gerryc

Pretty excited - just finished it yesterday afternoon.

Overall, it's a pretty manageable process. If you are somewhat handy and can climb into your engine bay for 10 hours, definitely do it. There are a lot of steps and it's pretty involved, but the process went very smoothly. Directions from Ripp are fantastic, and the quality of the kit is superb. All of the parts were there. All fit together nicely. It was like a big advanced Lego project.

A few observations:
- Getting to some of the bolts on top of the intake were a pain. This made swapping out the injectors one of the more tedious parts of the project.
- Removing the inner fender is critical for getting at both the plugs and block vent (?)
- The toughest part - by far - was getting the hat (piece the air filter mounts to) onto the supercharger. I failed at the first several tries, when I thought I got it, there was a nasty howling because it was not lined up right. I finally got it, and these things were critical:
1) sanded the inner seat of the hat a little to give it some room
2) temporarily removed the rubber spacer-mount holding the radiator in place on the passenger side
3) grease

I also had a terrible time with the ECU flash, but it was my fault. I previously had a hypertech module/tune and the controller was stolen, so I could not revert to stock tune before installing the Ripp-specific Diablo Predator tune. I took it to the dealer (not the brightest bulbs) and they told me they reflashed back to stock. I don't know what they did, but it was not something that the predator would accept as a stock tune...

So I had to get on the phone with Diablo Sport and walk through the process to reflash to factory tune. My ECU was stubborn and it took 2 tries, but now it's all set.

Driving impressions:
- Blow off valve is loud. I'll get used to it.
- No dash error lights or anything like that, all operates as stock
- The power is NOTICEABLE. There's a little noisy drama with it, but it's definitely there.
- I have ARB lockers, so I have an open diff when they're not engaged. This means I can do pegleg burnouts. Big. Haven't tried with locker engaged

I'm going to update the tune with something newer from Ripp and then send it to the dyno this week. Will report back.

dillUSMC

gerryc

I should have seen that coming. ;-)

I'll get them up there later today

dillUSMC

sounds good, ive been debating myself if i should get a SC or just save up for a few years and get a 7.2L

gerryc

ok. Here's my Jeep:




Here's the view of the intercooler from the front:




Here's the view down into the newly enhanced engine compartment:




Note how close the clearance is between the radiator and the blower hat:




And here is a gratuitous shot:



Anything else in specific anyone wants a pic of?

gerryc

It's a tough call.....

I looked at the hemi pretty seriously. I decided I didn't need ultimate power, just more than I had with stock. Not really about money, it was more about practicality. My jeep is 5 years old already. If I can get up the sand dunes faster, and hold my speed on the freeway, I'll be happy.

G

runnin-low

wow that looks really good! congrats on the install! ENJOY!!!

Shortbuss

Nice thread!! I want one!

gerryc

Thanks guys. I'll post the dyno results as soon as I get them... I was too impatient to get it done before for comparison, but stock performance is pretty well documented

VJDJLucy2

I installed mine in may on a friday and blew the axel on sunday doing a burnout,you now have a lot more power be careful.