Bad supercharger, how much $$

[b4black]

I was looking at a 1998 Regal GS and noticed right away that the supercharger was rattling. How much $ and how much work is involved with changing it? Just looking for ballpark figures. The seller has lowered the price, but i don't want to get in over my head. The cart is otherwise nice and only 70k miles.


Also, the HVAC display isn't working. Is that a big deal?

Thanks!

 

[xtremexnyc]

Chances are it is the Supercharger coupler which is a common problem.

http://www.zzperformance.com/grand_prix/products1.php?id=155

As for the HVAC problem here is a write up for you.

http://www.regalgs.org/climate.htm

Good luck

 

[CTX-SLPR]

Supercharger coupler is a $75 and 3hr job and the hardest part is just getting everything out of the way to get the snout off then getting the oil out with some sort of pump. I personally used a vacuum pump attached to an oil jug with another line used to suck the oil into the jug. A hand soap pump or turkey baster will work great too.
I've been driving for 3 years with the HVAC control out so I honestly don't even know what it looks like lit up, just hit the buttons till it does what you want. I'm a hack at souldering so I've not tried the fix listed but I hear it works for a few years atleast before having to be redone.

 

[GNguy]

I had series 2 3800 SC, I believe it was a 92 or 93 park avenue. My SC went out at 112,000K miles. It cost 1G$ to replace!

 

[Nis]

More than likely it is the supercharger coupler. Like posted earlier they're available from zzperformance. Get the supercharger oil from the dealer or website, it's the same price. Fairly easy as well, I've done two in the past. Just remove the serp belt. Your going to have to remove the alternator to get acces to some of the bolts. Get some kind of suction device or let drain onto some rags below the nose cone. There is also a bolt just underneath the nose cone that is not visable to the eye! When installing make sure everything lines up, make sure that cone and s/c line up, there will be three pegs that align it. You will need some anerobic gasket maker when installing the nose cone back on as well. When the nose cone is installed, fill with the two 4 oz bottles of oil and check the level.

 

[b4black]

Well they knocked $1700 off becuase of the supercharger. I bought it quick. Pretty cool if it turns out to be just the coupler. Thanks for the advice!

 

[flyboy367]

if its rattling it could be the bearings. zzp also has them. i have had so many superchargers off its not much time really. pop the belt, fuel rail, injectors and bolts lift off. dont try messin with the oil till after the sc is off the car its so much easier. if you want bang for buck zooomer makes deals. upgrade to a cai, a more free flowing exhaust, stage 1 ported sc with a 3.4 pulley and the dhp computer and easily shave 1 second off the 1/4 perhaps even more. i had mine all decked out and intercooled. ran 12's on 93 and got 26mpg. suck on that v8's

 

[vicious6]

Good looking GS! :wink:

 

[denn454]

not a bad deal.

forget the blower and just slap a turbo on it. or find a way to rig up a kenny bell blower to it!

but it does look like a nice car, you should like it. as much as i don't like the grandma car aspect of mine its a great car. not being able to pick up chicks with it is directly offset by the cops never giving me a second look.

 

[flyboy367]

if you want to go turbo carsound has and awsome kit. just post on www.clubgp.com in the turbo forum. there are a few cars in the 10's and 9's

 

[CTX-SLPR]

If you go modding, prepare to face the tranny rebuilder. The tranny is the real weaklink in these cars. I should know my 97.5 Regal GS has munch a tranny in under 80k miles stock and a stock rebuild is a $1600 adventure most likely for anything worth keeping. Add a tranny cooler and it will help i keep from munching itself to death earlier.

 

[bison]

One of my dads cars (1998 Park Ave Ultra) Had the rattle. It was the bearings. A fairly easy fix. Nice find. So what did you pay anyway? I am always on the lookout for any 3800 cars that have this noise that are for sale. They can often be had for a really low price.

 

[b4black]

It was $3500. It needs some cleaning and some of the basic stuff, but overall is in good shape. It's mostly for my wife to have something to race at the track. We'll leave it stock.....for now.


Is it easier to pull the whole supercharger off or just the the snout to replace the coupler.

What's the stock pulley size?

 

[denn454]

thats a good deal!

stock pulley is a 3.8 i believe. .8 something i'm sure.

stock is fine but do yourself a favor and get about a foot and a half of black pvc pipe, i think you want 3 1/2 inch from home depot and a cheap cone filter. do what you have to do to get to all fit together, it really makes a big difference over the stock airbox, even with a good filter. i never ran my car without it, but i've seen gtp's going around 16.1 or so, i'm running 15.5's with only that and a 180* tstat, which isn't worth your time.

i've never had to change the blower but the snout has like 6 bolts on the side, the whole blower looks like a pain to get off. i'd just go with the snout, and the fuse box comes out pretty easly. you'll see what i'm talking about.

 

[JasonGS]

Don't forget to drain out the SC oil before removing the snout. A great method is to use an empty liquid soap bottle, stick the tube in the snout, and pump the oil into the bottle. Beware, it's pretty damn stinky.

You may or may not need to remove the alt to get to one of the snout bolts. Also, don't forget there is one bolt going vertically down into the lower intake that needs to come off.

When you are ready to put back together, put a very thin coat of high temp RTV on the connecting surface, there is no gasket.

 

[blueta]

I just changed my coupler yesterday and it only took 1.5 hours. Really easy. You could get a syringe and put a length of vac line on it to drain the oil. You could take off the blower belt and if there is any play if you turn the pulley one way then the other then it's the coupler.

 

[flyboy367]

the best way to do it is to take the supercharger off completly. less mess. i like to take the snout and rotors out. just warm water on a sponge to clean the rotors and toss some grease on the bearings, was off all the old oil, reassemble and back in the car in less time. its basically like having a rebuild everything is pretty and fresh

 

[CTX-SLPR]

If I had to do it again, I probably would pull the whole blower and clean it all out to get the carbon out of it. But how I did it worked well and not a noise out of the blower since.

 

[blueta]

the best way to do it is to take the supercharger off completly. less mess. i like to take the snout and rotors out. just warm water on a sponge to clean the rotors and toss some grease on the bearings, was off all the old oil, reassemble and back in the car in less time. its basically like having a rebuild everything is pretty and fresh

I don't know about it being less of a mess. I got most of the oil out with the syringe and put a rag under the snout before I took it out and had no mess. Taking the blower off would require spilling gas all over the place from the fuel lines. BTW, it only took me about 1.5 hours to do it. While I haven't removed the blower myself on this car I think it would take longer to do it that way but I could be wrong. I mean you gotta only take off the alt. to get the snout off. Maybe I'm just fast Anyway you do it, it won't be difficult. HTH

 

[JasonGS]

I have to agree with leaving it on. It's much easier. You actually don't have to spill fuel, since you can just pop the injectors out of the heads and tie the rail up somewhere (leave it connected to the fuel lines). The mess will come in play with the coolant that spills when you pull the SC. You can avoid most of the SC oil mess by suctioning most of it out before removing the snout, and then laying a rag underneath the snout.