I installed the stillen stage 3 on my car, and just installed a vortech on my friend's this last weekend, and my viewpoints have nothing to do with horsepower output or reliability, or which I like better, just with the complications of each install.

His Vortech does look really tight, especially after I powdercoated numerous brackets, the intercooler ends and lower intercooler pipes, and he was able to source red hose end connectors instead of the standard blue that vortech supplies. Pics and details here: http://www.350zfrenzy.com/forum/show...&threadid=5342 Mine will be pretty flashy too, as I am powdercoating my stillen manifold and having my blower polished. Pics in about a month.

Overall, I think the stillen is a much better engineered kit, as far as the installation goes. On the stillen, the ONLY hole cut on the entire car is for a hood scoop, if you don't want to replace the entire hood (I tried both, the scoop first and then the hood, as the scoop looks like an added on piece and isnt that flattering. The hood looks much better in person than in photos, but that could be my opinion)

These are my reasons:
Instructions, Stillen's instructions are much better written, and are explicit in every step. The Vortech seemed to leave out a few things, like installing the rubber caps on the end of the fuel pump before wiring it up, or even mentioning them at all, for that matter. Also, Stillen had much better pictures in their instructions. My friend made notes on other errors in their kits instructions also, he may eventually post them on the above referenced post, I'm not sure.

Intercooler mount. The vortech intercooler is held in place by 2 bolts on the passenger side only. It then rests on 2 brackets that are attached under the car via splash pan attachment points. We used one of the plastic zip tie mounts for the power steering cooler to secure the drivers side, as even though they have a boss on that side, they have no holed drilled to use a bracket, and there is no way to attach the bottom brackets to the intercooler either. Also, the bottom brackets have a bend down in them, which prevents the splash guard from being reinstalled.

Stillens intercooler is smaller, but it mounts on both sides and is water cooled, so it needn't be as big. I have however, had 2 of those electric pumps fail now (stillen has gone with a new manufacturer, so maybe the kinks will be worked out on that).

The intercooler piping on the vortech required us to cut into the factory plastic splash guard liners. On his kit, we also had to cut the lower splash pan as the pass. side hanged down a bit (perhaps we could have aligned it better, I'm not sure)

The other niggling things are the oil pan being drilled, but it wasn't really a big deal, and there is a lot more wiring involved in the vortech. With the stillen, its a power, ground, 2 cam sensors and the crank sensor, but they are spliced into at the sensor. With the vortech, its all that, plus a couple more, spliced in at the ecu. I HIGHLY recommend the wiring patch harness if you choose the vortech, otherwise it would be a really tight working space cutting into the harness. Also, the patch harnesses wires are all white, except the ones you need, and a few other helpful ones. The wire colors match up to vortechs wire colors and it helps the job.

 

btw, the Vortech definitely feels strong, right out of the box with no tuning!

 

time to install?

 

Another fine project completion by 2003Z & Company. Did you stay with stock pullies? ... Also was the oil pan removed before drilling the hole? ... Did you have to buy any special tools? Hopefully, you compiled a 'install gig sheet', I'll want to photo copy it for my pending install. I'm shooting for mid year.

 

time to install:
stillen, 14 hours working solo
vortech, 13 hours with a little help. would be about even solo.

Sam,
I'm all stock pullies, on Jeremy's we removed the underdrive pulley but left the UR accessory pulleys.

Removed oil pan before drilling, also installed JWT spacer while it was out.

Special tools, for vortech: right angle drill adapter to drill the pan.

Jeremy took notes on a few of the discrepancies. The stillen only had one, which I reported to them, and I believe they corrected it (cam sensor wire colors were reversed, but it was obvious)

 

The Vortech install instructions say to emove the.brackets under the intercooler and replace the splash shield. The bracket are only temporary. Could you post your pics on this forum? Thanks for your valuable info.

 

while the brackets are only temporary, that would leave you with only 2 bolts on the end of a 2 foot intercooler holding it in place (well, the tubes also). That seemed insufficient, so we hammered the brackets flat and placed a rubber square under them and also used that zip tie.

I don't have to wait 30 secs between pics here plus, the 640x480 size still has to be reduced, and its a pita, sorry.

 

From the pictures it appeared that you tapped the JWT spacer. I thought this was a no-no. You've got to get the oil return line above the oil level in the pan.

 

i did the same with the 2 brakets underneath, it did seem that the one bracket on the side was insufficient so it left the 2 under it.

 

I couldn't agree more... Vortech's instructions were very vague in some areas which left me staring at parts and scratching my head in some parts. I even had to pull out the Sport Compact Car Mag where they installed their Vortech as an aid.
I remember when my wife would ask me how the install was going, I would joke and say Vortech's instructions went like this:

Step 1: Open hood
Step 2: Install Vortech Centrifugal Superchager
Step 3: Start car and drive...

Without prior wrenching experience and the knowledge shared in this forum it would have been a rough install!

 

I think "sufficient" would best describe the Vortech instructions. I didn't have any significant problems installing mine by myself. If you have never really attempted any work like this before you may have a few questions. The biggest things that I can remember were trying to figure out which end was the top of the thick cast pipe coming up to the MAF and trying to get the pipe in that is just behind the fans. I know that I invented a few words trying to snake it in there.

 

The JWT pan is for extra capacity only. the oil return is drilled in normal spot.

 

Yes-- but the originator of this thread posted pictures of the install on another website. One of them showed what looked like a broken piece of a JWT spacer with a thread tapper in it. It was only a small piece so I wasn't sure but it had the gold color of the JWT spacer.

 

what you saw broken was the oil supply feed. It is a tee that installs where the oil pressure sender goes, next to the air filter. We installed the tee first, then while screwing the sender into the tee, the tee twisted more (very little, but obviously too much) and broke off, with very little pressure applied to it.

My suggestion is to install the sender into the tee, then install the tee to avoid this. Either that, or hold the tee with pliers or a vice grip after you install it to hold it steady while you put the sender on. We went for that option.

 

Thank you for the advice. If you have any other wisdom to share, I would greatly appreciate it. I've decided to do my own install with Speedracer helping me.

 

That's great, its a lot of fun, despite the little annoyances.

If you have a nismo power steering cooler, it won't fit like they want it to, as its longer, we had to trim the plastic frame of the car to make it fit in there.

Although it didnt call for it, I put permatex gray sealer about 4 threads up from the bottom on the drain return line for an extra seal once installed. Don't know if thats clear, but the first four turns were clean, then the permatex sealed the threads.

I recommend the JWT spacer for the extra qt of oil.

When you splice into the factory fuel lines, the fmu lines will be really close to the exhaust. I had to slightly bend the line coming from the gas tank down, and then zip tie the lines against the body of the car, also, there are a couple of wires on the front left of the engine that will be very close to the cogged supercharger pulley. zip tie those clear also.

Put the little rubber caps on the fuel pump wires before putting the eyes on them. I don't think they mention the caps in the instruction, we found them after we finished up the install.

I don't like the clamps they give you for the fuel system. I have read of one or two people having failures and fuel leaks because of them. We replaced them all with standard hose clamps instead.

thats about all I can think of now.

 

Thanks!!!

 

I should mention that in talking with Paul from Avalon Racing, they install the blower with the shim on the engine side (the opposite of the directions). Lines up the pulleys better.

Another tip from Paul is to index the plugs as they do in all their race cars. This gets the "deepest" point of the plug--the bend of the outer electrode--the furthest away from the piston to avoid overheating of the plug tip from the hot piston face. Potentially, a hot plug can expand enough to strike the piston at TDC. Also, reduces risk of detonation. They use thin washers and mark the plugs on the bend side with a Sharpie. Then, by knowing the best orientation, they get all the plugs to line up properly. Paul is going to let me know the right "o'clock" for the plugs in the VQ35DE engine.