So the aftercooler install did not go very well at all

Firstly, the Merc Racing kit is not a direct bolt for 09 TSX. When I inquired about the kit Merc was under the impression that CL9 and CU2 had same radiator setup, but to my disappointment they are completely different. I spent an extra $300 for the bolt up kit with brackets and everything. I will now be working with Merc to help support 09+ TSX aftercooler kits that are direct bolt on, and we he is going to reimburse me a portion of the cost for my trouble with the brackets.

Secondly, the aftercooler core/adapter had 6 undersized holes. You are supposed to reuse the same hardware from the original CTE kit but the bolts would not fit into the holes. So we had to ream the holes by hand to make it fit. It was quite the hassle.

So let's move on to some pictures...

Took the blower off and I have a decent amount of oil sitting in the manifold. Blowby is only gunna get worse after this mod haha. Looks like Im about due for an oil change as well.



So these are the brackets that were sent to me. It's not supposed to mount to the frame but I did this to show how far off the are. The brackets for 1 physically dont extend far enough left and right to hook onto the radiator post (about 1in short on either side, and secondly there is another piece directly in front of the radiator that would block it from mounting there even if it was the correct length.





So we were able to fabricate new brackets from the ones that were sent to me. It honestly is a pretty sturdy setup, just took an extra 3 hours to do this. The upper brackets are mounted to that 45 degree black strut running near the horns. There is already a hole with M6 threads here (perfect for mounting my cooler). For the lower brackets there is a single bolt on either side of the radiator that holds it in place. We used the existing bolt and tightened our bracket in between.



Left Upper



Right Upper



Lowers












Here is where I mounted pump, along with reservoir tank. You can also see there is a convenient ground location (behind where resonator would be) for the pump. Fabricated a simple L-bracket and attached to the radiator for the reservoir.

Pump + wiring on driver side.





Reservoir tank location









So that's the whole setup, but I still have two problems I gotta fix.

1. The pump for the aftercooler stays on even when the car is turned off. Im using a relay and the instructions from the Merc but I think the fuse number 15 (Acura link, power seats, power window switch) but I think this may always get power so I gotta figure out a new fuse location to hook up.

2. I turned the car on and Im hearing a VERY audible knock coming from the engine. I can't tell if it's "engine knock" ( maybe from new spark plugs NGK ILKR8E6 1422) maybe not sitting right, maybe not sparking correctly, timing, different air flow with aftercooler?? Could be something I missed with the pulley system (OEM belt still fits) maybe something isnt tightened correctly, or maybe too tight? Maybe the SC blower is torqued down too hard and can't rotate freely enough?

Lots of trouble shooting to do in the days to come Sorry for the long post, but hopefully this helps someone wayyy down the road considering this setup.

 

Fun fun good thing we enjoy this stuff, for the knock take the belt off and start it up that will tell you if the engine is ok, good luck

 

Well I was thinking about doing that, but I was sure (especially with the cooler in between the blower and manifold) if the vacuum from the engine would be enough to pull air into the system without the SC actually spinning. I mean maybe it is since the blower doesn't do much until boost... Just don't wanna cause any other problems. You think this will be alright. It just kills me to here this noise, like I am beating my own child.

 

EDIT- ** but I wasn't sure (especially...

 

Good luck Joe, and thanks for being a true pioneer to the stage 2 CTE setup. Much inspiration, very hard work. Wow.

 

Alright, for the two people who follow my thread haha here is the update...

Took the belt off and turned the car on, sound is NON EXSISTENT! Good news there. I've isolated the problem to the pulley system.

Maybe my OEM belt is too tight causing an excessive amount of force on other pulleys on the system? Im thinking that maybe I should buy a .5" longer belt to test this theory? But also maybe I have already ruined whatever pulley is making the noise??

Does anyone else have any ideas for me? Im open!

 

PHEW GOOD THING!!! It could be the drive belt tensioner is collapsed to the stop and and that is what is making the noise a longer belt should fix that

 

Squealing can be caused by too loose or too tight belts. Are you able to adjust the tension while the car is running?

Also for your blowby, catch can not doing it's job?

 

That would be my guess as well, but I wonder how much longer is adequate? Can I adjust the tensioner the tensioner so it doesn't apply as much force? I feel like I don't even need it. It's pretty difficult to get the belt on with with the Tensioner pulled all the way back.

It's not squealing, it's literally knocking. And I thought about adjusting the tension while the car was running but this didn't seem very safe to me.

I designed an oil catch can, but it hasn't gone into production yet so I currently do not have one.

 

Not adjustable, all you can do is get a longer belt

 

Im gunna pick up something from Autozone after work today, not sure about their inventory but you think 1" longer would be a good starting point?

 

I thought OEM belt was 69.5" so I bought a 70" and it was too large. Maybe by 2 in or so. There was slack with the tensioner maxed out.

Gunna try a 68" tomorrow... damn this is a painfully slow process. No extra vehicle to pick up parts, and my friends are getting annoyed driving me around lol

 

time to buy a new daily!

 

I just paid for my Honeymoon.. I could have bought another supercharger for the price I paid
I was even planning on getting snow tires for winter, but that is out of the question now. I can't afford to drop another $400 let only get a $2k junker for daily driving.

Im like on a "spend for only what you need" budget for a little while (minus whatever parts I need for Supercharger of course) It's not even winter yet and my heating bill for the month was like $50 more than I normally pay!! It's insane!

 

So for reference.. I measured the OEM belt at Autozone and it's exactly 68" for anyone in the future. Maybe the listed 69.5" also fits but for sure my belt is 68"

Anyways I bought the next size up @ 68.3" and there was slack in the line and some wobble, but no horrible sound. So naturally I was like 68" is really the perfect fit.

Put OEM belt back on and it ran for like 10 seconds with no knocking, then back to knocking again.

FINALLLLLYYYYYYY saw this!!! WATCH!!


The belt is jumping the pulley and making that sound!! Soooo relieving to find the root of the problem!

Now to fix it???
The alternator pulley seems to be fine to me, there isn't any type of wobble really and it spins fine. I didn't change anything on the pulley system EXCEPT moving from CTE 3.6" pulley to Merc 2.95" pulley. The way the belt it jumping off on the right hand side makes me think that the Merc Pulley is not sitting far enough out from the "snout", like it is not quite in line with the other pulleys in the system, thus pulling it to the driver side and making the belt going around alternator pulley jump at that location.

Now this really sucks, but maybe the best plan is to buy some washers and place them on the 4 bolts that attach the pulley to the snout so I can offset it towards the passenger side. But after 3 days... Im just glad I know what the problem is now and I can work on a solution!!!

 

Putting washers under the pulley might make it crack look for a giant washer and drill 4 holes in it or cut the center of the other pulley out and use it as a spacer

 

I think I will buy another 68in belt just to make sure a different belt doesn't do the same thing. Then I will compare the 3.6" pulley to the 2.95" pulley to see how the grooves line up. This should tell me if my theory is correct. Then I'll probably add washers, I know this increases stress, but I need to get this thing up and running again. I'll contact Vit as well and get detailed measurements of his pulley and maybe we can compare.....

 

fixed

 

Maybe you need a shorter belt instead of longer since the pulley is smaller?? Maybe coming off track cuz there is too MUCH not too LITTLE slack?? But if the tensioner is doing it's job and isn't maxed out that shouldn't be the issue.. Have you tried putting the 3.6" pulley back on with the aftercooler installed to see if the problem persists?? Just thinking out loud idk... If you switch the pulley back and it doesn't pull the belt out of track that problem points more towards the merc pulley and/or the belt length from what I'm thinking

 

What he said

 

Soo yes..I thought about putting the 3.6" pulley back on to see if the problem persisted, but again I didn't have good idea of what size belt I would need for that setup ( I was referencing civic forums and obviously the 2.95" pulley and OEM belt wasn't working so what logic was there to believe that any other belt size and pulley referenced in that thread was correct).

I took both pulleys off and laid them on a flat surface and measured delta between mating surface of CTE pulley and Merc pulley and only got a .3mm difference. Now this seems like a really small difference but from the video you can see that the belt just BARELY jumps the pulley. I think that with the reamed holes for the aftercooler core and the difference between mating surfaces of the pulley caused a tolerance stack up and was just enough to cause a belt failure.

So with this theory in mind, I used four 1/32" thick washers (which were actually already on the blower pulley bolts but on the flanged side and not the threaded side) and turned the car over...

CAR PURRS LIKE A KITTEN!!!! IDLES PERFECTLY WITH NO KNOCKING. REVVED IT TILL ABOUT 1PSI OF BOOST AND BELT WAS STEADY!

For anyone not familiar with standard/metric units we are talking about dimensions that are fairly small. In fact... the size of two lowercase L's is what was causing my belt to become misaligned ---------> ll <---------

 

That's a terrible unit of measurement. You don't know the resolution, pixel density or size of my display.

I just zoomed the page on my 27" monitor in, now your two ll's are about two inches accross. That's a lot!

 

You're right, sorry for trying to put it into perspective.

We are talking about the thickness of a penny, more or less.

 

Don't leave the washers like that it will fail, I threw a water pump pulley and fan through my hood on a stock car years ago, and that has much less pressure than a supercharger pulley

 

Pardon my ignorance... what's the reference in the pic?

 

I don't plan to leave it this way. I think I am going to get a plate made to offset the pulley. But for now I think this will work fine. The pulley already had washers on it from CTE, they were just on the flanged side instead.

 

This is the car that cracked the water pump pulley fron using washers to space it out it came apart at the end of the straightaway and put a huge hole in my hood and blew out the left front tire and destroyed a $600 radiator

 

Wow, definitely a lesson learned. Thanks for sharing! That looked like quite a car. You used to race?

 

YESSSS finally driving, albeit around my neiborhood and back haha... I don't know how Optimus waited for nearly a year. That was so painful...

Got a lot of looks driving around with the bumper off lol

 

Optimus has a 22b doesn't he? I wouldn't mind not driving the TSX for that haha..

 

Like imported from japan rhd official 22b wtf?! Or he just converted an impreza L or 2.5rs with the motor/trans driveline etc???!!!! Wtf the 22b is still to this day the fastest production wrx... Other than the easy street editions they used to sell back in the day which weren't really factory production just still under warranty... Sorry guys b4 the acuras it was the scoobies.. I was a nasioc whore and loved my scooby, up until two second gear sets and a short block replacement lol

 

22b is just the body style right? That's what I thought.

And honestly yea I'd rather drive a 22b WRX than a TSX lol.

 

22b is definitely my favourite Impreza of all time... I know it's a bit played out now but I'd love to do an RSTi conversion as a project car some day. They're so bad ass.

Are you going to proceed with the tune with Vit without the custom plate? I'd be a bit worried going WOT given UTAH is worrisome.

 

Well I guess we will find out what happens if he updates us with a picture of a hole through his hood lmao.

 

No that body code was the gc8... Which clothed many different lines all over the world (2.5rs, the RB5, the 22b! Etc).. The U.S did not receive a turbo model wrx in the gc8 platform, only starting with the 4door coded the Gd, which is what I used to have (a 2004).. To put it into perspective the 22b sti had a stroked out ej20 motor put up to 2.2 liters, beefier internals, bigger turbo, and 350 horsepower on a lightened chassis and better suspension.. Essentially like comparing an e46 m3 to an e46 m3 CSL!

 

?The Subaru 22B Will Leave BMW M3 Owners Cowering In Their Garages?

The link above shows an old video when motor week actually got a hold of one for a test drive

 

Here a better video (better perspective) sorry lol... THAT NARDI STEERING WHEEL DOE!

 

haha.. clearly sparked something in Jaheri. Going off with the scoobies!

 

Duuuuuuuuude!!! If Optimus drives one of those when he's not driving his turbo LSD cu2 he is my fucking idol.

 

Got the pump figured out, problem was that there was no "switched power" on the under hood fuse box. Ran the line to driver side "power seat" fuse #2 and everything works as it should.

Doing my first WOT pull with VIT (1700 to 4000RPM in 3rd gear).Now the exciting part of the build.