Kenne Bell 2.6L Stage 1 - DIY Install
10-23-2010, 12:26 PM
#1
6th Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Montaner
Posts: 6,193
Kenne Bell 2.6L Stage 1 - DIY Install
The purpose of this thread is to produce some documentation that may assist other end users with the installation of a KB 2.6L intercooled supercharger.
While the KB manual is far better than nothing at all it does at times come up a little short. The images and commentary here will hopefully come in handy for someone doing the job on their own.
I recommend following KB's recommendations and reading the install manual through first. KB lists the tools you will need in the manual. Pay attention and prepare or like me you will end up making multiple trips wasting time to get tools. Also make sure you label connectors as you go through the disassembly process. It can only make things easier for you.
Some of the things I needed but didn't have on hand:
Air saw, 21/64 drill bit, 9mm hex key for coolant crossover bleed valve, bench vice for holding parts that need drill or saw work.
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About 60 steps through the disassembly portion of the instructions in the first set of photos here. Yes it's dirty in there but the crud you're seeing near the injector ports on the manifold is caked on there.
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Forum member Simon1 suggests you check your cylinder head temperature sensor at this point and make sure it is not loose. If you find it to be loose use a small amount of locktite to make sure it doesn't become a problem.
Here's a photo of the oil that dripped down from the stock manifold after it sat on the table overnight. Think I'm getting some blow-by? lol!
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Alternator off in this one.
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When draining the coolant off via the drain plug on the bottom passenger side of the radiator it's a good idea to have a hose on there so you can direct the stuff. Will cut down on the mess and let you re-use the fluid if you desire.
I ended up having to get my friend to do the heater core hoses. I could not get them to click for me. I tried pushing up into the foam and pressed down but it just didn't want to work. These are notoriously difficult to take off but my friend got the hang of it in a few minutes of trying. Smaller hands probably help here.
The "bolt from hell" is easy to remove. Just make sure your battery and battery tray are out of the way. Takes only a few minutes to remove them.
When I removed the heater tube it spilled everywhere and made a huge mess. Be prepared. Couple old t-shirts or towels come in handy when that stuff starts gushing out into the valley.
Here is the thermostat housing ready to be pulled apart. I took the upper hose off even though the instructions don't ask you to do this. It was in the way as was the power steering reservoir which I also temporarily moved out of the way. BTW - good luck getting a torque wrench on those two bolts when you put them back. They go in from underneath and are in a tight spot.
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Here is the new thermostat in place. Also, instructions say it is a 160 degree part. But as you can see that is not the case. It is a 170 degree thermostat.
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Here's a picture of the passenger side radiator hose which was removed. As you can see the stock clamp is trashed. There is a nice crack there. I replaced it.
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PCM is ready to come out. Looms and connectors have been pulled off the bracket and pushed over to the tensioner area to keep them out of the way per the instructions.
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Thermostat done, PCM + bracket out, and fuse box bracket removed.
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OK disassembly complete and moving into assembly. Here is the car after the bumper came off. Took off driver's side wheel and liners. The bumper is easy to get off. Blinker and running light connectors come off and some fasteners come out. Pops off. A bracket also comes off after the bumper is out.
Passenger side headlight removed. The connector on the back was kind of a pain but it slid off eventually. At this point the washer fluid bottle has been removed as well. You can also see where the cut will need to be made for the intake.
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Cutting.
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When you are finished one suggestion I received was to use some duct tape on the edges to help keep the sharp edges from chafing the intake tubing that eventually goes through here. I chose to dremel them down and then paint.
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Took me a while to figure out the way the PCM bracket was supposed to fit in there. The instructions weren't real clear. The picture they gave for this step sucked.
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Drilled the hole for the bracket. A punch set comes in handy. Had to be careful not to nick the wiring right below where the hole goes. Needed a 21/64 bit. Everything was closed after 6 since it was a Sunday so I borrowed one from a friend.
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Had a close call. Used a rotary tool to smooth down the cut for the intake and had it slip. The thing basically slipped on me and skipped up my arm. I have a nice long cut there. It didn't go deep but it went right over a vein. If it had cut deep it could've nicked it.. And yes I'll be more careful now on.
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Drilled out the holes in the PCM. Mounted the PCM in the bracket and mounted the bracket.
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There is not much room in there. The PCM bracket is only about 2mm away from touching the overflow.
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New bracket in place.
Intake in place. There are some speed clips used in this part. The lower one in particular is a pain in the *** if your clip won't stay put. The MAF got scuffed pretty good. We actually had to do some more cutting to get it to fit right.
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A couple things came up at this point. The instructions have you modify the fuse box. Then you're supposed to put the fuse box in place on the new bracket and put it back in.
There is a set of ground wires that need to be relocated down where the lower rear stock pcm bracket (10mm) fastener goes in. This is near an AC line but the big thing is the fuse box is over it and makes it difficult. Disregard instructions, leave fuse box disconnected and bracket out for now. Attach two ground wires shown here.
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Fuse box if not kept disconnected also gets in the way of putting the lower PCM connector in.
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The connector itself is slightly modified. The back plate comes off and some of the loom is pulled away near it. This is because the AC line is in the way. You don't have much clearance. Everything being crammed in there made this a tough step. The wires are bent the opposite way off the back of the connector which isn't helping.
Friend of mine came over and between the two of us were able to get the AC line to bend down far enough to slip the lower connector on. I think it helps to have two hands here but also a relative lack of fear to push harder than I was on it. It may have been a progressive thing as well just taking a certain amount of attempts before it bent far enough to squeeze that thing in there. IMHO this is kind of a poor design. That bracket should've been made to hold the PCM out a few mm further so this wasn't such a struggle. Finished that step and then connected the other 2 ends to the PCM.
Here's a picture which worried me a little bit. The heater tube doesn't want to sit fully forward and flush. You can see a little bit of a gap there. If you put a small amount of oil on the two o-rings before sliding this on and it goes on smoothly then you should be fine. Turns out it doesn't need to sit all the way forward.
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Here is the PCM in place with all three connectors on there. There was also another connector that isn't pictured which sits underneath the fuse box.
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Fuse box back in place on bracket.
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My makeshift "vice" holding the heater tube bracket in place while I made the cuts. I used the rotary to do the cut and then cleaned it up a little bit to remove some of the jagged edges, painted it, and then taped it up with some electrical tape.
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This is the "bolt from hell" that holds the heater tube bracket in place off the rear passenger side of the engine. It's really a piece of cake to get this out if the battery + tray is out of your way. The heater core hoses were much harder than this bolt.
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Here's a shot of the rear passenger side looking over from the driver's side. You can see both heater core hoses are in and routed, bracket in place, and knock sensors and cylinder head temp sensor wires are all routed around the back of the head.
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Shot from the front here. New coolant crossover is in place. The previous owner was kind enough to leave the lower heater core hose connected up to the crossover so all I had to do was route the hose to the core, plug it in, and then hand tighten the two inner bolts for now per the instructions.
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Takes us to step 63. I looked a little bit ahead and it appears the first bit of wiring work is coming up.
OK a little short on pictures for this but here's what I got. First I removed the two studs the alternator sits on and replaced them with different ones. The replacement studs are run through a bracket that you can see in the picture. Nothing is tight at this point - just finger tight. The instructions have you keep things loose for now. Another fastener secures the bracket to the coolant crossover. The alternator is then placed on the studs (sits on them) at which point they have you reconnect the electrical connectors at the rear of it. Additionally, KB has you remove a ribbed idler pulley and replace it with a 76mm smooth pulley they provide. You use the stock fastener for the pulley. No picture of this but it is a piece of cake.
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Here is the rear of the alternator with the two connectors re-attached.
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This is the noise suppressor connector they have you disconnect. The TPS connector isn't seen but is off to the right. This is when my friend came over and we started wiring work. For the most part all you're doing is cutting looms back and pulling wires out so that you can re-route them elsewhere. Once we pulled them out far enough we simply installed some new loom and wrapped things up. No splicing was necessary for any of this except the IAT and the MAF. Noise suppressor was re-connected when we finished most of this part.
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This connector gets put inline between two ends of the MAF wires. We are going to replace it since there isn't much there to work with.
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While the KB manual is far better than nothing at all it does at times come up a little short. The images and commentary here will hopefully come in handy for someone doing the job on their own.
I recommend following KB's recommendations and reading the install manual through first. KB lists the tools you will need in the manual. Pay attention and prepare or like me you will end up making multiple trips wasting time to get tools. Also make sure you label connectors as you go through the disassembly process. It can only make things easier for you.
Some of the things I needed but didn't have on hand:
Air saw, 21/64 drill bit, 9mm hex key for coolant crossover bleed valve, bench vice for holding parts that need drill or saw work.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
About 60 steps through the disassembly portion of the instructions in the first set of photos here. Yes it's dirty in there but the crud you're seeing near the injector ports on the manifold is caked on there.
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Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Forum member Simon1 suggests you check your cylinder head temperature sensor at this point and make sure it is not loose. If you find it to be loose use a small amount of locktite to make sure it doesn't become a problem.
Here's a photo of the oil that dripped down from the stock manifold after it sat on the table overnight. Think I'm getting some blow-by? lol!
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Alternator off in this one.
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When draining the coolant off via the drain plug on the bottom passenger side of the radiator it's a good idea to have a hose on there so you can direct the stuff. Will cut down on the mess and let you re-use the fluid if you desire.
I ended up having to get my friend to do the heater core hoses. I could not get them to click for me. I tried pushing up into the foam and pressed down but it just didn't want to work. These are notoriously difficult to take off but my friend got the hang of it in a few minutes of trying. Smaller hands probably help here.
The "bolt from hell" is easy to remove. Just make sure your battery and battery tray are out of the way. Takes only a few minutes to remove them.
When I removed the heater tube it spilled everywhere and made a huge mess. Be prepared. Couple old t-shirts or towels come in handy when that stuff starts gushing out into the valley.
Here is the thermostat housing ready to be pulled apart. I took the upper hose off even though the instructions don't ask you to do this. It was in the way as was the power steering reservoir which I also temporarily moved out of the way. BTW - good luck getting a torque wrench on those two bolts when you put them back. They go in from underneath and are in a tight spot.
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Here is the new thermostat in place. Also, instructions say it is a 160 degree part. But as you can see that is not the case. It is a 170 degree thermostat.
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Here's a picture of the passenger side radiator hose which was removed. As you can see the stock clamp is trashed. There is a nice crack there. I replaced it.
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PCM is ready to come out. Looms and connectors have been pulled off the bracket and pushed over to the tensioner area to keep them out of the way per the instructions.
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Thermostat done, PCM + bracket out, and fuse box bracket removed.
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OK disassembly complete and moving into assembly. Here is the car after the bumper came off. Took off driver's side wheel and liners. The bumper is easy to get off. Blinker and running light connectors come off and some fasteners come out. Pops off. A bracket also comes off after the bumper is out.
Passenger side headlight removed. The connector on the back was kind of a pain but it slid off eventually. At this point the washer fluid bottle has been removed as well. You can also see where the cut will need to be made for the intake.
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Cutting.
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When you are finished one suggestion I received was to use some duct tape on the edges to help keep the sharp edges from chafing the intake tubing that eventually goes through here. I chose to dremel them down and then paint.
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Took me a while to figure out the way the PCM bracket was supposed to fit in there. The instructions weren't real clear. The picture they gave for this step sucked.
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Drilled the hole for the bracket. A punch set comes in handy. Had to be careful not to nick the wiring right below where the hole goes. Needed a 21/64 bit. Everything was closed after 6 since it was a Sunday so I borrowed one from a friend.
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Had a close call. Used a rotary tool to smooth down the cut for the intake and had it slip. The thing basically slipped on me and skipped up my arm. I have a nice long cut there. It didn't go deep but it went right over a vein. If it had cut deep it could've nicked it.. And yes I'll be more careful now on.
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Drilled out the holes in the PCM. Mounted the PCM in the bracket and mounted the bracket.
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There is not much room in there. The PCM bracket is only about 2mm away from touching the overflow.
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New bracket in place.
Intake in place. There are some speed clips used in this part. The lower one in particular is a pain in the *** if your clip won't stay put. The MAF got scuffed pretty good. We actually had to do some more cutting to get it to fit right.
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A couple things came up at this point. The instructions have you modify the fuse box. Then you're supposed to put the fuse box in place on the new bracket and put it back in.
There is a set of ground wires that need to be relocated down where the lower rear stock pcm bracket (10mm) fastener goes in. This is near an AC line but the big thing is the fuse box is over it and makes it difficult. Disregard instructions, leave fuse box disconnected and bracket out for now. Attach two ground wires shown here.
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Fuse box if not kept disconnected also gets in the way of putting the lower PCM connector in.
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The connector itself is slightly modified. The back plate comes off and some of the loom is pulled away near it. This is because the AC line is in the way. You don't have much clearance. Everything being crammed in there made this a tough step. The wires are bent the opposite way off the back of the connector which isn't helping.
Friend of mine came over and between the two of us were able to get the AC line to bend down far enough to slip the lower connector on. I think it helps to have two hands here but also a relative lack of fear to push harder than I was on it. It may have been a progressive thing as well just taking a certain amount of attempts before it bent far enough to squeeze that thing in there. IMHO this is kind of a poor design. That bracket should've been made to hold the PCM out a few mm further so this wasn't such a struggle. Finished that step and then connected the other 2 ends to the PCM.
Here's a picture which worried me a little bit. The heater tube doesn't want to sit fully forward and flush. You can see a little bit of a gap there. If you put a small amount of oil on the two o-rings before sliding this on and it goes on smoothly then you should be fine. Turns out it doesn't need to sit all the way forward.
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Here is the PCM in place with all three connectors on there. There was also another connector that isn't pictured which sits underneath the fuse box.
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Fuse box back in place on bracket.
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My makeshift "vice" holding the heater tube bracket in place while I made the cuts. I used the rotary to do the cut and then cleaned it up a little bit to remove some of the jagged edges, painted it, and then taped it up with some electrical tape.
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This is the "bolt from hell" that holds the heater tube bracket in place off the rear passenger side of the engine. It's really a piece of cake to get this out if the battery + tray is out of your way. The heater core hoses were much harder than this bolt.
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Here's a shot of the rear passenger side looking over from the driver's side. You can see both heater core hoses are in and routed, bracket in place, and knock sensors and cylinder head temp sensor wires are all routed around the back of the head.
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Shot from the front here. New coolant crossover is in place. The previous owner was kind enough to leave the lower heater core hose connected up to the crossover so all I had to do was route the hose to the core, plug it in, and then hand tighten the two inner bolts for now per the instructions.
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Takes us to step 63. I looked a little bit ahead and it appears the first bit of wiring work is coming up.
OK a little short on pictures for this but here's what I got. First I removed the two studs the alternator sits on and replaced them with different ones. The replacement studs are run through a bracket that you can see in the picture. Nothing is tight at this point - just finger tight. The instructions have you keep things loose for now. Another fastener secures the bracket to the coolant crossover. The alternator is then placed on the studs (sits on them) at which point they have you reconnect the electrical connectors at the rear of it. Additionally, KB has you remove a ribbed idler pulley and replace it with a 76mm smooth pulley they provide. You use the stock fastener for the pulley. No picture of this but it is a piece of cake.
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Here is the rear of the alternator with the two connectors re-attached.
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This is the noise suppressor connector they have you disconnect. The TPS connector isn't seen but is off to the right. This is when my friend came over and we started wiring work. For the most part all you're doing is cutting looms back and pulling wires out so that you can re-route them elsewhere. Once we pulled them out far enough we simply installed some new loom and wrapped things up. No splicing was necessary for any of this except the IAT and the MAF. Noise suppressor was re-connected when we finished most of this part.
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This connector gets put inline between two ends of the MAF wires. We are going to replace it since there isn't much there to work with.
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Last edited by Riptide; 10-23-2010 at 05:04 PM.
10-23-2010, 12:27 PM
#2
6th Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Montaner
Posts: 6,193
Now I'm going to bitch about something. 
We test fit the headlight. As you can see the MAF is absolutely crammed in there. Putting the headlight back in may not be much fun. Not real impressed with this part of the design.
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The solution doesn't seem all that hard. Why did they put the MAF where they did when all they needed to do to fix this problem was move it further up?
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Next we finished up the MAF and wrapped wire/loom. If you haven't noticed yet you will need a torx "security bit" to get your MAF out should you ever need to clean it. No idea why KB used a strange bit like that.
At this point I received several suggestions on how to best get the headlight back in when the time for that step comes. One was to remove some bolts and pull the fender out far enough for it to slip in. Another was to disconnect the lower speed clip/bracket that holds the intake in place down below the headlight. That is what we went with and it did seem to help. Also two sets of hands helps when the time comes for that step. Leaving this here for reference sake.
Pictures of the intercooler and bracket installed. Hoses being run.
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Hose routed slightly different vs. the instructions. The upper hose in this picture normally routes under the AC line in front of it. Previous owner routed it over to help keep air out of the line.
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Hose attached to pump here goes to reservoir. Hose below it, visible in previous photo also, goes to manifold.
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Intercooler hose routing back to manifold here.
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Wiring for intercooler going in here.
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Intercooler wiring here also. Splicing into noise suppressor.
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Power connector to pump visible.
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Mounting reservoir. Made the cuts with a rotary tool.
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Routing hose to manifold from reservoir.
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Headlight back in. Disconnecting the lower bracket that holds the intake in place underneath the light made this easier as mentioned previously. A new speed clip helped when I went to put the bolt back and tighten it after the light was in place.
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Windshield washer relocation. Moving power cable to new location. Pump is removed and installed on new reservoir.
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Pump in new location.
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Manifold about to go on.
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Manifold on.
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Up to about step 240 here. Instructions have the bumper back on, splashguard, and passenger fender liners in up to this point and we did not do that part yet. We're leaving that stuff off for now.
Moving on to fuel system work.
Stock injector rails ready to be worked on here. The line was kind of a pain to get off but not that bad. You cut a slit in with a razor blade and then use some elbow grease to massage that beyatch off there.
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Taking the clips off, then the injectors. All of which were easy steps. The injectors just take a little massaging to get out of there but they come out.
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Injectors in. Both sides here.
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We're getting somewhere. Unfortunately the head on one of the fasteners that holds the bypass valve stripped out on me. It was already stripped a bit and it trashed it when I went to finish putting it in. Next time the manifold comes off I'll have to deal with that issue.
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Simon1 made another useful suggestion. Pay attention before putting the compressor over the manifold.
When you place the blower on the manifold, there is a small silicone connecoter with a a clamp on each side. It is where all the bypass air go through. There is an arm on the bypass valve that needs to move back and forth easily with no interference, otherwise the bypass will not close and you will make zero boost. The clamps can get in the way. So just make sure the arm can swing back and forth.
Compressor mounted, torqued down, belt routed, and throttle body on. All of this was relatively easy however the fuel line does get in the way of the furthest back fastener on the driver's side holding the compressor to the manifold. The line had to come off again in order to torque that one down.
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I've changed my mind on the vacuum switch. I'm leaving it out. That will simplify the BAP install which is coming up soon. Not all that much left here to do besides getting gauges in after the BAP. Newer kits have the BAP run all the time and the vacuum switch is out of the picture FYI.
Here's a pic of the twin screws right before we put the compressor on the manifold.
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My oil filler neck was kind of a bastard to get out of there. Oh, and the seller who was on hand to help figured out something confusing me. I had an extra 76mm idler pulley and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with this. Turns out on the 05-06 cars both idler pulleys under the bracket on the right side get swapped. Not just the one. The supplement and the way the instructions were worded kinda had me confused which is how I ended up only doing the one. Glad we caught that little mistake.
Replaced the 15 amp fuel pump fuse with a 30 amp.
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Intake is put together. Not pictured, evap and brake booster lines were reconnected. They fit on the two barbs at the rear of the compressor.
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At this point my friend came by and we started working on some of the gauge installation. BAP was installed. Will have pictures a little further down this page. Some notes here on doing the gauge install.
We used the passenger side fuse box (in the cabin) for getting power to the wideband. The fusebox cover sucks and is hard to get off. A google search yielded the answer on how it comes apart - and others had the same problem figuring it out. It wasn't just us. We used fuse #13 and an add-a-tap. 10 amp fuse.
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We needed an illumination wire next. JDWalton provided a tip on this for us.
For reference took this picture showing where the wideband sensor is placed just forward of the driver's side cat.
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Coolant can be seen rising toward coolant crossover bleed valve as I am filling the system.
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Crossover bleed valve cap screwed down for now. Will come back off when I go to start the car.
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BAP installed and mounted. The first few times we turned the key to ON and tested this it made a weird grinding noise. After about the third or fourth try that noise went away and it sounded normal. I believe it was taking a while to work fuel pressure all the way to the front of the car because we noticed the pressure gauge started showing 48+ when the pump started to sound normal again.
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Clearing the intercooler lines of air. Bubbled for a while and eventually the whitish color which was tons of little air bubbles disappeared. It was obvious when the system was finished clearing. It was clear and the fluid was moving pretty briskly in there.
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My electrical guy taking care of the gauges here.
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Almost ready to start.
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BAP is in and mounted. Air has been purged from the intercooler. We have fuel pressure and didn't smell or see any leaks.
It was at this point we ran into a road block. Kenne Bell's tune would not load off the tuner. The file was corrupt. Kenne Bell would not send me an email tune and insisted I ship the tuner back to them. I did so. They sent me a different tuner for free (same model) and the tune then loaded. Held me up about 4-5 days on this because it happened over a weekend and had to use next day air to get the tuner back to them.
After flashing the PCM we started the car up. Let it idle. It took about 10-15 minutes before the coolant temp hit 185 and stayed close to that. Thermostat opened up (apparently) and we topped the system off as needed. We never noticed any movement of coolant inside the reservoir but the level did drop.
The stock injectors are noisy in this car but the 40lb. injectors are a step up. The ticking sound they produce had us concerned for a while that I had an engine problem. After talking to the previous owner and also KB we were more at ease with the noise.
Shut the car off, put the fender liners and the wheels back on. Bumper back on. Started it up and went for a test drive staying out of boost for a while. After about 4-5 miles we stopped and filled up with some fresh 93 octane fuel and examined the engine compartment. No issues noted.
Did a 2nd and 4th gear pull @ WOT. Car pulls significantly harder than it did before (success) and is a beast when you push the pedal down all the way. Even with good 285/40/18 summer tires 2nd gear wants to spin badly at times. I have yet to try 1st gear but expect it to be nearly useless right now.
A note about how nice the KB tune is regarding daily driveability. When you are not in WOT the car is just as "tame" as it was naturally aspirated. It's hard to even tell the blower is there. It only wakes up when you stick the pedal to the floor. Then it slams into boost and takes off. If you stay out of the throttle and gently accelerate your mileage and wear/tear are probably going to be not much worse than they were before the install. This surprised me a bit - pleasantly so.
Only a couple things concern me at this point. I am getting a lot of blow-by making it into the husky oil separator. It's almost 1/4 full already and the car has only been driven (hard) for about 50 miles or so. This may or may not be an issue and it's something I'm keeping an eye on. Also, when we did a 4th gear pull the wideband seemed to indicate a higher AFR than we expected. However there are multiple possible causes for this some of which are not a problem. Just another thing I'm going to watch closely for a while.
The install took me a lot longer than I expected. Better instructions would've helped as we spent serious time trying to get by certain obstacles for which a better picture or explanation in the manual would have been useful. Not being mechanically inclined didn't do me any favors either. Definitely the hardest thing I've done on a car yet but also a very useful learning experience.
Here is a couple pictures of the setup fully installed with everything back on.
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Special thanks to my friends who helped with the install. Luke who did my electrical work. Tom who was the extra set of hands through most of this and helpful with some of the problem solving. And the previous owner dkersten who was always available via phone for Q&A. dkersten also let me borrow several tools (need to return those lol) and assisted with getting the compressor on the manifold and getting the fuel rails put together.
NOTE: This is not the original thread but has been condensed to eliminate extra relatively non pertinent conversation that was in the first one. I will ask mods to sticky this one. For reference, here is the link to the original thread.
https://mustangforums.com/forum/4-6l...1-install.html
We test fit the headlight. As you can see the MAF is absolutely crammed in there. Putting the headlight back in may not be much fun. Not real impressed with this part of the design.
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The solution doesn't seem all that hard. Why did they put the MAF where they did when all they needed to do to fix this problem was move it further up?
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Next we finished up the MAF and wrapped wire/loom. If you haven't noticed yet you will need a torx "security bit" to get your MAF out should you ever need to clean it. No idea why KB used a strange bit like that.
At this point I received several suggestions on how to best get the headlight back in when the time for that step comes. One was to remove some bolts and pull the fender out far enough for it to slip in. Another was to disconnect the lower speed clip/bracket that holds the intake in place down below the headlight. That is what we went with and it did seem to help. Also two sets of hands helps when the time comes for that step. Leaving this here for reference sake.
Pictures of the intercooler and bracket installed. Hoses being run.
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Hose routed slightly different vs. the instructions. The upper hose in this picture normally routes under the AC line in front of it. Previous owner routed it over to help keep air out of the line.
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Hose attached to pump here goes to reservoir. Hose below it, visible in previous photo also, goes to manifold.
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Intercooler hose routing back to manifold here.
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Wiring for intercooler going in here.
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Intercooler wiring here also. Splicing into noise suppressor.
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Power connector to pump visible.
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Mounting reservoir. Made the cuts with a rotary tool.
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Routing hose to manifold from reservoir.
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Headlight back in. Disconnecting the lower bracket that holds the intake in place underneath the light made this easier as mentioned previously. A new speed clip helped when I went to put the bolt back and tighten it after the light was in place.
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Windshield washer relocation. Moving power cable to new location. Pump is removed and installed on new reservoir.
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Pump in new location.
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Manifold about to go on.
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Manifold on.
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Up to about step 240 here. Instructions have the bumper back on, splashguard, and passenger fender liners in up to this point and we did not do that part yet. We're leaving that stuff off for now.
Moving on to fuel system work.
Stock injector rails ready to be worked on here. The line was kind of a pain to get off but not that bad. You cut a slit in with a razor blade and then use some elbow grease to massage that beyatch off there.
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Taking the clips off, then the injectors. All of which were easy steps. The injectors just take a little massaging to get out of there but they come out.
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Injectors in. Both sides here.
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We're getting somewhere. Unfortunately the head on one of the fasteners that holds the bypass valve stripped out on me. It was already stripped a bit and it trashed it when I went to finish putting it in. Next time the manifold comes off I'll have to deal with that issue.
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Simon1 made another useful suggestion. Pay attention before putting the compressor over the manifold.
When you place the blower on the manifold, there is a small silicone connecoter with a a clamp on each side. It is where all the bypass air go through. There is an arm on the bypass valve that needs to move back and forth easily with no interference, otherwise the bypass will not close and you will make zero boost. The clamps can get in the way. So just make sure the arm can swing back and forth.
Compressor mounted, torqued down, belt routed, and throttle body on. All of this was relatively easy however the fuel line does get in the way of the furthest back fastener on the driver's side holding the compressor to the manifold. The line had to come off again in order to torque that one down.
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I've changed my mind on the vacuum switch. I'm leaving it out. That will simplify the BAP install which is coming up soon. Not all that much left here to do besides getting gauges in after the BAP. Newer kits have the BAP run all the time and the vacuum switch is out of the picture FYI.
Here's a pic of the twin screws right before we put the compressor on the manifold.
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My oil filler neck was kind of a bastard to get out of there. Oh, and the seller who was on hand to help figured out something confusing me. I had an extra 76mm idler pulley and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with this. Turns out on the 05-06 cars both idler pulleys under the bracket on the right side get swapped. Not just the one. The supplement and the way the instructions were worded kinda had me confused which is how I ended up only doing the one. Glad we caught that little mistake.
Replaced the 15 amp fuel pump fuse with a 30 amp.
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Intake is put together. Not pictured, evap and brake booster lines were reconnected. They fit on the two barbs at the rear of the compressor.
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At this point my friend came by and we started working on some of the gauge installation. BAP was installed. Will have pictures a little further down this page. Some notes here on doing the gauge install.
We used the passenger side fuse box (in the cabin) for getting power to the wideband. The fusebox cover sucks and is hard to get off. A google search yielded the answer on how it comes apart - and others had the same problem figuring it out. It wasn't just us. We used fuse #13 and an add-a-tap. 10 amp fuse.
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We needed an illumination wire next. JDWalton provided a tip on this for us.
How to tap the headlight switch to get the illumination color to change:
ANSWER: PIN 22 on the Headlight Switch. It pops out easy, the plug you are tapping is the one closest to the drivers door - YELLOW/LIGHT-BLUE --
(you simply reach around under your dash and push the switch out of your center console from behind.) Also, I'm not sure how much room for growth there is in this circuit. If you end up poping a fuse you may need to run this into a relay so you can provide dedicated power for ilumination to your multiple gauges. I suspect you can probably get away by just tapping, just figured I should mention it.
ANSWER: PIN 22 on the Headlight Switch. It pops out easy, the plug you are tapping is the one closest to the drivers door - YELLOW/LIGHT-BLUE --
(you simply reach around under your dash and push the switch out of your center console from behind.) Also, I'm not sure how much room for growth there is in this circuit. If you end up poping a fuse you may need to run this into a relay so you can provide dedicated power for ilumination to your multiple gauges. I suspect you can probably get away by just tapping, just figured I should mention it.
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Coolant can be seen rising toward coolant crossover bleed valve as I am filling the system.
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Crossover bleed valve cap screwed down for now. Will come back off when I go to start the car.
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BAP installed and mounted. The first few times we turned the key to ON and tested this it made a weird grinding noise. After about the third or fourth try that noise went away and it sounded normal. I believe it was taking a while to work fuel pressure all the way to the front of the car because we noticed the pressure gauge started showing 48+ when the pump started to sound normal again.
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Clearing the intercooler lines of air. Bubbled for a while and eventually the whitish color which was tons of little air bubbles disappeared. It was obvious when the system was finished clearing. It was clear and the fluid was moving pretty briskly in there.
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My electrical guy taking care of the gauges here.
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Almost ready to start.
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BAP is in and mounted. Air has been purged from the intercooler. We have fuel pressure and didn't smell or see any leaks.
It was at this point we ran into a road block. Kenne Bell's tune would not load off the tuner. The file was corrupt. Kenne Bell would not send me an email tune and insisted I ship the tuner back to them. I did so. They sent me a different tuner for free (same model) and the tune then loaded. Held me up about 4-5 days on this because it happened over a weekend and had to use next day air to get the tuner back to them.
After flashing the PCM we started the car up. Let it idle. It took about 10-15 minutes before the coolant temp hit 185 and stayed close to that. Thermostat opened up (apparently) and we topped the system off as needed. We never noticed any movement of coolant inside the reservoir but the level did drop.
The stock injectors are noisy in this car but the 40lb. injectors are a step up. The ticking sound they produce had us concerned for a while that I had an engine problem. After talking to the previous owner and also KB we were more at ease with the noise.
Shut the car off, put the fender liners and the wheels back on. Bumper back on. Started it up and went for a test drive staying out of boost for a while. After about 4-5 miles we stopped and filled up with some fresh 93 octane fuel and examined the engine compartment. No issues noted.
Did a 2nd and 4th gear pull @ WOT. Car pulls significantly harder than it did before (success) and is a beast when you push the pedal down all the way. Even with good 285/40/18 summer tires 2nd gear wants to spin badly at times. I have yet to try 1st gear but expect it to be nearly useless right now.
A note about how nice the KB tune is regarding daily driveability. When you are not in WOT the car is just as "tame" as it was naturally aspirated. It's hard to even tell the blower is there. It only wakes up when you stick the pedal to the floor. Then it slams into boost and takes off. If you stay out of the throttle and gently accelerate your mileage and wear/tear are probably going to be not much worse than they were before the install. This surprised me a bit - pleasantly so.
Only a couple things concern me at this point. I am getting a lot of blow-by making it into the husky oil separator. It's almost 1/4 full already and the car has only been driven (hard) for about 50 miles or so. This may or may not be an issue and it's something I'm keeping an eye on. Also, when we did a 4th gear pull the wideband seemed to indicate a higher AFR than we expected. However there are multiple possible causes for this some of which are not a problem. Just another thing I'm going to watch closely for a while.
The install took me a lot longer than I expected. Better instructions would've helped as we spent serious time trying to get by certain obstacles for which a better picture or explanation in the manual would have been useful. Not being mechanically inclined didn't do me any favors either. Definitely the hardest thing I've done on a car yet but also a very useful learning experience.
Here is a couple pictures of the setup fully installed with everything back on.
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Special thanks to my friends who helped with the install. Luke who did my electrical work. Tom who was the extra set of hands through most of this and helpful with some of the problem solving. And the previous owner dkersten who was always available via phone for Q&A. dkersten also let me borrow several tools (need to return those lol) and assisted with getting the compressor on the manifold and getting the fuel rails put together.
NOTE: This is not the original thread but has been condensed to eliminate extra relatively non pertinent conversation that was in the first one. I will ask mods to sticky this one. For reference, here is the link to the original thread.
https://mustangforums.com/forum/4-6l...1-install.html
07-17-2011, 09:05 PM
#3
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: CO
Posts: 6
KB 2.6 Install issues - 2008 Bullitt
Saw Riptide's excellent post - wish I had seen it before my son and i installed a KB on his 2008 Bullitt - agree with most all the points and had the same issues. Now new issues - with install mostly sorted I pulled and gapped the original Motorcraft N007F plugs and am now getting error P0302 ( cylinder #2 misfire ). Swapped out the boot, coil pack and even the plug with cylinder #1 - still running rough and getting error code. Hard to think the injector suddenly went bad just when the plugs were pulled. Any ideas anyone? Also - am planning to move to the Brisk plugs - anyone with a blower had any experience with the new ones? Thanks
07-18-2011, 09:23 AM
#5
6th Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Montaner
Posts: 6,193
falcon42 I use the brisk 3vr14s right now. Other than the cost I have no complaints. The only other plug I'd consider is the autolite HT0. The autolites have the same strange ground strap the stock motorcraft plugs have and are a two piece design. They are however cheaper than the brisks.
After having the blower on the car for a while now my only complaint with the kenne bell is the intercooler setup. It is utterly unable to cope with high summer temperatures and if it hits over 90 degrees the car is right on the edge of pulling timing while driving in traffic due to high (140 degree!) IATs. Research has shown me that this is a deficiency of the KB setup and I am not the only one who sees ridiculous high IATs with this kit.
PS: If you get the brisk plugs gap them to .035.
After having the blower on the car for a while now my only complaint with the kenne bell is the intercooler setup. It is utterly unable to cope with high summer temperatures and if it hits over 90 degrees the car is right on the edge of pulling timing while driving in traffic due to high (140 degree!) IATs. Research has shown me that this is a deficiency of the KB setup and I am not the only one who sees ridiculous high IATs with this kit.
PS: If you get the brisk plugs gap them to .035.
Last edited by Riptide; 07-18-2011 at 09:28 AM.
