You're on the money, turbo chargers use engine oil. Turbos use exhaust gas pressure to drive a turbine, which in turn drives an inlet air compressor through a shaft. Superchargers are driven by the engine through a belt, which then rotates the inlet air compressor. Because turbochargers are exhaust driven they get very hot, which is where the 30 second idle cool down came from. Not as important today as engine oils and engine design have eliminated the need for a cool-down in most cases.

Turbocharger - driven by exhaust gas. Give a lag as the turbocharger takes time to spin up.
Superchargers - mechanically driven. No lag as they are engine driven.

A very brief (and general) overview.

 

It's not just the heat. The turbo impeller is freewheeling, so it continues to spin after the engine stops, sometimes for 30 seconds or more if the rpm was high just before shutdown. Supercharger rotors are driven from a belt and stop with the engine. Modern turbos usually use an electric pump to keep oil circulating to the turbo until it stops.

 

just went to attempt this. everything going ok , until I cant get a correct size alen wrench! is there some secret size for this drain / fill plug? I have a vast collection of allens… the 3/16 seems to almost fit the best. I made sure there wasn't debris in there too! im stumped

 

 

wow... even the 5 was too big to get in there. ive never had this issue. I tried next step down in metric and sae and both were swimming around in the hole. I don't want to go gorilla on this thing

 

 

This shouldn't be that hard, you can see what Don and I used in posts #35 & 36. If its that rigid, spray it with some penetrating fluid a couple times and let sit overnight.

 

gave it another go just now and got nowhere. even tried working the outside rim gently with a chisel and hammer to start it moving but stopped before it became lunched up. seems none of the allen keys get deep enough to really grab. I have about a million allen wrenches too. at this point I just want to find the engineer at eaton who decided to put an allen plug instead of a hex head and thrash him about the head and neck with a blunt object.

 

did mine, it was a 3/16" allen wrench that fit best. Take a Q-tip and clean out the hex first. It may be dirt or corrosion that is keeping you from getting the wrench inserted all the way.

I also slipped a 6" - 8" long 1/2" diameter piece of threaded pipe over the allen wrench handle for enough leverage to loosen the plug.

A reminder, right tight and left loose. In this case pull the wrench toward the front of the car.

 

First thing I'd do is purchase a new plug, then determine the next course of action. Because it sounds like it could be fire wrench time?

 

going to pick up another plug. what exact model is our superchargers?

 

I'm not sure on your '05, my '00 is an M112. You can check in your models forum.

 

Our member datasports has reported that the supercharger used on the X350 4.2L engines is the Eaton M112 Gen 5, though some reports are that is the Gen 4. The folks at Eaton may be able to tell you.

Cheers,

Don

 

Guys are doing it the long hard way. Did mine with a Shopvac took 15 minutes. Yes that old oil ssmmeellssss so bad.

 

i know this is an older thread, but it really has tons of great information. i just followed it and the process took about an hour. I used a large siphon tool to remove the old fluid and a Harbor Freight $6.99 hand pump to push the new fluid in the hole.

i also used a socket set for the 3/16" allen key with a swivel connector. I also removed the intake pipe just to gain more room. One other piece of advise ( mentioned above )....place paper towels below the filler hole to catch anything. AND have a magnet tool around....you will drop something and this tool saved me hours when i dropped the plug.

 

I am right at 119,000 miles and will flush again. Still have two bottles left. If it adds another few years it is well worth the time to do it.

 

I did it today at 100 000km on my x100 thanks to all the info I got here. It was quite long to remove the plug as there is little room so I cut a 3/16 allen to make it shorter and added a handle as another forum member did. I wish I had seen the tip from Don B with the 3/16 in. Allen bit in a 1/4 in. socket with a swivel joint and long extension as it would have made it much easier. I got 6oz out with a serynge. Pliers were really helpful to move the tube of the serynge inside the sc.

The plug looked like it had been removed before. I bought the car at 30000km so it was a bit surprising but I read here the oil was originally changed around 30000km before the superchargers got "sealed for life". I marked the position of the plug before removing it to make sure not to over tighten when putting it back. ... And of course I dropped the plug ;-)

Worse I managed to break the bleed hose of the expansion tank and had to order a new one. I also broke a clip that held two hoses together, maybe someone has the part number (see photo).

Thanks everyone for the many tips.




broken bleed hose

broken hose clip


the hose clip

6oz of smelly oil

 

I plan on changing the SC Oil this week and thought this video it would be helpful. It is mentioned sveral times that the oil should not be topped off until overflow. I intend to only replace the amount that is retrieved.

 

VMP is about an hour from me, I contacted them just before the COVID outbreak, ...kind of lost that because of the situation. I should reestablish that communication, they invited me and Addicted2boost out for a tour.

But, this is a different manufacturer and their oil drain is in a different location. You'll find out when refilling the M-112, that it will take 7oz as prescribed. If you try to use the replace with what came out method, your assuming the PO did it properly if they did it at all or there hasn't been any wheepage and that you've retrieved all in there...just food for thought.

 

Valid point. I didn't think that through thoroughly. Than you for pointing this out.