The Whipple has landed!!

linda · February 18, 2006

Well, it finally got here today. It was packaged very nicely with everything very protected and secure. I was like a kid getting his new bike on Christmas morning!! I like the sleek look of the new compressors too. I have been reading through the manual all day and it looks like 60% of it or more im not gonna need because it deals with the electronics stuff that i deleted from the kit. This looks like it wont really be as difficult as i thought it may. The instructions are very detailed with pictures of each step. They must have responded to the people displeased with the older instruction set. Anyway, i will be doing (and hopefully finishing) the install tomorrow. I will ty to take some pics and keep you all updated on the install. Cant wait to get this sucker on the road!!

trever1t · February 18, 2006

Right on!

Hope to see some good numbers from you!

8100LT · February 18, 2006

Good luck Linda. The instructions that can with mine in 2003 looked like a 5th generation copy. Glad to hear Whipple is making improvements. I ordered the upgraded air intake from them so I hope to get mine going soon.

linda · February 19, 2006

Sorry I dont have any pictures yet, i did take some but i didnt come in from the garage until late last night so i havent had time to upload them yet. I will definatly upload some tonight. Everything is going suprisingly well, only problem so far is i spent 45 minutes looking for a valve cover bolt that fell down beside the block and never hit the floor.... :eyes:. That compressor was pretty darn heavy too. The one thing whipple forgot when i deleted all electronics from the kit, was they forgot to include the alternator extention harness. It was no big deal as i had plenty of 18-22awg wire to make it myself. All i really have left today is to install the induction system and gauges.

8100LT · February 19, 2006

Glad to hear it's going well. What kind of gauges? Did you get a boost gauge?

linda · February 20, 2006

yes, i bought a Keene Bell electric F/P and boost/vac gauge off of Ebay last week.

linda · February 20, 2006

Okay first the good news, everything is installed. Not major problems, needed an extea hose clamp and a few vacuum tee's. Only thing left is to permenantly mount the gauges. Here are a few pics....

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/gable74/IMG_1181.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/gable74/IMG_1186.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/gable74/IMG_1179.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/gable74/IMG_1188.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/gable74/IMG_1189.jpg

Now the bad news.....the truck will not start. It ran fine after i put the new plugs and injectors in so I know its not that. It must be the PCM i guess. Wester's sent me an upgraded PCM to account for my larger injectors and boost and now it wont start. It does fire up for a split second and shuts right down, then it will just crank over and spit a little. If i let it set for a minute and try again, it will try to fire up and just shut right down again. I wonder if it will run at all with the other PCM I took out? That way i could be sure thats what it is. I checked and double checked to be sure everything i unplugged was plugged back in, im sure its not anything like that. I am going to send Wester's an Email and try and give them a call in the morning. If anyone has any ideas let me know. Somehow I knew it would be as easy as it seemed to be going.

Butch 02 Denali · February 20, 2006

Now the bad news.....the truck will not start. It ran fine after i put the new plugs and injectors in so I know its not that. It must be the PCM i guess. Wester's sent me an upgraded PCM to account for my larger injectors and boost and now it wont start. It does fire up for a split second and shuts right down, then it will just crank over and spit a little. If i let it set for a minute and try again, it will try to fire up and just shut right down again. I wonder if it will run at all with the other PCM I took out? That way i could be sure thats what it is. I checked and double checked to be sure everything i unplugged was plugged back in, im sure its not anything like that. I am going to send Wester's an Email and try and give them a call in the morning. If anyone has any ideas let me know. Somehow I knew it would be as easy as it seemed to be going.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sounds like you need to do the security relearn procedure linda!

PROCEDURE:

1.Insert key, attempt to start the vehicle and leave the key in the ON position.

In some vehicles, the Battery and Security light will blink for several seconds, and then shut off. Then the Security light will then remain ON. Leave the ignition ON until the Security light goes OFF. This will take more than 5 mins.

2.When the Security light goes OFF, turn the ignition to the OFF position.

Leave ignition OFF for 20 Seconds.

3.Attempt to start the vehicle again and leave the key in the ON position.

In some vehicles, the Battery and Security light will blink for several seconds, and then shut off. Then the Security light will then remain ON. Leave the ignition ON until the Security light goes OFF. This will take more than 5 mins.

4.Turn the ignition to the OFF position for 20 Seconds.

5.Attempt to start the vehicle again and leave the key in the ON position.

In some vehicles, the Battery and Security light will blink for several seconds, and then shut off. Then the Security light will then remain ON. Leave the ignition ON until the Security light goes OFF. This will take more than 5 mins.

6.Once this entire procedure has been completed (three times) your vehicle will start on the fourth attempt.

ABQFirefighter · February 20, 2006

I had to do the same as Butch02 just described.

linda · February 20, 2006

that sounds better than shipping...... Thanks guys, i will give this a shot tomorrow after work. Its been a long weekend of sitting under the hood.

linda · February 20, 2006

another question while im thinking about it. There was a step in the instructions (that i followed) that seemed odd to me. At the intake (where the stock throttle body used to be) there is a new cast intake where the compressor is feeding into the intake. This is where the added injectors would normally be but i opted to delete these. There is a tapped fitting there that calls for a "breather tube". This "breather tube" connects to one of the 4" intake tubes just behind the air filter. Why would there be a tube that runs from the "boost" side of the system to the intake side? Wouldnt this cause the boost to leak or normalize? It just seemed weird to me, like it would be forcing some of the boost into the intake (non-boost) side.

Butch 02 Denali · February 20, 2006

A pressue dump line maybe? To relieve the boost pressure when you take your foot off the gas pedal quickly. Would be like a turbo dump valve. Is there any switch in it or is it just an open hose?

The Whipple I put on one of my other trucks didn't have that.

linda · February 20, 2006

Its just an open straight hose. No valve. Thats what seemed odd. Seems like it would equalize through this tube and make it harder to build boost. But it was right there in the instructions with pictures on how to hook it up. That was really the only "hose" i had to hook up.

The more I think about it, the more i realize how much more simple this kit is without all the electronics stuff. I mean there was no wiring at all except to extend the alt. harness, and the only vacuum intercept was for my boost gauge. Everything else was just a bolt on.

The primary serpentine belt was pretty dificult to get on, even with the tensioner as far back as it would go, but i guess it needs to be a little tight so there will be no belt slippage. The secondary serentine was just for the alternator. This kit came with a replacement water-pump pully also. It replaced the single groove with a double groove, the extra groove was for the alternator by itself. Were the older kits (8.1L) like this, or were they just one belt? Noticed for the first time that there is another belt (looks like a 2 or 3 groove) all the way at the bottom that runs just the A/C compressor. Man these 8.1L motors are freakin huge, never realized just how much there is going on until i got the radiator shroud and clutch fan removed.

ABQFirefighter · February 20, 2006

My kit has the same pullies and belts as you are describing. The bypass tube you are referring to also had me baffled at first. Then I started messing around with it. The hose actually has vacuum to it. It doesn't release any boost out of the line, it sucks air in. I believe it is used for getting air in at idle. If the truck is running and you plug it off, the idle changes momentarily, but goes back to normal, this is normal compensation. I ran it both ways and noticed no difference, so I left it the way it came, with it hooked up.

linda · February 20, 2006

okay, turned out to be the security relearn. Went through the procedure and it started right up. It idled smooth and reved fine in park. I took it out for a spin and it had a real faint whine to it but it sounded very cool. I drove it for about a half hour....with some starting and stoping and full throttle runs to boot. I am trying to be as optomistic as possible here but it just didnt seem to have the kind of punch i was expecting. I was looking for a very distinct performance difference and it just didnt feel like it was all there. It was hitting about 5.5lbs of boost according to the gauge and if i were to give it gas at around 30-40mph it felt very strong, but from a dead stop it would not even spin any more than it did without the blower. At around 60 or so, if i punched it, it didnt launch out like i would have expected it to either. Maybe the PCM has to do some more learning, or maybe it needs to be dyno tuned. Right now though....im not extremely impressed, especially for the time and money invested. It seemed to very throttle sensitive but would not hit peak boost unless i floored it, then it would back out of boost very quickly as the throttle was depressed. I was just suprised that it would not really burn out any more than it did before. Maybe the torque management was not removed enough or something? I just hope there is some tuning or something that can be done to improve on it a little. I would appreciate Nate or ABQ to comment on thier first impressions when their blower was installed, am i expecting to much? I was looking for 100-150+ increase in torque and HP and it doesnt feel like i got that. Am i just expecting to much?