Porsche 996 VF Supercharger Belt And Waterpump Replacement RennsportKC

Had this old 996 come into the shop this week for a host of things. I built this car years ago at Imagine Auto, they are all finding their way home slowly but surely.

It was a unique build years ago, custom GT2 front and rear bumpers along with a Getty rear wing (I really think it needs a turbo decklid to finish it off right). VF supercharger, harness bar and Sparco harnesses. Kit #071

One of the issues with the Getty rear wing is that it hits the body when opening, so you can only get it open about far enough to stick your head in. Since I have to pull the supercharger to replace the belt, I took off the decklid to make my life a lot easier.

As you can see the belt is shredding. No apparent reason so far…..

Found the apparent reason. The bolt had backed out on one of the pulleys……or had it? It was tight as could be and threaded in and out without issue, so it wasn’t stripped. This allowed the pulley it sit there and walk back and forth and eat the belt up.

After a bunch of work, I have the charger off the car. I’m still not exactly sure how this could have happened, but the mounting boss for the pulley is chewed up, and same goes for the spacer sleeve on the pulley.

Spacer sleeve.

The solution is a new supercharger mounting bracket, but due to the cost, I took a different route and filled the spacing with a washer to tightening things up. Seems to have worked just fine.

Back to a somewhat stock looking engine bay, lol. While the charger is out, the waterpump is a bit easier to get to.

To get to the waterpump, the cats must come off, along with the engine support brace, which means supporting the engine with a stand.

Which allows access to the pump.

Old pump off and new pump on. When replacing a waterpump, always spin the pump after install to make sure nothing is binding. I can’t begin to count the number of impellers on waterpumps that have bound up on the engine case due to poor manufacturing that I have caught. You don’t want to put it back together and start the car with it bound up.

And back together.

And the charger and new belt on the car. A royal PITA to get the belt where it needs to be on all the supercharger and idler pulleys.

Over the years numerous people have had their hands in this engine bay. Improper mounting of the charge cooler too close to the PS pulley have cut some really big grooves in the back of the cooler. So far it hasn’t poked through yet.