My Procharger with the 9 psi pulley has been running great for nearly two years and no problems. You don't "need" the J&S unit necessarily. I instead got the Technosquare ECU flash at Altered Atmosphere (who did my installation) and all is well.

I like jets too!

 

Here are some comments that I've made elsewhere that tell you what I think of ATI.
You MUST HAVE A TIMING SOLUTION IN PLACE BEFORE YOU INSTALL THE S/C. If you don't you will ruin your motor.
Have the A/F tuned ON A DYNO BY SOMEONE WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING. One mistake and your motor can be destroyed.
Yes it's loud-live with it.
You MUST use locktite slipfit compound on the shafts when you install the pulleys.
You really need to tension the belts when the pulleys are hot, they are aluminum and they "grow" as they heat up enough to make the belt too tight if tensioned cold...properly tensioned they will seem way too loose when the pulleys are cold and that is how you want it. I shredded a set of belts early on and after I figured this out we've got 15k miles on the second set and that includes a lot of quarter mile passes.

My comments on the J&S ultrasafeguard
I installed one on an 04 Auto Z that runs the ATI and every possible bolt on. The Ultra safeguard is the only thing we are using to control timing and as far as I'm concerned it works great. This car is a 90 mile a day daily driver and has probably 50 passes down the strip, not to mention a fair amount of street racing. It has over 20k miles since all this was installed and has had no issues with detonation and is not a built motor.
Heres the key for setup for the J&S
READ THE DIRECTIONS!
Pay attention to the wiring diagram!
Set the knock sensitivity EXACTLY like it says-don't second guess the unit.
I assume your F/I-if you don't have an ULTRA safeguard don't use it. The standard safeguard is not for F/I
The ULTRA safegaurd has BOOST based and RPM based retard
Set the rpm retard to 2 degrees
Set the start **** to no higher than 3 PSI
Set the rate **** to around 1 psi per pound of boost to begin with, this is very conservative.
Properly calibrated the knock function should never be active, you can back off the rate a little at a time until you see knock and then go the other direction.
I would HIGHLY recommend cutting the "knock" LED loose from the unit and wiring it out to into the drivers vision so you can use it to tune the unit and know if a problem is developing.
Wiring. All the wires you need are accessible at the ECU which is close to where most people mount them anyway. You need to get a wiring diagram from the service manual that shows the pin #s and wire colors and cross check that against the J&S diagram. I found a wire color discrepency due to ?model year change?.
Double check your coil color wires at the ecu by comparing them to the signal wire at the coil plug on the engine. It's the middle of the three wires. Unplug it at the coil and ohm it out with a meter to double check if your not sure.
Make very sure the powered hot to the unit is "hot while cranking" by actually checking it with a meter while cranking the motor. Most of the hots you find turn themselves off while the engine is cranking.
I powered mine from the battery and used a relay driven by my hot while cranking source in order not to have the J&S on an unknown source.
Pay attention to the wiring diagram..some of the lines cross; sorry if that sounds stupid but it does happen....
Good luck

 

"IMO there's no good reason to buy the ATI."

No good reason to buy the ATI?? How about higher permitable boost levels? Or how about it's proven reliability? My Procharger runs great with 9lb boost pulleys and have not had a single problem. I"m not saying it's better than a vortec but to say there is no good reason to buy it is simply not true.

 

Right on trefling!!!

 

Boost levels not really good for a stock motor. If you're going to run higher boost than the Vortech is capable of you'll need to build the motor, in which case superchargers don't make sense anyway.

Proven reliability? The ATI has proven the most UNRELIABLE FI option next to the Greddy TT. Also, if something does happen, ATI's customer service is ****, while Vortech will do everything to help you out.

No tapping the oil pan is the only advantage I see, but the self contained oiling system has drawbacks as well. (additional cost, heat dissapation, etc). I would gladly tap my oil pan to get an FI system with real timing and fuel control.

What's the reason to buy ATI over Vortech again?


Off topic: I am going with the APS Single Turbo, both of these supercharger products are inferior to the APS turbo kits (APS has oil pan, return fuel system, plug&play computer, shielded crank wire, etc). I don't see the reason to buy either Vortech or ATI now that single turbo kits have/will hit the market for almost the same price! If I was going SC though, Vortech would definitely be my choice.

 

The patch harness is a must if you're doing the install yourself. You can get it via the guy who hands makes them at www.autosportwiring.net (or is it com?) . They're $300 but worth it if you don't want to risk screwing up your ECU harness and want the ability to instantly revert to stock. The quality is superb. If you're having a pro do the install, save your money and let them have the hassle.

There is no good way around the upper oil pan tap. I left this step to a pro but installed most of the rest of the kit myself. I also avoided trying to install the fuel system--complicated, seriously important and must be done perfectly. Unless you're very skilled, I'd stick to the bracket, blower and piping, do the wiring with the patch harness and leave the remainder to a pro installer with a lift that has done several Vortechs on exactly your model of car (I have a G35 coupe). The advatage of the Vortech system is that every time you do an oil change, you've automatically got fresh oil for the blower. The blower will be fed by a much larger volume of oil than the ATI for better cooling and less wear. The downside: you must change the motor oil every 3000 miles no matter what. Also, you've got to remove the oil inlet filter/sprayer from the base of the blower and clean it out with each oil change. If any dirt gets into the fine channel in this inlet, the blower will be instantly ruined. If you change your oil regularly, this shouldn't be a problem. Definitely get the JWT oil pan spacer so you can run 6 quarts rather than 5.

I was totally impressed with the quality of the Vortech and the fact that I could safely run it straight out of the box without a dynotune. When I finally got my car dyno'd, the factory settings were near perfect--I only had to lean out a couple of places on the map to get 372 rwhp on a totally stock system with the stock pulley. I personally would avoid the Procharger, but Avalon Racing seems to think this is also a quality system that's better for some folks (I guess who want to flog their motors to the max with the option of higher boost limits than the Vortech--the Vortech can have high limits but only with an upgraded blower).

 

One more thing-- if you have to ask where to tap for the boost gauge, you shouldn't be doing this yourself. Leave the gauges and the critical aspects of the blower install to a real pro--unless you yourself are a real pro. With all the extreme care I put into the part of the Vortech install I did, I got the position of the downpipe wrong trapping a hose between it and the frame. This was impossible to tell from the instructions and would have run fine until the hose ruptured a few months later. My mechanic (Jeff from Avalon) noticed this at once.

 

Im not dong this alone just gathering all the info....ASE runs in the family....Drag racing too........ so it shouldnt be an issue.....

Thanks for the vote of confidence...Just cause you had problems doesnt mean everyone else will......Some people are capable of following instructions....

 

Vortech instructions are Sh!i!!!! Dont think that you are going to be able to do it just by reading them, cause you wont. A friend and I just did the install we both have done major work on cars BUT this was a task! The oil pan and wiring were cake. But the rest was a pain in the ****! Good luck, props for doing it yourself.

 

I have more than there instructions I have about 5 pages of notes/ hints/ tips from others that have figured out what else needed/should have been in the instructions..... should send it to vortech...LOL

 

Yeah thats a good idea!