Is it safe to...

RaineSC90

Registered User
I've got a 1990 SC, that has a pinging noise coming from under the hood, it gets faster during acceleration and can still be hear when idle. A gentleman in my building who happens to be a truck driver and claims he knows a little bit about engines, seems to think the super charger bearing has seized.

Is it safe to remove the belt from the super charger, and run the engine without? the Super charger is on its own belt looped around an idler pulley(?) and a tensioner, separate from the serpentine belt, which also goes around the idler (I'm assuming to drive the SC).
 
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You can run it without however the car with have no power and run very poorly. I know people on here have done but mostly in a last ditch effort to get the car home. If you are doing it to see if the knock goes away I don't see the problem but check the oil in your supercharger first. There is a set screw in the front snout that needs to be removed and the oil should be at the bottom of the threads. If the oil is low you probably are going to have to do a rebuild as the snout seal probably blew. There are several places you can pick up a rebuild kit. Victor at spinning wheels, Bill at supercoupe performance, etc.
 
Pull the jackshaft belt, much easier.

Car will run fine (idle). It will be under powered and anything more than like 15% throttle will not make a lick of difference.

I used to run my 90 SC like that in the winter to keep it from sliding all over the damn road. The bypass can only flow so much air so once you max that out, adding more throttle won't make a bit of difference. It's like breathing through a straw.

Ran fine though, I could even take it down the highway but it took a while to get it up to speed and I wasn't passing anyone. I could maintain 70 mph in the middle lane though.

If the bearing in the blower snout seized you'd burn the belt off and the thing wouldn't turn. If it spins, the bearing isn't seized.
 
I wanted to pull the cable off to see if the pinging noise would go away, but I'm starting to think that the noise is something more serious like piston slap. That belt was still turning the last I looked at it.

Fortunately my ford dealer is just a block down the road from me (downhill so If I have to push it I will.) and they'll be able to tell me for sure ($$$) Also I'm in Canada so I'm not familiar with either of those people you mentioned (Victor, and Bill)
 
You can pull the belt off no problem and drive it wherever you need to get to. If its happened to me once its happened 3 or 4 times. Shredded my blower belt, nuked a couple blowers, you name it. If I'm going to drive it, typically I'll rig something up to hold the bypass valve open at all times. One time I did that with a chunk of shredded belt debris.

Chris
 
Okay so we ruled out the supercharger entirely, turns out the dummies who did my last oil change and engine flush didn't put the filter on properly (cross threaded or something like that) so I lost all my oil, hence the ticking.

My Serpentine Belt Tensioner IS seized. but those are like $40, finding one might be hard though, anyone?

and my engine needs ANOTHER engine flush because it looks like the oil change place put in the old oil instead of new oil it is like semi-solid sludge.

SadFace = Me
 
Tensioner pulley is seized (belt would burn off) or the spring won't let the tensioner move like it should? Any auto parts store should be able to get you a belt tensioner, or I'm sure someone here parting out a car could sell you one for cheap.

That's why I never let anyone touch my SC that I don't trust. I do almost everything myself but if it has to go to a shop I make sure its someone I know has a clue as to what this car is, and how important it is to seal up the intercooler pipes and what not.

As for an oil change, you'd think any dumbass could do it, since it's simple, but it's easy to strip out the drain plug or crossthread the filter if you are an incompetent moron so that's why I will spend the time to put my car on ramps and do it myself.
 
Well the serpentine belt is showing a lot of wear for only being six months old, (replaced it myself and man had I known about the rad hoses I woulda let someone else do it...) I'm not mechanically inclined when it comes to cars. I know a few things but when it comes to my engine, I usually take it to a dealer, and then get a second, or third opinion. Fortunately I have a lot of buddies with connections for getting parts. The dealer has quoted me $500 in parts over the phone, so I'm gonna go in tomorrow and see what all it actually needs and then take it to a friend of mine and see what he says.

It being Christmas and all I'm not able to come up with $500+ for a something unexpected right now, so the car may find itself in the garage for a month or two.

But I do love the car, so it'll be back on the road soon.
 
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