Kenne Bell Supercharged Caprice PPV 6 Speed Manual

Tell us about your new PPV, show us some pictures, let us know how you did what you did!
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kras007
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2017 12:54 am

Kenne Bell Supercharged Caprice PPV 6 Speed Manual

Post by kras007 »

This car was posted on the forum last year under drivetrain when it was converted to a manual transmission along with a cam/headers install. It has some new hardware to show off so I dragged it over here in member builds so you can all view.
After installing a Kenne Bell Supercharger kit on a 2013 Camaro it made me realize how similar the engine bay was to a Caprice engine bay. No company that I know of makes a supercharger kit designed for the Caprice so after some careful measuring I convinced the owner that a Kenne Bell supercharger " should fit, lets give it a try". I said the same thing to him about the TR6060 swap "should fit, lets give it a try" and being the great customer he is he trusted me again and said "lets do it". So I called the guys at Kenne Bell and ordered up 2.8L Supercharger Kit for a 2011 up Camaro with liquid cooled heat exchanger option. This kit is designed for the L99/LS3 but since the L77 in the Caprice has the same style LS3 heads the supercharger bolts right up. I pulled the powertrain from the vehicle to mock everything up and it also made it easier to swap the cam out to one with a blower specific grind. After the cam was installed the first order of business was getting the engine accessory pulleys to line up with the supercharger pulley. When the supercharger was mounted on the Caprice L77 the pulley stuck out 1" further then all the other pulleys on the engine. This is because the Camaro L99 and LS3 use a "truck" style pulley offset which puts all the pulleys farther out to clear the electric steering rack. Luckily the Caprice and Camaro have all the engine accessories mounted in the same location so it was a matter of using the brackets for the Camaro accessories(a/c, p/s, alternator) along with the water pump and crankshaft pulley. This made all the pulleys line up with the supercharger and on to the next big issue was the Caprice A/C lines coming off the compressor were now interfering with the Camaro water pump heater outlet pipes. Again the Camaro part fixed this as well. I had to splice a portion of the Camaro A/C line into the Caprice line to clear the water pump and all was good to go. At this point the powertrain and body were reunited. With a few modifications I was able to install the rest of the kit components- the heat exchanger, coolant pump, intake, boost a pump, wiring, etc. The power steering pump reservoir needed to be relocated with a custom bracket and the Caprice MAF had to be tossed out and replaced with the Camaro card style MAF. The air filter supplied in the kit was too long to fit so it had to be substituted with a shorter air filter to fit behind the front fascia and accept cold air through the lower left grill insert.
This write up is condensed but highlights some of the major issues adapting the Camaro kit to work on the Caprice. It came together really nice and the finished product looks awesome. Kenne Bell builds a great product and the kit has nothing but quality parts. I had no issues with the initial start up so got right to tuning it for its new cam, blower, and fuel system. I left some room for more power in the tune and wanted him to put some miles on it and make sure everything is working properly. Everything fell into place and the only downside to this whole project is the hood does not clear the supercharger so I had to cut a hole in it. Its not the worst thing because the customer is having a custom cowl welded into the hood to give it he finishing touch it deserves. On a driveability side the car pulls like a freight train and I have got nothing but good feedback from the customer. He has been driving it for a month now with no major issues to report. With everything working good the next step is to run a smaller pulley and maximize the tune at WOT. Plan to be on the dyno or track this fall to get some numbers before the snow flies.

Here is the current build on the car

-Kenne Bell 2.8L Supercharger liquid cooled
-BTR PDS Stage 2 Camshaft
-Comp Cam Springs and Retainers
-BTR Hardened Pushrods
-Kooks Headers w/ header wrap
-no cats, custom x pipe, muffler, tips
-TR6060 Manual Swap
-Hurst Short Throw Shifter
-LS7 Corvette clutch assembly
-Camaro 3.45 rear axle w/ poly bushings

Below is link to a walk around video the customer posted on youtube and another link to photos from the install highlighting the modification areas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62HICsl ... e=youtu.be" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0x ... 6ED078CE47" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hope you all enjoy and get motivated!
lastcall190
Posts: 604
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2017 5:17 am
Location: North Jersey

Re: Kenne Bell Supercharged Caprice PPV 6 Speed Manual

Post by lastcall190 »

So...

That was great :lol:

I will be honest I'm just about as impressed with that garage!

Everything looks so clean and quite well thought out.

-J
2012 Caprice
2008 CVPI

Both gone but not forgotten...
choptop
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2018 2:56 pm

Re: Kenne Bell Supercharged Caprice PPV 6 Speed Manual

Post by choptop »

Nice !!
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