where you the one who blew his motor on a Stage 2 kit? I think I saw your thread in MY350Z but didn't know if Stillen honored their warranty.

 

Maybe...

 

FYI guys. I have seen just as many (if not more) motor problems caused by centrifigual SC's and twin screw SC's as I have on TT cars here in the last couple of years...... And also keep in mind that ANY altering AT ALL of the CARB aproved FI kit is void of CARB. That means pulley changes, down pipes, etc. Anything at all.

Hell, I have a ATI Procharged car at the shop right now (out of the box kit) that has blown up the motor

 

the ATI kits out of the box don't do anything to adjust timing and are known for blowing engines just like the stock greddy TT kits are

 

I know, sory that I forgot to mention that this particular car (blown up ATI) is tuned with a U-Tec and timing was pulled. I ment out of the box by no smaller pulleys to increase boost, or anything else to increase power from the stock unit only the U-Tec to manage it. I still have seen more misshaps and blown motors with the vortech than any other SC on these cars.

The bottom line is that there is always some form of risk with all forced induction kits on these VQ's. In my 4 years of experience with FI'ing these VQ equiped cars (almost 200 of them now), I have found that when properly installed and tuned (depending on the kit), that SC's might be a tiny bit cheaper to purchase and less $ to install than a TT kit, but the TT kits always make more power (easier) and seem every bit as safe as a SC, maybe even "safer" if there is such a thing. I have experience with all of these kits on my personall cars and I must say there is no beating a TT kit in any catagory (except cost). I cant count how many SC's we have pulled off these cars in place of a TT kit, and the customer always wishes they went the TT rout first.

Nothing against the SC guys, cause I am still partial to them, but this is just a observation that I can not ignore.

 

+1 both are good ways to go, but if you go the $ go TT... if not then go SC can go wrong with either, but you would ENJOY TT alot more than SC from my experience..

 

somewhat true... The only reason you might want to build the engine on a Turbo is because it makes so much TQ and HP but if you stay around 380whp then you don't need to build your engine, Vortech does give you high HP # but it doesn't push that much TQ so you can get away with 420whp without a build. It is a big misconception that you always need to build because it is all about how much TQ/HP and PSI are you running with your car that will dictate if your Engine can hold it.

 

IMO that's suspicious about the ATI blowing the engine if it was stock and running perfectly with a good tune. There must have been something else going on to contribute to it blowing

I've only heard of maybe 6 or 7 damaged engines that were running vortechs and the damage was done from:

previous NA abuse, reving way above redline a LOT
previous running big shots of nitrous
running too lean and racing hard anyway
not running any gauges at all and/or not getting tuned
ran 87 octane gas and decided to redline it anyway
running the vortech + nitrous
too much timing for the type of gas they were running
missed shifted
etc

and I've never actually seen a completely blown up engine with a vortech where the block was ruined. Not that I don't think it's possible, but I'm skeptic about just taking someone's word for it without first providing all the details and knowing just what the owner's setup was, what they did, and how abusive they were.

I'm sure there's lots of vortech owners out there who aren't on the forums as well as people who wouldn't really feel very vocal about telling everyone online about their engine mishap if something did go wrong. So I'm always listening closely to anyone who's heard or seen anything having to do with blown/damaged engines with vortech setups. But so far, I haven't seen someone with a vortech blow/damage their engine who wasn't just asking for it.

I'm sure you've seen a lot of things, but could you provide some more details other than just saying you've seen a lot of blown up vortech engines? That's kinda vague and I'd like to know the actual causes. And by "blown up" do you mean an actual hole in the block or do is it just a spun bearing or chipped piston?


with the JWT and Greddy TT kits going for just under $7000, APS TT kits now costing $7900-9700, the standard APS tuner kit going for $7000, and then $3000-4000 to install them, I don't regret going with my vortech tuner kit which cost me around $3600 and then around a $1200 install. Overall it seems like half the price to me

you could pocket the $5000-8000 difference for in case you did damage the stock block

 

My math seems to matchup with yours. My Vortech kit, with extras, gauges, install, was easily around 1/2 to 1/3 the cost of a TT setup. Even an ST setup would cost a bit more. Same exact math when I had the Stillen Stage 4.

 

what stage is it in??

 

I've heard that standard vs standard (Vortech vs Stillen)kit Vortech makes more power, plus u don't need the ugly hood that is needed for the stillen kit

 

^^^ What is it with you people? I love that Stillen hood. I hate the kit but love the hood. When I get rid of the kit I'm gonna keep that CF hood. I agree with most people that the hood for the 350z is hidious but for the G, it flows real nice.

Now with regards other people saying that any FI is safe on a stock motor is just asking for trouble, unless of course you have a great tune and fuel management setup. For stock, I blew up my engine with my stock fuel system, split second box and Stillen pushing around 315rwhp. There was evidence of some sort of water injestion in my engine. They are thinking that the head lifted allowing coolent to seep in causing my problem. I bent 2 rods and blew the **** out of one of my exhaust valves. At the time I was doing a $1.35 when that happened. To much pressure build up is their explanation. Take it for what its worth. But if you don't have the funds to do a build, then don't even consider doing FI. I barely had enough funds to do my build after blowing the engine. But I consider myself $2500.00 lucky as I didn't do any damage to the block.

But hey, if you want to buy my Stillen Stage II, I'll be more than happy to sell it to you.

 

I think the Stillen hood looks sick on the G35 coupe. I didn't like it at first, but it grew on me. I really miss it, now that it's gone.

I would agree that the Stillen hood for the 350Z and G35 sedan are pretty fugly though.

 

/\ +1 You really need to see it in person coz Pix don't do justice!

 

for me, i'd get the stillen s/c only if i was planning on using the Disneyland trip they're offering.