Installing Supercharger

[jwocky]

I read this about the installation of the Dinan supercharger kit:

More is involved in the installation of the Dinan than just "bolting on" the supercharger. The Dinan installation relocates the cruise control and a filter canister from the left front of the engine compartment to the empty battery mount in the right rear. The radiator is removed to install the drive pulley and a portion of the fan shroud is cut away to clear the more forward fan location. New higher capacity fuel injectors are installed with the injection dwell controlled by the chip. An electronic unit is installed to translate the new fuel injection characteristics for the O2 sensors etc. Some fabrication is required to route the air intake for the supercharger downward to receive air from the lower part of the air dam.

I definitely plan on reading up extensively on supercharger installation before actually doing it, but are the above steps/modifications really difficult? $2,000 for factory installation - what a ripoff.
Thanks!

[mgd]

To answer your question, No it's not difficult at all. I just finished up my second supercharger installation on my friends car with him. Plan on having your car out of commission for a couple days since it's your first time. A little advice, go slow and make sure you do everything right. Don't rush anything. The process really isn't that hard but it can be frustrating at times. As long as you take your time to make sure everything is done right, it's cake. They wanted 2k for installation?!?!?! That's a bit much for 6-8 hours of professional labor.

[jwocky]

6-8!? hah, those dinan ripoff artists estimate 20 hours @ $100/hr.

[mgd]

20hrs?!?!?!?!?! hahahahahaha What place is it???? Unless the dinan kit is drastically different from the rms kit, which I don't believe it is, or unless they're piss ass drunk, I can't see how it would take someone 20 hrs to put it in let alone a shop. Are you sure the shop knows it's a supercharger and not a turbo? Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but 20 hrs for any supercharger is very excessive.

[pete]

they use 3 hours to drink a bottle of tequila... 10 to pass out on the toilet and throw up, then 7 to install it.



pretty typical dinan

[jwocky]

Yep, positive it is 20 hours. It's listed on Dinan's price/labor hours sheet for all their products... which means every Dinan/BMW dealer will charge that much.

[jwocky]

A further question I do have though is whether or not the installation of a supercharger will need any sort of "tuning"?

In other words, suppose you install the system properly (meaning all parts in the right place, etc...) and have your software reprogrammed with the Dinan software - are you then done and will you then be able to achieve similar hp/torque #'s to those Dinan advertises? OR will you have to tweak/tune the physical system/software somehow to achieve those #'s?

[///MCubed]

I am pretty sure Dinan does not dyno tune their cars, so they use a standard software package in all their cars. So to answer your question, you can to the install and just get the DME programmed by Dinan, plug it in and you are done (maybe someone with a Dinan system can concurr with this).

[mgd]

Originally posted by pete
they use 3 hours to drink a bottle of tequila... 10 to pass out on the toilet and throw up, then 7 to install it.



pretty typical dinan

hahahaha Sad, but unfortunately, very true...

[mgd]

Originally posted by jwocky
A further question I do have though is whether or not the installation of a supercharger will need any sort of "tuning"?

In other words, suppose you install the system properly (meaning all parts in the right place, etc...) and have your software reprogrammed with the Dinan software - are you then done and will you then be able to achieve similar hp/torque #'s to those Dinan advertises? OR will you have to tweak/tune the physical system/software somehow to achieve those #'s?

Unless you're running high boost, it's not really necessary. You can buy an a/f piggyback system. HKS and Apexi both make one. These allow you to do a little fine tuning yourself to get optimal performance. Most dyno places will do this for you. Although some of them will only do it if you have their preferred system. I know evosport uses the apexi afc. Call around to your local shops and see what they'll do.

[Scho]

Originally posted by pete
they use 3 hours to drink a bottle of tequila... 10 to pass out on the toilet and throw up, then 7 to install it.

pretty typical dinan

HAHA, I always drink beer when I work on my car! Maybe I should get a job at Dinan. I have an Engineering Degree!

[Stylin]

I drank a few beers installing my SC.. after a little while I got a bit confused..

This vaccum hose goes where again??!!

[Alibabajun:.]

all this talk about how hard it is to install a S/C...does anyone know how hard it is to make one? I might have a source for getting the crank pulley for around 200$. I'm really interested in making one, but dont know where to begin or look. is there a page that explains all the FAQ?
TIA

[Mike325is]

Damn... 20 hours is a lot for a supercharger... but I guess that's partly because Dinan, the most expensive aftermarket company, is combining it's labor with the dealer, the most expensive shitheads you'll ever encounter...

Anyway, does anyone know what kind of labor rates are usually associated with a turbo?
What does AA charge in labor to put in one of their turbos??

[thinair]

Well, this is how is works, they do 4 hours labour installing on one day, rest/sleep for 12 hours, then the next 4 hours the next morning finishing it up. Basically the 12 hours of rest/sleep time charge is one nights storage/rent fee.