I have a MY00 that I just installed an aftercooled Comptech SC w/ Novi 1200 on a few weeks ago. All went great during the install, relatively no issues to speak of until one day I noticed that one of the worm gear clamps on the silicone reducer that connects the outlet of the blower to the inlet of the aftercooler had snapped. It was easy to see that it broke because the silicone reducer and clamp was rubbing/knocking against the front edge of the engine cross member when I would go over bumps in the road (due to flex of the engine in the engine mounts). After rubbing/knocking the worm gear clamp over a few weeks, it just broke the clamp.

I didn't particularly notice that this area was so tight during install, but looking at it now it is close. It seems that maybe my blower is sitting away from the engine just a fraction of an inch more than it should, making the front of the blower closer to that front edge of the engine cross member. And the engine cross member edge is rather sharp, making it bend and break the worm gear clamp easily.

I tried to rotate the blower housing couter-clockwise a bit more to gain clearance at the blower outlet, which worked great, but now the left-side of the blower is sitting too close to the cross member and I get a rattle when driving from the blower housing contacting the cross member, which is even worse! Don't want to mess up the blower by having it bounce around on the cross member! Don't worry, I'm not driving it, it is parked in my garage till I work this out.

Anyway, I didn't know if anyone else had the same issue here. I am thinking of grinding down about a 1/4" off the front edge of the cross member in the local area to gain clearance and prevent the rattling. Comptech says to bend down a section of this cross member in the back to gain clearance for the oil outlet, which I did, but once installed I saw that I didn't even need to do this because I had enough clearance otherwise for the oil outlet. Any other ideas?

 

I have the nv1000 and had to bend the crossmember where the oil return line comes out of the blower...you could do something like that...simple fix, just have to loosen everything up to get to it good.

 

Yeah, I am planning on either bending the edge a bit like I did on the opposite side for the oil return line, or just shaving off a bit with a grinder. I would prefer to not have to remove the blower from the car for obvious reasons (since its kinda a PITA). I know I can wedge the engine back a tad and work my grinder in there.

 

I would bend and not grind. Can always somewhat bend it back if need be not to mention if you are careful the paint won't chip/crack, so no need to worry about rust.

 

I ended up bending the edge of the frame rail down to about a 70 degree angle. It gave the compressor plenty of clearance that it needed and the car feels extremely smooth now! Amazing how much vibration was making its way through to the car because of this issue. Car feels great now!

 

Sounds like old motor mounts. They start to compress after a wile, its the only thing holding up your blower/engine. Keep this in mind before you start defacing your car to band aid a problem which otherwise wouldn't exists. The tolerance is pretty close, but if you have your blower clocked right and clamps on right, you wont get any rubbing there.

 

I personally prefer cutting that spot, I bent mine and It was still having a contact with the blower, I cut it after and now its like a baws! no contact, and its clean

 

Bumping old thread with additional resolution info. s2000Junky was 100% right, the motor mounts were the cause of my issues. They were both completely shot and were causing my entire engine to sit lower in the engine bay, thus causing the compressor to rub on the cross member.

After bending the cross member down some more, the clearance eventually went away again as my engine mounts failed even more. Easy to see the issue in hindsight and after hearing s2000Junky's theory. Thanks for the info man. With new engine mounts in, the compressor has PLENTY of clearance to the cross member.

 

Did you replace with stock mounts? or something else? How was the install?

 

Replaced with Megan/Hardrace OEM style replacements... see here: https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/979...ission-mounts/