Just wondering if anyone out here has a kind of photo documentation of installing a vortech on their trans am. I spent the weekend working on installing mine and just had a few areas of concern. For example, the power steering pump lines...Damn they are close, and it appeared that the one line that was really in my way seemed to be tack welded to the pump case itself, and not bendable. I am also concerned abour the oil feed line. It seems to be a little too close to the exhaust ( right wher it mounts to the oil pressure sending unit). These are just a few of my concerns, so any photos of these areas (and other areas that may have given you some difficulty) on your set-up would be GREATLY appreciated. I just want to make sure i've got this stuff right. Thanks.

 

I can put some pics up later.

You'll have to bend the PS lines. Same deal with the fuel lines.

I have (I think) a 45 at the connection to the block, and then down from there to the pan rail for the oil pressure line.
Do you have headers, or manifolds?

 

I have manifolds . What i got out of the instructions was take out the sending unit, put into the block the inch long nipple. on the end of the nipple thats not in the block goes the tee fitting, and then the 45° on the end pointing somewhat upwards. Into the 45° goes the sending unit, and out of the only opening left in the tee goes the oil supply line. Is that as clear as mud or what? Does that sound right?

 

When I had my vortech which madmax now has I GOT rid of the extra oil pressure switch that was by the oil filter...I ran a 1/4" npt to - 4 AN adaptor...then had a -4 line made that had a 45 deg swivel off of the fitting on the block...I ran that line down the frame rail next to the wiring pack and then curved towaards the blower...the other end was a swivel 90 fitting that went to the oiler...the oiler used some kind of -4 / NPT adaptor BUT I cant rememvber what it was...

FWIW the Hose I used was TEFLON do it yourself BRAKE hose***NOT standard AN hose**** I dont know if Madmax used that or if he made his own... If you want to retain the switch which is what I did initially I ran a 1/4 NPT x close pipe section into 1 1/4 TEE...then the TEE pointed upward and outward...in the upward hole I screwed in the OIL press switch...in the outward was the same 1/4 npt nipple -4 connector and the same Line as mentioned above....

the PS pump you just have to sliGHTLY bend out of the way... Hard to explain what needs to e done there...Just a case by case situation...


What the indstructions are explaing is they have the 45 screwed into the TEE because the NIPPLE they give or pipe if you will is LONG....the legnth of the TEE and PIPE they give Means that without the 45 deg fitting you HIT the frame rail with the switch...
it makes sense when you lay out the pieces in front of you...

Personally I found it easier to UNPLUG the switch forever...and just run the oil supply to the block... That oil switch is just a failsafe for the fue pump in the even your RELAY dies... IMHO if the relay dies Ill replace it or JUMP the harness to get home...

 

Hey thanks. So i really can just eliminate that oil switch? What did you do with the plug from the wiring harness? Did you just tie it up and out of the way? Also, does this cause any sort of idiot light to come on? Did you have any problems with your positive battery cable? I have to move the battery to the passenger side. The neg. cable was no problem i just bolted it on the bottom front passenger side of the block and it will reach no problem, but my positive cable(not the main, but some smaller lines right at the terminal) is into the wiring harness. In the installation manual it simply says to re-route it to the other side, but i don't see how thats possible without cutting/splicing in a patch of some sort. I'm sorry that i am rambling about this stuff, i just feel like an idiot about it, and i would rather check with someone who knows what they are talking about.

 

Battery cable... I did two things...Initially I cut my possitive cable to the right size and used an autozone crimp on connector at the starter to make it work..I crimped it in a vice then soldered it to make sure the connection was good...

Then what I did for the smaller positive wires IS you need to take all of your LOOM off to see this BUT...The Positive all ends up on the pass side of the car anyway...SOOOO what you do is Take the orange wire and Pull it all back to the pass side....the orange wire has a crimp ring About where the Link is for the distributor***the thing you undo to set the timing....ANYWAY the wires that still need to go to the pass side I pkept in place>>>the oothers that were pointing the wrong way I looped around and taped off Bringing them back the other way down the pass side harness...Thats the easy way to do it... Eventually I went back and rewired it the correct way and lost about 400 ppounds of useless wire..

BUT being **** And having some connections at GM I was able to BUY a 1992 Z28 Power wire..They were long discontinued but my connections hooked me up with one... It WOULD have bolted in perfectly BUT i never got around to installing it .... I still have it sitting in the GM box in my garage...LOL

The Switch >>>>> what I did was I unplugged it...CUT the wires..And Sealed them seperately and taped it back into the harness... The idea was if my fuel pump relay crapped on the road I could PULL the harness out of the loom remove tape and twist together to LIMP home if you will... Eventually I removed the wires completely...

 

I can't thank you enough for the input. If there are any other aspects of the install that you thought would be difficult for a novice such as myself, please give me a heads up before i get to that step. So far I have all of the oil lines ran, the FMU installed (with the exception of the vacuum line on it. Do i need to get a tee for the end that goes to the intake?), the inline fuel pump mounted, all of the factory pulleys in place, the main bracket, and the charger bracket, and charger mounted. I still need to relocate the evap. canister, install the boost retard box, extend the alt. cable, and can't remember what else is left aside from some little stuff such as install a boost gauge. Again, thanks for the experienced advice. Do you have any pic's of the install?

 

I never moved my battery. IMO you dont need to.

Here's a pic of the oil line, you'll need something like this, its basically a 45 bend, and then the line. If you really want to keep the sender in its original spot, you might want to find a tee or y fitting of some sort, so that the oil line comes out like I have. I found this to be about the best spot with what I had to work with.



I dont know that I would eliminate the sender, I'm pretty sure thats the same one that operates the gauge on the dash.

Here's a pic of my air filter. Notice where my battery is :lala:



Here's a couple of the rats nest of PS and fuel stuff. You may have to stare for an hour to sort this out







I dunno if those will help you to see it, but they should. Maybe print them and color code what lines you can see in the pic.

I did have to bend the PS pressure hose. Note where it fits, and how I bent it. I have it between the rail and the PS box cap, bent sorta over the frame rail and out of the way. If you make large radius bends and go slow, you wont kink the tubing. Just dont use anything small or with an abrupt edge to bend the line over, and it wont kink. If it feels like its going too easy, chances are its getting a kink and thats time to stop bending.

As for the wiring, you're on your own. I have an 86 and I converted it to the serpentine, so I had an entirely different wiring problem to deal with.

 

MadMax these are perfect! Exactly what I was looking for. Thank You! You also answered 2 other mounting questions that I had (They are areas highlighted). I could not find anything in the instruction manual about having to relocate it (the one on the bottom right corner of your photo), but it is definately in the way. What is that thing anyway? I couldn't even fin what it was in a service manual that i bought?? And that idler pulley, that is kind of vauge in the instructions as to exactly what holes on the bracket that it is supposed to bolt to.

 

I didnt mount that idler, but it just sticks through a hole in the bracket. Its not adjustable in any way.

The other thing is the cruise control. If you look up next to the brake booster by the relays, thats where I put it. The bracket it mounts in rubs the hood on one of the braces slightly. Something I havent fixed yet, but shouldnt be too hard to do.

 

So if you didn't mount the idler, did you just get a shorter belt? If so, what size belt did you get? Could I just eliminate the cruise control and splice together the vacuum lines?

 

When I said I didnt mount it, someone else had already done it.

I just moved the cruise, along with the wires and hoses over to where it is now. Didnt cut or extend anything.

 

Do any of you guys have any problems with the bracket bending? Mine has been on a while and I don't wrench the belt real tight. Every once in a while it throws the belt or it make it jump off track. Just wondering if it is a cheap vortech bracket or do I need to find somebody to cut out a new one.

 

I've had my supercharger on for a little over a week now (about 100 miles on the odometer), and knock on wood, no problems to speak of. The belt for mine is pretty tight, in fact i thought almost too tight, but i compared the tension on the main serpentine belt to that of the supercharger belt and they feel about the same. But i also noticed that the vortech plate seems to flex a little, but hasn't causedme any problems (yet).