I have recently recieved many phone calls /e-mails concerning these spacers...Jim Bell has informed me that KenneBell will not warranty any SC that has had these spacers attached. We have been told here on this forum that KB has revised their plate to accomadate these spacers but that is simply not true!...Here's the e-mail we @ JLP have recieved direct from Kenne Bell....

This is to inform you that Kenne Bell will no longer warranty Lightning superchargers with the JDM phenolic spacer. Also, that post by JDM that states " Kenne Bell has also revised their plate to make deeper holes " that is NOT true. We have not changed our plate to accomodate any JDM spacer. I never seen one of those plates. that is B.S. JDM is not even a Kenne Bell dealer/installer. We tested a similar isolation plate with thermocouplers on the dyno and determined there was no performance gain whatsoever. The same is true for throttle body spacers - "0" gain. Besides being a waste of performance, money, these spacers can create other potential problems for all of us. The clearance between the inlet manifold and the firewall is reduced. The last thing we want is a precision supercharger assembly bouncing off the firewall. More important are those excessively long bolts that "bottom out in the supercharger, can distort the case resulting in rotor to case interference. We have already warranteed too many superchargers that were distorted from these long spacers bolts. The first was from Dan, who had his Kenne Bell installed at R.E.M. We don't care if the long bolt problem has been corrected. In the immortal words of Smokey Yunick - " If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Johnny, this seemingly innocent product has caused us a lot of greif and expense. I want no part of it, I'm sure you'll agree that our goal should be to supply the best possible product but also to do everything we can to help guarantee the products integrity and long term performance.
Regards,
Jim Bell
Kenne Bell

 

I don't know how you could make them (the holes) any deeper, they are already drilled and tapped all the way thru the plate.
Dale

 

I am confused here Jim, can you explain this in detail?

From all the KB's that I have seen at my local tuners shop here, I havent seen one that looks any different or has a thicker adapter plate on it

PU DEPPARW

 

I guess they are not worried about this clearance though huh? Looks bad do down someone elses product then post some pictures that makes yours look just as bad.

 

Huh? I don't see any clearance issues? Looks like everything clears the firewall fine to me. Th adapter plate is cut just like it came from KB and the upper clears it fine?

 

Although Dans supercharger WAS installed at our shop, the phenolic spacer with the long bolts, if he infact had one, was not installed here.

The supercharger failed on the drive home, approx. 100 miles, having been installed with the bolts provided by the customer. We assume this hardware was received from KB.

 

Nobody was downing anyones product. He was simply stating the facts of what KB considers voidable modifications. I say thanks for the heads up. Also, since the purpose of this post was to inform people of KB warranty problems, I fail to see any correlation between JL's one-off plenum modification and the fact that some people are potentially running a damaging KB/spacer setup. Also, please note that the body of the message was originally from Jim Bell at Kenne Bell, not JL. JL simply passed on the info. If I was to invest well over 3K for the KB upgrade and other related upgrades, I'd hope that people out there would continue to pass on info such as this. Again, thanks JL.

 

I think what he was trying to say was that the phenolic JDM spacer doesn't hit the firewall either. It looks to have about the same amount of clearance as JL's upper intake plenum...

 

Exactly...



Same as people use to say about the other blowers being made. They all are close fits and WILL do some rubbing/hitting.

One thing I have never seen posted on here is motor flex, noone has it? Anyone broke a motor mount? Using solid ones?

Let one of those break with a tight fitting aftermarket blower and you will see the results.


Noone's products are perfect is just the same old BS going around, one vendor bashing another to make themselves look better.

 

quote:
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This problem was found and has already been addressed. We are now sending out bolts that are a hundred thousanths shorter. KB has also revised their plate to make with deeper holes.

Jim@JDM
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I'm also curious to who JDM talked too...This is not about one vendor bashing another it's about charactor and telling the truth.

 

Maybe your the one doing the bashing!!!

 

We need a smiley thats bashing a vendor!

 

 

I'm pretty sure that this is a prototype intake and that there is plenty of clearance.

SREDAEH

 

Yeah, like that will happen ... Truth and some people
never seem to make aquaintances.

So let's see, Kenne Bell is going to change a $3,000 product
to accomodate a $98 piece of phenolic ... Does that mean the
KB blowers shipped to JDM'S sister are out of date now? Good
luck getting ANY KB warranty out of an unauthorised re-seller.