I am really close to picking up an FI kit. Currently up for grabs are a TN ST and an APS TT kit. At the same time, Ive heard many great things about a Vortech s/c. Many people have told me that a s/c is more reliable and ideal for a daily driver. Im looking for something that once installed (correctly) and tuned (correctly) will not give me any problems. I drive my car alot in heavy Los Angeles traffic everyday. I need opinions, feedback, whatever, to help me decide on the best form of FI for my needs. Cost and maintenance is also a big issue. Not looking for huge numbers, just a tad more power with the sound and bragging rights of owning a boosted Z. I ran a search in the FI section but didnt come up with much. Any info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!

 

What are the goals of the car besides "bragging rights" and sound? Do you plan on racing a lot? Do you want more midrange TQ or less TQ drop off up top? Smoother linear powerband or more of a "fun" (IMO) factor with the turbo's? Potential for more power later? Answer these questions and you have your answer. BTW this has been discussed to death for the past 4 years....all the kits have potential for being tuned and running relatively smooth/problem free, and on the other side of the fence you could buy any kit, tune it and have serious issues, its just the way the cookie crumbles. If your not ready for the latter, dont go FI.

 

depends on what you are looking for and what kind of power are you trying to get. if your looking for just 330-350rwhp my bet would be to stick with a vortech kit it is easy to install and safely tuned right out of the box. also it is pretty cheap. But if u get the vortech kit and want more power, you will have a domino effect and would have been better of with a tuner vortech kit or a TT kit

 

Nothing is safely tuned right out of the box IMO-but if you were gonna go that route TN would be the way to go on an otherwise stock car...

 

Any of these kits can be very reliable with the appropriate care given to tuning and maintenance.

However, there's a large difference in power delivery these kits will provide and also price to get there. It all depends on what you're looking for from a performance perspective.

Also, no form of FI on this motor will be totally and absolutely without problems.

 

I agree with the top posts but add that for the same price more power can be had for the Turbo application, I like the Vortec but the belt slip and throwing of the belt possiablity. Keeps me from that...TN setup in my near future...Just my .05cents..

 

just go V8!!!!

 

 

How important is being legal? In CA your choices are the Vortech sc and the Stillen Stage 2 sc.

Both provide quite different driving experiences.

 

Ya I know this has been covered 160,000,000 times on here. I tried a search but didnt come up with good answers.

There really arent any set goals for the car. No serious racing or tracking. Like Alberto said, mainly in it for the "fun factor". Not really looking to make high HP numbers. What scares me is all the talk about people blowing their motors under "normal" driving conditions. You guys are right though, any FI kit has potential of causing major damage. As far as possiblity for future upgrades?? Thats not something Im too concerned with right now. I know this question will save me money in the long run but I honestly cant answer that now.

Ok maybe a better question....out of TN ST, Any TT kit, Vortech....is the Vortech the easiest, cheapest, and best for daily driving? Out of the box plug and play with minimal tuning required?? Of course I wouldnt just drive it out of the box. I would def. get a tune before anything. Just seems like there is alot more that goes into turbo's. Sorry but I dont want to make the same mistakes like with my Ranger. I want to make sure I have every aspect covered. Thanks for your replies guys!

 

Sounds to me like you need to do a LOT more research before jumping into FI. Installing anything without basic knowledge of how it works is a recipe for disaster. Don't expect everyone here to do everything for you.

 

one of the new import magazine this month did a review of the Mines Z33 which is N/A and they said they could not believe the feeling of power this car put out. It honestly didn't have a ton done to the enigine either. they said it felt like the car had a turbo in it...it pulled so hard. maybe that would be your best bet? or at least worth considering.

 

I have yet to come across a vortech that blew up the engine by breaking rods. People have hurt their piston ringlands though by running too lean or too much timing or reving over redline a lot though, but I haven't officially read any details about someone blowing up their engine with a vortech. I've heard rumors of some sort of race team blowing their engine with a vortech, but no real details on it.

there's some belt slip solutions available - just gotta search for them. Tightening the belt really only needs to be done once or twice when the belt is new during the first 500 miles if you get a good GATES belt. It won't have the fun factor rush of a turbo, but it will have an overall flatter torque curve than a single turbo will. TT's can be tuned to be pretty flat though with lowish boost. I wouldn't run a stock vortech kit, I'd at least upgrade to the 3.12 pulley and retune it

 

The Stillen sc (up to stage 3) is out of the box plug and play with ZERO tuning. It provides the least gains out of all FI kits but is IMO the least likely to give you issues given that you can't tune it out of the box.

But no FI kit is 100% safe since each car is different.

 

lol....No way will I be installing this on my own. I will be taking it to a shop. Just doing research on which kit will best suit my needs.

Stillen is out of the question because I am not willing to swap my hood.
I know I definitely want to go FI, like I said. This thread is to help me decide which kit is most likely to give me the least headaches with proper installation and tuning of course. I know how important tuning is, so dont think that I have overlooked this issue. Again, thanks for all the replies.

 

I was just about to mention the stillen kit, but i guess you dont want to swap your hood,
Go with vortech, reliable and you will yield some nice power if you just upgrade to the 3.12" pulley.
Vortech FTW!

 

Im still researching but Vortech is definitely at the top of my list.

 

The best advise you will get will come directly from a reputable shop that will be doing the work. I would get on the phone and setup some time to meet with the guys at GT motorsports and discuss the best option for you based on your goals and budget. The board is only a good starting point to narrow down your options. IMHO, I wouldn't even consider a SC, and would lean heavily towards a properly setup TT kit

 

I hate to say this but this has been discussed over and over again. There are pros and cons to each option. I'm personally quite happy with my Turbonetics kit and have had no issues to date. Zivman is happy with his APS TT kit, Sentry is happy with his Vortech, the list goes on. It honestly comes down to what your goals are for the car and what you plan to do to it. A TT kit is not for everyone and neither is a ST kit. Likewise some don't like the power delivery of a SC kit. I would read up a little more on each option you are planning for and look at all the dyno graphs and determine what you think the best solution is for you.

 

If this means anything, I've said it before, but if I was bone stock, I probably would have just gone for a TT kit instead of the vortech because in a lot of ways it would have just been a simpler process. I probably would have chosen the APS TT since there's a good APS shop near where I live and at the time APS was the big hype. It would have been nice to just drop the car off for a week and have the APS kit put on the car and be done with it since the shop (Dynocomp) has had a lot of experience with APS installs and knows what they're doing to get everything right the first time.

My car was Dynocomp's first vortech install and they did a great job with everything, but I keep coming back to them with little changes I want to make like wanting a cold air intake, or a new belt setup, or changing pulleys, etc that the APS kit would not have to deal with - though they seem to have their own set of issues that can come up and I possibly would have tweaked little things here and there anyway.

Since I had a ton of NA parts and didn't want to have to sell or swap out my my headers, 3.9 final drive/nismo LSD, exhaust, high flow cats (I would have ran test pipes with a turbo), and exhaust and so I ended up deciding the vortech would probably compliment my car the most - I also hadn't really heard about any catastrophic blown engines at the time - and still haven't really that are known to the public anyway

Above all else I wanted a flat torque curve with no sudden bursts of torque peaks and as little lag in throttle response as possible and something that wasn't going to be too much of a handful for different types of driving. Some people feel otherwise, but I always wondered if a turbo would feel a bit awkward for something like autocrossing with trying to battle with too little or too much power due to any lag for what your right foot is asking since autocrossing is all about really quick maneuvers. I felt the vortech was well rounded enough for my goals and I knew I was never going to need a platform to shoot for 550+whp/tq