My dad makes custom kitchens for the rich guys next town over so I had a nice shop on hand that I could use, but since it's for woodwork all the tools were set up differently (IE: I broke half of them cutting Aluminum, sorry Pops) and I couldn't weld in there for fear of a flash fire

I had to make some big aluminum plates to cover the various orifices in the M90, so I traced the bottom of my supercharger and started cutting the 3/8" sheet accordingly. I used my dad's band saw and it worked incredibly smoothly for most of the big bottom plate, but eventually the first blade broke (it got so heat treated that it basically shattered like glass) and I was stuck with the crappy dull ones. This guy here got stuck in place so tightly that it took me literally 15 minutes to get it out.. I ended up having to cut completely around it after some good ranting and raving

3 1/2 hours later, and I was left with a nice shiny cutout of my M90

After cutting out the exhaust and drilling the bolt holes, I was happy to find that everything lined up perfectly first shot

Skidd's build thread mentioned brazing as a good joining solution for Aluminum, so I got some Mapp gas and 1070 brazing rods and went to work. This here is my first brazing attempt (no you aren't imagining things, that center hole was completely cut out via drill press Holding jigsaw for holes was a pain in the butt after a while)

I almost immediately ran out of Oxygen after that, and since I didn't have a swirl tip torch, I was kind stuck. No problem, I just threw it on the grill to heat up, and thus, BRAZEBEQUEING was born! This worked surprisingly well, and I'll be doing a DIY thread on it when I have a chance.. Definitely a useful way of brazing when you are doing big parts that take a while to heat up

Neighbor came over to see what I was cooking, I think he was more excited about losing his first tooth than I was about my idea actually working haha, he made me take a pic.
Cool kid

Finished assembly

(continued below)

 

Fitting the foundation piece of the first bracket. Very surprisingly (and awesomely) the metal thing I removed from the area to put the bracket there lined up with the supercharger bolt holes flawlessly, and I ended up using it as a bracket as well

I busted out my new Flux Welder at this time, and did my first ever welds here on the bracket. They may not be pretty, but they're good and strong. Welding is fun, I gotta do it more often

After finishing the brackets, twas time to put it in! I removed the Throttle Body so it could be moved in front of the supercharger

I had extra hose material, but no way of connecting it so I could extend the coolant lines to the new TB position.. Sooo I went dumpster diving and dug up the old AC hose I ripped out a few days ago, and used the Aluminum part to connect the hoses. I figure if this thing can handle Freon, it can handle anything else my car has to offer. No it's not a hookah.

Got the Silicon elbows in place for the supercharger. I didn't think these were strong enough to handle a full vacuum load, and I was right.. Don't get the cheap elbows, kids.

I really wanted to get this thing in, and waiting for internet parts just wouldn't suffice, so I made my own solution- I chopped up a small piece of Aluminum corner pipe from my eBay general intercooler kit (which I decided against installing for now while the boost is low) and shoved the pieces into the corners, holding them in place with some hose clamps. You can definitely still see parts of the the elbow sucking in under vacuum now, but it's not nearly as bad with the Aluminum pieces holding the shape.

(continued below)

 

Since the Thunderbird M90 is so freaking huge, I couldn't make a normal intake for it, I had to flatten a piece of pipe and braze it sideways onto its base plate. Unfortunately I found out the day of the install that there was no good way of bolting the intake assembly to the supercharger, so I slapped on the gasket material, and wrapped it a million times in wet string (shrank as it dried) as a temporary solution. It held very tightly, and worked great for buying more time in that area.

INSTALLED!!! The brackets hold it nice and firmly to the engine, and while I haven't hooked up the bypass valve yet (not hugely important at 4 psi..) I do have the AutoMeter boost/vac gauge installed, which is what that white tubing curled up by the M90 is connected to

The curved greenish gray metal piece on the bottom right of the M90 is what I took off the intake manifold. I couldn't have made a better fitting piece myself, and this thing wasn't even remotely designed for this

When I first fired the car up, we found out very quickly that one of the Throttle Body coolant lines had come off lol.. Quickly fixed that and started it again. It ran for like 10 seconds, when we realized that the two silicone elbows couldn't handle the vacuum pressure at all, and had completely collapsed. This is when I put those Aluminum sleeves in them.
Annnd 3rd time's a charm

Me and my friends went for a 30 minute cruise, which I was using to log on the new base map I made as a starting point to work with. It worked pretty well, with the only real danger being knock during high load (which my ECU doesn't know exists yet). This was some of the most fun I've had in a while- It was a beautiful day, my hood was off and the supercharger on, and I almost caused like 50 accidents with all the other drivers rubbernecking in my direction as I drove by I've never seen so many shocked faces swearing to themselves before haha
Unfortunately when I went to start working on fine tuning my base map, I noticed that the USB connector on my Tactrix module had broken off..



(continued below)

 

While it sucked that my cable had broken, I still had some work to do, so I left the fine-tuning for later. Time to cut the hood!

My crappy WalMart angle grinder cutting wheel worked perfectly for chopping the Aluminum hood.. Like butter Oh yeah, the corner of the hood is messed up from when some dude in front of me sent himself sideways in a blizzard at a redlight, followed by insurance blaming me for an accident that he claimed responsilibily for.. meh, it bought me a supercharger (did I say that? Truth is that I'm just waiting on my new hood to arrive so my insurance- certified bodyshop can install it! )

If you read my other thread, you know that my car didn't work the next morning It would start up, idle very eratically, and not rev past 1,500 RPMs. One help thread and two days later, I found out that the big connector on my Throttle Body had a loose wire on it. Pinky here was hanging right out, completely disconnected. I pushed that back in, and it now works beautifully!

I can't drive hard at all yet since I can't tune it better with my Tactrix cable busted, but it definitely bites a lot harder now than before, and unless I relearn my footwork quickly, my clutch is gonna be toast a lot sooner than it would have been I get full boost at any RPM I've checked at as soon as I floor it, the lowest I've seen being 1,600 RPMs. Basically, when my foot goes down, I have a constant 4 psi (I'm currently using an underdrive pully to achieve 4 psi- I estimated 6-7psi with it, but 4 isn't bad. I'm gonna see how it does with my stock pulley size when my Tactrix is working.) It pulls a good deal harder than before, though I don't know exactly how much harder yet because I can't floor it for now, and it's likely missing out on a lot of power with the current MAF scaling and bad timing. Either way though, the fact that it's making my clutchwork extremely finicky is enough in itself to show me that there's a good increase in torque That, and the famed butt-dyno backs the claims up as well

As I get this thing fine-tuned and clean it up a bit, I will post updates along the way. I'll definitely be throwing a 0-60 vid and whatnot out there when I can safely do so





-END-
...or is it?

 

Dear god that is badass!

 

Oh yeah, almost forgot the final pics of the engine bay! That's the stock idler pulley system- I just drilled another hole in it and put it in upside down. Just like that I have a perfect idler/tensioner for the SC

 

Dude
Crazy

 

a guy on a local forum did a setup like this on his SHO. M90 sticking out the hood. totally wicked.

but doing this to an 06 makes me slightly sad that it was hacked up for fun.. but at the same time ive done stuff like this, just to cars that are worth little value.



I want to see the 0-60 video

 

a guy on a local forum did a setup like this on his SHO. M90 sticking out the hood. totally wicked.

but doing this to an 06 makes me slightly sad that it was hacked up for fun.. but at the same time ive done stuff like this, just to cars that are worth little value.



I want to see the 0-60 video

Yeah I think most people who own these feel the way you do- that's why I'm the first to do this on my model 0-60vid whenever I can safely, I promise

Nice work Spud! Really nice work.
I'm a big fan of sleepers and stealthy installs, but I freakin' LOVE that ignorant M90 sticking out of your hood! I can just imagine the look on some Mustang or Camaro dood sitting at a red light as you pull up beside him with that sucker lookin' back at him! Freakin' classic!! Do you have any plans to enclose that SC at all? Some sort of fake hood scoop or something? I know, were it my car, I'd leave it just like that!!

P.S. Hey... I have that very same book!!

Thanks Skidd The looks from everyone are classic, so far I've had 3 people literally stop dead halfway through turning onto the road and just stare with an open mouth. Hope I don't cause a crash or something lol

I'm gonna make a fiberglass cover that I can clip into place quickly- that way I can have it off on nice days, and can keep my engine dry when it's raining

PS- I got that book on your recommendation, thanks! Good read

+1 Nice job.

Sleepers are Very nice, but the Mad-Max look is cool too....

Not trying to start any crap but -
I think you may be the first to DIY Supercharge a DBW '05+ style car & the first to DIY a M90 onto a Subaru (first supercharged '05+ car I've seen that happens to use a M90).
-Congrats!

Thanks bro, I'm kinda pumped to see that no one's stepped up and claimed to have done this before. The old Rimmer kits needed a small bubble in the hood, but those were m62s, and they didn't stick out nearly as much as my M90

Anyone else think this when they see that car? lol Thats a very cool build man, nicely done.:clap:

Haha I've gotten a few MadMax comments, I should prolly watch the movie and get a first-hand idea why

You should make a cover for the supercharger, then paint it crazy like giant fist or foot punching out of the engine bay or something.

This thing is the very definition of badass grassroots tuning. Bravo!

Edit: Also, Corky Bell is the man! Maximum Boost is my bible.

I'm definitely making a rain cover for it, and I very well may paint something onto it. Lol the guys at work want me to slap a giant penis on it, but I'm not going that far

and +1 on Corky Bell

Shark face / jaws painted on a scoop will fit this theme nicely.

Oh yeah, totally. WWII style, which makes sense given most of fighters were supercharged.

An alternative to a cover would be getting the supercharger painted/anodized red or black and cleaning up the hole with a little riser or something to make it look cleaner and also reduce the risk of slicing yourself open on the thing.

I'm liking the shark jaws idea, that would fit in perfectly with this thing :bitehard:

I thought about just making it more rainproof and keeping it open, but I don't know if I can- there's a lot of angles and spaces to fill, and I would end up just covering the whole thing in rubber anyways by the end of it

 

Nice work Spud! Really nice work.
I'm a big fan of sleepers and stealthy installs, but I freakin' LOVE that ignorant M90 sticking out of your hood! I can just imagine the look on some Mustang or Camaro dood sitting at a red light as you pull up beside him with that sucker lookin' back at him! Freakin' classic!! Do you have any plans to enclose that SC at all? Some sort of fake hood scoop or something? I know, were it my car, I'd leave it just like that!!

P.S. Hey... I have that very same book!!

 

Ghetto- Rigged or not. It looks bad ass!

I'm totally with Skidd on this one as far as the looks you must get. Can't wait until its tuned.

 

+1 Nice job.

Sleepers are Very nice, but the Mad-Max look is cool too....

Not trying to start any crap but -
I think you may be the first to DIY Supercharge a DBW '05+ style car & the first to DIY a M90 onto a Subaru (first supercharged '05+ car I've seen that happens to use a M90).
-Congrats!

 

Anyone else think this when they see that car? lol Thats a very cool build man, nicely done.:clap:

 

You should make a cover for the supercharger, then paint it crazy like giant fist or foot punching out of the engine bay or something.

This thing is the very definition of badass grassroots tuning. Bravo!

Edit: Also, Corky Bell is the man! Maximum Boost is my bible.

 

Shark face / jaws painted on a scoop will fit this theme nicely.

 

Oh yeah, totally. WWII style, which makes sense given most of fighters were supercharged.

An alternative to a cover would be getting the supercharger painted/anodized red or black and cleaning up the hole with a little riser or something to make it look cleaner and also reduce the risk of slicing yourself open on the thing.

 

Hey.. there is one HUGE added benefit to leaving that sucker exposed to the air... cooling!
That huge chunk of aluminum absorbs a crap load of heat from the engine. My SC get's really freakin' hot after sitting at a light for a while. But, you should get some nice air cooling on yours! If your going to cover it, find a way to keep air flow in there.

P.S.
The Road Warrior is better than Mad Max.
Watch them both if you wish, but RoadWarrior FTW.

Oh yeah.. and I hate to be a pain.. but.. are you 100% sure about that 1:1 pulley ratio?

 

hahaha that is so badass, i love it

Thanks bro

Hey.. there is one HUGE added benefit to leaving that sucker exposed to the air... cooling!
That huge chunk of aluminum absorbs a crap load of heat from the engine. My SC get's really freakin' hot after sitting at a light for a while. But, you should get some nice air cooling on yours! If your going to cover it, find a way to keep air flow in there.

P.S.
The Road Warrior is better than Mad Max.
Watch them both if you wish, but RoadWarrior FTW.

Oh yeah.. and I hate to be a pain.. but.. are you 100% sure about that 1:1 pulley ratio?

That's a really good point. I'm thinking of going WW2 style all the way with this, basically taking that bottom SC cover from the Mustang fighters and putting it on top of my hood, with the ventilation hole (and the shark teeth painted on!) at the front included

I may have seen road warrior when I was tiny, will look into it.

And it's not 100% 1:1 ratio, but it's only like 1/2"-1" difference between lengths of string wrapped around the pulleys. Using our friend Pi, that means we're only really looking at like 1/8"-1/4" difference in diameter (I forget which is bigger). I'll get a solid measurement for you next time I can get in there.

 

hahahah thats so badass, i love it

 

holy crap! that is awesome. congrats on the build.

 

nice, very nice

 

Man that shit is bad ass and brings hope to us 2.5i 06-07 guys seeing as we have tuned from factory CAMs I can't wait to get my raptor kit and forged piston swap my god and that will be at 6psi stock internals and 10 psi with 9.0 forged pistons its gona be a great day.

 

looks great!

i couldnt help but notice.....

that pink wire, in post 5. the copper wires are exposed. and that connector is a weather packed connector. aka it is designed to be water resistant. so the water cant get into the connections and corrode them over time.

i would highly suggest to try to reinsert the pink wire. try to get the pink insulation inside the rubber so that water/dirt/moister cant get into the clip.

 

looks great!

i couldnt help but notice.....

that pink wire, in post 5. the copper wires are exposed. and that clip is a weather packed clips. aka it is designed to be water resistant. so the water cant get into the connections and corrode them over time.

i would highly suggest to try to reinsert the pink wire. try to get the pink insulation inside the rubber so that water/dirt/moister cant get into the clip.

Busted!
Looks like someone is guilty of not reading the whole thread.

edit: Oop.. I mean is other thread.

 

mg: So sick!

Very excited to hear about it after its tuned.

 

get that shit out of this guys thread

:monkey:













































































:monkey:

 

Screw the haters

 

Nice job. A little too "in your face" for me, but if you got it, Flaunt it! Props.



A tiny FYI. That's a GM supercharger, not a T-Bird. The T-Birds inlet plenum bolts on and curves around sort of like what you built. Internally they are both the same, so no worries.

 

wow, assholes....they made fun of our ideas susiemk.

 

they drive Fords.

I came from fox bodies, and they are 223535% GARBAGE cars.

As for Spud, that is awesome to see people like us are alive and fabbing subies!