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Blodi's BBSC Install......

Joined
6 June 2005
Messages
2,297
Location
Farmington Hills, MI
I've been meaning to create this post for a while now. A little back story...
ever since the BBSC came out like 10+ years ago and I was just a lurker on prime, I wanted to put one on my NSX whenever I eventually got one. As time has moved on I realize many other options have come to the market, which is great, but I still really liked the setup of the BBSC and felt like it provided the best bang for the buck.
Finally after owning my car for 5 years and having bought and sold a BBSC kit to onestepx before I could even install it due to the insanity of '08, it was time to go for it again.

Moving ahead to last year.... I purchased a Novi 2000 kit from member OddJob with the AEM included in January who moved on to a turbo kit. From there I started collecting everything I would need to complete the install. Having researched this setup for so long, I knew exactly what I needed.

As you can see it made for one great looking table in my garage....


DSCF2759 by blodi

Here is my engine bay before...last pic NA.....


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From there the install began...The first step was to upgrade the fuel pump to a Walbro 255. Not a fun step, possibly one of the most difficult of the whole install, but got it done.
Here is the fuel tank out....


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And the stock and new fuel pump. It is funny how the walbro is much smaller than the stock unit....


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The Walbro ready to go in.....


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With that out of the way, I installed the rest of the fuel system upgrades...

B&M fuel pressure gauge....

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AEM Fuel Pressure Regulator...

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RC 550cc injectors (I upgraded these from the 440's that I got with the kit, thanks to onestepx for them)....

DSCF3290 by blodi

I test started the car at this point to check for proper fuel pressure and check for leaks. It did run, though not too happily with the stock ECU in place :wink:

Next I moved on to the spark plugs. Iridium 7's....

DSCF3298 by blodi

I also installed a SOS oil pressure sensor upgrade while I was starting to pull out the airbox anyways to make room for the supercharger down the road.


Next up I installed the AEM unit, a bit more on this later ....

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Now it was on to the header installation since I still had my stock units. I went with the Topspeed headers. This was time consuming, but due to some great DIY write ups here, straight forward.
Old headers out...

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Obligatory stock vs. aftermarket header pic....

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While I had the headers out. I also installed the oil pan that came with the BBSC kit luckily enough so I didn't have to modify my original for the oil return line from the supercharger....I had a local shop weld in the SOS baffle for good measure since I had it out....also hit it with a fresh coat of paint on the outside.

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New headers and oil pan in place....

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Next was one of the scariest parts of the install: replacing the crank pulley. The bolt is torqued down extremely hard....here is my setup (while tightening it back down.) Pretty crazy eh? It sound like a shotgun going off when you finally break the bolt loose and you'll swear you've broken it, but you haven't.

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Here is the crank bolt out.

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Here is the new crank pulley in place and while I was in the area, I fitted the T fitting for the oil feed to the supercharger....

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Finally I am to the point of installing the supercharger kit itself...which in the end proved to be the simplest part.

Before I installed the supercharger I had a local shop install new bearings for me on the driveshaft for the supercharger. I took a different route than the normal setup. Instead of using an open bearing and seal on each side. I used a sealed bearing that is rated for high speed and high temp. So a bit of a gamble, but much cheaper for the bearings than the standard setup and much simpler....

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I also painted the shaft housing and coolant tank black. I'm just not into a bunch of bling in my engine bay. I also replaced the original hex bolts with stainless steel ones as I've heard of these rusting into place and being a total pain down the road when its time to change the bearings again, plus, they just look nice.


DSCF3306 by blodi, on Flickr

Next was installing the coolant tank which requires drilling into the firewall.
Then installed an oil catch can for good measure as well. Next it was on to installing the supercharger bracket. Pretty straight forward if you follow the instructions as far as moving things out of the way, you also have to trim one of the main coolant lines....

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Then finally the big moment, the supercharger itself goes in.....

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Hooked up the oil lines and that set was done.
Next I put the drive shaft into place. I installed a new green spyder gear that goes between the shaft and supercharger since these are known to wear out.

DSCF3363 by blodi

Next was installing the AEM Meth/Water Injection kit and my gauges on the interior. This was a lot of time doing wiring as you can see. I used the SOS a pillar setup to mount my two gauges...(boost and air/fuel ratio)

DSCF3367 by blodi


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Meth Injection installed using the SOS mounting plate. I had to heat up and push down the top of the meth tank to get the trunk to close properly.

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Finally, it was just down to hooking up the intake between the supercharger and throttle body. I had a local shop weld on a bung for the meth injection nozzle here. And then I put on the supercharger intake. I opted to go with a few parts I order from Spectre for an intake instead of the one that comes with the kit. I got a heat shield to hopefully keep intake temps down a bit and I also kept my downforce intake scoop in place to direct cool air directly at the air filter....

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A few more pics of the final product....

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Beyond this I went ahead and installed dual AEM wideband sensors for tuning and SOS test pipes. I already have a custom flowmaster exhaust setup in place.

So with everything in place and about 60-80 hrs worth of install time it was time for tuning, so I called a long time friend of mine who goes by Garage99 to do the installing. He mainly does Subaru tuning but did a great job tuning it on the street over the next few weeks little by little. We also had Devin at AEM to chime in whenever we ran into a question....
The car was a blast to drive, really fun when the boost comes on and sounds like a jet engine it behind your head when you are driving around. The pulley that came with the kit which was an unknown to me at the time was pushing 9.8lbs at redline, more than I really was hoping for, but we've tuned it very conservatively.
Finally it was time to go to the Dyno....and the results....334rwhp :frown::mad: and that was up from 307 on the first run with the tuning. I was expecting at least 400.
So I was certainly disappointed. Another thing that was bugging me was that my widebands were a full point off at higher rpms. Finally after seriously weeks of scratching our heads and trying different things (swapping injectors, swapping widebands) I rechecked the vtec connector to the AEM....I had the connector for the rear bank one pin off!!! The newer AEM has a better/more OEM design for this now, but I finally got the connections right. What a difference! Car pulled much harder and more eagerly to redline, idled better, didn't surge when warming up, the widebands were now reading correctly...etc...boy, I felt like an idiot.

So that brings us to now a year later and about 3K on the setup. Its running great still. The stock clutch is finally starting to give up and I'll be installing an upgraded one this spring. I also am planning on doing the SOS VVIS delete and SOS big bore throttle body. I also am thinking about going to 100% meth instead of the 50/50 mix I am running now.
I still haven't gotten back to the dyno since the vtec correction, but am sure I'm hitting an easy 400+ at the wheels. I'll put it this way, a local F430 didn't fare well against it.
I'll update this thread once all of that is done. I am hoping after I had the new parts to have Cody (Lovefab) put a spit shine on the tune for me and we'll see how she does.

Sorry this was long, but I've been putting it off for waaay to long! Overall I am really really please with my setup and can't wait to enjoy it more in the spring. There are some great turbo kits out there, and if I could justify the cost I'd easily have gone with one. But this has been a great bang for the buck.

Here is my current setup:
91 Red/Black 5 spd.
-BBSC Novi 2000-10lbs boost
-Spectre Intake
-Downforce Intake Scoop
-AEM Meth/Water Injection Kit
-Walbro 255 Fuel Pump
-RC Engineering 550cc Injectors
-AEM Adjustable FPR
-B&M Fuel Pressure Gauge
-VVIS disabled
-AEM UEGO Dual Inline Widebands
-TopSpeed Headers
-SOS Test Pipes
-Custom Flowmaster exhaust
-SOS Oil Pan Baffle
-Prospeed Boost/AFR Gauges

Here are a few vids of the process...
The first start with the blower in place....sorry, I sound like an idiot, I was really excited....
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KdsqCha5C08" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Here is is on the dyno, this was before the vtec issue was found by me...
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/B12e_jme1Kg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

And finally...a great video that one of our local enthusiast put together for me of my first track day ever with the car in Sept. at Waterford Hills...
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/meP9ZduLJ_U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I'll keep this thread updated with developments on the kit!
 
Nice.. brought back some not so fond memories! :biggrin:
 
Such a great write up!! I loved it....

I whish I lived closer and check it personaly :)
 
Great writeup and awesome pix. Doing a project like this has its setbacks but overall it is a great boost to confidence and the added power is just sooooooo sweet. I have always been jealous of how great a S/C motor looks vs. a turbo.

When I turbo'd, my stock clutch was going out and I deleted the clutch damper and got a little extra life out of it. Throw up a dyno sheet when you get a chance.
 
Thanks guys for all the response. Like I said, been meaning to post it all up for a while and had a chance last night. I've got a ton more pics and probably forgot some stuff since it was a year ago, but most of it is there. I also did a video of my speedo while the car was still NA for a run up to 80 or so. I need to do the same now that its boosted to show the difference back to back.


When I turbo'd, my stock clutch was going out and I deleted the clutch damper and got a little extra life out of it. Throw up a dyno sheet when you get a chance.

I did the damper delete as well back before the SC install, it does help with slippage, but finally the stock one is waving the white flag. Sometimes it will hold, sometimes not. Going to get an RPS in it this spring from another local member.
I will see if I can scan my old (disappointing) dyno sheet eventually and post it. But I'm more anxious to see what the new, real numbers are with vtec working properly. It will be a couple months before that happens most likely..gotta do the clutch, cv's, vvis delete and big bore tb all before then.
 
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Awesome write-up. Thanks for sharing!
 
Great write up man. Glad to see BBSC running strong.

When you do the VVIS delete and big bore TB make sure to port the manifold if possible. Port match the throttle body side at the least. Let me know if you have any question or if I can help in any way.

Rahim
 
What bearing manufacturer did you use ?
Do you have the part numbers available ?

The BBSC is still the best looking supercharger for what thats worth.:biggrin:

The advent of water/meth and AEM fuel control make the BBSC a viable option again.
 
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I also am planning on doing the SOS VVIS delete and SOS big bore throttle body.

I think the evidence suggests that you should keep the VVIS "layer" and gut it out. The delete kit is just a gasket and shorter bolts so that you can mate the upper plenum with the lower plenum.

Great build!
 
I think the evidence suggests that you should keep the VVIS "layer" and gut it out. The delete kit is just a gasket and shorter bolts so that you can mate the upper plenum with the lower plenum.

Great build!

I've seen mixed opinions on this. Some think that its better to get rid of the VVIS layer on a FI setup because there is then less volume to fill...thus quicker boost build up.
 
So from what I've been able to gather, it looks like the original Basch units weren't well engineered and in particular Mark Johnson (AKA Dali) had a lot (2 blown motors) problems with Basch and the units. I wasn't around for all the drama at that time, and it looks like Basch is no longer around.

blodi, what have you done to protect against the failures of the original design? Just curious, as I think you have done a great build.
 
So from what I've been able to gather, it looks like the original Basch units weren't well engineered and in particular Mark Johnson (AKA Dali) had a lot (2 blown motors) problems with Basch and the units. I wasn't around for all the drama at that time, and it looks like Basch is no longer around.

blodi, what have you done to protect against the failures of the original design? Just curious, as I think you have done a great build.


what was the problem that made them not well designed? You have an attractive package involving a jack shaft and a blower. Is there some other way to install a centrifugal blower on an NSX that you know of? It's a pain to install, and a pain to remove. If that is much different than other FI designs, I'm all ears.
 
what was the problem that made them not well designed? You have an attractive package involving a jack shaft and a blower. Is there some other way to install a centrifugal blower on an NSX that you know of? It's a pain to install, and a pain to remove. If that is much different than other FI designs, I'm all ears.

The boostzilla uses a centrifugal blower with no jackshaft. A different design (regarding blower locating) than the BBSC, but I've only seen it on about 4 cars. Both systems are reasonably priced solutions.
 
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blodi, what have you done to protect against the failures of the original design? Just curious, as I think you have done a great build.

AEM fuel management and a tuner who knows what he is doing. I haven't heard of a single case of anyone blowing their motor with the BBSC who is using an AEM and a good, knowledgeable tuner. The blown motors that happened back in the day were due to not enough tune-ability w/ the Split Second boxes that originally came with the kit. There is way more knowledge about proper tuning these days then there was back when the kit was first introduced and there are many on the road today with great results and many miles on them. That "Botched Boost" site is about 7 years old.
 
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