Disclaimer: I am posting this only in hopes of deterring anyone else from going to SGP and wasting their money. This is not necessarily a bash on the shop, but I am merely telling everyone my story with SGP and how I was screwed over.


This all started off back in July of 2005 when my engine leaned out from the Greddy twin turbo kit and the passenger side oil return line was pinched thus blowing the seals on the turbo and cracking the manifold. I had my car towed to SGP in good faith that my car would be taken care of, since the shop that did the turbo install went out of business. They informed me that I had detonation across all the cylinders and there was an 80% leak in the 5th cylinder. They recommended that I buy and install forged rods, pistons, and rings. I did this as well as ordered a set of JWT cams for the new motor. The pistons were Wiseco 8.8:1 compression with titanium rings and Pauter forged rods. I received the car back at the end of November of 2005 with a new motor and a tune on the Greddy E-Manage. I took the car back to school in Lubbock after thanksgiving and noticed relatively no problems. When I came home for Christmas, I had SGP install a new fuel pump as well do the Technosquare ECU reflash because I wanted a few extra hp. They did this and re-tuned the car.

It is now January of 2006 and I went back to school. I changed up the exhaust while up in Lubbock, not thinking it would drastically change the tune and affect the car. The car was still drivable but it was misfiring horribly and having definite fuel problems. I tried driving the car around but decided that it had to go back to SGP in Houston and get this taken care of. In February of 06, I drove the car home 550 miles with a random cylinder misfire and relatively no problems other than that. The next day I’m back in Houston and get on the road to take the car to SGP. I get about 3 miles from my house when the engine overheats. I get a tow to the shop and let SGP have the car. I then flew back to Lubbock to go back to school.

They call me saying that the car is blowing coolant out of the radiator under boost, because the pressurized air is getting into the coolant and pressurizing the coolant. They say this is what is causing the car to overheat, so they run a few more tests and find a crack in the radiator. I authorize them to order a PWR radiator as well as the return fuel system, 770cc injectors, and the e-manage ultimate. I come home for spring break at the end of March 06 hoping to have a working car. I call and SGP says the car is tuned and running great with no overheating problems. I go to pick up the car and as soon as I leave the shop the car overheats. They did not do any actual road testing of the car but merely put it on the dyno-pack with a lot of fans while tuning it. As you can imagine I am quite upset at this point. I take the car back to them and tell them to figure out the problem. They said that the radiator was not fully bled and they would need a day to this. I tell to do that and install a Nismo thermostat since I had not done that yet.

Two weeks later the car is still at SGP because every time I went to try and pick up the car it would still overheat. They were stumped as to why the car was still overheating, but I was fed up with them at this point and told them that I had to go back to Lubbock and finish school. I asked them to install the SGP torque converter upgrade as well as the SGP valve body upgrade. I also asked them to look at the car and try to fix the overheating problem without completely tearing into the motor, because I did not have the money to spend for them to take apart the motor and tell me that the heads are warped and the head gaskets are blown. I come back at the beginning of May 2006 and they swear to me that the car is running great and that they have bled the system and driven it around to ensure that the car is not overheating. I take the car and that day I get into an accident on the freeway because of a woman on her cell phone who slammed on her brakes doing 80mph for some reason unknown to me. I have my car taken to the body shop and have it repainted and fixed. After it was finished at the body shop I had it towed to SGP to have them look and see if everything was ok as far as the radiator and turbo piping. It turns out that everything is fine and they re-bled the coolant system just to be on the safe side. I drive the car home from SGP and to the body shop next day only to run into more overheating problems.

It is now August of 2006 and time for me to go back to school. My dad finally picks the car back up from the body shop and limps it home all the while the car is running on the hot side but not quite overheating. He decides to take the car to Engine Logics and pays for them to take the motor apart and figure out once and for all why it is overheating. They tell us that there is a 30% leak across all the cylinders and the pistons were scoring the cylinder sleeves in all cylinders. The transmission is not making any power until 4200rpms because of the torque converter and the slippage of the transmission; as well the head gaskets on both sides of the motor and both sides of the head were blown in multiple locations across the cylinder head. Engine Logics then checked the heads for any warping, which as it turns out because the engine overheated 5 times, the heads did warp. The total cost for the repairs of this is going to be about $8000.

After all the time and money spent at SGP, I was constantly being treated like a little kid just spending money, because I knew about the VQ motor but I relied on SGP’s knowledge and experience to guide my choices of what to buy. I informed SGP of what was wrong with the motor and they told me **** off and never come back again since my car had been touched by another shop. This, in my opinion, goes to show that even after spending almost $25,000 on parts, labor, and the every frequent “re-tune” with them they were still arrogant and did not want to actually help me get a working car.

Once again, I am only telling this story in hopes of deterring other from going to SGP and getting work done. I have been completely truthful in this and have not lied about anything said here.

Wherever you decide to have your car worked on, please take this story into consideration if you decide that you want SGP to do the work.

 

Sounds like they don't know how to put together a reliable engine package. The bottom line is you have wasted a lot of money and gotten nothing but problems. I am sorry this happened to you.

I like my 350Z, but when I want more horsepower it will be in the form of a C5 or C6 Corvette in Z06 flavor. I'm sure guys will chime in with stories about good turbo 350Zs, but the cost seems high when compared to a Z06 and the performance never seems to match the money spent.

Overall, when seeking a higher level of performance it just seems so much easier and cheaper to start with a car designed to deliver that performance from the start.

This isn't to slam the 350Z, it's an excellent car in many ways, but it is difficult to elevate the performance to supercar levels in a cost effective manner.

 

sounds about right jungle. at least 30 grand on the car, and then another 25 grand on engine mods? sounds like a new vette to me.
Poptarts.......sorry this happened to you. I hope you finally get your car running to your expectations.

 

dang bro thats rough...sorry to hear about your misfortune. makes me double think about going FI. I think I'll just stay N/A

 

is SGP site sponsors in our forum? Hopefully, they can reply to this incident.

 

It'll look even worse if they dont come in here to say something...

built boosted Z > C6

 

That's precisely why I do all my own work on the car.

-Acree

 

+1. I dread the day I install my own JWT TT (granted, that day is a long way off...) and have to take it somewhere to get tuned... I trust no-one to take better care of my car than myself.

 

^gotta be authorized to do that by jwt.

sounds like they were avoided the real issue and giving you the runaround. Hopefully now that the car is back together shell run great! Gl with it!

 

Thanks for posting this...thats horrible that they treated you this way.

 

Eh you drove the car for sevral months with blown headgaskets? Im sorry but thats just really stupid and its your fault the heads warped. You should of learned how to do some mechanic work yourself to change your own headgaskets.

You also drove 550 miles with a missfire - you should never do that. The missfire was probably the headgasket blown across 2 cylinders. Learn to work on your car.

 

Man that is crazy, not to even cover there own work. That is a sign of a shop that thinks nothing of its customers. It seems to be all a money thing to them now. But with horrilbe service like that they need to go under.

 

i completely agree that i shouldnt have driven 550 miles with random misfire but they assured me that it would be ok.

i didnt know that the head gaskets were blown and the heads warped until we took the car to engine logics and had them get the motor apart.

 

You are either retarded or one of the SGP staff. Obviously they gave him the run around and were trying to avoid the fact that his motor was blown. Why would he have to learn to work on his car? He paid SGP a hefty amount to do just that for him. Quite possibly the most ridiculous thing you could have posted...25 grand spent and now go learn to do what SGP was supposed to do....whatever...

 

I trailered my car 300miles for a so called tune at SGP and it turned out to be a mere map install.. What a waste of money... God I hope toyo comes out with the next Gen Supra!!!! I honestly feel the z is not worth spend thousands of dollars on when there is really nothing concrete out to completly modify the car in a safe realiable way, plus nissan's customer service sucks when anything goes wrong with the car...
brooke

 

well that really sucks, i was planning on having sgp do my install next summer since they are in the neighborhood....

 

Before you decide that SGP is not the shop to go to...

Let's wait to see the other side of the coin. We heard the customer side of the story. It's only fair to see the rebuttal. Let's see what SGP has to say in their defense.

 

cubu if you are in dallas go to forced induction in mckinney very good shop like them better than others near them

 

I'm confused as to why you would keep adding more and more mods when the cause of your issue was unknown. Also drivng the car while you knew it had issues was again your fault. SGP may or may have not done quality work, but I think some of this was your responsibility (or lack of). I would like to see what SGP has to say although most shops will do their best to CTA in order to make it the customer's fault.

 

probably thought, might as well get something else done while the car is in the shop already. i probably would have done the same thing.