Do I need to drain the cooling system in order to remove the supercharger?

pablon2

Registered User
According to the service manual, I have to drain the cooling system before removing the SC and the intake plenum. I also plan on removing the intercooler, but that's just air filled correct? Why would I have to do this? I know there is a coolant tube to the plenum, but I don't see why I'd have to drain the cooling system. I really don't want to. P.S. Are there any possible problems I may encounter when resealing the system in cold temps? (20-35 deg F)

As always, thanks for the help.
 
No you don't. Generally the manual will recommend you remove the radiator when doing that stuff.

You don't have a line running to the plenum. If anything, you have coolant lines running to and from the throttle body, depending upon the year SC you have.
 
no, if your throttle body has the coolant running through it, just stick a bolt or somthing in there to temporarily cap them off while they are open. Its relatively easy to take the sc off. The intake plenum comes right off with it, just becareful, as the fuel lines and injectors are right beneath it. You dont want to drop the sc on that stuff. I resealed my sc and intake plenum with anaerobic gasket maker and its been cold. When some dew got on it, it kinda got watered down and gooey. I'll only find out if this was detrimental after the car is running again next season.
 
I don't plan on removing the radiator either. I'm hoping for the easy way of just removing the IC tubes and then the IC too (Bill E. suggested doing this to make it easier when attaching the 800CFM fan to the IC). Unless I am missing something this should work right?

So when you say "dew"...do you mean Mountain Dew? lol

Thanks for saving me some time guys!

P.S. Sam...I just got my calendar yesterday...nice pic of your car for this month!

Tony8470 said:
no, if your throttle body has the coolant running through it, just stick a bolt or somthing in there to temporarily cap them off while they are open. Its relatively easy to take the sc off. The intake plenum comes right off with it, just becareful, as the fuel lines and injectors are right beneath it. You dont want to drop the sc on that stuff. I resealed my sc and intake plenum with anaerobic gasket maker and its been cold. When some dew got on it, it kinda got watered down and gooey. I'll only find out if this was detrimental after the car is running again next season.
 
if all you are doing is putting a fan on the intercooler then there is no need to take off the supercharger. Take off the top intercooler tube with the supercharger top still attached. reseal with gasket maker of your choice.
Even then, I didn't remove anything to put my fan on, just a little patience.
 
pablon2 said:
P.S. Sam...I just got my calendar yesterday...nice pic of your car for this month!

Thanks. I'm just honored to be a part of the calendar.

If all that you are doing is installing an IC fan, then I would recommend that you do take out the IC. I'd also remove the upper IC tube from the top, but only if you have the proper spanner wrench to do it. Then clean all the mating surfaces and install a set of Wynn Carter's (tbird88) IC gaskets on all 4 joints. I firmly believe in the sealing ability of them over any other seals out there. I've run them on 2 different SC's now and have not had an issue with vacuum leaks in either. But that's just my .02, take it for what it's worth...
 
I may have been misleading with my words. The SC is coming off b/c I am shipping it to Oregon to have MP do its magic on it. The intake plenum is coming off b/c it will no longer work with the "new and improved" SC. The fan to the IC is just something I was going to install while waiting for the SC to be returned to me and since I had to loosen/remove the top IC tube due to the SC removal anyway.

Thanks,
 
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