So it’s been forever since I have posted here but life has been crazy over the past 6 months. I have since left Texas and moved to Dubai, UAE. Things are pretty amazing here and I encourage anyone to come check it out if they ever have the opportunity. I am working a full time job of course but have not forgotten about my passion for cars! I originally shipped the Lightning over and it was only 1 of a handful in all of the UAE! With that said, I got an offer I could not refuse and sold it! I will soon be onto another project which I will be updating you all with shortly!
Of course we all know my love for BMW’s and you have all posted on my POLL for my next project… Needless to say I got a 2003 Hamann ///M5 BMW. What an amazing car. It came with quite the mod list including:
Hamann full length headers
Hamann mid pipe
Hamann catback
Hamann tuning
Hamann Body kit & Badging
Hamann 19″ staggered wheels
Aside from all the Hamann add ons there are several other things like Billstein PPS9 coil overs, HID lighting, Brake cooling ducts, etc. I will soon be installing a set of AFE cold air intakes from Turner Motorsports and a few other goodies I won’t reveal just yet! Be ready for tons of great info and work on this beast of a car! For a some more information now… Check this article which the ///M was featured in from Crank and Piston…
So after 130k miles on my lightning I noticed my Intercooler Pump (IC Pump) was no longer pumping… With the hot Texas summers it was easy to notice a significant loss in power due to the high Air Intake Temperatures (IATs). Some people have located new pumps for approx $100. But why spend $100 when you can spend $15 and an hour of your time and have your pump working like new again?
Well here I will tell you how I did it. There was someone out there who was smart enough to find some carbon brushes that can be retro-fitted to work in our IC Pumps. These brushes are 95% of the time the cause to your IC Pump dieing. Sometimes a cleaning of the pumps internals is all that’s required, but if you’re in there and notice your brushes to be low on carbon then it’s time to change them!
The part number you are looking for is CB-407 (made by Makita) and I bought 2 sets in case I wrecked one. Shipping took 1 week to Texas.
So lets get started!
If your truck is not lowered you don’t even need to jack it up off the ground!
Locate the IC pump, if you look under your front bump and up on the drivers side you will see the pump with 2 lines connected to it (these lines go to the IC Pump reservoir)
Remove the 2 lines (be sure to have a clean catch can for the fluid (chances are you can re-use it)
Remove the electrical connector
There will be 2 bolts holding the IC Pump bracket in place, loosen and remove the pump!
Make sure to drain out any remaining fluid.
Using some needle nose pliers, pry back the retaining clips on the top of the pump
Carefully pry the pump apart to expose the internals (you will now notice lots of carbon deposits) tap gently to clean it out!
You will now see where the brushes are/were and might just have the bare wires to the coils.
Take your new brushes (you will notice they have a “coil spring” on them… You will want to gently cut the end off so you can remove the spring but keep as much of the electrical lead as possible! (you will need to solder this to the coil wires)
Use a piece of 220 grit or similar sand paper and sand your new carbon brushes down CAREFULLY! You want them to slide into the housing and be able to fit snugly but still be able to slide freely! (if you wreck one then its a good thing you bought a second set right!?)
Solder the leads of the brushes onto the coils and check to make sure the brushes are spring loading correctly (moving freely in their housings)
Now is the tricky part! You need to hold the brushes back to be able to get the shaft of the motor between them when you put the motor back together! Some people use a small string and tie them back… But I managed to put the housing back on sideways to start and get one brush over the shaft then I took a very small screw driver and pushes the other brush back while pushing the housing back together! (be creative here, patience is key)
Assemble the pump back together and try putting 12v on the leads to see if your pump works! With a bit of luck you’re in business!
Well with a 2000 mile round trip to Old Town Florida coming up I figured it was time to rebuild my snout! I was getting fed up with hearing the marbly sound.. Reminds me of a bad Vanos unit from a BMW! There are many different applications for the M112 supercharger so this Do It Yourself will apply to some of you out there who need the info.
The DIYs I have read were pretty poor in terms of pictures and were pretty vague in what is needed. When you first read it you think, oh no big deal?! But you need to be prepared!
It’s not a hard job, just a job that requires you be informed before starting!
You will need a press or a puller to get your pulley off and to get the rear bearing assembly off of the shaft. You can make a custom tool as I did (see pics)
Prepare for about 4 hours in case you need to make a trip to the parts store but as long as you follow these instructions you should be ok!
Some key tools, pulley puller (large and small from autozone free tool rental, basic socket sets, screw driver, skinny rubber hose, bar, and rebuilt kit.
Simply view the photo gallery and each image will have the information you need to do as you go along. They are all in order so just follow it until you’re all done! My application was a 2000 Ford SVT Lightning. I had 130k miles on it.
A few things to note if you are not sure you need to rebuild yours. If you hear any noise (mostly at idle) and it goes away with a bit of throttle, chances are your snout bearings are worn and/or bad coupler (the coupler is a little round bushing like piece that wears the holes where it sits and can become noisy). If you put a large screw driver against the supercharger and put your ear to the handle you can listen for sounds. If the noise is in the front, you need to rebuilt your snout. If it is at the rear, your rotors are touching each other and you most likely need the rotor bearings and needle bearings replaced.
Note: The snout bearings/coupler normally need to be replaced well before the rotor/needle bearings will. By rebuilding your snout you will most likely have a reliable supercharger for the rest of the time you own your M112 Eaton supercharger.
So a good friend of mine has been having a strange noise coming from his drive-line in his F-150 SVT Lightning. With his exhaust being so loud it is always hard to try and pinpoint where sounds are coming from. It basically sounded like marbles in a can to a certain degree, and the sound would come and go. He was told it could be a spun bearing and of course when you have a built motor you always assume the worst.
After weeks of trying to convince him to look at it in depth we finally got the truck in the air and used a scope to try and pin-point where the sound was coming from. The other assumption we had was the torque converter as he did buy it used and it had been used for over 140 launches at the dragstrip! We were set to pull the transmission but during our diagnostics we all agreed it sounded like something maybe in the exhaust.
Removal of the cat-back system (Full Bassani with longtubes and Magnaflow high flow cats) allowed us to find this!
LEFT= Drivers side RIGHT= Passengers side
So there you have it, a blown out catalytic converter with most likely rattling internals the cause! A pry bar was used to smash out the other Cat (emissions are not strict in Texas) and the Catback will soon be reinstalled and we are all crossing our fingers for no more noise! We plan to drive to Florida at the end of the month for the Old Town Lightning Show in Kississmee Florida. One of the largest Lightning shows in the Nation!
Those Magnaflow high flow cats are always a great temporary solution but on numerous occasions I have seen them break down and become more hassles then they are worth. So the solution = move to an emission free state!
Of course, how could you not go for a little drive with open headers? Enjoy
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