Pontiac Trans Am - Blown Away Part II

Now that East Coast Supercharging has equipped Project LS1 with the Procharger P-1SC-1, an ATI balancer from Thunder Racing, and all of the relocated stock equipment, it was time to wrap things up. The standard 3.5-inch twin high-flow intercoolers were included in the kit as was a Diablo Sport tuner; however, Procharger had just finished developing a 4.5-inch intercooler upgrade that we were dying to get our grubby little hands on. We tested the kit as-is, then installed the new intercoolers and a custom tune from East Coast Supercharging into our Trans Am to see how much more power was to be had.

However, a simple track and dyno test wouldn't be sufficient this go around. The only thing we like at GMHTP more than $10 hookers and huffing Krylon is heavy tech (Editor's Note: the views expressed by Scott Parker do necessarily reflect those of the GM High-Tech Performance staff), and Procharger was happy to accommodate us (with the tech that is). President Dan Jones of ATI Procharger shipped us not only a bunch of testing equipment, but one of his engineers, too. With the help of Product Development Engineer Ryan Bosch and his testing equipment, we could compare the intake air temperature and pressure drop from the 3.5 and 4.5-inch intercoolers.

Before testing, there were still a few loose ends that needed to be tied up. The intercoolers needed to be bolted up with the plumbing connecting it to the blower and the airbox. In order to match the enormous increase in airflow, the stock 26-pound injectors would need to be upgraded to the 38-pound units supplied in the kit along with a new in-line fuel pump. The spark plugs would need to be taken two steps colder, so ECS supplied us with a set of NGK TR6s.Follow along for the remainder of our LS1 Procharger install and testing at the East Coast Supercharging facilities in Cream Ridge, New Jersey. As mentioned in Part I, this will be Project LS1's swan song, and we had every intention of taking one last trip down the 1320 without performing a coup de grace on the stock 10-bolt. So for the final drag test we returned to our home away from home Englishtown Raceway Park for a few hits on the Mickey Thompson drag radials.

...The supplied 3/8-inch bolts are then fed into the holes from the top and secured by a nut and flat washer....	...Those nuts, along with the locking nuts that secure the intercooler to the radiator support, require a 9/16-inch socket.	The intercooler and supercharger plumbing consists of alternating metal and rubber tubing secured by clamps. It is best to work from the intercoolers back since they are stationary. Do not tighten the clamps until everything is test-fit and the rubber hoses are trimmed as necessary...
...ECS technician Marc Scharago recommends zip-tying some of the plumbing to the radiator support to keep it as tight to the engine bay as possible. This is particularly important with the Y-pipe that splits the charged air from the blower to the two intercoolers--the last thing you want is a pothole grabber.	The intake tubing is assembled next, which consists of 3.5-inch flex hose,a metal coupler, a K&N air filter, and an inlet hat that connects to the face of the head unit. Notice the absence of a mass air meter; Procharger uses a blow-through meter--meaning it is placed aft of the blower, which ATI believes more accurately measures the air entering the manifold.	A bypass valve is connected to the intake tube (via a metal clamp), which reroutes excess charged air back to the impeller from the metal J-tube on the driver side, just aft the intercooler.
The inlet hat connects to the Procharger via a clamp with the outlet pointing horizontally towards the driver side.	Once the air inlet is connected to the blower with the air filter tucked neatly into the fender well, Marc can begin routing the plumbing from the intercooler upwards. At that point, he can connect the bypass valve to the J-tube. There is also a vacuum fitting on the bottom of the bypass valve that needs to be connected to the 3/16-inch vacuum hose. This will have a destination topside, but for now it can be fed upwards parallel to the plumbing.	The driver-side tubing is a really tight squeeze, but Marc managed to sneak past some of the vitals going topside.
ECS furnished Project LS1 with a set of NGK TR6 plugs, which Marc and ECS co-owner Doug Ring recommend on all supercharged engines for a colder spark. This will help prevent damage during pre-ignition (or detonation), which forced induction is known to cause.	After the wiring harness is disconnected from the injectors the 10mm bolts on the fuel rails are removed, the fuel line is disconnected using the supplied fitting, and the evap line is removed with pliers so that the fuel rails can come off. The supplied 38 lb/hr injectors replace the stock 26 pounders, the O-rings are greased with WD-40, and the intake is vacuumed so no dirt can potentially rip a gasket. The assembled fuel rails are pressed back into the intake by hand and reconnected.	By simply pressing on the plastic tab the fuel filter is disconnected, and the plastic fitting is then attached to the inline fuel pump line and the other end is attached to the filter. Once the red and black wires are affixed to the terminals they are then run back by the axle.
The new pump then gets screwed into the floorboard facing the tank. We elected to use brackets other than those supplied because of the mounting location. The relay and ground wires are connected to existing screws and bolts.	Doug connects the green wire to the stock fuel pump, so that the two can work in tandem. Meanwhile...	...the yellow wire will have to be run up to the battery, and zip-tied to the brake lines to keep it out of the way along with the extra fuel line on the new pump.