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As some of you know already, the Kenne Bell supercharger is hands down the most radical drivetrain mod for a 3.0L Escape/Tribute.

This was a while back but its "extremeness" hasn't changed one bit!

Anyway, install started at 7 pm 29/3/06.

Here is the 1.5 Liter Beast!

First, some needed parts and stuff.

Removed battery and battery tray to make space.

Dissasembly of upper manifold, TB removed and ICV also.

Upper manifold removed, lots ans lots of gunk inside, Time to clean!

Lots of stuff removed!

Factory plugs out, the ones in the rear bank were also really rusted and were kinda hard to remove.

New IT20 Denso Iridium plugs, only the best for the Xcape!

Old injectors and the new beefy 36lb ones. Also there you see the fuel rail and the lower manifolds.

Closer

Even Closer

The top of the manifold, lots of gunk here too. You can even see the valves! Those are clean at least!

Closer

Even Closer!

Gotta tape up those holes, you dont want a metal anything going down there!

The fuel rail, lower manifold and injectors being put together.

The factory injectors connectors had to be cut and new ones have to be used. Very tedious proces of cutting, and soldering on the new connectors. Took like an hour or more to finish.

All done with the connectors, whew, finnaly!

The fuel rail going in

Fuel rail installed

The throttle position sensor and the ICV cables have be extended to reach their new location, here the wires are done and loomed up nice.

The new gaskets for the intake manifold going in, yes they are needed.

Motor mount coming out to make space to remove the power steering pulley

Half way there

Mount out! Next up is the power steering pulley.

Pulley comes out, I bent the a bit, pulley, too much muscle!

Thats enough for today, its 1 am!!! lets look back at the mess.... Oh yea, no hood for extra visibility!!!

 

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Disaster, I go outside today to find a big puddle of red liquid on the floor. Its the power steering. Seems we bent the high pressure tube when removing the pulley. Anyway, I think that just by replacing the O-Ring that the proplem can be fixed.

To the Ford dealer we go!

 

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Ok, problem resolved by a $0.50 O ring, now the pulley from the kit goes in, followed by the driver's side mount for the supercharger.

Lots of ATF leaked out!

The culprit...

Pump goin back in

Then some bad-a$$ vacuum hose routing followed by the supercharger.

The computer already has the monochip installed and is ready to go.

I hope to have it running tonight, some more pics (and videos of course) to follow! Stay tuned!

 

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Success, the tires screech on demand!!!

Install completed on 30/3/06 at 10 pm.

Its tooootally worth it.

Im having way too much fun sober... im out for a drive!!

I may even install the optional accessories from Kenne Bell, including the Boost-a-spark and Boost-a-pump, should make an extra 50hp together to go over the 300hp mark.

 

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Pics of the S/C installed

I tried fitting a blow off hoping for some PSSSSSSSSSS noise but it doesn't open, strangely there is a lot of vacuum inside that tube at all times.

I had to cut my intake to change the curve because of the new location of the throtle body.

The power steering lines have to be cut to make space for the supercharger.

Here you see the new vacuum hose arrangement and the spacer for the computer mount to make space for the chip installed on the back of the computer.

The supercharger is self oiled. It uses 50W synthetic oil. The little cap there is the fill hole and dipstick. The oil has to be replaced every 12000 miles.

The bypass valve, controls boost.

So the blow off is basically a nice under-hood ornament!

This gauge pod is a dual gauge pod molded with fiberglass into the stock trim panel. It has a boost gauge and a air/fuel ratio. Both are Autometer Phantom series. All credit goes to Escape SVT on the gauge pod.

The S/C gets super hot, you can probably fry an egg on top of it!

 

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Got some new pics up:

The boost-a-Pump and Boost-a-Spark going in under the center console.

The install complete

Another look

Strapped in on the Dyno.

HERE ARE LINKS TO THE VIDEOS!

Click here to watch KB-Xcape-at-the-dyno

Click here to watch THE Boost gauge in action

 

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This is the dyno run sheet.

I have to go again. I did the run wrong and missed on the higher low-end torque numbers.

The peak TQ is 181 sustained on the mid range.

 

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Its rated at 200HP, at the flywheel. All cars have powertrain losses getting the power to the wheels. So only around 145 to 155 HP make it to the wheels in an 01-04 V6 Escape., It dyno'ed little over 200 HP with the SC installed. Meaning that it gained 45 to 55 HP at the wheels that can be roughly translated to around a 75HP gain at the flywheel.

 

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When I did the rebuild, I did put in CLevite 77 bearings, its not needed. More on this in another post.

Unlike a turbo setup, the SC is self oiled, so no modification is needed.

The kit supplies a modest 6 PSI of boost.

 

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It does get hot and relocating the IAT sensor from the MAF to tell the computer whats going on is a must.

My next mod is a air to air intercooler.

Having second thoughts?

 

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Links fixed, host switched from a .net to .com, wierd

 

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I'll post them on the evening...

 

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Sups indeed... Long time no posty but have been lurking!

Just leaving these here:

 

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Keeping busy then, sold the Scape?

To update, while I still own the SC, it has been sitting in my garage for three years now since the Escape is still my daily driver. At 10 years old its still looks and performs great. Everything works, the leather seat is a bit worn but luckily no cracks. It's back to stock springs (the lowering springs were sold to fellow board member). Other suspension bits have been changed over time but I still have an occasional clank in the pass side. Last mayor repair was a inside CV joint that failed catastrophically.

The front bumper, roof and cross bars were repainted since the paint was striping. I was forced to do a full take apart all of the interior since the moonroof drains got clogged and got a nice 2 inches of water inside the car during Irine. Took me two weeks to get all of the sound system rewired and everything nice and clean.

Still like it and enjoy driving it around. I was planning of getting something newer but I plan of keeping until something goes bad that costs too much.

No joke, they went boom:

 

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Why don't you use the SC anymore?

Gas is 85 cents a liter for 87 octane and 93 cents a liter for the required 91+ octane gas.

Will you sell it?

Yea, I'll sell it.