So I'm out checking a prospective G35 to buy... it's supercharged and after returning from an impromptu test drive on the highway (hey, he let me - I cant refuse that! ) when I open the hood to check out the engine due to a squeal I heard during the drive I notice that both of the intercooler hoses are missing! It's just open holes right into the intake. What's the deal with that? More importantly, I wonder how long has it been like that?! I need to go back and confirm that it's dead open, and not maybe got some sort of screen in each hole (which I certainly hope it does) to keep junk out of the motor! At the time I was rushed massively due to the test drive I had'nt planned on so all I have in terms of pictures is this:

Check it:


In addition to that, something was squealing. It was one or the other of the two pulleys on the charger's end - the two pictured in the photo above. I'm guessing a bearing. Def hope it's the tensioner and not the drive one. Thoughts on that?

I also snapped a shot of the gauge pods while trying to get an idea of the boost level it had. It's set to 5psi it looks like and hovers around 20psi vac at speed and 25psi vac under deceleration. Those numbers seem good/correct for a stage 2 kit? While driving also I noticed that the air/fuel ratio never changed once and stayed pegged all the way to the right of the dial (seemingly indicating a very rich mixture was being read). but it's possible that this guage simply is'nt connected right, or the O2 sensor is bad..... or???



Any comments from you guys that could shed light on any of this would be great I understand I'm asking questions only a small subset of folks here would know.. but I'm also hoping that the post title will bring in more of you who do *know* than not ;B The price is really a steal. But I'm not looking to buy into a money pit either. So here I am doing some research

 

I had the chance to go back by and more closely inspect the Stillen yesterday afternoon. The inter-cooler connection ports ARE plugged, so that's a plus. But I wasn't able to determine if it's s stage 2 setup (I cant spot the pully size by eye and know) so I'm not sure if it's in a configuration that requires the inter-cooler.

This is only important to me in a pre-purchase situation as the car has been driven over 400 miles (at speed, on the interstate from where it was bought at auction) without one at this point.

Another thing I noticed was that both the main drive belt for the engine and the supercharger belt were throwing a lot of grease up unto the underside of the hood. I've actually got a picture of that I could post. I wonder why all that grease is being thrown. Possibly from new grease having been put on the pullys during the install of the inter-cooler that simply hasn't worked it way out yet.

It's a shame that the current owner doesn't know any of the build history of this car. It's got to be Westley Chapel / Tampa Florida though. The last owner lived there and the supecharger work is very new. The car was also repossessed from there about 8 or so months ago I think. So it's very likely that the person who owned it couldn't pay for the shop bills on the install, and when it got repossessed it was in mid install (before the inter-cooler was installed)...

but all that speculation really sucks...... I font know who did the work, what the parts list is, what's finished or not (ie the Fuel/Air gauge doesn't seem to ever change from full rich under any driving circumstances) from before the repossession, ect ect.

I wonder what a G35 with 98k miles and a supercharger is really worth right now considering the supercharger will likely kill the car in the next 10 to 20k miles and all (that is about right yes?)

Aaaaand I might be talking to myself here :/

 

Stage 2 is the kit with the intercooler so he has only a stage 1.I started out with the stillen kit back in mid 2003 and went thru all the stages and its just an expensive mistake so i went TT years ago.The stillen kit will not wear the engine out in 10-20 thousand miles as it really makes hardly any more power then stock.

 

I have hear Stillen kits kill tensioner pulleys very often so that maybe the noise you hear and someone might have packed grease in to hide the noise. Like Keith said it hardly makes more power than stock at stage 1 so predicting the motors life span is pretty tough, it may have another 98k in it

When you say a steal of a deal compare it to a stock car because the Stillen SC is not ever going to make a whole lot of power and they are not very valuable most people will avoid them due to the high cost/low gains, Keith would know better than me but I think stage 4 only makes about 320whp so maybe 80whp more than stock, the stage 1 would be more like 40whp more than stock

 

Gord that was on a good day on a dynojet