A 2500 mile "road trip" from San Fran to ATL, seen a little bit unreasonable to me, just to have your car tuned when there are alot of good shops in Cali that can be reached in a day. Like you say GTM in San Bernardino, is good shop, along with Speed Force Racing in San Diego.


To the OP: 500WHP for under 10K. The only way I seen that happening is using all the Used Parts can find,(Turbo's, ECU, Eagle rods, etc), and doing most to the install yourself, than getting it tuned somewhere. Even than I still think you could past 10K. I don't recommend that plan, and I'm sure everybody else should feel the same way.

 

Some good info guys, thanks for all the input. I definitely won't be going to VRT. I've also opted for a more reasonable output goal, possibly a lower budget and more durability in the long run. At what point (hp output) do you really need to consider rebuilding the motor? Flywheel, Clutch, retune and some minor bolt ons are no prob but replacing rods, cams etc. is what I'm wondering about. I'm willing to take a trip to SoCal to get the work done, I have friends who are mechanically inclined but I would rather get a shop to do it (a rebuild and FI is a lot of beer/painting houses to repay my buddies!). What about Stillen? Does anyone have any contact info for some of the other places mentioned earlier?

 

All your answers are in this forum with multiple replies and lots of info. Just go through threads on the first couple pages that appear to be relevant...

EDIT: oops thought I was on my350z, check the FI forum there as well

 

 

500whp with a basic short block build + TT and supporting mods will put you right around the 20-25k ballpark installed and tuned at a reputable shop depending on the parts you choose, etc.

Most people here run anything up to 400whp/400wtq on a stock block without much problems. Wouldn't recommend going above that unless you got some internal work done or if you're planning to rebuild the engine pretty soon because the stock block won't last much longer. Also if you blow your block and it's not reusable, you'll end up paying more to use another block for your build. The reliability and safety of your kit relies heavily on proper tuning of the system.

I'll get straight to the point with the Stillen kit: it sucks unless you're willing to live with basically a max whp potential of ~350whp (even at Stage 4), not to mention the hideous hood you have to use to clear the supercharger (imo). Compared to the Vortech, it has better low-mid range and great for city driving, whereas the Vortech would eat it up on the highway but feel stockish in the lower rpms. Vortech>Stillen in that it is more upgradeable + CARB legal and won't be as restricting in power as the Stillen.

The shop that most people recommend in Cali would be GTMotorsports here in SoCal. When it's time for me to go FI I would be paying them a visit as well. You can reach them through PMing George@GTM or Sam@GTM. Hope this helps...I was in the same boat as you about a month ago when I decided to go FI and realized I have no clue what to do. Read up on the my350z FI section and that's where I got most of my research done (thus, where all this info is coming from). Good luck!

 

I agree with everything you said and just want to clarify that the Stillen is also CARB approved at stage 2 and no one can tell beyond that just like an upgraded Vortech.

If you are going to upgrade a Vortech that far you should look into a UTEC or something where you can store multiple maps because for CARB testing you will need to go back to the old map, etc. Higher power may make you fail the test.

 

Like I said earlier get the Vortech.

Carb legal, and if you decide to be non-carb legal you can up the boost.