Thanks superchargedg, you may very well be right. I was originally thinking that and was prepped to buy a new set of lightweight pulleys. It's got to be that or the alt itself. Guess we'll see once we get it on a lift.

Along those lines, does anyone have a non-stock (lightweight) set of pulleys (crank and idlers) on with their Stillen SC kit? If so, any issues?

Thx again!

 

I think the only ones you can or that I have seen are underdrive pulleys. But I dont think you can use those cause then you will underdrive the supercharger. But I could be wrong.

 

Yeah, I read that on some vehicle other forums. Superchargers and underdrive pulleys don't mix. So I was actually looking at stock diameter pulleys but those of the lighter weight variety to free up some tiny HP by reducing resistance/load.

Anyway, we may find out soon if I have to replace one, they're probably all going to go while I'm in there.

 

Hey Guys,

Well, I finally bit the bullet and the SC Stg2 is installed. I can honestly say that I already knew the STILLEN SC wasn't going to push the car very hard or produce wild numbers, but I mean dang, my dyno showed up LOW. Sharif @ Forged said that his dyno machine is nicknamed "The Heartbreaker" b/c it reads low compared to others...and that it surely did (broke my heart).

The gain over my previous setup (Stillen True Dual cat-back exhaust, Stillen Air Intake, Z-Tube, Gordie Grounding Kit) was only a tiny 40 some odd wheel HP.

I absolutely trust Sharif and Forged b/c of the recommendations from TONS of guys on this forum (and the install itself looks seemless), but man what a let down.

As far as driving the car, I of course do feel a difference driving her normally, but again not near as much as I thought with all this talk about a roots system and torque from the 'get go' (as soon as you touch the pedal) etc. Maybe I got my hopes up way too much? Anyways, I can feel a difference and when I get on her hard of course I feel a serious "Kick in the pants", but I'll tell you this much, I'm not going to be creeping up to any cars at lights and begging them to race. I'm getting to old for that anyways, LOL. I had purchased the SC a couple years ago thinking I was going to get it installed immediately, but other priorities came along like kids. So, I finally talked myself into getting some use out of the kit and dusting off the boxes and getting it installed.

I can say that I LOVE the hump in the hood - and I've read that most (I guess mostly non stillen SC owners, ha!) don't like it too much. I love sitting in the drivers seat and seeing that hump just sitting there. Makes you feel like you are going a 100mph when sitting still. It's sort of a weird looking breed between a japanese tuner and american muscle car. Oh and the noise the SC makes is fantastic!

I'll try and post pictures soon. I have to pay off the install expense (forged says they do it right and do it right the first time - solid shop - but it comes with a price!) and then get the NISMO S-Tune front bumper put on and some more body kit items to help balance out the new (more aggressive) look of the car with the hump in the CF hood, etc etc.

I hope everyone is doing well and is enjoying the fall (my fav time of year by far!!!)
Thanks Guys!!
-WoW

 

Hey WoW can you post your dyno results? Also do you have a boost gauge and if so what are you boosting. I am hitting just about 8 psi on my stage 2 i dont know if that is right or not. When I get home i am going to install a wide 02 sensor and see what it is doing. My friend has a 1975 Corvette 350 bored 0.30 over with a weiland supercharger/blower setup and i give him a run for his money. But he has a C5 that is all modded it he said he is going to crush me when i get back.

 

Hey Buddy!

I ended up with 271whp. Personally from reading on this forum since way back in the day, that number seems "wimpy", but the car does have a nice "kick in the pants" and my overall goal was to not 'push' the engine too hard as it's now a daily driver. This is only the second day I've had the car, so hopefully I'll have a chance to really test her out more (I got the car last night and headed home in rush hour traffic) and see what this kit really did to my baby.

I'm not running any boost gauges - I figure why - it's not much boost, but would be cool!

I hope everything is ok with your baby! Let's us know and keep us updated.

Thanks Guys!
-WoW

 

I would defiently get a boost and a air/fuel ratio gauge. When boosting on a na engine you want to make sure you are monitoring everything.

On the baby note. She is building up fluid between her right lung and chest cavity from the open heart surgery. So they are thinking they are going to have to go in from her back and go up and around her lung and sear the tissue between the lung and rib cage. This happened last time but on the left side. But it didn't start untill we had her home and she started crashing on me in a parking lot. They called in a helicopter and flew her outta of there back to the hospital.

 

I'll have to ask Sharif how much a air/fuel gauge would run me - install wise?

Keep us up to date on your ride (the baby thing scared me for a second, I literally thought you were talking about your child - yikes! lol)

*Hoping to have pic's soon (maybe tomorrow).

P.s. I did get on her HARD last night on the way home and this kit does throw you back some in your chair and get's you up in the 100'smph quicker than I thought...When I hit 2nd the front of the car felt like it was lifting up some and then when I hit third hard, on this run I did last night, the front felt like it was lifting up again and I was hauling @ss...anyone else feel this on a Stg2????

-WoW

 

Sounds like what my car does. I have a Injen CAI long tube and it just screams it is so loud.

I have a friend who is a cop, I just got the car and was going down the highway and he had somebody pulled over. I goosed it passed him soon as I did he called me on my cell and said you wanna try to out run my Motorola. I just laughed. I told him the only way I was going to let him drive my car was if I could drive his and chase him. LOL

 

I had the same cai and it was just to damn loud when you get on it.I actually scared the crap out of a guy in a droptop z at a meet when going under a bridge and goosed it.You should have seen his face...it was priceless.

 

From reading this thread the Stillen Stage 2 seems like a perfect fit for what I'm looking for. However $2-$3k for a 40whp gain isn't exactly the best bang for your buck. Too bad I can't get the same reliability and squeeze out around 100whp for a decent price.

I'd probably also have to get rid of my HKS and go back to stock?

 

You won't have to get rid of your HKS exhaust. The Stillen kits require that the OEM Headers and Cats be in place, but intake kits and exhaust can be kept and should not take away from the kit. I have the STILLEN true dual cat-back exhaust on, and I'm sure it only helped rather than hurt. I would hate to know what the wheel horsepower would have been without the true dual exhaust, LOL. I'm sure the difference would have been (a really rough guess, 5-8whp less?)

If you can find a gently used (I guess that's hard to do with used FI kits) Stg2 kit and a good $$ on an install (or do yourself if you have the 'know how') you could possible come out smelling like roses.

Thanks Guys!
-WoW

 

Hi ALL:

I'm not new to this board but I sure haven't posted a lot, mainly 'cause...takes a lot of effort to really feel like I've contributed. Here goes nothin'.

2004 G35 Sedan 5AT, weekend car only, not DD, will never track this car
Stillen catback Gen2
DC Sports headers
Stillen Stage3 supercharger
Stillen Z-tube + air filter (with K&N element)
Stillen hood (I LOVE the hood BTW and get kudos regularly)
Optima red-top battery (wrong one so I had to reverse the battery)
Stillen sway bars: front full hard, rear middle setting
Eibach Pro line springs 1.1" drop all-around
Eibach camber kit, front/rear.
Rays 19" G-Coupe forged rims, 8.5 rear, 8.0 front
Michellin 050 all around
Rear rolled fender wells (no more rubbing on bumps!)
263 RWHP using Dynojet
??? torque (I gotta dig-up my dyno charts)

Work done:

First it was JUST sway bars. That wasn't good enough, wanted better handling. Got Eibach springs. That was a bit better, but handling was sloshy. Got camber kit and proper alignment. Much better, but still a bit sloshy at high-speed. Wanted razor-sharp turn in. Got the 19" rims with used Michellins. WOW!!!!! Razor-sharp handling everywhere. A bit stiff but oh well.

In between all of that, I installed headers and catback (together). After about 50-100 miles the improvement was noticeable. Coming home one night on a nice stretch of freeway, I bested an 07/08 G35 Sedan (306 hp) so I knew I was probably making at least as much power as a new G.

Somewhere between doing that above mods, got and self-installed Stillen kit about 8 months ago, took 3 weeks taking my time in the evenings after work and 1 or 2 weekends. Wanted to really understand everything and not rush past important stuff. EXCELLENT INSTRUCTIONS and support!!!!!!!!!

Intial result: DISAPPOINTED for a while, same as nearly everyone else. Felt like the stock ECU needed to learn a few things (??) and that the power was weak. Put up with it for a while. Eventually got a mechanical boost/vac gauge, Autometer, not making more than 5.5 lbs up-hill full throttle. I knew boost pressure would drop as a result of headers, though I didn't understand why at the time. Also thought that it was running really rich and getting really bad gas mileage. Stillen said it might be rims and tires (whatever...)

Took it to Stillen and Sammy (nice enough guy, very knowledgeable if just a bit corporate) and he measured 6.33 lbs. OK, so that's not bad.

Then got the car dynod at Specialty Z in Chatsworth, CA and they measured 263.xx rwhp (round up to 265), 5.5lbs. Also measured AFR (from tailpipe) at 10 or less (very rich, bad for power). Also, boost stars to drop off after 5500 rpm, strange. Might be a slipping belt or boost-leak somewhere.

Told this to Stillen, sent in the P-Back unit, remapped with 2 maps. Tried first map, thought it felt a bit better, no pinging. Tried 2nd map, even better feeling, still no pinging at all, and I really feel it's making more power. For example, with VDC off, before re-flashing the pback ECU, I could only spin tires by holding brake and building boost first. Now, I can just press the gas pretty hard (not WOT) and break tires loose waaaaay too easily. Having a bit of trouble launching with VDC off.

So, that's where things stand now. I actually don't mind my Stillen kit and kind of like it. Sure, it's noisy and loud. Yes, they are salespeople and yes they make money. BUT, they are knowledgeable and know what they are doing. IMO, their primary goal is reliability and driveability, period. They are NOT a performance-oriented tuning shop. They seem like they try to do things 'by the book' and won't even work on my car unless it's towed in or out of their shop (Stage 3 is not CARB approved). Strange, but OK, I get it.

Currently the car is getting a Transgo RE5R05A-HD2 shift kit installed, elsewhere, thanks to all of the rave review on this board!

I probably wont buy anything else from Stillen 'cause they don't have anything else I want really. The big-brake kits are hot-looking but can't justify $4000+ on brakes.

Some of my ideas for the near future are:

-Stage4 or smaller (custom machined) pulley but with 6 bigger injectors and pump.

- Eliminating p-back ECU and flashing stock ECU with UpRev.

- Using the Stillen injector location for Methanol/Water injection (including re-tune). M/W injection is a good cooling/anti-detonation solution, I hear, especially with positive displacement units like the Stillen.

- PLX Devices OBD2 gauges for engine monitoring, including wideband O2, boost/vac, and etc. I'll probably get the gauges before pushing the engine harder so I can have before/after readings of all sorts. NOTE: Intake air temp readings (pre-sc- vs post-sc) are pretty important to gauge efficiency of the blower unit

Like one of the other posters somewhere on this board, I want a very reliable, hella-fast nearly-daily-driver. It should NOT be the fastest thing on the road. I'll likely see what I can make the Stillen kit do by going beyond the original design. If I blow something up...GTM has nice motors for sale.

Thank You to EVERYONE on this board who has contributed with feedback and experiential info. I've learned a lot and hope that I can benefit others as well.

RichieV

 

^ Simply WOW! Thanks so much Richie for sharing all this fantastic information and your experience. Extremely well written and we all (guys here in this particular thread) greatly appreciate.

Thanks Guys!
-WoW

 

Very nice first post and congrats.