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Super easy when it's on the bench, probably not when it's in the car on top of the engine, as access to the rear of the supercharger is particularly poor Either way, I'm hoping these pics will help someone do it when it is mounted in the car.
1) Use the 3/16" Allen Key to remove the oil Drain Plug on the rear of the supercharger.
2) Use the supplied syringe with the plastic tube to extract as much oil as you can. The three tips I have for this are: Push the tube in at a variety of different angles until you can force as much of it in as possible (and it is curling round to the bottom of the chamber), pull the plunger out of the syringe slowly to avoid sucking air up, though the odd bubble seems inevitable, and use the scale on the side of the syringe to measure how much you're extracting - I extracted approximately 120ml. This way you know roughly how much to put back in.
3) Color comparison of used vs new oil
4) Exract new oil using the syringe + tube
5)... and slowly squeeze it into chamber
it's important to keep the supercharger reasonably level, as any excess oil will drain out the fill hole to prevent overfilling - I also levelled the supercharger to get the last of the old oil out. Here I'm using a roll of shop towel - hey, whatever works.
6) Once any overfill has drained away, tighten up the fill plug with the allen key. Done!
Last edited by davetibbs; 11-24-2017 at 07:44 PM.
Reason: Added link to kit
No idea, it's going to be a while until my engine is reassembled. Think of this as preventative maintenance rather than an upgrade. Not sure what the recommended life of the oil in the supercharger is but I figured after 70k-ish miles a fluid change couldn't hurt.
I mean, if you've bought it, you may as well swap it out. So long as you put the correct amount of oil in and tighten the drain plug properly I can't see any risk or even disadvantage to doing so, especially for people who drive their superchargers "enthusiastically".
ZF used to claim their transmission fluid was "lifetime" too.....
great post. Super simple when the S/C is on a table right!!!??? Still, it looks like a do-able job with the S/C on top of the engine. May be a bit messy that way though.
great post. Super simple when the S/C is on a table right!!!??? Still, it looks like a do-able job with the S/C on top of the engine. May be a bit messy that way though.
I think this has been discussed elsewhere, and Cambo showed some pics showing it was pretty much impossible to get at the drain/fill hole without removing the SC. Remember, that hole is at the rear and towards the bottom of the SC.
great post. Super simple when the S/C is on a table right!!!??? Still, it looks like a do-able job with the S/C on top of the engine. May be a bit messy that way though.
No you can't as the fill is on the back of the SC, and with the super charger silencer system mounted on back of the SC also, you can't even see the fill hole with the SC mounted..
Got the oil but a garage said not worth doing, so interested if it does
I would say if you have something else going on that requires the SC come off then do it. Of note GM uses a version of this SC and it has regular service interval. NOTHING last forever...
I have read somewhere that it is much easier on the 4.2, in fact it's a piece of cake, as the drain/fill hole is on the front of the SC and easy to access. Pretty sure there are one or two U-Tube vids out there on it.
Yes. I came from a S Type R before my XJR. There are great instructions on the S Type forum. The big difference the 4.2L blower has the plugs on the front of the engine where you can get to them.
On my STR I changed the oil at 80K and it was black. Did not notice any improvement but as always fluids need to be changed. I always used the GM oil.
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