Even though I've changed over to a Paxton supercharger, one can easily see the beneifts of adding a blower on to your motor. Just keep in mind.... start off in low boost ranges. Makes sure your motor can handle it before you up the mfg's reccomended boost level. On a stock motor or even one with mild mods, stick 8-10lbs boost MAX. Remember, it's your bottom end that will blow out on you first.

So instead of deleting this page, I figured I'd leave it up so other can potentially benefit from the info. Let me stress again that the only reason I switched was because the KB could not flow enough air to fill the 408ci motor I now have.

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an e-mail: durangodude_nj@yahoo.com

UPDATE:

On 8/26/03, Bob did some fine tuning and I picked up about 12hp at the wheels in the 3400-4000rpm range, he also worked out some driveability issues. Total peak at w.o.t I gained 7hp/14lbs torque at the wheels. My numbers are now 352hp/484lbs. torque. I think that's as good as it's going to get right now........ standing still.

However........ Everything is now complete and it feels AWESOME on the road!! Bob informed me that he typicaly sees gains around 20hp at the wheels from the ram air set ups they do. So in reality the truck will be dyno'd at 352hp, but have a useable 372hp.

Here's some new pics. You can read my full dyno story below.

The full story:

Ok folks, this is a bit long but trust me.... it'll be worth reading!! :-D

First, let me make a confession of sorts. All this time I thought the hp numbers from the top end work I had done last year was 272 at the wheels. Well, turns out I was reading the dyno sheet wrong. The actual number was a consistent 253, because at the end of that run it peaked briefly to 272. This was confirmed when Bob Ida made a base run last week without the blower belt hooked up, the number was 250hp/298ft. lbs. torque (@ the wheels). So my apologies to those of you I unintentionally misled. :-)

The day of the first dyno runs at Ida Automotive was VERY hot, so the numbers were slightly under what I can realistically expect come cooler temps in the fall and once the stock PCM adjusts more to what the Perfect Power chip is telling it. That's right, NO MORE UniChip!!! It served me well but it was on to bigger and better things!! :-D

After about 8 dyno runs, my original numbers were:

345hp/470ft. lbs. torque at the wheels, very even over 4200-5200rpm, 8-9 lbs. boost. (Stock 5.9 motor w/AWD: about 175hp +/- at the wheels). This is a gain of 95hp/172 torque at the wheels in comparison to the top end results.

Based on Bob Ida's math and experience, I have to figure in a 30 percent drivetrain loss due to my D being AWD. What that equates to is approx. 490hp at the crank (490 x .70).

After a test drive, we noticed that the mid was lacking a little in throttle response and power so over the weekend Bob is going to do some fine tuning of the new piggy-back chip for that area of the power band.

Additionally, these runs were made with the air cleaner off. I had put on a cheapo small round filter temporarily because I ran out of time to fab something up with an Intense Performance 9" Big Mouth. For those of you who think that a good quality high flow air filter/induction kit is a waste of money....... get this: There was an astounding 32hp difference between the runs with the filter on and off. Sure, my motor is craving air right now but still, that's a huge gap.

I had the pleasure of doing the dyno runs myself and let me tell ya, it's the oddest sensation to look at the gauges, see the truck doing 115mph @ 5500rpm in 3rd gear and not moving an inch!!! :-)

After putting our heads together, Bob and I both realized that there is no way for me to fit a 3.5" tube with the IP filter on this motor based on the new location of the TB. There's plenty of room on the passenger side of the bay, but things are super tight on the driver's side. So, they are going to custom fab an air box for me out of polished aluminum that will mate right up to the driver's side scoop on my AAR hood, using a flat style filter. So unfortunately no more cone filter for me, which kinda stinks as I love the look and sound of it...... not to mention what John Watkin's kit (www.intenseperformance.com) did for the motor performance wise. But for my application, I need the large surface area and high flow in a smaller space to give the motor what it requires........... lots of air!!

I should see an approximate increase of another 10-15hp at the wheels and maybe a little closer to the 500lbs mark on the torque side. (Thank goodness I had my tranny beefed up!!). Plus I'll be going back in the fall to do some more adjustments.

This whole process has been long awaited and expensive to boot. But nothing compares to an expertly tuned motor running the way it should be, and within it's acceptable tolerances. I could have easily run a smaller pulley to get more boost, in the area of maybe 12-14lbs which would have put me at my dream of cracking 400hp. But hey, I don't want to go through the un-needed expense right now or even down the road of rebuilding this motor or having to buy a new one because I was ignorant of what it can realistically handle.