Its a V6. Would you recommend this? I have come acrossed a fairly cheap supercharger and I wondered if there would be any negative effects to doing this. (I am not a gear head by any means, which is why I'm asking here first). Thanks.

 

Is it one that sits on top of the engine where the intake manifold is.....or is it one that mounts elswhere sort of like an a/c pump as long as you can get a belt to it type?

As for the type that sit on the intake maniflod also refered to as a blower I do believe...... that would take a some ingenuity I would imagine. I am not to expierienced in that area.

If its the latter of the two, It could work with some engineering on your behalf. I would imagine it would be sort of like adding a turbo, (which have played with before) without a different exhaust manifold/header. In that particular instance you would need to think of a free flowing exhaust, more fuel to the engine to keep it from going lean if you plan on significant boost, some means of controlling the added fuel, a blow off valve of some type to save your throttle plate, new intake plumbing, different spark plugs with a smaller gap to keep the spark from blowing out under boost, some gauges like a boost gauge, an air fuel gauge and possibly an egt gauge may prove handy as well as some time to test n tune. I'm sure there are things I have forgotten, but these are the first handful of things that came to my mind. Hope it helps.



If you can pull it off it would be pretty trick and yield some extra power. Of course with a supercharger theres a parasitic loss since the belt has to drive the compressor. But the gain would be worth it to most people. As for how much of a gain I couldnt tell you but I would imgine you would definitly feel a difference and it wouldnt be one of those its all in your head things.

Eric

 

So if everything on the truck is stock thus far, I would have to do all that in order to get it performing correctly? By the way, I would be doing the latter of the 2 like you said.

 

Well prolly depending on the amount of boost you desire. Im not exactly sure what your supercharger will spit out. Im guessing somewhere from 7 to 9 lbs of pressure. On a stock engine thats been treated well, that shouldnt be a problem I wouldnt imagine. I know that you can get away with turboing a stock engine without getting into much trouble running about that much boost. I wouldnt go much higher on the stock internals though. Higher then that I would suggest beefing up your bottom end to handle it.

Im sure that it wouldnt be too terribly much of a hassle if it was in kit form. If it was setup designed to fit a 5.2l you may just need to shorten the intake tube to the throttle body a lil bit, and possibly modify a bracket or two. The 3.9 and the 5.2 are from what I understand the same engine just the 3.9 has two less cylinders. I know some parts will swap and others wont for obvious reasons. If it was one made just for the 3.9l (which I havent seen but havent really looked for either), it was prolly a kit that was designed to go with your stock engine. If thats was the case I would reccomend running at least 91 octane gas to keep the knock down and destroying your pistons. Make sure that you read the manual if there is one and make sure all the parts are there and if not get them before you try to do the install. It would prolly take the better part of a sunday to install if it were a kit. I remember seeing an issue of Sport Truck magazine that had a ram with a 3.9 that they supercharged with a kit engineered for a 5.2l. (the kit was from vortech I think, don't quote me on that tho) It had all kinds of details and things of that nature and from what I understand was a fun and reliable ride when completed.

If you just managed to get your hands on the compressor and thats it. Well that indeed would be a hassle. It would involve making brackets, custom tubes and all the things I wrote about before, as well as making sure the pulley is right that drives it and finding the correct belt length and things like that.

I'm not trying to discourage you at all. If I were in your shoes I would be out in the garage right now figuring out how to get this thing on. I may have missed a thing or two but again i'm not too familair with supercharging. I have only ever played with turbos on 2.2 and 2.5 liters. I wouldnt think there was too much of a difference between the two...forcefeeding is forcefeeding. Just two different methods. One is ran from a belt and the other from the exhaust.

 

I'm getting it from a guy who said he would fabricate and make all the custom parts to get it to work in the truck. Also, would you recommend me getting new exhaust first? I'm pretty sure mine is still stock.

 

I would. If not before then while I am installing the supercharger. I know on the turbo engines I have had in the past the quicker I got the exhaust out the better it ran. As that supercharger is forcing the air in your gonna wanna get it out. I would think about a set of headers and prolly a 3 inch cat back exhaust system. It should be like 2.5 inch right now to the front side of the muffler. I know that mine is and thats how my dads came stock. You could prolly get a 3 inch cat back system and that would be cool. I know summit has a couple kits available for dodge dakotas with v8s that are 3inch and the prices are reasonable. I had bought a set of jba headers for my one 3.9 dakota off ebay so I know they are available. You could prolly find them elsewhere also. You will prolly loose a lil bit of power running a 3 inch cat back on a stock 3.9 engine...but after you get that huffer on, itll make a huge difference.


Thats cool that you have someone to help out with the fabrication. Hopefully it all goes well and your rollin with it soon.

 

What brand s/c is it?

There are a number of things that you will need to address before boosting that engine. Complete tune up is a good first step - plugs, wires, tstat, cap/rotor. Consider a fresh timing chain. I think the V6 uses a similar intake manifold as the V8 - if so make sure the plenum pan is not leaking. You might also consider fresh head gaskets. If you are off on your tune you will blow out the old ones that are on there right now.

Make sure your valve train is in good condition - no bad seals, etc. Consider getting a set of roller rockers - stronger, lighter and less friction than the stock stuff. Do a compression test and make sure your rings are holding up. Any weakness on a block that old and with a decent amount of miles will become readily apparent once you start boosting.

You will need an MSD 6BTM at minimum, otherwise you will see detonation at higher boost levels, which is very bad.