I know Vortech has been getting alot of negative press lately. I figured I would take this opportunity to describe my recent experience when I relocated to San Diego from Chicago. Take from this what you will, but a properly tuned and operating setup should give you month and many miles of reliable boostage

I installed the Vortech at 79k miles and I'm now at 91k. I started off with the 3.33 pulley, then upgraded to the 3.12 after a year. I now make 350 rwhp and 320 ft/lbs at the wheels with a very conservative tune. Other mods are Crawford cast plenum, JWT oil pan spacer and an oil cooler setup. Altogether, I'm carrying about 6.5 quarts of oil.

I completed the 3000 mile trip in 3.5 days. I spent the night in Memphis TN, Armarillo TX, and Flagstaff AZ. The cool thing about having boost dependant on rpm is that I was able to stay out of boost the entire trip. My Zeitronix pretty much read -13 to -15 hg while going 75 mph in 6th gear and using cruise control. My AFRs were close to stoic, but mostly in the high 13-low 14 range. I manged to get 20 -22 mph on the trip. The oil cooler came in handy when I got to New Mexico and Arizona where the temps rose to triple digits. I experienced absolutely no problems whatsoever during the 3k trek.

Now that I've been here in Cali a little while, I can say that 91 octane sucks. The car is running good, but there is power loss. Due to my conservate tune, the car is not pinging or detonating. I will get a 91 octane tune when I get the time. The car is still running strong and will probably reach 100k while boosted.

I just wanted to give you noobs hope that if or when Vortech gets their act together, the kit will be very reliable...reliable enough to drive across country.

Gil

 

The Vortech Kit, with the exception of the "bad batch" that wen't out, is a very reliable SC kit. Once Vortech fixes this current issue, which they apperantly already have...

 

The bad batch of SC's only went out during the summer of this year. Besides that Vortechs have a great reputation. And Vortech has stepped up to address those of us that did have a defective SC. So all is good now. To the OP, that's a great story and that's the kind of reliability I hope to have from hear on out with my Vortech. Thanks for sharing.