The TRD
Supercharger is advertised to be maintenance free and have a service
life of 100,000 miles. I have been told by the folks at
Magnuson who kit the supercharger for TRD that there are a couple
things you can do to make it last much longer. You can change
the oil in the nose drive and replace the nose drive with an
overhauled unit.
You can change
the oil in the nose drive. There is four ounces of a
special synthetic oil in the nose drive to lubricate the gears and
the bearings that support the input shaft. This oil does not
require changing for 100,000 miles, but changing it sooner is always
a good idea. You can get an oil kit from Magnuson for your
model supercharger. The oil kit includes a pre-measured four
ounce bottle of oil and a new drain plug.
The first
generation TRD Supercharger like I have is mounted upside down from
the way they normally are. Because of this the
supercharger will have to be removed from the engine so the drain
plug can be removed and the old oil drained out. The best time
to do this is when ever you remove the supercharger for some reason
like installing larger injectors. On the newer, second
generation supercharger the drain plug is on the front of the nose
drive near the input shaft. The plug can be removed and the
old oil sucked out with a suction machine. Then all you have
to do is pour in the new oil and install the new drain plug.
When I checked out some of the Grand Prix message boards, I found
that were recommending changing the supercharger oil every 15,000 to
30,000 miles. I would think that a 30,000 mile interval would
be a very good idea.
Here
is a picture of the supercharger after the nose drive has been
removed.
The other thing
that Magnuson recommended was to replace the nose drive every 60,000
miles. They say that as the supercharger exceeds 60,000 miles
the bearings in the nose drive start to wear and shed metal.
This metal floats around it the supercharger oil and can cause
damage to the main bearings that support the supercharger
impellers. When these bearings fail the whole supercharger
will then require overhauling.
This
is what the inside of the nose drive looks like once it has been
removed.
You can obtain
an overhauled nose drive from Magnuson with all new parts in it. The
only thing that is reused is the housing. The overhauled nose
drive comes with everything you need to replace it, the nose drive,
oil, a new shaft coupler, and the needed sealant for the casing.
To replace all
you have to do is remove the supercharger from the engine so the oil
does not spill all over the place when you split the case and remove
the bolts that are around the edge of the nose drive and give a tap
to break the seal. (I know of one guy with a second generation
supercharger that was able to replace the nose drive without
removing the supercharger from the engine.) Pull it off and then clean the sealing
surface really well so the sealant will stick and seal. Then
apply the sealant around the edge and install the new nose
drive. Then pour in the new oil, install the plug, and
reinstall the supercharger. Check with Magnuson for the proper
bolt torque for your model supercharger.
Other things
you may want to do on a regular basis is check around the input
shaft for signs of leaking oil, check the belt tension and
condition, and make sure the bypass valve is working properly and
not sticking. I have installed two second generation
supercharger on found that the travel stop set screws where not
properly adjusted causing the valve to over travel and stick.
The simple way
to check the bypass valve is to look at its position when the engine
is off, then start it and the valve should move to the opposite
position. When you shut off the engine it should move back to
where it was when you started.
Any time you
remove the belt, turn the input shaft by hand in the same direction
that the engine turns it. It should turn smoothly with no
roughness felt in the bearings.
It is a very
good idea to obtain an extra supercharger belt and carry it with you
in the truck just incase yours fails. This is not an item that
is normally stocked at Toyota dealers and it may take a few days to
special order one in from TRD and you would not want to get
stranded. I have also checked with several of the larger auto
parts stores and none of them stock that size belt. If you are
wondering it is a 62" four ribbed belt and the original ones
were made by Dayco for TRD.
