A friend of mine and I installed the magnacharger on my 01 vert this weekend. Nine hours start to finish, including 180 deg. stat, hotchkiss endlinks, lowering the front end (removed bolt, cut cushion), and a break for lunch. Worst part was getting the balancer bolt out...sucker was stuck. All seems well, getting 5.4-5.6 lbs. boost. Overall, well worth the bucks. Kit is very complete. Couple things would have made it better:

-could have included a premade extension for the TPS. Kit requires you to cut and extend the wires.

- my 01 kit did not come with a front coolant balance tube. LPE said to reuse the stock one. This worked, but the stock part had to be tweaked a bit.

- new airbridge is really tough to get on. I thought it wouldn't fit, at first.

I'll probably get it to the dyno in the next couple weeks.

 

:cool: How's the SOTP performance?

 

what ya gonna do about tuning?

 

LPE flashed my PCM, but I still think I want to get it tuned on a dyno, eventually. SOTP is much improved :-)

 

How did you handle the hood changeover? Did you have it painted ahead of time?

Also, did you key the crank as part of the installation?




[Modified by Patches, 9:19 PM 8/26/2002]

 

From a fellow hot-rodder/wrench-tuner,

Big thumbs up to you for tackling the install yourself. :yesnod:

Let us know how it does at the dyno or the strip if you take it there! :cool:

 

I did mine also last week on an A4 C5 and had similar problems with the Pulley Bolt. We could not free it with an air wrench. Had to lock up the Fly wheel at the inspection hole and use an extended socket wrench. Pinning was straight forward after that.

LPE has no tuning for this car so I am on my own here, I am sending the car on a Tilt and load truck to the tuners tomorrow, I dont dare start it up. they will have to finish bleeding the air from the power steering and Cooling system.

LPE sent us the coolant pipe upon request which we will use should the original one leak :U

The Hood was back ordered and arrived today despite LPE :mad :mad I basically went around them.

I was continuously without remorse misled about the delivery of this product :mad

One potential problem is the way that the actuator is oriented so that it will hold water or debris, I have a feeling that this was made to point down so that it would be free draining.

I think that a little screen would not go amiss here. :nono:
:seeya

 

The whole car, complete with the RK hood was painted before the install.

Yes, we pinned the crank.

 

How well did the RK Hood fit ???

 

I found out last week that Magunson is doing all the programming. Lingenfelter is apparently having some difficulties with the '97 and '98s. RK Sport and Lingenfelter will get all their programming directly from Magnuson in the future. I expect my supercharger to be delivered next week some time. I have the RK Sport hood already painted and installed. Overall result is on par with other aftermarket hoods I'd seen at Carlisle this past weekend. :D

 

Auctiondepot--the hood fit great. My paint guy didn't even charge me to prep it, it was so good.

black97magic--where did you hear this about the programming? I've heard so many stories, I don't know what to believe. Magnacharger said that superchips would be doing their tuning. LPE told me that they were going to develop the programs, and send them to superchips to put in microtuners. RKsport told me that Magnuson was not happy with the LPE program, so they were going back to superchips. Magnuson said "huh?" we have no problem with LPE's program.

:confused: :confused:

 

All I know for sure is that LPE could not provide me with the Tuning . :mad
They offered to facilitate the tuning after they tuned a car like mine, no date provided.
The kit was sent incomplete, missing the coolant tube and the Manifold gaskets.
We got the car running today and it peaked at 355RWHP, for what ever reason we were not able to get the timing to advance under load. We should be seeing 410RWHP.
2002 A4 C5 Stock.

 

TJ_ZR1: I heard this from RKSport. My delivery was delayed due to programming. Magnuson wasn't releasing any superchargers for '97 or '98s. I wanted an answer as to why Lingenfelter was delivering superchargers to all customers in three weeks and why I wasn't getting mine from RKSport. Bob, the owner of RKSport, spent two days on the phone with Lingenfelter and Magnuson. I was told that Lingenfelter wasn't happy with their (Lingenfelters owns) programs and that Magnuson would be doing all the programming for the superchargers from now on. Whether Magnuson is working with Superchips or if Superchips is doing the entire program independently I don't know.

Auctiondepot: I know for a while that there were programming issues with all A4 cars. I think an updated program from Magnuson will be out shortly.

 

Congratulations on the install -- hope it performs as promised. I see there are problems with the Magneson programming -- same as with the ATI.

 

This is a post I can relate to. Tim never did tell me that my kit wouldn't come with the programmer until after it showed up and I called him. Then he hits me with "Oh you have to send us your computer". He tells me it is going to take 2 weeks to turn around! After a little more conversation he tells me they will turn it around in 2 days (Lingenfelter lingo for 1 week). I still want my programmer. Now I am still plagued by an Active Handeling error code and they don't have any answers for me.

 

Corvcharles,
My Magnuson is in route as I type along with the programmer. Like I said, I ordered mine from RKSport and you needn't send your computer to them like Lingenfelter (really, I'm surprised they're still doing that). There is a power loader programmer that uploads the new program onto your own computer. Just plug it in and go! I would seriously ask them about it. Read my earlier post for reference. :smash:

 

Seems all of you have met Tim at LPE huh? :lol: I don't know if he is just playing dum or what on some of the things. What I finally got out of them as far as the 97-98's go is they have not installed an auto for those years yet so they do not have the proper program. They asked me to drop my car off after I installed the SC for them to program it. So there it sits. After a while I got Tim to admitt that I was suppose to get a programmer to, to which he said they didn't even have them yet and that I wouldn't need it anyways since they would have my car all programed. So I suggested they provide and install a boost gage for me in trade. No word on that yet, I'll keep you posted. But the way I figure it they owe me the programmer! [IMG][/IMG]


[Modified by KerryH, 1:53 AM 9/6/2002]

 

EXACTLY!!! I want the programmer too. 2 good reasons to have it are (1) if you want to put your own car back to stock, you will need to programmer and (2) if LPE updates the programming so you can get more power, you will need it.
Tim told me the program for my car (2000 6 speed) didn't exist either BUT they put something on my computer...... :bs The car is killer right now but I still want that programmer. I was disappointed that Tim didn't tell me anything about not sending the program until after the blower got here.

 

Corvcharles,
I got my supercharger yesterday and according to my UPS tracking number the programmer will be delivered on the 9th. I would pressure LPE to go to Magna Charger to get the powerloader. I think it will be essential that you have it incase of future changes. This will make updates a snap.

Do you or anyone else have any tips on installation? I've amassed about three pages of tips from those who've done their own installations.

 

Congrats. I will be in touch with Tim about that. If they are sending the programmer, I will have mine.

The installation for me went very smooth. Here are some things that come to mind that you should be careful of:

1) Before you get started, turn the steering wheel straight. This way you can get to the "pinch bolt" that allows you to remove the linkage from the steering rack. It is very important that the steering wheel be in the same exact position when you re-attach it as their is a sensor somewhere in the column for the active handeling that detects the center positon. If you are off by one rotation, you will log error codes and the active handeling will diable itself almost immediately every time you drive it. This plagued me for 2 weeks!
2) After you have disconnected the fuel line, if for any reason you have to re-attach the battery and turn the key, don't forget that you will get about 3 seconds of fuel :eek: (Also, be certain you have enough room on the drivers side of the car to pull the rack out...Would hate to have to move the car for something like that)
3) The only possible stumper along the way is the crank bolt. A really strong impact wrench would be nice. If you don't have that, I was able to break it with a 2 foot cheeter bar attached to my 1/2" drive. I had to push it with one leg while holding onto the car. If you are a 6 speed, put it in 5th or 6th. If you are an auto, you will need something to lock it in place.
4) Drilling on the crank. Not too bad. We were able to get to it with an air drill. Just turned the crank so that we were drilling the hole closest to the ground, then turned it slowly with a wrench (naturally we took it out of gear) to get the other hole down there.
5) Getting the blower on top of the motor. We used an engine hoist. This made that job very easy. Just tied some straps to the fuel rails and we were good to go.
6) Electrical connectors. Instead of the bulky connecting clamps that come with the kit, we used a little solder and some shrink covers that you heat up and they shrink around the new connection. Just a little cleaner.
7) The only thing I didn't see in the directions was a quick connect electrical connector off the rack that you need to disconnect before pulling it.
8) Last of all, when you are lowering the blower onto the car, just be cautious of the wiring harness that runs along the back of the motor. Don't let it get pinched. Also, the MAP sensor is on a short wire back there so don't forget to keep it up so you can get to it after the blower is in position. We missed that and had to hoist it back up to go get it (doh!).
If you have any questions along the way, keep a pretty close watch on my e-mial. Also, if you like, I will e-mail you my cell number should you have a question along the way. Good luck. We finished in about 12 hours taking our time. Let me know how you guys do.