Decided to write a thread semi-documenting my Whipple Install. Took me a few weekends, several late nights and a bunch of trips to ACE/Home Depot, but the end product was more that I could hoped for. For starters, I got this kit used off a friend who had sold his SS for only $5k with all new hoses and lines from Whipple. But it is a used kit that sat for a while so there was the hassle of ordering a Whipple tune and random parts/bolts and nuts I couldn't find.
Then came time to modify the Roto-Fab. I knew it was possible however every thread literally only stated to "trim the bottom of it" with no pictures or reference as to how much I had to cut to fit it, so here is how much I cut/modified the Roto Fab (I ended up being too lazy to buy a dremel cutting wheel for plastic and just melted it with my gun stippling kit)
With everything good to go, I took it out for a quick easy spin, came back and called it a night:
next day, I started it up and there was a Oil Pressure code.. of course the OPS would fail the day after the S/C install.. ordered a new one, ordered a special open end wrench that hooks up to a ratchet to do the install since the S/C is now in the way of a regular oil pressure switch socket, replaced it and cleared the code. Drove around and never threw another code.
That night a friend comes over to check out the car, I warm it up, give a nice rev to 4k rpm.. start hearing belt chirp and smelling burnt rubber... uh oh...
hardest part was since the stock crank and balancer was pinned in the install, I had to drill the ATI's hub and with dowels, then slowly line it up with the holes I drilled in the crank as I pressed it on. Luckily I was able to reinstall it and get everything running again.
Took it on the freeway for the first time and gave it the beans, good god what is that rattling noise?!
It's way too loud to be pinging/detonation right? It has to be exhaust hitting the crossmember or exhaust heatshield rattling... nope.. time to call a tuner..
Canned Whipple tune was so bad (Timing too advanced and running too lean) the Tuner (Newtech Performance in Hayward CA) couldn't even get a safe baseline run with the canned Whipple tune.
He worked his magic and after a couple hours got a safe reliable tune uploaded into the car. The car put down 550 RWHP and 492 RWTRQ (STD correction) with a conservative safe tune and I was stoke! He's done quite a few SS builds/Tunes in the CA Bay Area and says on the same dyno he usually sees 360-365 RWHP (highest was 370 on a manual) on the stock cars with the same Dyno settings.
Not only did the detonation disappear, the drivability improved immensely. With the Whipple Tune there seemed to be a wall where 28% throttle there was no boost, then 29% throttle it would slam into boost the power delivery was inconsistent and harsh.. The car ran rough and even stalled a couple times on me. plus the throttle response was HORRENDOUS. With the custom tune the car drives like it did off the showroom floor, with just way more power. It's smooth and linear in it's power delivery and completely predictable.
And FINALLY, to celebrate the end of this saga, I went and did a quick photoshoot
only complaint... I wish there was more supercharger whine... I can barely hear any... and only around 2-3k rpm when slowly accelerating from a stop...
How I Increase the Supercharger whine in cabin without creating a Hot Air Intake (Removing Roto-Fab Lid)
now don't get me wrong, I didn't want some crazy Hellcat/Demon whine on the inside of the cabin, but I definitely wanted SOME feedback from the Whipple as I drove around. I started with removing the Roto-Fab Lid. Results; louder Throttle body whistle, negligible S/C increase.. plus now I created a Hot Air Intake. Not impressed, Lid goes back on. looked around several forums (ZL1 and Mustang) looked at Foster's S/C mod for supercharged mustangs and decided to utilize the stock Kazoo Tube and hook it up to the Whipples Intake Elbow. the original Kazoo to Intake hose was about 3 inches too short to I brought it in to O'reillys and had them find me a hose with the same diameter and roughly the same angle/direction change somewhere along the length of it.
Parts gathered:
Gates radiator hose 22323
1" ID rubber grommet
RTV
Hose Clamps
old (now unused) Roto-Fab elbow
Using the original Kazoo to intake hose, I cut a portion of the Gates Radiator Hose that matched the curvature (slightly) however, I left more material at both ends. mocked it up onto the Kazoo and trimmed it so the other end sat against the intake elbow
used a silver sharpie and marked where it sat on the elbow and uninstalled it.
took a 1.25 inch hole saw and drilled a hole where I previously marked it with sharpie
The result was less profound than expected around town, same thing where the S/C can only be heard over the exhaust when accelerating (slowly) from a stop until around 2-3k rpm when it's just exhaust note.
However, on the freeway, there is now a distinct whine that can be heard ever so slightly over the exhaust note which is exactly what I wanted. It is no where near that of a Hellcat but at least its audible. The best part is it is completely silent when cruising but makes itself known when hammering down.
Decided to write a thread semi-documenting my Whipple Install. Took me a few weekends, several late nights and a bunch of trips to ACE/Home Depot, but the end product was more that I could hoped for. For starters, I got this kit used off a friend who had sold his SS for only $5k with all new hoses and lines from Whipple. But it is a used kit that sat for a while so there was the hassle of ordering a Whipple tune and random parts/bolts and nuts I couldn't find.
Then came time to modify the Roto-Fab. I knew it was possible however every thread literally only stated to "trim the bottom of it" with no pictures or reference as to how much I had to cut to fit it, so here is how much I cut/modified the Roto Fab (I ended up being too lazy to buy a dremel cutting wheel for plastic and just melted it with my gun stippling kit)
With everything good to go, I took it out for a quick easy spin, came back and called it a night:
next day, I started it up and there was a Oil Pressure code.. of course the OPS would fail the day after the S/C install.. ordered a new one, ordered a special open end wrench that hooks up to a ratchet to do the install since the S/C is now in the way of a regular oil pressure switch socket, replaced it and cleared the code. Drove around and never threw another code.
That night a friend comes over to check out the car, I warm it up, give a nice rev to 4k rpm.. start hearing belt chirp and smelling burnt rubber... uh oh...
hardest part was since the stock crank and balancer was pinned in the install, I had to drill the ATI's hub and with dowels, then slowly line it up with the holes I drilled in the crank as I pressed it on. Luckily I was able to reinstall it and get everything running again.
Took it on the freeway for the first time and gave it the beans, good god what is that rattling noise?!
It's way too loud to be pinging/detonation right? It has to be exhaust hitting the crossmember or exhaust heatshield rattling... nope.. time to call a tuner..
Canned Whipple tune was so bad (Timing too advanced and running too lean) the Tuner (Newtech Performance in Hayward CA) couldn't even get a safe baseline run with the canned Whipple tune.
He worked his magic and after a couple hours got a safe reliable tune uploaded into the car. The car put down 550 RWHP and 492 RWTRQ (STD correction) with a conservative safe tune and I was stoke! He's done quite a few SS builds/Tunes in the CA Bay Area and says on the same dyno he usually sees 360-365 RWHP (highest was 370 on a manual) on the stock cars with the same Dyno settings.
Not only did the detonation disappear, the drivability improved immensely. With the Whipple Tune there seemed to be a wall where 28% throttle there was no boost, then 29% throttle it would slam into boost the power delivery was inconsistent and harsh.. The car ran rough and even stalled a couple times on me. plus the throttle response was HORRENDOUS. With the custom tune the car drives like it did off the showroom floor, with just way more power. It's smooth and linear in it's power delivery and completely predictable.
And FINALLY, to celebrate the end of this saga, I went and did a quick photoshoot
only complaint... I wish there was more supercharger whine... I can barely hear any... and only around 2-3k rpm when slowly accelerating from a stop...
The WS6 My highschool dream car, saw this NHRA edition on craigslist and the timing was perfect where my parents bought it for me as my college graduation gift in 2013. It was only $7.5k ( clean title, garaged, less than 90k miles, original owner was no longer able to get in and out of the car easily). Then 1 year later, by PURE CHANCE some guy nearby was selling WS6 parts for a friend and had no idea how much an OEM, non damaged and painted WS6 hood was worth and listed it for $300.. so I had to jump on that haha
Yup, mine has been pretty much an ongoing project since I bought it new in 2001 fresh out of college - also my HS dream car! Be aware that in 2001 they only made 143 NHRA cars in total, although I don't think the package has ever been deemed particularly valuable. At one point on LS1tech years we had a little NHRA owners group going. Anyways sorry to digress from the other badass project with the SS...whipple is also the way I'd go if I ever decide to boost mine. Trying to resist and keep only one project car.
Yup, mine has been pretty much an ongoing project since I bought it new in 2001 fresh out of college - also my HS dream car! Be aware that in 2001 they only made 143 NHRA cars in total, although I don't think the package has ever been deemed particularly valuable. At one point on LS1tech years we had a little NHRA owners group going. Anyways sorry to digress from the other badass project with the SS...whipple is also the way I'd go if I ever decide to boost mine. Trying to resist and keep only one project car.
I didn't even know of the NHRA existence until I was about to buy it, then I saw the rarity so I don't plan on cutting or doing anything irreversible to it. So far I've done BMR swaybars, springs, subframe connectors, Pan hard Rod and LCA brackets... the plan is to do Koni yellows and do a motor rebuild/refresh, nothing crazy, probably just a LS6 cam, 243 heads, ATI balancer and tune + new gaskets, and bearings/oilpump etc (it has 140k on it now). My big hang up is what rear end to throw on it, I've taken it on Willow springs (big willow and streets) and would like to keep doing HPDEs with it. Stock rear end is done and I'm scared of getting a refurbished 10 bolt just to have it fail on track.
It was defiantly my only project car (in fact in the middle of a clutch/flywheel master and slave cylinder swap).. But I kept bringing up a supercharger for the SS as a day dream and my wife surprised me with buying the kit as a Christmas present.
I didn't even know of the NHRA existence until I was about to buy it, then I saw the rarity so I don't plan on cutting or doing anything irreversible to it. So far I've done BMR swaybars, springs, subframe connectors, Pan hard Rod and LCA brackets... the plan is to do Koni yellows and do a motor rebuild/refresh, nothing crazy, probably just a LS6 cam, 243 heads, ATI balancer and tune + new gaskets, and bearings/oilpump etc (it has 140k on it now). My big hang up is what rear end to throw on it, I've taken it on Willow springs (big willow and streets) and would like to keep doing HPDEs with it. Stock rear end is done and I'm scared of getting a refurbished 10 bolt just to have it fail on track.
It was defiantly my only project car (in fact in the middle of a clutch/flywheel master and slave cylinder swap).. But I kept bringing up a supercharger for the SS as a day dream and my wife surprised me with buying the kit as a Christmas present.
I put a Moser 12 bolt with an HD eaton posi back in 2004. Other than the whine, as they've been known to do, it's held up to a lot of abuse over the years including many launches on slicks spraying 100-150 out of the hole. From lack of experience I can't say if it would be an ideal setup for doing HPDEs, with the HD clutch in the posi it tends to clunk a bit on tight corners and act a bit like a locker. Brother-in-law has a Dana 60 in his but those are heavy SOBs. A 9" with an aluminum center might not be quite as bad. But in any event yeah I'd agree not to spend any money on a 10 bolt. I do like the Konis, I have a set on mine and handles much better than it did with the more drag focused QA1s.
Dont know if its just Tapatalk but I can't view any of the pictures/links in the thread. Will try later on a computer. Nice build by the way! Looks very clean.
The WS6 My highschool dream car, saw this NHRA edition on craigslist and the timing was perfect where my parents bought it for me as my college graduation gift in 2013. It was only $7.5k ( clean title, garaged, less than 90k miles, original owner was no longer able to get in and out of the car easily). Then 1 year later, by PURE CHANCE some guy nearby was selling WS6 parts for a friend and had no idea how much an OEM, non damaged and painted WS6 hood was worth and listed it for $300.. so I had to jump on that haha
The cool factor just never ends.
More to say... Boosted applications are super fun to drive! However, I'm not fond of the inherit high pitched sound. Perhaps it's my lineage from the 60s and 70s when the sound of performance V8's had that low rumble at idle and deep tones under acceleration.
My father owned a 1979 Trans Am 6.6L and a 1991 Trans Am 5.0L (POS) .. We ended up selling both when he passed in 1996, I wish I still had that 79. I graduated high school in 1999 with a supercharged Thunderbird that I still own. My neighbor got a 2000 WS6 for graduation that he wrecked shortly afterwards.
I was planning a similar method for my SS of getting a SC canned tune kit with the CARB sticker and immediately having it re-tuned. Last week I dropped by Hayward for two days .. We are building the brand new fire station / fire training center right next to the Hayward executive airport.
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