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Late last year I picked up a Procharger Stage II kit, ATI damper, and a few other goodies for my '02 Z06. I started the installation on 12/14/16 and finished 4/29/17, mostly working after work or on weekends. The car was pretty much stock at 13,402 miles except for a random cat-back installed back and intake in 2003 or so by the first owner and a B&M short-throw I did in 2016 or so.

I ran into several issues with the kit (particularly with tilting the radiator, some of the instructions, some of the hoses, and component interference), so I'm hoping this thread will help some people on their installations. To give you some background, I have 3 engineering degrees and have worked my career in the automotive industry ranging across R&D, design, manufacturing/assembly, vehicle calibration, etc.

Here's how the ProCharger box arrived as I unpackaged the items. It came with a Diablo tuner, and page 1 of the ProCharger instructions has you update the tuner software and then backup the stock tune in the car. You then send this to ProCharger and they send you an updated tune (in my case, I received it the next day). Upload the new tune to the Diablo and reflash the car.

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The next part of the instructions help you purge the fuel rails. You pull the gas cap, pull the fuel pump relay (micro relay 35), then crank the engine for a few seconds. This ended up purging most of the fuel, but there was still a small amount in the lines when I went to replace the injectors (later on in the build). After this you disconnect the negative battery cable and reinsert the relay.

The next step is to remove the engine covers, MAF, intake ducting, air filter, and plastic radiator hold-down/cover. You also have to disconnect the air temp sensor and air pump hose. All of this is very straightforward and comes out exactly as expected. This brings to to the end of page 4 of the instructions.

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The next step is to jack up the front end of the car. This is also a good time to remove the front wheels for access in the wheel wells.

I thought I was doing this very safely by securing the rear wheels and supporting the front end with 6 jacks and stand. However, this later came at the expense of not being able to easily remove the steering rack. Since I had supported the car from the engine cradle, I was not able to drop the cradle an inch or so to remove the rack. Instead, I had to pull the rack almost completely out of the passenger side with the help of a friend. If you end up supporting the vehicle from the front cradle, be sure to leave 4 feet or so available to the right of the front passenger wheel. If I had to do it again, I would drop the cradle.

Ignore my fender covers: I have Ford, Chevy, and Chrysler vehicles and I happened to use MOPAR and HEMI fender covers on the GM.

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With the front end up, all of the plastic beneath the fascia needs to come out: lower air dam, splash panels, brake ducts, etc. I made some notes that the brake ducts gave me a hard time compressing enough for removal and that the longer bolts held the air dam/shorter bolts splash panel.

The radiator shroud is also removed. Note that you need to disconnect the temperature sensor (blue on the connector) and unclip the harness. Just set it aside as it will be loose for the majority of the installation. When I pulled the shroud, there was some foam that had come loose from the AC condenser that I glued back in place.

The air pump hose, horn, and horn bracket (13mm) are removed as well. This takes you through page 6 of the instructions.

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The first image below shows all the free space now available in the front of the car.

Next comes the harmonic balancer replacement. This was not required, as the kit came with a crank pinning kit to use with the stock damper.
However, since you have to put the same amount of effort in to access the crank, it was worth replacing the OEM unit with an ATI one.

This was one of the worst parts, and it took from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. For this part of the installation, I recommend grabbing a paint marker and an LS-specific damper puller/installer. I wasted a few days cobbling together 3 pullers/installer kits from different car parts stores. If I knew ahead of time, I would have spent the $40 or so for the right tool.

So, using a 15mm wrench, reduce tension from the belt and remove it. The tensioner is mounted with two 15mm bolts, so remove those next. This is a good time to remove the secondary serpentine belt as well.

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Next, remove the bolts for the traction control module bracket from the front crossmember. There are 2x13mm bolts.

Afterwards, the fan shroud is removed. I had a hard time getting it out, so after disconnecting the wiring and five clips, I drained the coolant system so I could detach the coolant hoses. The instructions don't mention this, but I found it easier to do this now. The fan slides out of the way. I also took out the corner lamps and set them aside, as I had gotten some tinted wrap.

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I deviated from the instructions a bit here because the rack had to be removed and couldn't just be moved out of the way.

The next thing I did was disconnect the tie rod ends, power steering lines on the rack (one was a 5/8"), and I-shaft bolt (13mm and I needed an extension to reach it). I used the paint marker to tag the orientation of the steering shaft before disconnecting it.

The PS cooler was also loosened up, but not removed at this time. 18mm bolts hold the rack in place, and these can be removed at this time.

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At this point, I decided to tint the corner lamps using some wrap I found on Amazon and a heat gun. This took a lot more time than anticipated, but they came out pretty well and I would do this again.

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The next step in the ProCharger instructions is to move the traction control module out of the way. This was done and I held it loosely in place with bungee cords.

I had purchased an '03-'04 PS/alternator bracket, which was an upgrade from the '02 and older version and was not part of the kit. To swap this out, I needed to disconnect and remove the alternator next. The PS/alternator bracket was left in place, but I now had access to all of the bolts.

From the bottom of the car, I needed more room and removed the sway bar.

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After disconnecting the PS lines on the column side, removing the Christmas tree for the wire harness on the PS/alternator bracket, removing a connector clipped onto a PS line, and removing the bolts mounting the PS/alternator bracket (you will need crows feet for a few of them), the entire bracket/PS pump/PS reservoir/idler/PS cooler subassembly can be removed as one piece.

Look at all that open space now.

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Up to this point I am doing a lot of extra work to replace the damper and the PS/alternator bracket. These items weren't required, but are good upgrades.

I'd had a friend helping me for 2 evenings or so, but until this point it was not required. Next the steering rack can be removed. When I say removed, this is the part where you could drop the cradle and slip it out of the way to access the crank bolt. In my case, you now need a second person (one from the top, driver side, one in the middle under the car) and you need to move the steering rack out of place, keep rotating it along it's axis and moving it out towards the passenger side. After a while, you will get this to the point where it is almost out of the passenger side of the car.

Now you have access to the crank bolt. If you have access to the GM service manuals, this is on page 6-220.

This was another part of the installation that caused me delay. I was unable to loosen the crank bolt after using a 24mm socket (I think it was a 12-point) and 2ft breaker bar. This is also when your friend is needed to sit in the car with his foot on the brake, in gear, and with the e-brake on. Alternatively, there's a tool that you insert into the back of the bellhousing that grabs onto a few of the flywheel teeth. I didn't have this available at the time, but it's probably worth the $90 or so (especially if you are doing this alone). I wasn't able to lock it with any tools for fear of damaging a tooth.

After messing with this for a bit, I took a break and moved on to the PS/alternator bracket swap.

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To swap the PS/alternator bracket, you have to pull everything off of the old bracket. Remove one of the hoses from the PS reservoir. Pop the cap off of the PS pump pulley.

At this point, I was thinking too much about the damper and went back to that. We grabbed a 4ft. pipe from Home Depot and trimmed off about a foot so that it would fit under my hood. We tried a modified technique from before: one person in the car with the brake, e-brake, and in-gear; one person on the driver side starts winding up the breaker, handing it over to one person on the passenger side ready to slip the pipe over; then the person from the driver side runs over to the passenger side and both people pull. We finally got that damn bolt out.

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Next, I measured the distance from the crank face to the inner damper shoulder: 0.149" (spec is 0.094-0.176"). I averaged maybe 5 measurements.

I put the crank bolt back in place and used a pulley puller set from a local car parts store to pull the damper. It was almost too easy until a piece of the timing cover seal was noticed as missing. I ended up ordering a NAPA NOS 21605 seal and a seal puller.

I also used a paint marker to tag where the counterweight on the damper lined up with the crank.

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While researching that seal, I kept moving forward with the PS/alternator bracket swap. The PS pump pulley was removed, followed by the PS pump, reservoir, and cooler. The idler was next.

The new and old brackets are shown side-by-side, and you can see where the idler pulley sits how the new bracket differs.

All of the components were swapped to the new bracket. This puts me at 12/30/16.

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Next was keying the crank. I used ATI-918993 crank pin/drill/fixture kit and a corded drill. This kit puts the pin into the crank radially, acting as a keyway. Be careful when reaming the hole, as it is easy to go too far and the pin will just slip through. The paranoia of destroying the crank forced this process to take a long time. Finding a good angle to hold the drill was also difficult due to underhood packaging constraints.

Once that was complete, the old timing cover seal was pulled and replaced.

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Back to the damper installation, I took a lot of measurements to make sure that I wasn't going to draw the damper in too far or not far enough. After double checking my calculations, I was ready to draw it on.

I used ATI damper 917266. Here was where I ran into the next major issue: none of the damper installation kits I was using was long enough to draw the damper on. I ended up having to combine 3 kits into one in order to get it to work. Between all of the trips to the store and wasted time, I recommend you buy an LS-specific tool when you purchase your kit.

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Finally, I got something rigged together and was ready to install the new hub and rear pulley. One set of instructions said to install it dry, another said to use some motor oil as lube. I used the oil and drew it on until it reached the depth I had calculated. A dab of RTV was recommended on the keyway.

ARP bolt 234-2503 came with assembly lube, which was used liberally. I tightened the bolt to 219 lb*ft (I think the instructions said 230 lb*ft for the ARP bolt, but as I drew it on it skipped the damper back one or two times so I stopped here since it already was keyed). The instructions for the stock bolt are along the lines of 40 lb*ft and then 120 degrees of rotation.

Next, the front pulley, inertia ring, and damping elements were mounted to the hub. Blue Loc*Tite (or equivalent) was used.

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Next, all of the steering was reinstalled. This brings me to 1/3/17 and page 11 of the installation instructions.

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The ProCharger instructions have you drain the coolant now, but I did it a few weeks prior. Note that I have not yet reinstalled the front sway bar because I want the additional room to work in order to bend the AC lines.

Now, I remove 4x13mm bolts (instructions say 8mm, incorrect) securing the radiator cradle to the frame and pull the cradle. At this point, only the AC condenser lines are holding the radiator and condenser in place, so I use bungee cords again to help support them.

Since there is a lot of manipulation of the AC lines required and I don't want to damage any fins on either unit, I move on to reinstalling the alternator until someone is available for help.

One of the new bracket's bushings was pressed in too far to allow the alternator to fit. Using a socket and a clamp, I was able to press it back out. I reinstalled the alternator.

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Back to the radiator, the ProCharger instructions have you start modifying the lower radiator hose (joining 2 hoses to make 1). I held off on this until the new radiator cradle was mounted and the radiator placed in its final position, as this made more sense in case a mistake were made with the hose or if parts didn't align as anticipated.

Skipping ahead to the next steps, I installed the radiator cradle. You have to swap over the rubber inserts that hold the radiator from the cradle and upper radiator support. Since the bolts for the cradle go into nut inserts in the frame, I used a similar torque (36 lb*ft) to other items mounted with similar diameter bolts using these inserts.

I ran into a few issues here. One of the 4 holes was winked (see photo), so I had to manipulate the cradle a bit to get it to fit. Also, only one or two of the mounting locations sat flush with the frame (all 4 were flush on the stock unit). I tried lifting the car from the cradle using a jack and some wood, assuming it would bend into place, but this did not help.

I also reinstalled the blacked out lights and began looking ahead at the air pump.