Tips on swapping out M90 SC?

dklitzke

Registered User
Greetings,

I am going to be swapping out the stock M90 for a ported one I bought from SCP, along with the MP Inlet Plenum. What are the biggest headaches involved? My guess would be the EGR tube, but I don't know. Can anyone out there offer some tips on a smooth swap? Also, with the ported blower, inlet plenum and a 75mm MAF/TB and a better air intake, what kind of gains do you suppose I can expect, considering the car is a basically stock 5-speed?

I've been following the forum for a long time, from what I 've read, the inlet plenum is a very good upgrade with no fit problems or modifications required to make it fit. Thanks.

Don
Prospect TN:D
 
The egr tube is the hardest thing, you should be able to do it in a couple hours.

have you opened up your exhaust yet, if not then you are going to be repalcing the headgaskets very soon. you will experience a good increase in power but you should really get it tuned to save your motor
 
I plan to do the exhaust first

You're right about the exhaust, and I plan to do that first, either Magnaflow or Borla pieces with a locally bent stainless 2 1/2 to 3" to 2 1/2 system. After that, I'll do the top side. I do plan on getting a chip for the car when I finish these mods. Incidentally, that probably as far as I'll go with this car, and if it ever gets raced, it'll be once or twice just to find out what it'll do in the 1/4.
 
Egr tube is the pain, but once you get rid of that it's all plain and simple. Theres three vacuum lines you have to pull off, three bolts that hold the blower on, unscrew the clamp for the bypass (you can leave that little bypass vacuum line on), take the two nuts off of the IC for the top tube, and that's that.

Oh, I forgot about that PITA stud that holds the top IC tube to the accessory bracket. All I did to get that out what take the nut off that holds it on then there's a stud for that nut that you can get out with a socket. The end will look like a torx bit, but you can get a socket on it to take that stud out. Just leave that out and don't put it back on.

It takes me approximately 3-5 minutes to take my blower off.:)
 
dklitzke said:
Greetings,

Also, with the ported blower, inlet plenum and a 75mm MAF/TB and a better air intake, what kind of gains do you suppose I can expect, considering the car is a basically stock 5-speed?



Don
Prospect TN:D

Don,

Which of the ported blowers did you buy, and what year car are you installing it on ?

David
 
It's '95 5-speed car . . . . .

Dave,

It's a '95 5-speed. The blower is the one currently advertized by Bill E. at SCP as a brand new ported s-model. When I bought it earlier this year it cost me around $1300 if I remember right. I think, probably due to the new MPIII, that he's dropped the price on this model to $1000. Bad thing: both he and MP have obsoleted the hi-flow inlet plenum for these due to the intro of the MPIII. I really think that stinks. So, if you have just bought the S model like I did, or if you can't afford to replace the SC, but want the benefits of the inlet plenum, you're out of luck, unless you can find one. Fortunately, I found one on eBay, and ordered it. I don't think the whole population of SC'ers is going to upgrade to the MPIII, and I think for guys like SCP and MP that it would be smart money to have several of the hi-flow inlet plenums for the current style blowers on hand, because not everyone will go with the MPIII, but I'd imagine there are a number of guys like me out there who will do what I did and buy the ported S-model. I mean, after all, they're still selling those, right? Why not continue to offfer the inlet plenum that corresponds with it?

:confused:
 
Yes I agree about the plenum. I think the only reason they were discontinued is MP revised the existing casting pattern to save money on the production of the MPIII plenum. I think they would have been wise to buy one last batch of plenums before doing that, but if they wern't selling a blower to use it on that makes buying all those castings a little tough to justify.

The "S" port is a nice blower and with the MP plenum will provide enough air flow for mid 12 second or better power. To get the most out of your new blower I would suggest adding the MP 3/4" raised top.

Even with the stock top your going to have a nice increase in power. Not sure exacty how much but I would expect something close to 40 HP. You will need to get it tuned with all those changes.

David
 
By Tuned, what exactly . . . . . . ?

Dave,

Do you mean dyno-tuned, or to put in a chip? I plan on doing a chip. I wish Brian Herron was still around. He did the chip in my '95 automatic SC, and man, it made a great difference! After I installed headers, full exhaust, 180 degree t-stat (Need to do that in the 5-speed), 5% pulley, I ordered the chip from Apten. It really made the car run better. So yes, that will be the next thing I'll concentrate on. I learned that we now have a brand new Dyno-Jet facility in Huntsville, AL, which is where I work. Apparently they are turning out some pretty good work. Some guy's vanilla looking silver Honda 4-dour sedan was sitting in the bay. The guy says, wait'll yuh see this! He pops the hood and there sat a twin turbo, beautfiful installation job. Sneaky. I was driving my blue '95 SC with the auto, pretty clean car, and I showed it to him. I told him about the club and how some of the guys had really built some nice SCs. The guy was impressed. Anyway, After I do the exhaust and the bolt-on mods, I intend to do a chip or a tune. Recommendations?

:D
 
When Brian was in St. Louis he did alot of tuning on my SC. Back then he was using diablo chips and was the owner of Apten.

When he went to work for SCT he sold Apten to some people in another state. I couldn't find anyone to even re-burn the diablo chip so I changed over to SCT like everybody else.

Dyno tuning is always perfered but I'm sure Dave Dalke (XR7 Dave) could get you fairly close via the mail and your dyno sheets.

David
 
David Neibert said:
When Brian was in St. Louis he did alot of tuning on my SC. Back then he was using diablo chips and was the owner of Apten.

When he went to work for SCT he sold Apten to some people in another state. I couldn't find anyone to even re-burn the diablo chip so I changed over to SCT like everybody else.

Dyno tuning is always perfered but I'm sure Dave Dalke (XR7 Dave) could get you fairly close via the mail and your dyno sheets.

David

Dave, I think I remember Mustang Muscle saying they could reburn our Diablo chips when we were there last time. No that it matters much, as I doubt they are familiar with the SC parameters.
 
Don,
I did a swap this weekend on a '94 5-speed. Actually we took off the blower, ported it and put it back on.

The hardest issue I had was not the EGR, although it is tough, but was the vacuum line immediately to the driver's side of the EGR. That was a bit of a pain on both disassembly and re-assembly. The secret to the EGR is to remove the passenger's side cowl, both upper and lower and you can get in there a lot easier. And make sure that your throttle cable mounting bracket is taken off first and put on after you get the EGR on. The driver's side EGR bolt is tough just because it's in a spot you can't see, and then there's not a lot of room in there for loosening/tightening.

Hope this helps. Good luck on the swap.
 
So, Sam, is there a noticable seat o' the pants . . . .

Sam,

Have you had a chance to try it out after the swap, and could you tell a noticable difference in power? Oh and BTW, thanks for the tips. I'll be sure and take the cowl off before I tackle the blower removal.

:D
 
dklitzke said:
Sam,

Have you had a chance to try it out after the swap, and could you tell a noticable difference in power? Oh and BTW, thanks for the tips. I'll be sure and take the cowl off before I tackle the blower removal.

:D

I've done 3 of them now...Mine was the first, then Andy Poinsette (adpsmp) was next and this time I did Blake's (Don't know his screen name or last name right now...) I'll make sure to have Blake post on here and give his opinion of the before/after. I'll also have Andy put his input here as well. Blake does not have a tune yet, so I've encouraged him to take off his sc belt altogether...he hasn't but has kept it under control. Andy and mine are both tuned...mine 16 psi, 250+ rwhp/340 rwtq, Andy's was around 230 rwhp (but 20+ psi) and if I remember correctly around 310 rwtq. Andy's at the time was through a stock IC, which he has since replaced with a custom 2x IC greatly reducing his ACT temps and allowing for more power...a retune is in order for him. I think with the new IC he should surpass me in hp and torque with the tune. Basically, yes, we have noticed a difference. Both Andy and I are running 5% pullies and Blake is running a bit more than that.
 
I definately noticed an increase in power...but besides the blower and inlet plenum porting, I added a 70mm TB, 3" intake, 9" K&N and a 5% pulley on the SC at the same time. You can definately feel the difference though.:D
Mine was 222rwhp and 333rwtq. It was actually tuned down because I had detonation, 155degree inlet temps at 5000rpm because of a inadequate intercooler (since replaced) and 20 Lbs of boost. I think my original dyno pull prior to the chip was around 230-235rwhp but with all the issues it had, the tune was set up to be headgasket safe until I could get everything fixed.
 
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I would be Blake Sweeney..

We did a 75mm throttle body and Ken's latest double intercooler at the same time as the port job.

There was a pretty good increase in power (from the butt dyno) and feels a lot better.

I haven't gone WOT yet and only pushed it to 10 psi once, and for only a few seconds, for obvious reasons including way too much overdrive (we discovered i have a 21% OD right now...) and no tune.

We found a boost leak when we pulled the upper IC tube though, so that may be holding back some power, but this will be fixed soon with a new set of IC gaskets!

I should have it all good to go within a month, but I'm not sure it will be any help by then. ;)
 
There you go, they both chimed in now. I'm not trying to drum up business for myself here...both Andy and Blake will tell you how long it takes and how dirty it is. Not my bag of tea...I prefer my every day job... I just try to help out a couple local SCers get some more performance without a big cost. Bottom line is that if you have the chance to get it ported, you will like the results. Check around, there's lot of people who can provide porting services...and are probably better at it than I am.
 
Oh, and I forgot to mention . . . . .

:D

The blower I bought from Bill at SCP does have the 5% pulley on it. When I bought, I had a choice of which pulley, and I went with the 5%.

Don
 
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