Scott Long
Registered User
I wasn't able to find my old write up, plus my hard drive on this pc crashed recently and I had to format the whole thing and re-install XP Pro so anything I had on here documents/pics/vids/ was all lost. All my SC write ups, pics, and videos that I did from this machine are just a memory now. I'll try to go off the top of my head here so bear with me. It should give you some idea of what you are doing and in what order to do it.
Here ya go. First off, get some mechanix gloves, and a good set of deep well and short well metric sockets, a two foot breaker bar 1/2 drive, and a 15mm 1/2 drive deep and short sockets. Plus a torque wrench for re-assembly, usually 1/2 inch drive, get a 1/2 inch to 3/8 adapter for using the smaller sockets to torque the intake manifold (or it won't seal up right).
Ok first, take an 18mm and loosen the tension off the belts. Then remove the belt tensioners, put them in a box and mark them. Drain the radiator out, remove the upper and lower hoses. Next remove the water pump pulley and spacer, note if the spacer is in front of or behind the pulley, put it back the same way. I set all the bolts throught the holes in the pullies so I don't loose or mix them up. Leave the crankshaft pulley on, I removed it and the balancer to change the crank sensor, late the bolts came back out and sheared off now I have a junk balancer. Leave it alone.
Now that you have the belts and hoses off, you can remove the intake tube and MAF assembly. Also remove the bolts in the air box, get it out of the way.
Then next I'd remove the bolts to the SC top on the supercharger itself and loosen the nuts on the ic for the top tube. DON'T SEPERATE THE TOP AND TUBE. Remove it as an assembly. There is also a bolt going sideways under the tube to secure it to the accessory bracket, its not needed, so remove it but I wouldn't re-install it when your done, just makes it a pain in the *** to pull the top and tube off later. Take the nuts and bolts, put them in a zip lock bag and label it "sc top and tube bolts" and put the bag in a box. Its good to label every bolt. I didn't and it took me a year to put the engine back together.
Now you can remove the alternator easier w/ the top and tube out of the way. Once again, any bolts that are removed, label and bag them. I can't stress that enough. My friend bought an SC and the motor was out of it, the guy gave him two coffee cans full of "engine bolts". Talk about a pain in the *** to have to go through this a second time and try to figure out which thread and length bolt goes where. Do it right the first time and you'll be good.
Next I'd remove the AC compressor. If your A/C worked, you'll need to empty the freon out of it. You can refill it and convert it to R-134a later. There are 4 bolts in the side that hold the compressor to the accessory bracket. Remove them. There should be one or two bolts holding the metal lines to the compressor on the back. Remove them. Label and bag all these in a bag called "AC Bolts". If your A/C works, you can lay the compressor out of the way near the air box location on the fender and don't unbolt the back lines going into it.
Ok not the fun part. You'll need a power steering pulley removal tool (I rented one from Auto Zone) to remove the power steering pulley. When you get the pulley off, then you remove the bolts that bolt through the accessory bracket into the pump. This will loosen the pump and allow you to be able to remove the drivers side accessory bracket. Label and bag those bolts as... you guessed it "power steering bolts".
There is a bracket going from the power steering pump to the water pump, remove it now, and throw it in the trash. Don't even think about putting it back on the car. It serves no purpose except to require you to remove the power steering pulley to loosen the bracket to remove the water pump. If you ever have to change the water pump later, you'll be glad this bracket is gone. It's worthless. Wonderful design by ford engineers.
Next, climb under the car and loosen the bolt going from the lower IC tube into the lower bracket. Its a bitch to get out, so don't worry about putting it back in. This was hard for me, I had to have my girlfriend get her small hands in there to remove it for me. Now that you're down here remove the two nuts for the lower IC tube connection at the IC. Remove the IC itself and drain the oil out of it. Don't worry, its normal to have some engine oil in there. Then thread the nuts back on the studs so you don't lose them.
Now the accessory bracket can be removed by pulling a bunch of 15mm bolts out of it that bolt to the head and engine block. Take a big sturdy zip tie and zip tie the high pressure line of the PS pump to the battery box. It will let the pump hang, and then you don't have to remove the whole PS pump. You should already have the battery out of this car.
Now remove the bolts holding the passenger side bracket to the motor. Theres a few tricky ones, you'll get them eventually. I only used three per bracket when I reinstalled them. Get that bracket and jackshaft pulley out of the way.
Ok, now you can remove the IC tube bolts from the top of the lower tube at the return plenum and remove the tube completely. Now you can see the spark plugs and wires on this side. Remove the wires and plugs, throw them out. You'll be needing new ones.
Might want to take the hood off the car now, I believe T-40 torx bits take the side bolts out of the hood. I pulled my hood off, makes it alot easier. Then remove the torx bits from either side of the wiper cowl. Pull the srews out of the plastic wiper cowl. You'll need to remove the wiper arms from the wiper motor studs. This is *** pain, but it can be done. Once the arms are off and the screws are out. Pull the cowl covers off. Unscrew the washer nozzles and remove the rubber hose that runs through the passenger side cowl piece. Then you can also remove the wiper motor assembly by pulling the whole bracket with the motor and linkage on it. I pulled the whole thing. You now have lots of room to work on the rear side of the engine. You'll need this room when removing the fuel pressure regulator, return plenum, and valve covers. Trust me.
Ok, now you are ready to remove the supercharger and inlet and return plenums. Label all the vacuum lines you remove. (tape off the line and the connection, label 1 and 1, 2 and 2, etc..) There are 3 bolts on the SC itslef, one through the nose drive and one on either side. Remove and bag them. Then there are three holding the return plenum to the intake manifold. Remove them and bag them. Now unplug the TPS, IAC, and ACT sensors. If you have an early model SC, there will be two coolant lines going into the bottom of your throttle body, remove them. Remove the SC/plenums/tb as a unit. You can disassemble them on the work bench if you need to. I'd also go ahead and pull the plugs out of the passenger side now along with wires. Junk them.
You should now be looking at a motor with a water pump and valve covers on, and a fuel rail attached.
Next up, I'd remove the valve covers. Label and bag the bolts.
Then I'd unplug the harness going to the Cam and Crank sensors, lay the wiring over the passenger fender. Also you should have unplugged the DIS and coil pack when removing the accessory brackets.
Get a torx bit and pull the 4 bolts holding on the fuel rail. Then get a deep well 10mm and get behind the regulator and unbolt it from the rear of the drivers head. This is tricky. I didn't put the bolt back in it later, I don't see the point in it.
now that its loose, remove the vac line from the regulator, then carefully pop the fuel rail off the injectors and hang the rail over the passenger fender. I didn't see a need to disconnect the rail itself.
Pull out the injectors and bag them, keep them away from dirt. You'll get new o-rings for the tops of them in the head gasket set.
Now you can remove the bolts holding the intake manifold to the head. You may or may not have taken the water neck and t-stat out of the manifold, some choose to leave it attached. If your t-stat is old, you should replace it while the manifold is off the car, its alot easier than doing it on the car.
Pry up the manifold at the front and rear, remove it.
Now you need to pull your rocker arms and push rods out. Loosen the bolts from the rocker arms. Pull the arms our, bag them w/ the bolts. Bag the pushrods, unless there are bent ones, then you can replace them. I reused them all. Some people want to replace them anyways. Your choice. I left my lifters alone, but if yours are bad, sticking, or want to replace them, you can pull the guides and remove them. Your choice.
Now you can loosen the bolts to the exhaust manifolds. This is tricky. There are brackets on either side of the motor to hook a chain too. I remove them and didn't re-install them. Your choice. Also pay attention to the oil dipstick. How its routed. You should have the engine drained out of oil at this point.
Crawl under the car and loosen the down tubes for the cats from the manifolds and remove the manifolds. Now you can port the manifolds at the bottom w/ a die grinder.
Now you can pull the heads off. Take the breaker bar and use it to break the bolts loose. They are 15mm. Might need a deep well and an ext. on the lower set of head bolts. There are 8 per head, 4 upper, 4 lower. When the bolts come out, throw them away. You might have to pry the heads up. I did. Then peel the head gaskets off and inspect them. You'll be able to tell where they are blown or leaking at.
Get some paper towels and dry up the coolant that will be floating on your pistons. Then pack more paper towels in the cylinders while you get a gasket scraper and scrape the old head gasket material off the block. The smoother you get the deck surface the better.
Now you are half way done!
If you feel confident, get a valve spring compressor and pull the valves out of the head. Get a box and label the valves where they were and match them to the same spot for re-installing them. Clean them up and scrap off and carbon deposits. Now you should have two bare heads in front of you. Degrease and clean them up. Take your new intake manifold gaskets and a permanent marker, put then on the intake side of the head, and trace the openings with the marker. Do the same with the exhaust manifold side. Get a die grinder and a porting stone and open up the ports on the head to the black lines you traced. Then get a polishing bit and go back in and smooth it all out so air will flow smoothly. This is called gasket matching or port matching.
Take the heads to a machine shop. Have them milled and checked. Assuming there good and you get them back, get some valve grinding compound and put it around the valve seats. Take a valve and stick it in the head, grab it on the other side with a cordless drill, then spin it against the head w/ the compound. This will freshen up the seat, this is how i do my own home valve seat grinding. After you are done slide the valve out, clean it up, and do another one. When you are done, clean the heads up nicely and re-install the valves, new stem seals (you'll see where they go), and the valve springs. Then get the new head gaskets and lay them on the deck of the block. Set one head onto the engine and finger tighten the new head bolts. Follow the torque sequence from your manual about tightening the heads. Do the same for the other side.
Now you can re-install the other stuff as you go along, just follow these instructions backwards to see what goes on when.
Now that you have the engine apart clean every part. I even painted up the SC and pullies and brackets since they were off.
When you get to the coolant lines for the throttle body, get some rubber hose, hook it to the metal line on one side and clamp it, run it around the back of the block to the other metal coolant line, hook it up and clamp it. Now you have done a throttle body bypass. Might help, might not, but bigger aftermarket throttle bodies don't have those lines so you need to do something with the little hoses. Some people get a hose connector and hook them to it. I replaced the hole thing.
If you have any questions, send me a private message. I'll be glad to help. Good luck.
Here ya go. First off, get some mechanix gloves, and a good set of deep well and short well metric sockets, a two foot breaker bar 1/2 drive, and a 15mm 1/2 drive deep and short sockets. Plus a torque wrench for re-assembly, usually 1/2 inch drive, get a 1/2 inch to 3/8 adapter for using the smaller sockets to torque the intake manifold (or it won't seal up right).
Ok first, take an 18mm and loosen the tension off the belts. Then remove the belt tensioners, put them in a box and mark them. Drain the radiator out, remove the upper and lower hoses. Next remove the water pump pulley and spacer, note if the spacer is in front of or behind the pulley, put it back the same way. I set all the bolts throught the holes in the pullies so I don't loose or mix them up. Leave the crankshaft pulley on, I removed it and the balancer to change the crank sensor, late the bolts came back out and sheared off now I have a junk balancer. Leave it alone.
Now that you have the belts and hoses off, you can remove the intake tube and MAF assembly. Also remove the bolts in the air box, get it out of the way.
Then next I'd remove the bolts to the SC top on the supercharger itself and loosen the nuts on the ic for the top tube. DON'T SEPERATE THE TOP AND TUBE. Remove it as an assembly. There is also a bolt going sideways under the tube to secure it to the accessory bracket, its not needed, so remove it but I wouldn't re-install it when your done, just makes it a pain in the *** to pull the top and tube off later. Take the nuts and bolts, put them in a zip lock bag and label it "sc top and tube bolts" and put the bag in a box. Its good to label every bolt. I didn't and it took me a year to put the engine back together.
Now you can remove the alternator easier w/ the top and tube out of the way. Once again, any bolts that are removed, label and bag them. I can't stress that enough. My friend bought an SC and the motor was out of it, the guy gave him two coffee cans full of "engine bolts". Talk about a pain in the *** to have to go through this a second time and try to figure out which thread and length bolt goes where. Do it right the first time and you'll be good.
Next I'd remove the AC compressor. If your A/C worked, you'll need to empty the freon out of it. You can refill it and convert it to R-134a later. There are 4 bolts in the side that hold the compressor to the accessory bracket. Remove them. There should be one or two bolts holding the metal lines to the compressor on the back. Remove them. Label and bag all these in a bag called "AC Bolts". If your A/C works, you can lay the compressor out of the way near the air box location on the fender and don't unbolt the back lines going into it.
Ok not the fun part. You'll need a power steering pulley removal tool (I rented one from Auto Zone) to remove the power steering pulley. When you get the pulley off, then you remove the bolts that bolt through the accessory bracket into the pump. This will loosen the pump and allow you to be able to remove the drivers side accessory bracket. Label and bag those bolts as... you guessed it "power steering bolts".
There is a bracket going from the power steering pump to the water pump, remove it now, and throw it in the trash. Don't even think about putting it back on the car. It serves no purpose except to require you to remove the power steering pulley to loosen the bracket to remove the water pump. If you ever have to change the water pump later, you'll be glad this bracket is gone. It's worthless. Wonderful design by ford engineers.
Next, climb under the car and loosen the bolt going from the lower IC tube into the lower bracket. Its a bitch to get out, so don't worry about putting it back in. This was hard for me, I had to have my girlfriend get her small hands in there to remove it for me. Now that you're down here remove the two nuts for the lower IC tube connection at the IC. Remove the IC itself and drain the oil out of it. Don't worry, its normal to have some engine oil in there. Then thread the nuts back on the studs so you don't lose them.
Now the accessory bracket can be removed by pulling a bunch of 15mm bolts out of it that bolt to the head and engine block. Take a big sturdy zip tie and zip tie the high pressure line of the PS pump to the battery box. It will let the pump hang, and then you don't have to remove the whole PS pump. You should already have the battery out of this car.
Now remove the bolts holding the passenger side bracket to the motor. Theres a few tricky ones, you'll get them eventually. I only used three per bracket when I reinstalled them. Get that bracket and jackshaft pulley out of the way.
Ok, now you can remove the IC tube bolts from the top of the lower tube at the return plenum and remove the tube completely. Now you can see the spark plugs and wires on this side. Remove the wires and plugs, throw them out. You'll be needing new ones.
Might want to take the hood off the car now, I believe T-40 torx bits take the side bolts out of the hood. I pulled my hood off, makes it alot easier. Then remove the torx bits from either side of the wiper cowl. Pull the srews out of the plastic wiper cowl. You'll need to remove the wiper arms from the wiper motor studs. This is *** pain, but it can be done. Once the arms are off and the screws are out. Pull the cowl covers off. Unscrew the washer nozzles and remove the rubber hose that runs through the passenger side cowl piece. Then you can also remove the wiper motor assembly by pulling the whole bracket with the motor and linkage on it. I pulled the whole thing. You now have lots of room to work on the rear side of the engine. You'll need this room when removing the fuel pressure regulator, return plenum, and valve covers. Trust me.
Ok, now you are ready to remove the supercharger and inlet and return plenums. Label all the vacuum lines you remove. (tape off the line and the connection, label 1 and 1, 2 and 2, etc..) There are 3 bolts on the SC itslef, one through the nose drive and one on either side. Remove and bag them. Then there are three holding the return plenum to the intake manifold. Remove them and bag them. Now unplug the TPS, IAC, and ACT sensors. If you have an early model SC, there will be two coolant lines going into the bottom of your throttle body, remove them. Remove the SC/plenums/tb as a unit. You can disassemble them on the work bench if you need to. I'd also go ahead and pull the plugs out of the passenger side now along with wires. Junk them.
You should now be looking at a motor with a water pump and valve covers on, and a fuel rail attached.
Next up, I'd remove the valve covers. Label and bag the bolts.
Then I'd unplug the harness going to the Cam and Crank sensors, lay the wiring over the passenger fender. Also you should have unplugged the DIS and coil pack when removing the accessory brackets.
Get a torx bit and pull the 4 bolts holding on the fuel rail. Then get a deep well 10mm and get behind the regulator and unbolt it from the rear of the drivers head. This is tricky. I didn't put the bolt back in it later, I don't see the point in it.
now that its loose, remove the vac line from the regulator, then carefully pop the fuel rail off the injectors and hang the rail over the passenger fender. I didn't see a need to disconnect the rail itself.
Pull out the injectors and bag them, keep them away from dirt. You'll get new o-rings for the tops of them in the head gasket set.
Now you can remove the bolts holding the intake manifold to the head. You may or may not have taken the water neck and t-stat out of the manifold, some choose to leave it attached. If your t-stat is old, you should replace it while the manifold is off the car, its alot easier than doing it on the car.
Pry up the manifold at the front and rear, remove it.
Now you need to pull your rocker arms and push rods out. Loosen the bolts from the rocker arms. Pull the arms our, bag them w/ the bolts. Bag the pushrods, unless there are bent ones, then you can replace them. I reused them all. Some people want to replace them anyways. Your choice. I left my lifters alone, but if yours are bad, sticking, or want to replace them, you can pull the guides and remove them. Your choice.
Now you can loosen the bolts to the exhaust manifolds. This is tricky. There are brackets on either side of the motor to hook a chain too. I remove them and didn't re-install them. Your choice. Also pay attention to the oil dipstick. How its routed. You should have the engine drained out of oil at this point.
Crawl under the car and loosen the down tubes for the cats from the manifolds and remove the manifolds. Now you can port the manifolds at the bottom w/ a die grinder.
Now you can pull the heads off. Take the breaker bar and use it to break the bolts loose. They are 15mm. Might need a deep well and an ext. on the lower set of head bolts. There are 8 per head, 4 upper, 4 lower. When the bolts come out, throw them away. You might have to pry the heads up. I did. Then peel the head gaskets off and inspect them. You'll be able to tell where they are blown or leaking at.
Get some paper towels and dry up the coolant that will be floating on your pistons. Then pack more paper towels in the cylinders while you get a gasket scraper and scrape the old head gasket material off the block. The smoother you get the deck surface the better.
Now you are half way done!
If you feel confident, get a valve spring compressor and pull the valves out of the head. Get a box and label the valves where they were and match them to the same spot for re-installing them. Clean them up and scrap off and carbon deposits. Now you should have two bare heads in front of you. Degrease and clean them up. Take your new intake manifold gaskets and a permanent marker, put then on the intake side of the head, and trace the openings with the marker. Do the same with the exhaust manifold side. Get a die grinder and a porting stone and open up the ports on the head to the black lines you traced. Then get a polishing bit and go back in and smooth it all out so air will flow smoothly. This is called gasket matching or port matching.
Take the heads to a machine shop. Have them milled and checked. Assuming there good and you get them back, get some valve grinding compound and put it around the valve seats. Take a valve and stick it in the head, grab it on the other side with a cordless drill, then spin it against the head w/ the compound. This will freshen up the seat, this is how i do my own home valve seat grinding. After you are done slide the valve out, clean it up, and do another one. When you are done, clean the heads up nicely and re-install the valves, new stem seals (you'll see where they go), and the valve springs. Then get the new head gaskets and lay them on the deck of the block. Set one head onto the engine and finger tighten the new head bolts. Follow the torque sequence from your manual about tightening the heads. Do the same for the other side.
Now you can re-install the other stuff as you go along, just follow these instructions backwards to see what goes on when.
Now that you have the engine apart clean every part. I even painted up the SC and pullies and brackets since they were off.
When you get to the coolant lines for the throttle body, get some rubber hose, hook it to the metal line on one side and clamp it, run it around the back of the block to the other metal coolant line, hook it up and clamp it. Now you have done a throttle body bypass. Might help, might not, but bigger aftermarket throttle bodies don't have those lines so you need to do something with the little hoses. Some people get a hose connector and hook them to it. I replaced the hole thing.
If you have any questions, send me a private message. I'll be glad to help. Good luck.
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