Hi, I've been reading the forums for a while and decided to join today. I am looking for help in deciding what would be the best supercharger or turbocharger setup for my situation. Any help, ideas, or suggestions would be greatly appeciated. I've searched and read through many threads but I never really found anything that answered all my questions/needs. I currently have a 2004 g35 5AT coupe with about 7000 miles on it, everything is stock. I live in Syracuse, NY and the car gets driven all year round (when the weather allows) but as you can see I don't put a whole lot of miles on it.

I purchased it at the time because for the money there was no other car that came close in terms of looks, performance, and interior quality. Though I haven't put a lot of miles on it these were fast and fun miles. I am now looking to boost it's performance through either a supercharger or a turbocharger (I am not looking for minor increases I want a big jump). I would also like to add that I am completely ignorant when it comes to any type of tuning or working on a car (I could not install anything at all).

From what I have read here and in other reviews these are the best options. For a turbocharger it's either JWT TT, APS TT or GReddy TT. For superchargers it's either the Vortech V-2 or the ATI ProCharger. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I also listed them in order of apparent support/preference for each one. Now, I don't care about 1/4 times and will never take it out on a drag race track. I far prefer GT style racing and driving and may take it out to a track like that once in a while. Don't get me wrong I want as fast a 0-60 as possible, but I'm never going to drag race the car and acceleration in the low/mid to higher ranges and top speeds would probably be more important to me. This will also remain a semi-year round daily driving car. I pretty much know what the costs involved are going to be as far as just the full kits and installation as well.

These are my questions and criteria for what I need:

1. I will not change the exterior or interior of the car in any way. No VISIBLE changes to the front for intake, no hood replacement, and no new interior gauges or dials whatsoever. I want the car to be identical to the way it looked before installation, except under the hood of course.

2. I can't install ANYTHING on my own, I need to have it installed. I live upstate in Syracuse, NY so the closer the better. But I don't want to sacrifice quality of installation, knowledgeable and experienced staff and support for proximity of the installer. And again, this will be driven in cold weather and very very light snow occasionally. It is a light use year round car.

3. Again, I have a completely stock 04 5AT coupe. I would like to put as much hp in there as possible within reason (I would be extremely pleased with 400hp though). If something needs to be modified or changed prior to getting a S/C or T/C or to get 400hp or if a few parts need to be changed to get there or even higher please let me know.

4. It has to be 100% street legal and pass inspection in New York State and all that stuff. I don't want to sink a bunch of money into something that wouldn't pass through and end up not being able to drive it unless it's removed. Someone where I live told me my car wouldn't pass inspection if it has it's "chip" modified. Is this true?

I would like to know if all or any of those kits I listed meet all of my criteria, and if they don't what does? I would like to know if anyone knows of any installers in my area. I want the best performance for the money......but again within reason. I can spare the extra money needed if it results in a significant improvement. At the moment I am leaning towards the JWT TT as it seems to have gotten the best overall performance and service. What do you people think would be the best option for me? Thank you for reading this long post, and thanks in advance for any responses. Any ideas, information, and suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

One more thing, I know people are going to say call this place or that place. Honestly I would be wasting their time at this point. This is something I plan to do a good 6 months from now and am trying to research and get more information from other users and be informed and know what direction I am going before I contact someone.

 

with an automatic, i'm not sure the JWT's faster spool up is going to be as noticable as it would be on a 6MT. I mean, if you drive it in D anyway. If you only drive it in manual mode, then you'll notice more. Also if you mostly do drive in D mode, you will primarily be in the upper rpms when you floor it. D mode is fast at downshifting and getting you into the powerband. If you were to get a turbo and floor it in D mode, you'd just skip over the peak torque and crazy fast spool up that turbos can do. The vortech and ATI, specifically the vortech IMO sounds like it might be what you're after unless you have big hp plans for the car.

However, consider that a lot of automatic people end up just driving the car in manual mode anyway with FI since a lot of times the car can't shift by itself fast enough with all the extra power, so a turbo would be fine then. I wouldn't consider the greddy if I were you. I don't think it sounds like what you're after.

What is it you want your car to be?

 

FI with no gauges is not a good idea. If you don't want to rebuild your engine, it's important to know what's going on under the hood i.e. A/F, fuel pressure, oil pressure, etc.

 

yeah I agree you need gauges if you want reliability of any sorts. Otherwise it's a leap of faith

 

Thanks for the replies. As far as the gauges, I would be willing to have them but they have to be unobtrusive, tastefull, well placed, and out of the way. No, offense to anybody that has them but i don't want a wall of gauges running down the drivers side.

What I simply want is whatever will get my car the best performance, most hp, and largest increase in speed.

 

It sounds like what I wanted with my guages... I did not want the A-Pillar guages sticking out, I wanted to keep it stealthy...

I went with the Zeitronix guages which I love! I installed them in my sunglass holder since I do not use it for sunglasses... It was a PERFECT solution for me.... You need guages no matter what if you go FI period... You definately want to monitor what is going on in the engine...

Here are a couple of pics of the Zeitronix... And you can shut the sunglass holder just the same and the guages dissapear....

 

Thanks for the pics and the reply. That's definitely the type of way I want to keep things, "stealthy". Seeing what you've done I can think of plenty of spots where gauges can be hidden away in the interior but still be immediately and easily accessed. Again, I'm fine with the gauges as long as they are like that and not the A-Piller type. Throw as many gauges in my car as needed, as long as they don't stick out or can be hidden away.

The gauges are perfectly fine like that type, I however refuse to change the hood or front grille/front fascia in any VISIBLE or NOTICEABLE way for air intake or fitting IC's (if it needs to be modified or changed that is fine as long as it has no NOTICEABLE differences in appearance). It has to look LIKE (I stress like because it doesn't have to be 100% identical I just don't want to notice the difference) a stock 04 g35 coupe in the front (rear and sides as well). Nobody seems to have addressed that or the chip issue. Is it possible to do this, can I fit and use either the Vortech or the JW TT (or the other 2 TT's) in my car without VISIBLY changing the hood, grille, or anything on the front of the car? Can the "chip" of the car be modified and have speed or rev limiters changed/removed and still pass NY inspection? Also, I've heard 2 of the TT's and they sound fine.....the ATI ProCharger sounds awful to me from videos people have posted. Does the Vortech sound anything like that? Is it closer in sound to the TT's or the ATI SC?

I don't want to change the look of my car. I'm not trying to make it look different or like another car, or trying to stick out. I love the look of my car the way it is (so does everyone else ). The stock g35 coupe is a beautiful car, inside and out with great performance. I've driven it to it's max potential (at least of a 5AT that is) and I am craving more. More speed, better performance...etc etc etc JUST PLAIN MORE.

What I want is the same looking car just with a large boost in performance. I know with just these kits and installation I'm looking at around $10k to start. If I need to replace stock parts of the engine that's fine. I know I'm going to need to change some stock parts or add things for performance/safety/reliability prior to going FI, fine again. If I need a "built" engine for what I want, again that's fine. I can swing the extra money if needed, but I really don't want to pay more than anything in the $15k-20k range......obviously the lower the better.

From what I've read Performance Motorsport (I hope their website is fixed soon) in NYC I believe (correct me if I'm wrong please) seems to be the best "close" place for me (about a 2-3 hour drive from upstate NY). But, before I head down there I would like to know ahead of time what is possible to do while still falling within my criteria.

VRT from their website seem capable of doing AMAZING things with 350z's and G35's. That is out in CA though , but if that is THE place that can get it done I can get the car out there. Not the ideal location for me to get it done, but I'm sure I will enjoy the long drive back .

So if anyone from or involved with VRT or Performance Motorsport (I've seen a few on these boards but we've never been online at the same time) could answer my questions or help me out please reply or PM me, thank you. What I want to know is what is possible to do under my criteria? What can be done/what can you guys do to my car (a stock 04 5AT G35 coupe) without changing the look of it, especially the hood/front fascia? How high can you go changing whatever needed internally from engine to exhaust as long as the gauges are "stealthed" like I said and the front of the car has no NOTICEABLE external changes from stock?

Also, like I said I want this to remain completely street legal and pass inspection in New York State and be a light use daily driving car. Also, like I said it has only 7000 miles on it despite being a daily driver (I live about 1-2 miles from work or any other place I consistently go). Since I've had it I put about an average of around 2500 miles a year on it. So even if I double my average amount of driving I doubt this engine will ever see close to 50,000 miles total.

I also unfortunately have had HORRIBLE after sale experiences and servicing with my local dealer (I haven't taken it back to them since a month or so after I bought it and had some service done.....but this isn't the proper forum for my complaints against them so I'll leave it at that), and I doubt under any conditions would I ever return my car to that place for any kind of service unless it was 100% completely unavoidable.

Thanks again to anybody taking the time to read this long post, I appreciate it being a noob to this kind of thing. Again, any replies, questions, suggestions, options, constructive criticism, and information would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks again.

 

the only FI kit that needs to change the hood is the stillen kit

yeah you can probably get a reflash for your 04. Email or call Altered Atmosphere or Technosquare. I thought they were able to reflash 04's as of a year and a half ago or so

being stealth is cool, but you need to be able to read the gauges so just don't put them where you can't end up seeing them very well

there's a lot of great shops on the east coast

 

D4rr3n, I read your posts and your PM you sent me. I would be more than happy to discuss the options, and go over what I feel can, and should be done with your car, keeping your goals in mind.
The distance shouldn't be that much of a concern. We get cars shipped to us from all over the country (and even other countries). We currently have cars from Oaklahoma, Tennessee, and even Canada at our shop right now.
What you seem to be looking for is pretty much the norm., and a very common request that we have no problem working with I look forword to discussing this further.....

PM sent...... Call me.