supercharger whine

FWIW I recommend gutting the air box (remove red and grey plastic) over an FWI until you are heavily modded, unless you just want the sound.

Ok so it got kinda cool tonight and i turned the a/c off. Man what a difference! Does the a/c drag it down that bad? It was like night and day and yes i could hear the supercharger whine!

The A/C running can have a noticeable effect on harder acceleration, but not much in normal driving.

The AC clutch should automatically disengage during WOT operation. I've never been able to tell my AC was on by how the car accelerates.

AA wrote:

The AC clutch should automatically disengage during WOT operation. I've never been able to tell my AC was on by how the car accelerates.

Me either.. i was shocked when someone enlightened me on how it disengages

gordy, please add the year of your car to your signature and enable it in your user preferences. The A/C WOT question may not apply to all years. The '98 will disengage A/C at heavy throttle.

ok new member and new riv driver but i hear vids on other rivs wine but i cant hears mines wine at all is there something i can do 2 hear it.....or is it cus i need 2 replace every thing under the hood my rivs got about 151000 miles i bought it with 147000 miles (v_v)....it wud be nice if i cud hear it jus once...(^_^)

whine can be achieved by removing the stock airbox. you can do something as simple as just putting a cone on the end of the TB, or put a little more work into making a fender well intake out of some PVC pipe and a cone filter.
personally i would recommend the fender well intake because of cooler air, that and the cone being in the fender might possibly amplify the whine.

simba wrote:

ok new member and new riv driver but i hear vids on other rivs wine but i cant hears mines wine at all is there something i can do 2 hear it.....or is it cus i need 2 replace every thing under the hood my rivs got about 151000 miles i bought it with 147000 miles (v_v)....it wud be nice if i cud hear it jus once...(^_^)

Simba,
A few questions...
Firstly, I'm assuming you bought the car stock, right (all original factory parts/options)?

Secondly, please provide the year/as much technical information as you can about your Riv. That will really help the forum answer your question.

Thirdly, the number of miles doesn't necessarily have to determine the condition it is in... was the car in great condition when you bought it, or did the seller tell you it needs work? If so, which parts? Or do you just want to replace everything just because?

its a 97 and i wanna replace jus cuz

Simba, the best way you can make your blower whine louder is to open up the intake. There are basically four options:

1) gut the air box: Link

2) modify the air box: Link

3) fender well intake: Link1 Link2 Link3

3) cold air intake: Link

new 2 cars 2 sorry idk where it is pic wud help out alot

Look at the links, there should be some pic's.

The link's 2 post's above has all the pic's you need to gut your airbox, that's where the air filter is, you know where that is don't you.?
That will provide and instant increase in noticeable SC whine for no money. Unless you want to put a K&N Air Filter in there, which is recommended for more flow, etc.

simba wrote:

its a 97 and i wanna replace jus cuz

I would replace the idler and tensioner pullies, and use a vacuum pump to suction out the P/S fluid and S/C oil and replace with new. Note that the supercharger oil is a specialty item you can only get from GM.

For your intake, the stock airbox has a lot of baffling that can be removed. Read most of this thread for more details.

I gotta say I just took my baffle out tonight and I can hear the S/C whine alot more!

So, I went through and gutted the air box like shown in the steps and I'm not really noticing a louder whine from the supercharger. Maybe it's there and I'm just not noticing it, who knows.

It is more of a subtle noise difference, not blatantly obvious. If you really want SC whine to be more audible, you'll want to do a FWI.

Have you floored it since you gutted? That's when the sound diff would be most notable.

duster_do_little wrote:

So, I went through and gutted the air box like shown in the steps and I'm not really noticing a louder whine from the supercharger. Maybe it's there and I'm just not noticing it, who knows.

You should notice it quite easily when accelerating. If not then your SC isn't working too good or somethings wrong.

Depending how far you gutted it, the main thing you will hear is the 'morning' growl of the rotors, before they warm up,,,

Eldo wrote:

Depending how far you gutted it, the main thing you will hear is the 'morning' growl of the rotors, before they warm up,,,

OMG the morning growl. I'll take pics tomorrow, but I went as far as to smooth out the entire box. That "growl" is ridiculous until it warms up, I hate it.....

And yes, at WOT mine is loud as hell, the whine that is.

I've ran a stock intake, short ram intake, fenderwell intake, and lastly a modified FWI/gutted box...

Everyones knows what a stock Riv SC whine sounds like...

I ran my best dyno run on the short ram intake but that was with the hood open on a cold engine. I am running a 2.8 with OD ballancer (essentially 2.65 pulley) so the whine was much louder than stock. I have no idea what a stock Riv would sould like with this setup.

I shortly ran a FWI and it outperformed the short intake after the engine warmed up a bit. It sounded the same but performance seemed much better on normal drives when the engine heats up. Mine was very functunal but ugly as hell so I decided to do this...

My posts start about halfway down on the second page but the entire thread is a very good read. With this setup I damn near matched my dyno numbers and can also tell I constantly have the power whenever the engine is heated up too. Again, my whine is a little more than an everyday Riv, so I can't comment on the sound of a stock setup...

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/series-ii-engine-transmission-f4/write-up-modified-air-box-cai-t1289.htm

My "gutted" box looks much like some of yours. I smoothed the lid, and cut out the side by the fender, the headlight, and also the bottom. I also cut the sheet metal under the box. Makes noise, works great. Only downside is that stupid "growl" in the morning....

Rickw wrote:

duster_do_little wrote:

So, I went through and gutted the air box like shown in the steps and I'm not really noticing a louder whine from the supercharger. Maybe it's there and I'm just not noticing it, who knows.

You should notice it quite easily when accelerating. If not then your SC isn't working too good or somethings wrong.

I took the red plastic bevel and grey plastic bevel each out. The sc whine was fairly noticeable to begin with on hard acceleration, but I was hoping it would get more like what the fieros sound like that have the 3800sc in them.

Like what this one sounds like at 1:38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XpAK7e48nE

You'll want to go FWI for the big whine. It will resonate through the door and into the cabin, about double the sound of gutting the box: