This is where the fun started. How hard is it to make a machined part that is measured correctly? Huh? How hard is that? You pay over $4000.00 for something, you expect to not have to modify the crap out of it.

Does this look like someone who was cross eyed did it to you as well?





So after about an hour of grinding, drilling and anything else we could do (no dremel to be found for some reason), we made progress:





I know it seems like we were jumping around, but we kind of went off on our own tangents throughout the install. While my friend and I worked on the intercooler mounting and alignment of piping, my other friend wired up the SS Box with the Auto Sport Harness. I didn't get any pictures of the harness, in fact I didn't even see it before he finished and threw it back in the car.

BOV Mounted (any reason mine is black?), I went ahead and set the screw to show about 5-6 threads, I heard a few people say that worked well for them.



Here are the SS Box lines near the battery



While that went on, we finished the Power Steering Pump Lines, kind of a pain and very different from what the instructions showed:





I am not going to lie, this is where we picked up speed on things and the picture taking went to a minimum. We finished up all of the piping, tightened everything down and figured it would be good to go. Then we remembered spark plugs...and back off came the upper piping, but it didn't take too long and actually made a little more clearance from the pulley and AC line under the supercharger itself.

We put oil in the car and we were actually 90% done with the INSTALL of parts. The defi wiring harnesses for the gauges themselves were definitely not long enough to go through the passenger grommet and over to the driver's a-pillar. So after finishing the installation of parts in 5 hours or so, we spent another 2 hours extending 10 wires 3 feet (we had terrible wire, a broken soldering iron and a lot of wiring mishaps).

I think that sums up most of the day and this is what we were staring at:



Great, now we can start up the car! Nope. Turn the key to ON, fuel SPEWS out of the fuel pump on both sides and the AAM (convenient and time saving fitting) fuel adapter. Ugh. We come to the realization that this was the problem for the AAM unit:



So I make a quick trip to the auto parts store and grabbed 2 more O-ring gaskets. First one rips immediately, the second rips shortly there-after. Ugh again. We did however figure out that vortech decided to partially tighten the fittings on the fuel pump and I guess it was my fault for not double checking them, but I figured it was common sense to not partially screw fittings on? Whatever. The fuel pump stopped leaking, but without anymore O-rings, we are stuck and will have to wait for tomorrow morning. I am still unsure what we are going to do to make sure the O-rings don't keep tearing, if anyone has any great ideas feel free to share.

I am not going to lie, there could be belt squeal, oil leaks and vacuum leaks, but we never even got to turn the car on tonight. Not the way I wanted to end the day, but I guess things could have been worse (BIGTIME - Knock on wood). Bright and early tomorrow morning I will be at the doors of the auto parts store when it opens to get some more O-rings and attempt to fix the AAM leaking problem. Let's hope everything else was done well, it seems like we rushed through the install but we double and triple checked nearly everything! It helps to have a certified nissan mechanic and another friend with decent mechanical know-how. I will be sure to keep updates going tomorrow and try and grab some short videos if the everything goes right.

 

We should all pitch in and get you some Mechanix gloves. Good luck tomorrow!

 

here is the deal with the o-rings. they are tearing because aam didn't de-burr the hole on the top of their block. take a knife and shave off the sharp corner on the edge of the block that the o-ring keeps hanging up on to make a champher. just drag the blade across it like you are peeling an orange. this should keep it from cutting those o-rings.

Chad

 

good work, looks good.

 

good job....

 

Either that or buy a rat tail file from the auto parts store in the morning. No reason to booger up your knife... Nice work with the photos.

 

NO REASON TO BOOGER UP YOUR KNIFE......Could you use another word than BOOGER.....lol

 

Great write up you got going. Definitely able to get a better idea of what to expect if I go down this path.

 

Day 7

The car has been started and there was no squeal heard. We adjusted one belt slightly, but it made no difference in sound and may have not even been squealing.

I have not driven the car, I am having major issues with my Defi BF Series gauges not working.

I'll check back later.

(ps - AAM is getting a nasty call for the crap product they designed, 8 O-rings and 2 Xacto Blades later)

 

Jason, I bet if you look at the drawings that the part was created from there would be a note that says...


Remember, it could be the company who makes the parts fault, and not necessarily AAM. Especially if they're not the manufacturer. Go easy on them at first if you actually expect to get something from them. Now go get on that car and tell us how well it pulls w/o a good tune.

Sorry "Booger", your screen name's always tripped me up...

 

congratz bro, cant wait to see some vids of this beast

 

Right click and save as: http://www.jasonsadler.com/vortech/startup.MPG

Car has been running well (knock on wood) and it desperately needs a tune. The car is bogging down heavily at 6000+ RPMS due to the huge fuel dump from the stock map on the SS Box. I am going to try and schedule some time to make it down to Coastal Tuning down in Clearwater and probably buy the 3.12 pulley at the same time.

I am still having gauge drama, and have yet to even see what boost levels I am hitting.. My butt dyno tells me about 320whp, and the torque definitely isn't up there yet. All in all I am pleased with the install and happy with the money spent, ready to get it tuned up and eat some porsches

 

whats wrong with teh gauges now??

looks good cant wait to see it.

 

Wow, great progress! Good luck with the tuning

 

I am sitting at work and I just want to drive the car.. haha. It is very evident that the car needs some major tuning to really feel the power it has; time to call Coastal Dyno and setup an appt. Let's see how long I will wait for this, may as well do the 3.12 pulley then too.