Well I have held out long enough and I feel that I should share my experience. Back in February 2005 when I blew my stock motor I decided to ship it out to SGP to have them build it because at the time they were putting out the highest whp car with built blocks. They seemed to have a good reputation so I went with them. Back then the turn around time was not like today where you can get your block rebuilt in two weeks. After several months (which is not my gripe and the reason for this thread) I finally got my motor back. I had a shop in Miami re-install the motor and my Greddy TT. After putting 1000 miles on the new block I drove up to Cp Race in NC to have Sharif tune my car. It put down something like 543whp, but it did have a DD correction.

After several months with the built motor I blew that one as well....fried 3 pistons. Around this time I was pretty fed up with spending so much money and not being able to enjoy the car so I decided to ship the whole car to SGP so they can build a new motor and retune my car. After that I planned on selling it. This was in August of 2005. In January 2006 I flew to Texas to pick up my car and drive it back home. I was worried about the tune because it was 50 degrees in Texas and 90 degrees in Miami. At the time I was running the Greddy EU. My concern was that with the change in weather the tune would get fuked up. I expressed my concern several times to Mark at SGP and he told me it would be fine. Well sure as *** enough a few miles into FL the car starts running so pig rich at WOT that it would bog. When I finally got back to Miami I called Mark and explained to him what happened. He said he would fly out to Miami and fix my tune which I was very grateful for his offer. I advised him that when he came to Miami to bring an HKS FCON with him because I was done fuking around with BS piggy backs. (I cost me another $3K in parts for the HKS)

A couple of weeks later Mark came to Miami and he installed the FCON on my car. I rented a DD so he can tune and then he tweaked the tune on the street. The car ran much better, but a few things were still fuked up like my idle. If I turned the a/c on the idle would start jumping from 1000 rpms to 1500 and back down to 1000 rpms. It was fine if I turned off the a/c, but this is almost a $40K luxury car that has just as much as the car cost invested into it. I want my fukinging a/c especially in Miami without the car sounding like a jalopy. Also after a WOT run when I came to a stop the car would turn off. Mark told me that the ECU was still learning and that these problems would correct themselves. Well I waited almost two months and they didn't fix themselves.

After realizing that I had spent so much money to have a car, that although was fast, but sounded like chit at idle and had stalling problems I was pretty bitter to say the least. Between both blocks, labor, tuning, HKS FCON, SGP dumps, hotel fees, and airlines tickets I had spent at leaset $20K with SGP and my car still had problems. I finally decided to let someone else fix Mark's mess. I called Sam from GTM and inquired about flying him to Miami to retune my car and fix my idle. He asked me what injectors I was using and when I told him RC's he said that although they get the job done if you want a really smooth idle you'll need better injectors. I told him I would do whatever to get car running right. During my conversation with Sam I learned that he would be at Forged Performance for a few days working on someone elses car so I decided to drive up and meet Sam there instead of flying him to Miami.

Long story short. Sam found that my FCON Vpro was not installed properly and my knock amp wasn't even hooked up. Sam rewired everything how it was supposed to be, changed out my injectors, and gave me a perfect tune. The car no longer sputters, runs rich, or any of the BS it used to do after I got the car back from SGP.

Shortly after Sam worked on my car Mark called me and I explained that I was pretty pissed off to find out my chit wasn't hooked up right and that I had to pay someone else to fix it. He appologized and offered to send my a new SGP plenum to make up for me having to spend another $3K on labor, parts, and tune to get the car running right. Well this was March of 2006. I am still waiting on my plenum. I just got off the phone with Mark and now he tells me they are redoing the design of the plenum and doesn't know when it should be done.

For the record Mark, I don't want chit from you. You can keep your plenum or what ever else you want to offer me. All I ever wanted was to get what I paid for, a perfect running car, which you did not delivery. I know people have good experiences with SGP, but I wanted to share my bad. There's a bunch more too that I haven't even talked about, but I'll leave it at that.

 

Thats rubbish, glad you got it all sorted mate.

 

All he offered you was a plenum?

I thought you had to be certified dealer/tuner to work on FCONs... WTF is Mark's excuse for that atrocity.

 

Thanks

So far I've worked with several shops and all of them except Sharif at Forged and Sam @ GTM have burned me.

 

Sam @ GTM is awesome

 

Yup a plenum. I accepted his offer as he stated it would add something like 60whp. As far as being certified I don't know what happened there. I hope that Sam can chime and explain what was wired wrong on my HKS. BTW, I wasn't the only car from SGP that was getting fixed by Sam. I won't mention names, but it was another Greddy TT 350Z with HKS FCON. It too had the FCON hooked up wrong and the knock amp not working.

 

yow... that bites.

 

Sounds like a big mess.

being as I've been on the other side of this kind of situation, I will wait for their response.

 

Yeah there is his side and I too was a happy customer until I realized I got the wool pull over my eyes. There's no excuse for the HKS FCON not being wired up correctly and for the knock amp to not even be working. WTF did I pay for the knock amp for if it wasn't going to get hooked up? I believe it cost something like $700. Was I too use it for decoration or something? *** that!

And for the record I am not blaming the 1st built motor blowing on SGP. It was just to give you a history of my dealings with them.

 

That blows man. That is why I am going to do everything with Sam from now on (since i am local). They charge more, but I KNOW everything will work right.

Sorry you got burned by so many shops.

 

I forgot to mention another member recently pm'ed me about the problems he was having with SGP and his car not running right after spending big bucks. I referred him to Sam or Sharif to get it fixed.

 

My car ran rich also, no matter what. Idled at like, 11:1 :: WOT was about right, but idle and just cruising was awful, gas mileage sucked! My idle was perfect though, and I had 1000cc inj's

 

WTF idled at 11:1????? SGP also?

 

Yep! Poor Chris also bought an FCON from Mark to fix his idle and running rich problems. He ended up selling his APS and everything else cause he couldn't take the chit any more.

 

Yes, they originally installed and tuned it. That was my only gripe with the tune though. Jotech retuned it later and it still idled too rich; wierd. I don't know if mine was hooked up incorrectly or not .

 

that's one of the things I forgot to mention. MY a/f at idle was like I was in boost. I never had 14.7 until Sam tuned the car.

 

It was frustrating, but that's not the reason I sold it all.

Oh, and btw, I'm thinking about doing it again, just not built motor though

 

Wow... What the hell goes through the installer's mind when he knows he does not get an essential job done correctly for a customer who spends big bucks....

I do not get it. Glad to hear it's all fixed though.

 

ok, my bad. I should not have spoken for you.