makes sense), and tape it to a long screwdriver... then go in through the throttle body, and place it in the gap and adjust from there.... thoughts?

[BirdTRD]

Originally Posted by BR-ZED

@BirdTRD that's cool. Is it just a solid piece of Nylon with a hole drilled though in one direction with a second drilled 90 degrees to meet it (forming a T?) And then the first hole was tapped to screw in the vacuum nipples? Did you use any gaskets to seal the nipples or map sensor bung?

Yes that's how I made it. I had to use some sealer on the nipple threads to get it to pass the vacuum test. The TMAP has an o-ring and it's a very tight fit. The Edelbrock hole is 12mm (.472 inch) but since I don't have metric bits, I used 15/32 (.46875 inch).
Also removed a bit of unnecessary plastic because ...weight reduction. Plus I got to re-thread my crooked hole.

[BA9092]

Ugh. I wish someone like Jackson Racing, Verus, Radium, Raceseng, Perrin would make a plug-n-play MAP relocation kit for the less-crafty crowd.

[aKaGorganZola]

That's what I like to hear @Z06ZN6. Couple weeks out on ordering my own kit

[toast]

Originally Posted by BA9092

Ugh. I wish someone like Jackson Racing, Verus, Radium, Raceseng, Perrin would make a plug-n-play MAP relocation kit for the less-crafty crowd.

His use of Nylon is brilliant. For $20 in materials and tools you could do the same. Running a tap in nylon can be done by a child, this is about the easiest mod you can do and the performance difference is large.

[BR-ZED]

This is the underside corner of my supercharger.

Is it normal for there to be this section machined out, along with a little hole? See arrows. I wasn't sure if it was a defect or not. Especially the hole.

[Z06ZN6]

Originally Posted by BR-ZED

This is the underside corner of my supercharger.

Is it normal for there to be this section machined out, along with a little hole? See arrows. I wasn't sure if it was a defect or not. Especially the hole.

Mine has the same exact cut. Drivers side of blower. The blind hole for the backplate fastener gets partially exposed from the cut. The hole does not go into the blower. Its the same on mine. No big deal.

[Z06ZN6]

Originally Posted by aKaGorganZola

That's what I like to hear @Z06ZN6. Couple weeks out on ordering my own kit

Awesome. Good luck with your order and install!

If I could recommend anything to go with this great kit, it would be a tune from Bill and Nazar at Delicious Tuning. I started on the CARB tune and while it ran ok, it was unpleasant and a bit aggravating to drive normally with a very non-linear throttle. The first flash tune from Bill absolutely transformed the behaviour giving the car back its linear throttle and OEM feel and the car was enjoyable again, for the first time with the kit on. Even now with their ff kit and dyno tuning doubling the factory hp, it runs just like OEM with no quirks, bad habits or compromises. Its a well engineered kit coupled with a highly developed tune.

Edit: I'd also recommend you have your supplier verify the kit they ship you will have the updated actuator in it and the relieved blower snout for the 17+ alternators. It will save you a lot of headache to have these parts preinstalled by Edelbrock. Maybe it will get dropped shipped from Edelbrock with the revised designs already, but I would definitely be proactive in verifying to help ensure everything comes upgraded already, especially since you are out in CT. My kit came from Summit Racing stock and lacked a lot of the revised components which required a lot of rework on my end and Edelbrock, who thankfully for me was only a few miles away and extremely helpful. Look back in some of the recent posts and you can see there have been a number of revisions, including a larger cooling tank size, an oil-less air filter, the previously mentioned modified blower snout and larger actuator and it looks like there was also a passenger side runner casting update for the 17+ alternator as well.

[BR-ZED]

Originally Posted by Z06ZN6

Mine has the same exact cut. Drivers side of blower. The blind hole for the backplate fastener gets partially exposed from the cut. The hole does not go into the blower. Its the same on mine. No big deal.

Thanks. Mine is on the passenger side but that is reassuring. I assume it is there for clearance or something?

I guess no one had any feedback on my question about replacing the bypass. I thought of a different way of doing it, which seemed reasonable. Was going to touch base with Tony at Edelbrock to suggest this method to see if he thought it was a good idea, but have had a hard time getting a hold of him. Basically, my plan was to measure the configuration of the original bypass and essentially measure how far the blade lever was offset from the full closed position prior to uninstalling the old bypass. Then I would just set the resting position for the new bypass the same way. Will post up details if that is how I end up doing it.

was going to install starting tomorrow, but still waiting on a base tune, so it may have to be pushed to Saturday or next weekend :-/

[Z06ZN6]

I am guessing the cuts are probably on the same side of the car if we have both blowers oriented the same. Drivers side when installed right side up on the engine and passenger side when flipped upside down like in your photo. Anyhow, the cut is right above an unused bracket on my AT car but high enough so it would never interfere, so perhaps there is something there on an MT car, or its for some other application which shares the same blower.

When I was trying to get a hold of Tony, I found the best times were in the afternoon. He had morning meetings most of the times. I would leave a message and he would call back late afternoon.

I would follow the recommeded instructions if it were my car. They are not complex but the measurements need to be precise for proper operation. Pulling the blower off isnt hard but it isn't trivial either so I would want to verify its opened and closing correctly before installation. Future trouble shooting other issues (hopefully you have none) will be clouded by thoughts of if you executed this correctly or not.

[BR-ZED]

You are right, it's the drivers side. I guess I forgot what side of the car I sit on :-)

The problem is that there isn't a good way to fit the feeler gauge in there. Tony said to do it "by feel" and that it wasn't rocket science. But as someone who has never adjusted a supercharger, I don't have a feel for it. So I came up with a means of feeling it out quantitatively. Specifically:

First, I backed off the set screw. I was very methodical and counted the number of turns. It took 1.5 turns till there was a large enough gap between the blade actuator bracket and the set screw. At this point, the blade is stopped in the bore but the bracket is not resting against the set screw. Then, I used my feeler gauge set to measure the gap between the end if the set screw and the actuator bracket. This was 0.011".

Now, when I install the new bracket, all I need to do I get the set screw close to the blade bracket. I will do this by making the 0.11" feeler gauge snug in the gap. Then, I'll remove the gauge and give it 1.5 turns which will make the set screw contact the bracket and subsequently push the lever to slightly back the blade out of the bore to the location it was adjusted to from the factory.

This methodology might make more sense for the instructions since its not possible to complete step 11 with the feeler gauge.

Tony even mentioned that the picture in step 11 might be from a different car. But I'm convinced there is no way to do it by the book. I suppose you could do what I suggested above (screwdriver with feeler gauge) bit i think that will be tough to feel out accurately.