ok guys, i have recently decided to go FI with my g. Its a 2004 AT coupe. as of right now i have stillen intake, motodyne 5/16 spacer, and topspeed headers. 95% of my driving is done in the city, so im looking for an application that gives me INSTANT power and torque. i dont wanna wait for higher rpm's to hit boost. now before anyone says to search, i have done that but i get more and more confused. so ive decided to choose between the stillen stage 2 (i believe thats the one thats warrantied, and more "reliable") and the vortech. i honestly just want a extra boost in power in the car, and dont wanna spend more on parts or tune (closest tuner is 6hrs away). just wanna bolt it on and go. i hope to keep the setup that i have now aswell. i might add an exhaust, buts thats probably it.

ok so between the two, which one do you think would be easier to install? (wanna do it myself).

which one would satisfy my want for an extra boost in power for mostly city driving?

i know it sounds like im leaning towards the stillen, but its just the hood and noise is holding me back. ive always been a fan of the BOV sound and the whoosh of the vortech. im not sure if ill like the whine of the stillen...

please help me decide!! thanks!

 

They Stillen SC does not react well to breather mods. That basically means that you probably have to remove your headers and spacer to get the most out of the Stillen SC. Plus, like you said, the Stillen hood sucks. From everything that you said that you are looking for, I would say the Vortech SC better fits what you are looking for. Plus the headers and spacer will work very well with the Vortech. I might be a little bit biased though.

 

Vortech all the way, there are so many upgrades that can be done to the kit once you get bored of the base power...lol. I had it on my car for 41K and loved it.

 

well, I'm actually not sure the vortech suits you if you don't want to rev the engine high. The vortech of course will add an extra 20-40 tq to your car at 2500 rpms depending on your pulley and exhaust setup and it's noticeable and all, but to get to the meat of the powerband, you gotta take the car to redline

you might consider shorter gearing if you want the car to be more reactive at low rpms

if you do go vortech, IMO upgrade the pulley ASAP if you want to feel the power come on at a lower rpm. The vortech is ok for low rpm city driving, but I'd still probably say the stillen would be the better option purely for that. That said, I'd still choose the vortech for how upgradeable it is compared to the stillen

 

im really sure i wont be needing anywhere from 350 to 400 hp for mostly city driving. so worrying bout getting bored with the power later really isnt a concern for me. ill probably be getting a new car in 09, so im sure i wont get bored too fast. i want to just bolt up and go, and not have to worry bout tuning, etc. will i need gauges with the stillen? im sure you guys can tell im a noob!

 

Whatever kit you decide to go with you will need a tune, there is no kit that is bolt up and go.

Gauges like boost, AF and EGT are good to have.

 

gauges are always recommended, but I don't think they're rally as crucial with the stage 2 stillen, especially if you did have the car professionally tuned - which you might be able to get by not doing and just use the stillen base tune.

I really hate saying that though, because I'd rather tell people to do it right and spend the extra cash, but I think you can probably get away with running the kit out of the box in this case

The "proper" thing I should be saying is to get a boost gauge and A/F gauge, but if you're going to be running a standard stillen out of the box tune and are going to be ditching the car in a couple years, I probably wouldn't bother since the stillen doesn't make tons of power and you probably won't be going to redline as much anyway. That and you'd be covered under the stillen warrenty if you were to pay for it (I think that's a $300 option last I heard)


I really do think getting a shorter final drive ratio will make the car almost just as fun to drive as the stillen and be absolutely reliable as what you have now. It'd cost like 1/8 the price of the stillen and hood. Gas mileage will go down, but it would with the stillen too

 

i was under the impression that the stillen comes with a locked ss box or something. on their website they claim complete bolt on and go.

 

I only say you need a tune because you have mods on your car already so this may change even the base map of some FI systems.

I ran with no guages in my car when I had my SC at all, once it was tuned it was good forever.

 

and thanks sentry for the help...any more info on the final drive you are talking about?

 

if i were to ditch the headers and the spacer, i should be fine then right? im sure i dont need a tune if i only have the stillen intake. or i could just get hfc, and a td exhaust then tune it and forget bout FI...thoughts?

 

you might try searching on the final drive - lots of info out there on it. There's a lot of ratios out there to switch to. Manual cars have 3.538 ratios, and automatics have 3.357 ratios. There's 3.7, 3.917, and 4.083 ratios out there.

The stillen will still ultimately make the car faster than a final drive swap, but probably not by much if it's just a stage 2 stillen with the added weight to the front of the car etc.

 

Personally, I'd never spend the kind of money you spend on F.I for a Stillen. Definately go for the Vortech, although it won't give you that low torque you are probably looking for.

If not, then a basic turbo kit setup would suit you best.

.

 

Well I think Sentry is talking about changing the pumpkin which would give you low end torque but with a sacrifice of top end power, I know booger has done this so you may want to do a search.

EDIT: posted same time as sentry

Who is installing the kit as it has to be someone certified if you go Stillen and they should do a tune anyways.

 

the final drive doesn't change the power of the car. If fact it won't actually change the top speed of the car because of the ECU electronically limiting it. The G is already geared (if manual) to go to like 183mph, but the ECU limits the speed to 160 or 155 or whatever it is.

going to shorter gearing would then make the top speed of the car less, but because the ECU limits you to 160, it really won't matter because it'll just lower it to be around what the ECU's limiting it to anyway

If you were to do a top speed run, it'd actually be safer on the car to have shorter gearing because you'd reach 160mph sooner and spend less time getting there which puts less stress on the engine. Most people don't drive 160mph anyway

what the final drive change does is increase the torque multiplication of the gear ratios to give you more kick or oomph when you stomp the gas pedal. It'll increase acceleration and the feeling of torque by 6, 10, or 16% - at the expense of that much less gas mileage on the highway. City driving will be similar if not slightly less than before