Stupid question, but would it be worth the swap?

Johnny_Squirrel

Registered User
One of my friends goes to MATC in Madison, Wisconson for auto engineering. In the shop they've got a couple SC's they work on for projects and he told me he could probably swap some of my parts for rebuilt ones there. For instance, he said he could take my blower, exchange it for one of the blowers that is constantly being rebuilt, and the rebuild the old one.

My SC only has 114,000 miles on it, stock everything (including rust...WOO!). My blower sounds good and feels tight, but the snout seal is leaking. He said the blowers they have rebuilt are off the VERY first gen SC's (the ones with the bad crank). Would it be worth the swap?

-Chris
 
I've got 288,000km on my stock blower and it's fine. I wouldn't bother. If you really think that the blower front seal is that bad, they can be replaced, if your really good, probably w/o removing the blower from the motor. Or, did you know you can get a re-man nose drive directly from the people that made the production chargers?

http://www.mn12performance.com/magnuson/magnuson.htm
 
would it be worth the swap?

Hardly worth the effort. You can replace the leaking front seal in a few minutes without any problems like resealing IC tubes and poor idle. good luck
 
I would take them up on it. The nose cone will be needing a coupler soon anyway. Take the belt off and check the pulley for freeplay. Chances are you will feel some. Most all blowers have play after 100K. This does not affect boost output, but it will start making noise once the play gets past a certain point. Plus, I'd feel better having the thing all cleaned out seeing that the rotors build up varnish and carbon after that many miles.
 
I for one wouldn't. I'm sure this practise blower comes with no warranty, and if it's anything like our engines we used to rebuild in high school shop class, one could always remove the oil pan and find that there were spare parts, tools, clothes candy bar wrappers and the occasional hash pipe laying in there.

The varnish build up on the rotors mainly depends on how well you look after your oil changes. My 90 XR-7 has always had Motorcraft 5W-30 every 2000mi since 95, I've got 180,000 mi on it and if you looked into my blower and intercooler, you would think the car just rolled off the assembly line.
My parts car, a 91 S/C with 109,000mi looks really dirty inside, and the oil was filthy when I drained it out. It obviously wasn't taken care of, which is why it's a parts car now.
 
Well, I'll talk with my buddy some more about the blower to see what the true condition of it is. I told him originally that I'm not worried about mine since it hardly makes any noise. I can tell it's a little worn, but I know it will last a long time.

If anything, I wouldn't mind having a spare blower to rebuild and have just in case.

Thanks for the input.

-Chris
 
Luckily theres not much going on in there. Just a few rotating beatings, a couple of rotors and thats about it. As long as the S/C oil doesn't run dry and the air supply is kept clean via a decent air filter, these should last a really long time. They are belt driven as you know, which keeps the heat down, unlike the exhaust driven turbos which run much higher temps and RPM's. Turbos are also dependent on the engine oil supply for lubrication and cooling (some have water cooling assist). Turbos cause the engine oil to run hotter, which in turn makes the engine oil life less as well.

As far as replacing the seal goes, remove the nut with an impact gun, then use a two or three jaw puller and pull the pulley and woodruff key off. If you are careful, you should be able to pry the old seal out and using a seal driver, or block of wood, pop a new seal in and top off the S/C oil. Replace the key, pulley and nut (I'm not sure what the correct torque spec is) and put the belt on. Presto!
I bought CR axle seals for my Ranger the other day, they were only 3 bucks a piece, so I don't imagine the S/C snout seal would be much more than that.
 
Seal

The axle seal doesn't have to spin up to 16,000rpm and hold much thinner oil which is why you can get them for that price. The Viton double lipped # CR 7968 seal is a different animal and you have to pay for that quality. So, give them a call and you will be surprised at the price difference. Some guys knock a couple of small holes in the old seal and put in small screws to pull the old seal out. Good luck
 
Axle seal not spinning at 16,000 RPM?!? Well it depends on how fast you drive...Hee hee hee. I have 31 inch tires on my Ranger, so that'd be pretty quick!
 
Is that why the bird laid better rubber on my paved driveway than my XR-7?
I thought the Coug had stickier rubber.
 
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