Murf928.com Forum

I purchased the Stage 1 kit from Bill Ball and will be installing it in June after the smog police have their fun. In talking with some of the 928 guys, they recommend I also get an intercooler, since a couple of guys they knew blew their engines without one. Your comments please.

Rolf in Burbank

Hi Rolf, congrats on the purchase.

Who are these guys talking about a couple of other guys who blew a couple of engines? What SC were they running, and what kit? Nothing wrong with adding an intercooler, but it is not really needed for 6 psi of mostly street driving. Vortech feels no intercooler is needed for thier SC's until above 8 psi.

Now, add the intercooler, you may as well just do the stage 3 kit


Jim

An intercooler will allow you to more safely run higher boost and make more power. Using an intercooler with the normal stage one kit's boost level would technically make it safer than if you don't use an intercooler with that same boost level, but realisticly it would probably be a waste. Some people without an intercooler have run more boost than what you get with the stage one kit and didn't have any problems. The further you push it, the more your chances of there being a problem go up though.

I've never heard of anybody blowing an engine with a stage one kit, even though they don't use an intercooler. I'd say that proper tuning is a lot more important than an intercooler at the boost levels most people are seeing in various boosted 928s. I'd be willing to bet that the non-intercooled supercharged blown engines that you heard about were instances where it wasn't one of the Murf kits that was on the car, or the owner decided to increase boost or make other changes to the kit or tuning on his own. The kits are designed to go on well running stock cars, and don't really need anything else to work well at their intended boost level.

If you're going to stay with the boost level that the kit provides as intended, you don't really need an intercooler. If you want to run more boost than that, either initially or sometime in the future, upgrade to the stage three kit which includes an intercooler. Don't just increase boost and add an intercooler though. The stage three kit consists of more than just that, including different tuning.

Thanks for your quick reply--no intercooler it is.

Rolf

Rolf,

I saw you're supercharger in Bill's Garage. You'll enjoy the
extra power, but it's addictive. If after a year you decide
you want more, then upgrade to the Stage 3 kit.

Forum must be hitting the big times, getting spammed already.

This kit has changed hands again and soon will be residing in Indiana.

I know you're probably anxious to get it installed, but you'll be a lot happier in the long run if you have the car running well normally aspirated first if it's not already. Things like making sure that there are no vacuum leaks, bad MAF or MAF connector wiring, or other things that might be causing some minor problems now.

Since it's a stage one kit, you'll be using the stock or stock sized fuel injectors. If you're going to use your stock ones, I'd suggest getting them cleaned, or at least using some injector cleaner and checking the spark plugs to make sure that all cylinders look pretty even. A new fuel filter is probably a good idea too if it hasn't been changed in a long time.

Thanks for the tips. My car runs pretty darn strong right now and I am planning a number of things before the install.

New Sensors (knock, temp II, throttle & crank position), new fuel lines, new spark plugs, new vacuum lines and connectors, ISV, plus a water pump, Ptensioner, and TB.

I recently put on new OEM wires, can’t remember about the coils and distributers. I’m trying to chase down an intermittent low RMP mis that only shows up when cold or possible wet… goes away once engine is up to temp.

I always run a can or two of Techron through before each oil change and recently changes the fuel filter. I’m hoping my MAF and injectors will do for now.

I’d like to have everything up and running by April with an absolute drop deadline of SITM. Are you guys heading down this year?

It sounds like you've got a pretty good grip on things. The throttle position switch, MAF, clean injectors, and knock sensors are probably the most important things to make sure are working correctly of those things mentioned. If you're changing the spark plugs, I'd put in the next range colder than stock ones.

If things are apart, and you have concerns about whether the MAF is still in good condition, you might want to send it off to get checked. The last that I heard, Injection Labs would check the calibration of a MAF sent to them for only the cost of shipping. They can also rebuild it for a very reasonable cost if needed. There are other places that can check or rebuild the MAF, but Injection Labs is the only one that I have heard will check them for free. Everyone that I've heard who used them was also happy with the results.
http://www.injectionlabs.com

The installation of the stage one kit is pretty straight forward, and can be done in less than a full day. A lot of people take their time doing it, look at stuff, clean, and do other things "while they're in there", so doing it over a weekend might be more typical. Some of that will depend on how much experience the person doing the installation has with working on these cars.


A lot of stuff ends up being very last minute. Sometimes I don't know what I'm going to be doing until after I've already started doing it.