Hey guys I am new to the site, but have been looking here for a while.. I have a stock G and love it.. The thing is I want more power on demand. I was thinking of doing a satin vortech, with DC sport headers and injen exhaust and a boost gadge.. Thats what the guy said at the shop I should do anyway.. I got a total price of $7700 ish.. I was wondering if that is a good price? Or if I am missing anything that I will need? I want to drive my car everyday and wonder if I will have any problems.. thanks for the help
Nick

 

Your best bet is to start reading and learn the pros and cons to the different kits available. Then choose the kit that best suits your present needs and future goals. There is a lot of information available both here and over at the FI forums at my350z.com. Take your time and enjoy.

 

I have been reading this site for a while and have saw that everyone believes that the vortech is the most reliable way to go FI.. I have also spoke to a few guys that have mods done to their G or Z cars at a large car show on Long Island, NY on Tuesday nights. Thanks for the info man.

 

Not "everyone". A properly tuned Vortech is a good system as are some others.

I've driven and/or ridden one or more of the following FI G35s or 350Zs.

API Procharger
Stillen Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3
Vortech

APS TT
GReddy TT
JWT TT
Power Enterprise TT
Speed Force Racing TT
Turbonetics ST

Each of these systems offer advantages and disadvantages. All are worthy of your research and consideration.

Looking foward to testing the HKS Centrifugal Supercharger and the APS ST.

 

Sorry I did not mean "everyone", because many people have great set-ups in their cars. But the people I have spoken to suggested that the vortech is one of the most reliable, for a power increase.

 

Definitely NOT everyone. Again, understand teh following. It is not about peak HP numbers.... If oyu are into peak numbers, look at peak torque. That is the determinant of how fast the car really is. The more power you make, the more likely you are to kill the engine. But, you need to make a decision on whether around $4.5-5K is worth it for 80 lb/ft of torque. I am a big proponent of turbos, as you can tell, but not because i have one and naturally defend that flavor of FI. In the age of single turbos (APS and Tubonetics) rivaling SCs in price (and forgoing the whine), it at least warrants equal consideration. It's fairly simple. A vortech will make around 350 lb/ft of torque at the crank, but ~30 or so is immediately used to spin the compressor. A turbo, assuming everything else is the same, will also make, say, the same ~350 lb/ft of torque, and pass on all but approx 5hp or so loss due to an increase in exhaust back pressure (since the energy of the exhaust gases was otherwise wasted). In addition to this, almost all turbochargers that i have looked at are inherently more efficient (more air flow rather than heat generation) than the Vortech, just be design. If you do a search on my350z.com, you might be able to find the thread that Squill and I contributed to (mostly Squill) that had all the compressor diagrams. All these combined, make it pretty clear.

Now, if you are really concerned with reliability, by an ST kit instead of a SC, and just turn down the boost until you get about the same torque/hp numbers as you would with a SC+30. The argument that TTs blow engine because the torque comed in fast and hard does not apply here for STs EVEN if it were true (we don't quite know for sure whether it's raw numbers or the rate at which the power comes on that blows the engines), since STs spool up is a lot more gradually in the midrange than TTs, but still provide a linear peaked boost midrange-to-top end.

Anywayy...whatever you choose, maek sure to think long and har about it, and mot importantly, go drive or get a ride in a Vortech and a ST/TT.

 

I completely understand that a turbo setup will be more efficient on the dyno or the track any day of the week, but my problem is for a daily driver I want a reliable system that will take the abuse everyday.

 

Well in all honesty, the supercharger will have more upkeep. Like Gurgen said get the ST, turn the boost down and enjoy. This will have equal torque as the supercharger and you won't have to worry about tightening belts and buying new belts. Just check the clamps and silicon couplers every now and again. By simple physics a supercharger puts more stress on the engine to get to the same horsepower number. Don't confuse reliability with the amount of time the ST's have been on the market.

 

Well said DJ, I just don't understand why people still say that the turbocharger will have more upkeep, and the superchargers are safer..... but some people simply can't be convinced (masterg i am not referreing to you necessarily here). I have just been hearing that ALL the time. ST will have a very similar boost curve as the Vortech, look on APS's website. Not quite as slow rising as vortech, but definitely not as head snapping as TTs.

 

it's not a hard concept...HP doesn't break things, TORQUE breaks things and ST and TT make gobs of TORQUE. Yes, TORQUE determines the power of the car on the low end, but if you are looking for RELIABLE power through HP and TORQUE, the SC on the G is the way to go on stock internals.

 

Well, yes Randy, Torque breaks things, but it also makes power. But if you look at the boost curve made by the ST, which is more laggy than a TT), then you will see that it is not as extreme as the TT.

Here is what I was getting at. You can still buy an ST kit, and run it at about 1.5-2 psi lower, and you will be making the same torque at the wheels as the Vortech, while your engine will NOT be working as hard to make that torque. You are a very very good friend of mine, so pleaseee do not take what I am saying personally about the Vortech kit. They both make power, but I believe that an ST kit is a far better way to go given the very easy install (just like a SC) if not easier given that the EM is plug-n-play, relatively speaking of course, and the same cost (actually, probably the same or cheaper at teh end of the day considering the extras necessary for the Vortech kit) as the vortech.

This is just an opinion, please don't take it personally... Given what you paid for your kit, if it were me, I would definitely do the Vortech as well (honest). But if you have to pay upwards of $4.5-5k for parts and tuning + install, then.... well, you know my opinion.

 

*IF* in 12 or more months we see a slew of people doing what Gurgen suggested (w/o problems) then I would be inclined to believe and support his position of promoting the ST over the S/C. The only problem is that at this point we have not seen many/any people with a ST do a "de-tune" or "safe tune" to make their kit parallel a Vortec S/C. Most people are running 9psi on the Turbonetix ST (out of the box tune) and I do not believe the APS ST has hit the US market yet.

IF people start de-tuning the Turbonetix to say 6 or 7 psi, then this would be a very interesting comparison. Do I think it will happen? Unfortunatley, with a kit that comes preset from the factory at (an alleged 8 or 8.5 psi but really performs at 9psi) I don't think there's much chance of many people detuning the system. Then again, I've been wrong about stuff before...

 

Neff... i don't know why you say that it's tough to detune it. The wastegatesprings for the aps turbos are set at 6.5 or so PSI if i remember right. So, you just need to have peter give you a program that has the boost controller turned off, or, if he says it's ok, maybejust turn off or disconnect teh boost control solenoid supplied with the kit, or, yet another alternative, just route the wastegate port hose/line directly to the manifold or the pre-TB pipe (not sure which way it's done on this kit), bypassing the boost controller alltogether. Their ECU is tuned for everything up to at least the shipping psi. But, of course, i woudl double check with him first.

As far as your first suggestion... i can't argue with that, only fair.

 

Gurg, no offense taken...but what did you mean by "actually, probably the same or cheaper at teh end of the day considering the extras necessary for the Vortech kit" ...everything you need comes with the kit except the tuning and that was $150.

 

Just a quick story I found out last night that I found hard to believe. I went to the car show at baldhill, LI and I met a guy with a beautiful Black 2004 G. He had a procharger with 5lbs boost. What I find hard to believe is that he is on his 2nd motor, bc he blew up the first one. I asked why he thought the first one blew and he thinks it was bc of the install. I know many of you are running much more than 5 lbs with little or no problems.