Ive got a needswings intake and a code 3 on the way... THis seems to be a common combo. Maybe others will see this thread in the future and have their questions answered.

1. Are colder spark plugs necessary?

2. Are smaller gapped spark plugs necessary?

3. Is better cooling neccessary?

I know all of these things are a good idea but I'm curious how much of a disadvantage if you don't do them. Anything else?

 

Winter is arriving and the cooling issues will be minimal till next season and with more power, Cooling will become more important to you. THis is for the intercooler water as well as the engine cooling overall.

I am already working on an upgrade that should be useful to all, due next Spring.

Woody Enjoy. Check the torque!

 

Necessary?
No, no, & no.
But I really liked the improvement given by a tune. I am using the "Jerrytune".

 

[/QUOTE]

LONG LIVE THE "JERRYTUNE"

 

Either Inmotion and LET's new tunes are pretty good. I have the older LET tune and people with the newer Inmotion and LET tune were running better than me. So either new tune is good IMO.

 

My experience with the Code 3 pulley is, yes, you will have to improve cooling.
Brian from Code 3 emailed me the following when I told him that my SC was cutting out from overtemp problems.

"Cooling issues have plagued the 3.2l sc engine since 2002. Remember, we have been modding this engines for quite some time. For years, people didnt understand how there upgraded C32 would lose to cars they shouldnt be in races. The problem was simple, heat soak was shutting the SC off, or causing it to pull a tremendous amount of timing because of the heat, which decreases power. The stock cooling system is not adequate at all to run ANY upgraded boost. When I started developing parts for the C32 two years ago, the first mod I designed was an upgraded HE. The johnson pump on its own will not help much. Even though it flows 50% more than the stock pump, most of it is getting backed up on the inlet side of the intercooler (under the SC), as it flows very poorly. Quite simply, an upgraded HE is one of the first mods I recommend to customers."

 

InMotion told me to only go one step colder in the summer when it get's over 100 degrees. Otherwise stock is fine. Also said fancy plugs are a waste of money. I don't think I have the same SC overheating issues with my ASP 178mm pulley, or I just haven't noticed them. Even when it was 105 degrees at the track, my car didn't fall flat. It still pulled hard, ran slow but never felt like the SC was ever shutting down. Just from my experience. Lots of slips.

 

Don't believe the hype, unless your going road racing an upgraded HE isn't a big enough change in temps to justify the money IMO. For a street driven car or just a dragstrip car, the upgraded HE is money not well spent. Upgrading to the Johnson pump is worth the piece of mind tho. If you are looking for a real fix for hi temps, I would look into alcohol injection. These opinions are based off my own persoanl experience so take it as you may.

 

No track, just very hard street driving.

Already have the Johnson pump, No help.
Flushed the cooling system and it was clean.

Relocated the stock HE higher into the air stream yesterday. Have to do some driving to see if that helped. A larger HE will be my next step.

 

Trust me when I say you won't see much of a difference if any with the upgraded HE alone. You are going to need to seperate the cooling system and still it won't be enough. These superchargers get way hot and no HE currently offered is going to do much. You can cool down the fluid all you want, but the SC is going to heat the air up hotter than the intercooler can cool it. Go with alcohol injection cooling and save your money.

 

I have a code-3 pulley, LET tune, CAI and deleted rear cats. One of the members went to the track with me and the only mods he had were for cooling purposes only, and we got to race each other. He had the spacers, HE and Johnson pump. I actually watched him slowly creeping up on me near the end of the 1/4! My power was dropping off, while he kept pulling! While idling, I noticed his water temp was right around or lower than the halfway mark, where mine was slightly above. So seeing this with my own eyes has convinced me to upgrade the cooling also. At least the temps will be coming down and once Spring arrives, that's when I'll do those upgrades, along with methanol injection.

 

Well I have an upgraded HE, johson pump, phenolic spacers, 1 step colder plugs, cooler thermostat, 185 pulley, NW intake, and tune and was pulling on nobody. I would check your IC pump if you haven't already.

 

I ordered a small heat exchanger to mount WITH the stock H/E, except this will be above it more towards the top of the radiator, partially behind the upper grill. Woody has taught us that the main key to cooling isn't necessarily the H/E, instead its the location. The stock H/E should work fine, if located behind the upper grill.

The lower location just doesn't get enough air, and even an upgraded H/E will suffer in the lower location.

He also taught us the stock H/E doesn't flow very well, so adding a second H/E may not be wise. But I'm a 'common' car enthusiast unlike Woody, and I'll be happy with just an improvement instead of an all-out revolution in design. So the stock H/E in the stock location, with a second, smaller H/E behind the upper grll, should be enough to counter-act the slight increase in heat from the code3 pulley.

Since I live in Arizona, I may do colder plugs year-round. I'm not sure yet... Sheesh this car is more needy than my girlfriend. It whines more too.

 

Dude you guys like to work on them instead of drive them. I'm in AZ too and I think we get hotter in the valley than Tucson. I have time for a girlfriend, besides my wife. J/K on the wife thing. She'll take half the crossfire.

 

there is something else wrong, the pulley alone will not cause those problems unless something is wrong with the pulley you have.

 

I DO drive mine! I also like to tinker. Once the overtemp problem started I went to work!
Got familar with taking off the front bumper, heat exchanger this weekend!

What fun!

 

Let me help. It's not the IC pump, heat exchanger, intake, radiator, maybe the s/c pulley by chance? Like Mrphotoman recommended exchange it or sell it. With your stock one you had no problems. If the performance is the same with a crank pulley and a SC pulley then why isn't there SC overheating issues with the 178 crank pulley. Believe me I want to the SC pulley succeed, the stacked pulleys is a great option for future power. Maybe the pulley is too small and creates too much heat for the SC. More testing perhaps to make it just as reliable as the crank pulley. I hope you get it solved, because just like the MB guys went through the trial and errors of the crank pulley when it first came out, you will be one that helps solve this SC overheating issue from the SC pulley.

 

how common is this supercharger overheating problem with the s/c pulley? ive only heard of one car with this problem. am i missing some others

 

boost is boost is boost. the crank pulley creates more boost by spinning the supercharger pulley faster and that equals more boost. the code3 supercharger pulley creates more boost by using a smaller sc pulley that spins faster and that equals more boost. there is absolutely NO DIFFERENCE in the boost between one pulley or the other. The code3 actually creates LESS heat because it creates a little less boost aka psi.

You are the only person having the heat issue with the supercharger pulley, either the clutch is bad in your pulley or the tolerances are too tight and it is causing the magnet to activate too soon or all the time.

do an exchange with code3 or just send it to them to test.

if the car only has issues with the pulley on, do not go changing the bearing in your rear wheel, swap mufflers or change your oil or look in other silly places for a problem. There is somthing wrong with your pulley.

If you honestly believe that is just a common problem then please explain to me how all the guys with the code3 pulley are running around with no other cooling mods with zero problems? I drove 5.5 hours up to MD this weekend, raced from 10am to 6pm then drove 5.5 hours home and had ZERO heat issues. Explain that if you are so convinced it is a common problem. I am running a stock heat exchanger, stock pump (lightning pump but it is a clone of the stock one) and I have zero extra cooling mods.

You are making this more complicated than necessary. Exchange the pulley and be done with it.

 

I'm not plagued, so what is he talking about? If DA is good I run great, if DA is bad I run bad. I have upgraded boost. Is there a chance he is saying with the proper cooling mods my car will run the same at 4000' DA that it will at 2000' DA? Sorry that will remain a theory if that's what's being suggested.