Kenne Bell questions

[Chuck]

I'm getting set to do some more upgrades to the truck, and I'd like some advice.

First off, its a 1999 Dakota R/T CC. It came with the Kenne Bell S/C and KB headers, and a Gibson Sport exhaust. I pulled off the Gibson, and had a friend of John Mercedes weld up a custom dual exhaust without cats. The power increased so much that my transmission finished melting down, and I had to have it rebuilt.

This sucker was loud with the new exhaust. I mean, it would make your lawn die if I pulled up in front of your house and revved a few times. I did some detective work and found that the PCV wasn't hooked up to anything. The hose was running from the throttle body to nowhere. Hooked that up and the truck quieted down quite a bit. Ran better too.

Then it was time for a Fastman 52mm TB. I felt a big difference afterwards. I wish that I had GTech'd the truck prior to the install so I could do a comparison, but I keep forgetting to take the Gtech out of my car.

Next up, John has ordered an M1 for me, and thats where the questions begin.

KB, in their ten pounds of error corrections (based on "thousands of hours of testing" which somehow didn't get considered until after they started selling their S/C kit for our trucks) mentions that the stock "plenum pan" gaskets in the Dodge motor are too weak for even mild boost, and that while they've seen them run 12 pounds without a leak, most trucks need a special gasket made of rubber and steel rather than the normal ones we have. WTH is a "plenum pan" gasket? Is this the gasket sealing the beer barrel to the block, or is the beer barrel a 2 piece manifold? Do I need these gaskets with the M1?

I'm thinking that since I have the manifold off, maybe I should just pull the heads too and get them to John for his R/T trick work. But if I do that, then maybe I should just get a cam too, right? If I do that, should I get a normal performance cam, or one with less overlap because I have an S/C?

Decisions, decisions...

Ultimate goal: I want this truck down in the 11's. Should I pull the S/C and sell it, put the truck back to a nice NA high performance buildup, and then throw on the NX kit I have sitting in my garage? Or should I make the most of this Kenne Bell since so many people seem to speak of them in glowing terms?

Of course, if I was going to dissect the motor and do all that piece work, couldn't I just get a 383 long block from Mopar and go that route?

[T.j.]

One thing is for sure, In my opinion a blown 11 second 5.9 is a hell of alot cooler then a 11 sec N/A 5.9 on the bottle. Stay with the blower and build it up with the heads, cam, m1, etc. Good luck chuck

[bneaves]

The belly pan is the lower "cover" plate that is in the vally. You do not have a belly pan on the M1. The pan is there b/c it had to be to mold the beer barrel intake. There are billet pans available from a couple of diff vendors, but that's no concern if you have an M1 coming. you will see the pan when you take off the old intake.

I have had a SC truck and I loved it. I am getting close to having spray, just gotta install the cam and stall first. Depends on which you want depending on how/what you want to do with it. The SC is more $ initially and is always there, but you must always run prem fuel. The NOS can be turned on only when you go to the track, and you can run reg fuel when you're not racing.
But it has to be re-filled every 6-8 runs.

If you do decide to sell teh KB let me know, I'll take it. :drive:

[thirsajohn]

I'm tryin to find out what modified heads or even bigger valve covers anyone has with a kenne bell. I'm looking to upgrade to edelbrocks heads and want to make sure kb won't be in the way. I remember I couln't fit mopar perf. valve covers on when installing.