I knew this was coming, but the Vortech has been "officially" declared bad again, and it's out for repair #2. Does that give me the title of unluckiest b@stard on driver!? I'm trying to beat the guy over at my350z who had his break 4 times!

On the bright side, when it comes back, I get to throw on my goodies that have been sitting in storage until I knew whether it was safe to put them on. 2.87" pulley, 600 cc injectors (formerly rated at 650 cc), cat-back exhaust, and a retune! So I should be joining the 400 whp club!

I briefly contemplated going with the Si-trim impeller, but then I joined the cautious camp that thinks it may still be too risky without some serious upgrades. Plus I have a sneaky suspicion that Vortech will void the lovely 5 year/unlimited mile warranty they gave to us (defective owners) if we upgrade the internals. At least with this route, I can make killer power and if it goes again, they'll fix it.

 

Question for you.....do you have your oil retune line tapped into the upper oil pan or a oil pan spacer ?

 

I've got the AAM spacer. I'm pretty sure the SC itself is the culprit though, I bought it right in the middle of the defect period (July). And it's grinding and rattling, the suspect is impeller contact and probably bearings. You think an oil flow problem may be contributing to it though?

 

Sorry to hear that it went bad again bro. That's not good. I gotta say, you are reacting much better than I would be if mine went bad again.

 

The only thing keeping me sane is that I get to drive this in the meantime!

https://g35driver.com/forums/attachm...8&d=1199411656

Plus at least the beast will be faster when I get it back.

 

Nice!! Is that your other car??

 

there's your problem. Mine went bad after I used the aftermarket oil pan to connect the return line. After the rebuilt I went back to tapping the stock oil pan and it's running like a champ. There's a few old threads on my350z.com in the past stating issues with tapping the return line into the spacer instead of the block like the vortech manual states. U're lucky vortech didnt ask u about your return line bc for sure they will not warrenty the blower if they knew what u did.

 

Yeah, that's the DD. It's not quite as quick as the G, but the handling is incredible. I finally understand the hype.

 

Woahhhh. This could be a potentially nasty problem. Is this typical for oil pan spacers, or is it an occasional problem? Also keep in mind that my Vortech serial number is definitely in the defective group, so if oil flow is a problem, it's probably at most a contributing factor (among a mixture of factors). So far, every problem I've had is pretty much identical to the problems everyone else is experiencing with defective units (bearings, impeller contact). This has me worried though, I wonder if I should pull that spacer off.

EDIT: just found this at my350z, seems like some people feel a spacer is a crime against humanity, others feel it's perfectly safe:

http://www.my350z.com/forum/showthread.php?t=334990

 

I have a feeling people run their car hard before their oil is warmed up and it can eventually leads to some problems

 

That wouldn't be me my friend. I'm a warm up freak. Typically let the G warm up for 15-20 minutes in the winter. Plus I don't have the option of running the car too hard frequently, every road in my area is a parking lot. I'm lucky if I'm stuck behind someone doing 5 MPH UNDER the speed limit.

 

same here. I wait until its fully warmed up before doing serious driving and I usually babie it for the first 10mins of driving to make the sure the oil pressure is steady.

Hey Aero, your first blower could have been a defective one but once vortech repairs it, it should have been back to normal. I would just tap into the upper oil pan instead of the spacers and see if the new blower acts up again. It could save u some serious downtime down the road.

 

what oil temp do you guys start running it hard?

 

Thanks for pointing out the spacer as a potential problem man. I think I may do that, easy enough to fix, plug up the spacer, tap the upper part of the pan. The one big piece of evidence pointing toward a [still] defective unit is a grinding noise it made between 2000-3000 RPM. Before the first repair, it made a slight grinding noise there, but the main problem was that it sounded like a dying cat (God awful shreaking, loud enough to make someone deaf). But post repair, the grinding noise was still there, and it's gotten louder. So I think they completely missed something.

 

Can't say exactly, no oil temp. gauge (which may also be a good idea at this point!). Water temp is always at "normal" though before I lay into the throttle. Of course, my idea of running it hard is turning out of my neighborhood and gunning it up to 55 (if I'm lucky and the road isn't a parking lot). Then I hit the wall of cars and do 3 MPH the entire way to work.

In light of all this though, there have been a few times when I've worked in the engine bay and the SC has seemed unusually hot (to the touch), even after the car has been off for a significant amount of time, say 15-20 minutes. That does make me wonder about oil flow/temp. It was never boiling hot, but hot enough that you'd pull your hand away.