The Powerdyne build thread / ERT kit

[acbx]

Hello there, I recently purchased an ERT kit from a forum member with a supposedly rebuilt Powerdyne bd-11a unit (which lasted 20 minutes into my first drive ) and here I will explain a few things that I sort of had to wing, figure out, etc and I will explain in case anyone else on here purchases this same kit made by ERT and is completely clueless on how to install it and hopefully this will help a few people out there who happen to acquire this same kit. I will also give out my experience.

My kit is for obd1, and so if yours is for obd2 your installation process may be different.

First off, you need an 80 amp alternator, unfortunately for me my previous owner upgraded to a 120amp so I bought the smaller unit. I have been told you can shave the housing down enough to where the blower will not hit the alternator and there are examples on this forum but I chose the easy route and bought the 80 amp alternator.

There are 3 main brackets, the main bracket (the largest one which the S/C bolts onto), the short L bracket which bolts onto the oil filter housing bolt at the very top and this bracket supports the main bracket from the top, and the long L bracket which bolts onto the right side of the supercharger itself (if you were facing the front of the car), the other end bolts onto where the power steering reservoir bolts to.

You need washers which were hopefully supplied to you with the kit for both the top and bottom alternator bolts so that the main bracket can sit far out enough to be flush or close to flush with the supplied crank pulley for the supercharger, I had to get some washers for mine... your local hd or lowes will have some. The long alternator bolt that was supplied to you is going to be your new bottom bolt for the alternator.

The charge piping that is provided in this kit is the smallest diameter piping, same size as stock intake piping. This bolts onto the hole on top of the impeller housing where boost escapes, the other end of this bolts onto the throttle body. This piping is also where I plumbed my ICV and bypass valve.

The inlet piping is the bigger diameter piping in the kit, about 3.5". This is where I routed my breather hose from my valve cover, and also the other end of my bypass valve. At the very front of the inlet is where you have to put your maf on. For my inlet piping to work I had to delete my cruise control and bend away the brackets, which is unfortunate but I rarely use it anyway, besides boost is more important.

For the MAF since it has to be a lot far forward than OEM (mines right behind the headlight now) I chose the easy route to extend the wiring and just spliced it and extended it with some wires, does not matter how you do it as long as you make sure you do it correctly and seal it up properly after you are done.

For the bypass valve to work I plumbed it to the brake booster hose that leads from the intake manifold to the brake booster, I unplugged the stock hose, used a T and plumbed my bypass valve onto that, this is also where I plumbed my boost guage. You will have to use an assortment of brass fittings so you will be visiting your local lowes more than just a dozen times. I recommend just buying a bunch of fittings that you think may work and return everything else that you do not need.

install supplied crank pulley, bigger injectors, install supplied chip, finish wiring up boost guage, done. That was pretty much it, took me all of three days to figure that out. Hopefully this will help some people out.




Now onto my experience and onto the first drive with it installed. For the first five minutes the car ran rough, like it was on limp mode but I had no intake / vacuum leaks. I assumed it was the dme relearning everything or whatever, so I made a quick drive to the auto parts store just easing it in.. and on the way back home it cleared up.... it ran beautifully and it was pulling so much harder than before... building the right amount of boost at 6psi, the car just pulled so much better. To you gurus here in FI with 400+whp and big turbos what I might be pushing out with this bd-11a and my m50 is nothing but to me, since it was my daily driver for years this was an amazing improvement. I was so stoked, it made all the money I spent on the kit well worth it, until...

the drive home lasted about twenty minutes before I lost all boost. My first drive and the internal belt broke. Confirmed it was the internal belt since I was able to turn the impeller while the drive belt was still on. Bought a new belt from supercharger rebuilds and opened up the s/c today using this very helpful tutorial

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...harger-Rebuild

But my simple belt change was not so easy, I ran into a couple of issues, my supposed "only 4k mile rebuilt with ceramic bearings by 928motorsports powerdyne bd-11a" had bad bearings on the impeller side, causing it to have play and when the belt is on which causes the impeller to just slightly hit the housing causing a tingy metallic-y rubbing noise when its spinning, not only that I noticed that my s/c pulley wobbles slightly (I am hoping its just bad bearings and not a bent shaft) but overall, not exactly pleased..

And that is where I am at now. So for now I have no boost. So today I went ahead and also ordered a full standard bearing rebuild kit by http://www.superchargerrebuild.com/powerdyne/ and I will update my progress here when possible.

One question to you experts, I've searched but could not find much on it for obd1 setup. When I opened up my S/C there was a lot of oil residue inside which I am assuming is because of the way the kit is set up (vc breather hose routes on to the inlet piping) and mind you I only drove my car for twenty minutes so I can assure you that most if not all of it was not mine. Is there anyway I could use just a breather filter and vent the breather hose to atmosphere and cap the hole on the inlet?

Special thanks to the many threads all over the internet for helping me slowly but surely figure out how to install this thing, and special thanks to the FI subforum for making me jelly of your awesome turbo builds.

[being3]

Man this brings back memories. I had one of the first kits from ERT / Alfred DuPont on my 95 M3 Lightweight I raced back in 95-99

[pbonsalb]

Yes, vent to atmosphere to avoid oiling your blower and intake and combustion chambers. Or try a paper filter like Dinan used.

[acbx]

Man this brings back memories. I had one of the first kits from ERT / Alfred DuPont on my 95 M3 Lightweight I raced back in 95-99

Just out of curiosity what were your experiences back then with the kit?

And pbonsalb I will do that and report back with my results, thanks.

[geargrinder]

Nice notes and wrote up. Not super common kit so not sure many out there will come along but having done a couple aftermarket blowers myself these kits always have more tricks to them than the marketing implies and less documentation than any self-respecting kit builder should provide. But usually its "if you just know X Y Z ahead of time its pretty easy which sounds like what you got here. This should be handy for somebody else trying to figure out a pile of used parts.

Sorry about the worn out blower. Used turbos and blowers are always a crapshoot. I've bought turbos before with "absolutely no play great shape" that either turned out to hard grind the compressor wheel on cold side housing any time they warmed up, or had the oil seals completely blown out. Youre lucky your kit seemed to have all the parts at least... Blower/ turbo used "kits" are so often a crapshoot too in terms of if you get all the goods needed from the dude. I truly lucked out on that w my used V8 blower setup.

[pbonsalb]

If your powerdyne kit does not have a bypass valve, consider adding one. It will reduce shock on the belt and bearings when you shift. If your case is not vented like Dinan, consider venting it and adding a fresh air inlet to it. That will reduce heat in the case that is also hard on the internals.

I started with Powerdyne. Then Vortech S Trim, then T Trim, then GT3582R, now GTX4088R. Next could actually be somewhere in between those two turbo sizes.

[acbx]

Update, finally had time to replace the bearings yesterday. Had to get a blind bearing puller but its alive! Ive been driving it today no issues so far. It is crazy how even a slight in and out play of the bearing can cause it to have slack, it was so slight but enough to cause problems.

I may have to tighten the belt some more I think it may be slipping at the higher rpms since it maxes out at 5 psi. I only hand tightened the adjustment bolt with a socket since I did not want to over tighten it and cause too much tension. It did do 6.5 the first 10 mins I drove it. I need to look around see if I can find a belt tension gauge in one of these auto part stores. Also I have yet to vent the breather hose to atmosphere I'll do that tomorrow. Also bought new silicone couplers since the one that came with my kit are junk to be completely honest.

Nice notes and wrote up. Not super common kit so not sure many out there will come along but having done a couple aftermarket blowers myself these kits always have more tricks to them than the marketing implies and less documentation than any self-respecting kit builder should provide. But usually its "if you just know X Y Z ahead of time its pretty easy which sounds like what you got here. This should be handy for somebody else trying to figure out a pile of used parts.

Sorry about the worn out blower. Used turbos and blowers are always a crapshoot. I've bought turbos before with "absolutely no play great shape" that either turned out to hard grind the compressor wheel on cold side housing any time they warmed up, or had the oil seals completely blown out. Youre lucky your kit seemed to have all the parts at least... Blower/ turbo used "kits" are so often a crapshoot too in terms of if you get all the goods needed from the dude. I truly lucked out on that w my used V8 blower setup.

Thanks man, its nice to hear stories from other people as well it makes me feel better about the purchase I made. I learned my lesson with this one.

If your powerdyne kit does not have a bypass valve, consider adding one. It will reduce shock on the belt and bearings when you shift. If your case is not vented like Dinan, consider venting it and adding a fresh air inlet to it. That will reduce heat in the case that is also hard on the internals.

I started with Powerdyne. Then Vortech S Trim, then T Trim, then GT3582R, now GTX4088R. Next could actually be somewhere in between those two turbo sizes.

It came with one, a bosch unit. I'm not sure if I have the orientation right but its on there, are bypass valve supposed to make an audible noise? Does it matter which orientation it is in?

and honestly, I'm already starting to get to that point and I've just started. All the usable extra power is up at the much higher rpms and its not very often you're up there unless you are nailing it constantly. Plus I just rode in a 450whp supra so that might be why as well. I know these pd units are not any more reliable the smaller I go with pulley size. The only reason why I mainly bought it is because it was supposed to be a bolt on kit that I could do in a few days and that is what I need because unfortunately this is my only car and it is my daily driver.

In the future I would like to do the head gasket and go turbo because honestly I feel like it is the only way to go, but first I need to read up more about everything FI. For now with simplicity and easy boost in mind, the Powerdyne unit is going to stay.'

How do I go about venting it? Do I just started adding holes to the case?

[pbonsalb]

Belts loosen with initial use. Retighten. For venting details find pictures of what Dinan did.

[busterhax]

I have all the proper SKF ceramic bearing part numbers that Powerdyne used. Don't trust any of those rebuilders. Powerdyne never used any metal bearings from the factory. Always ceramic balls with metal races and high temp grease. The small ones run at about $80 a piece and the large at around $10 a piece.

I ran my crankcase through a catch can then into my exhaust with the Jegs exhaust evacuation kit. Best setup for FI but not good for cats or o2 sensors if you're running stock exhaust.

You sure your bearings were bad? Both the input and output shaft are supposed to wobble when the cover is removed. The bearings are loose. When you put the cover on, it centers the bearings and applies tension to the internal cogged belt and tightens everything up.


And what the above guy said ^^^. You will have to retighten the belt a few times. I followed Dinans instructions with a belt tension gauge and it's crazy how much tension is lost as the belt is broken in.

[acbx]

The blind bearing on the impeller shaft had play on it, it would move in and out and the impeller would grind on the housing ever so slightly when the belt was installed, even with the case on. I did not throw them away just incase some of them are good and I ended up buying the basic 40$ bearings to replace them. Where do you get your bearings from?

Also I re tightened belt and had to buy another bolt since one of the adjustment bolts fell out.... lol. Its boosting fine now thought, 6.something psi. Really fun, but now I'm power hungry and want more boost.

Are you talking about these part numbers?

Powerdyne Factory Installed (Factory New)

Manufacturer: SKF
P/N: 6202-2RSTNH/HC5C3WT (Highest quality)

6 = deep groove ball bearing
2 = width / height series
02 = bore size of 15mm
2RS(H) = two contact seals
TNH = Injection molded cage of glass fiber reinforced polyetheretherketone (PEEK), rolling element centered
HC5 = ceramic rolling elements
C3 = greater than normal clearance
WT = special grease fill for temperature range -40C to 160C
WT
Grease fill for low as well as high temperatures (e.g. –40 to +160 °C). WT or a two-figure number following WT identifies the actual grease. An additional letter or letter/ figure combination as mentioned under “HT” identifies filling degrees other than standard.
Examples: WT or WTF1


Replacement Bearing SKF from KAMAN AEROSPACE
(Acceptable Replacement)

Manufacturer: SKF
P/N: 6202-2RSH/C3GJN

6 = deep groove ball bearing
2 = width / height series
02 = bore size of 15mm
2RS(H) = two contact seals
C3 = greater than normal clearance
GJN = grease type
GJN
Grease with a polyurea thickener of consistency 2 to the NLGI Scale for a temperature range –30 to +150 °C (normal fill grade)


928 Motorssports HP Bearing (Non-Special Application)

Korea Bearing Company (KBC)(now owned by FAG)
P/N: 6202Z

6 = deep groove ball bearing
2 = width / height series
02 = bore size of 15mm

Z= single or double shield

The KBC 6202Z cross references to a SKF Explorer bearing 6202-2Z (the Z or 2Z means double metal shields)
Limiting RPM is 22,000 rpm for a quality SKF bearing only.
Limiting Temperature range see diagram 1. At an average engine compartment temperature of 210 degree F
a SKF 6202-2Z bearing has a max. rpm of about 5,000 rpm.

Best of luck, Brad Allore/Aircraft Maintenance Engineer

[pbonsalb]

Don't get greedy and want more boost. The powerdyne might do a little more but not much and the little may come at the cost of reliability. Go vortech. This is what I did.

[busterhax]

The blind bearing on the impeller shaft had play on it, it would move in and out and the impeller would grind on the housing ever so slightly when the belt was installed, even with the case on. I did not throw them away just incase some of them are good and I ended up buying the basic 40$ bearings to replace them. Where do you get your bearings from? Also I re tightened belt and had to buy another bolt since one of the adjustment bolts fell out.... lol. Its boosting fine now thought, 6.something psi. Really fun, but now I'm power hungry and want more boost. Are you talking about these part numbers?

MRO Supply. Iirc those part numbers were superseded so you won't find them easily. I'll have to find my invoice to get the new numbers.

[busterhax]

Update: Small Ceramic Bearings: SKF-Bearing 6202-2RSLTN9/HC5C3WT
$57 each from MRO Supply

The large ones are normal skf bearings which only run about $5-15.

I tried looking far and wide for a better and/or cheaper solution and couldn't find any bearings of this size with the same rating.

[jimmyz66]

Don't get greedy and want more boost. The powerdyne might do a little more but not much and the little may come at the cost of reliability. Go vortech. This is what I did.

Amen to that. I had a Powerdyne rebuild 3x. POS. Now Vortech.

[acbx]

Don't get greedy and want more boost. The powerdyne might do a little more but not much and the little may come at the cost of reliability. Go vortech. This is what I did.

Thanks for the advice pbonsalb, do you think it would be wise to get a new tune even if I only wanted to up the boost by a pound or two? I'm not planning it anytime soon, I was thinking exhaust and wideband first before I go through with upping the boost. Still have stock exhaust. Was also thinking about making a air to air intercooler setup.

If I'm going to upgrade from a powerdyne unit im going turbo

Update: Small Ceramic Bearings: SKF-Bearing 6202-2RSLTN9/HC5C3WT
$57 each from MRO Supply

The large ones are normal skf bearings which only run about $5-15.

I tried looking far and wide for a better and/or cheaper solution and couldn't find any bearings of this size with the same rating.

Thanks busterhax, I will look into it.

Amen to that. I had a Powerdyne rebuild 3x. POS. Now Vortech.

jimmyz66 What was your setup with the powerdyne and how long did it last in each interval? Just out of curiosity, thanks!

Oh and next weekend if I have time I might go this dyno day, so hopefully I'll get it dynoed and see how much it is putting down.

[pbonsalb]

Thanks for the advice pbonsalb, do you think it would be wise to get a new tune even if I only wanted to up the boost by a pound or two? I'm not planning it anytime soon, I was thinking exhaust and wideband first before I go through with upping the boost. Still have stock exhaust. Was also thinking about making a air to air intercooler setup.

If I'm going to upgrade from a powerdyne unit im going turbo

Thanks busterhax, I will look into it.

jimmyz66 What was your setup with the powerdyne and how long did it last in each interval? Just out of curiosity, thanks!

Oh and next weekend if I have time I might go this dyno day, so hopefully I'll get it dynoed and see how much it is putting down.

I would monitor the tune you have. How are your AFR? What size injectors? Don't buy a new tune if going turbo.

Consider the intercooler if you can diy one for not too much money. People have. Air to water has shorter piping and less restriction but is a tight fit. Restriction means you have to run the blower faster to overcome it, and there is not much overhead on the powerdyne.

[busterhax]

I wanted to do all of that with my old powerdyne but realized it's not worth it. Your best solution is to run water injection and call it a day.

[328iJunkie]

We've done 340whp on a 5.5psi powerrdyne on e85... It eats belts long term though.

[acbx]

I would monitor the tune you have. How are your AFR? What size injectors? Don't buy a new tune if going turbo.

Consider the intercooler if you can diy one for not too much money. People have. Air to water has shorter piping and less restriction but is a tight fit. Restriction means you have to run the blower faster to overcome it, and there is not much overhead on the powerdyne.

Tune is a TRM for 24lb injectors, 3.5" maf and exhaust, for an obd1 s50. The seller didn't know what it was.. I just read what was sticker-ed onto the chip. And I hear you on the new tune.
The injectors are 24lbs, supposedly been rebuilt.

Honestly I'll try to keep myself satisfied with what I have and work with it, and maybe go one pulley size down but that is about it. I'll look into doing air to air for it just for reliability sake since it is my daily.

I'm going to order an aem wideband this friday.

I wanted to do all of that with my old powerdyne but realized it's not worth it. Your best solution is to run water injection and call it a day.

I've come to realize that, it is a nice easy bolt on kit too just unfortunate there's not much room for upgrade.

We've done 340whp on a 5.5psi powerrdyne on e85... It eats belts long term though.

Nice! Was this on a s50? I have an m50 and I doubt I'm making that much, as fast or quicker than a e36 m3 that's for sure, but then again I have a vert plus a hardtop so it weights me down. Anymore info on the setup? I would love to run e85 since there are many gas stations here that carries them and the raceway close by ive heard for the most part is on point with their e85.

[328iJunkie]

Was on a s52, details can be seen here:
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=327183
Basically did ~300 on pump, 320 on pump and eBay headers and 340 on straight e85.
E85 is nearly a dollar a gallon here so that's also a plus

[acbx]

So went to the dyno today, dynoed 227whp. I will get the dyno sheet on here in just a sec. This was with 500rpm left to go since I forgot to tell them the redline was increased.

m50, powerdyne bd11-a, 24lb injectors, TRM tune for s50, electric fan conversion, stock exhaust system.

- - - Updated - - -

upRbz6J.jpg No tq figures unfortunately?, they were rushing because we got there close to closing time. Funny thing is it was a shop that dealt mostly with building mustangs so I mentioned the Powerdyne unit and one of the shop owners talked about how they found one in a storage unit long time ago and put it in a Saleen Explorer. Cool experience, was my first time getting a dyno so was pretty anxious. I ordered my wideband yesterday from a bfc member so when I get that I'll be able to monitor my afr and go from there

[pbonsalb]

If you had the run files, you could get the torque assuming the hooked up to your first coil and recorded rpm. The good news is the curve is a straight line and that is the way it should be with a centrifugal. Minorly bad news is that you did not run to redline. A centrifugal makes peak boost only at redline so the power may have been a little higher if you had run it all the way (maybe 20 rwhp). I think the results are very good for a 2.5L M50. That car probably does 160 rwhp SAE Dynojet stock, and you have added about 60 rwhp to that. You are solidly in E36M3 territory, actually a little past that. Stock E36M3 typically dyno around 205-210 rwhp SAE on a Dynojet. Your results are STD, which is about 2.5% higher so your 227 rwhp STD is really about 220 rwhp SAE.

[328iJunkie]

~220 on a M50 isnt bad....

[acbx]

If you had the run files, you could get the torque assuming the hooked up to your first coil and recorded rpm. The good news is the curve is a straight line and that is the way it should be with a centrifugal. Minorly bad news is that you did not run to redline. A centrifugal makes peak boost only at redline so the power may have been a little higher if you had run it all the way (maybe 20 rwhp). I think the results are very good for a 2.5L M50. That car probably does 160 rwhp SAE Dynojet stock, and you have added about 60 rwhp to that. You are solidly in E36M3 territory, actually a little past that. Stock E36M3 typically dyno around 205-210 rwhp SAE on a Dynojet. Your results are STD, which is about 2.5% higher so your 227 rwhp STD is really about 220 rwhp SAE.

No unfortunately they did not. And yeah kinda unfortunate about the redline, but I plan on getting it redynoed with whatever next performance mod I decide to do so we'll see again from there. Didn't know about the STD or SAE though at all, thanks for clearing that up. I'm pretty satisfied that it put that much power down.


Thanks for the replies and info guys. But for the most part I'm just curious what do you think what should I do next? Power wise, I really want more power... I know pushing the powerdynes is not recommended but a smaller pulley size down should not hurt? I don't plan on going more than 9psi. Obviously this is after I get the AFR gauge in, but then there's also the risk of running 9psi with no aftercooler...

I was also thinking s50 cams but I don't really know if I want to get into cams yet. What about doing exhaust? I have no cat back but stock headers and cats, I never really saw much gain from going aftermarket on those but if I have to do an exhaust I will.

[acbx]

No update as of right now, wideband has not come in yet, have driven 700 miles so far on the sc. But tonight at a meet I had a chance to ride in a s50 e36, bottom mount turbo, rk tuned, stock compression @ 9-10 psi, dynoed around like 350whp.

I'm sold..... that was like whole new level for me.