This thread is worth a bump, and
@txfromwi needs a big thank you for this video.
I'm comfortable with tools, but have never done anything really more complicated than changing tires, oil, battery, etc... Real novice level stuff. I talked a retired buddy with plenty of wrenching experience into helping me through it. I went through the txfromwi video twice, and took detailed notes with time stamps to for each step I was concerned about, because of all the hard work that went into that video I felt pretty well prepared heading into this thing and we pulled it off without a hitch! Took the two of us about 13 hours to do (26 man hours, and not including a significant amount of video prep time, parts shopping etc...). We didn't work on anything from the water pump down though.
A couple of comments on how it went from my end:
Doing the service on the supercharger was brilliant. That spring had beat the crud out of the stud. Severe grooving on one side. So glad to have the new coupler in there. I got about the same amount of oil out of the drain hole in the back, but was totally unsuccessful with the syringe. I needed enlist the help of my buddy to tip it up and pour it out. It worked well enough in the end.
PCV Valve: Just one add. Anyone that has 60k+ miles and is doing this work may as well swap the PCV valve while you are in there. Some say it's possible to do without removing the supercharger, but if it's off anyway, you may as well get after it. If it hasn't been replaced already you'll likely have to do it soon. It's an inexpensive part and it literally takes 5 minutes while you are in there. I couldn't do it without breaking off the tabs, doing it without full visibility for the first time would have been rough I think.
Little Plastic Elbow: One comment regarding that little plastic elbow that goes into the water pump. When I pulled mine out the pump side end was missing a little less than 1/4" of material. Pretty scary. I replaced it with a metal one from EuroAmp. I believe that it's the same material as what receives it in the pump so I felt good about it. My water pump was replaced by the dealer under the previous owners time with the truck. That was only 20k miles ago. I guess that they didn't care to swap out any other pieces of the system down there. Anyway, I wish there was a little more detail about how that all went back in, O-ring, clip, elbow. We figured it out I guess, but without a real firm mechanical connection, just the pressure from the expanded clip in the bore, my buddy insisted on zip tying it in place... It felt really firm to me, but he felt better with the zip tie.
That connector in the back SUCKED as much as advertised. We ended up on pulling it off after we popped the supercharger. I held the unit and my buddy worked on the connector. We also removed the thin plastic cowl that crosses at the width of the engine bay right right where the hood hinges. Still that plug It was brutal. We actually had to do it twice. As after we set the supercharger back down, and plugged it back in, we realized that the supercharger was sitting on top of an electrical connector that had fallen down. There was much sadness. Not as much sadness as investing 5 hours into that clip, certainly glad we had the video.
The previous owner had the front cross overs replaced already, but while I was in there I was planning on throwing in the aluminum EuroAmp pipes as well. But they didn't fit. I guess I got a bad batch. It was fine though since I already had the revised pipes, and they were in good shape still with just 20k miles, I just popped them back on and I'll see if I can get those guys to take them back.
All in all I am really happy with it. A maddening amount of work to replace a $150 part. My check engine light is off (due to the PCV valve) my supercharger sounds great, and I don't have a single thing dripping in my driveway, and about $4,000 of potential mechanics fees still sitting in my bank.
Also feels good to clean up that rat **** that was all over the inside of this thing. (Previous owner). How did it get down under the supercharger anyway? It's like the oil cooler was it's favorite place to take a duece. Crazy.
In short thank you all for being such a great community and helping us non millionaires keep these rigs in the road, and preferably in some dirt, rocks, sand and mud! I love this truck hopefully I can get some trouble free months out of it.