Actually APS has been nothing but great to me. I may have been the first one to experience this issue stateside. The first time I simply cleaned out the valve and it ran fine for another 3k miles...then it started all over again. As soon as I let APS know, they shipped out a new electrnic solenoid to replace the valve. I got it direct from Peter at APS the very next day...from Australia. Unfortunately the MAF was gone at this point and I found I was running lean. That was another $500 bucks out of my pocket on top of the gobs I spent trying to diagnose the issue as it was not something you'd normally think of.

I can't say anything bad on behalf of APS. I always was treated great with them. I don't see why anyone else would have such an issue with them....

I also forgot to mention the boost drop issue. Kinda sucks that you need to buy a specific exhaust for this kit to hold boost to redline. I had the Greddy fabricated and it held well with a minor drop of about 0.5 psi (from 9 to 8.5). Another person also had the same exhaust fabricated but the flow was still questionable and prolly wasn't the same as mine. His won't hold boost whatsoever....kind of a trial and error thing....not the best feeling in the world especially after dropping so much cash on the kit.

 

Oh and I also didn't care for the goofy sound of the BOV....but thats just me. It'd be nice to hear the 7 grand I spent

 

Well if im not mistaking is the SFR which uses turbonetincs 60-1 turbos's they say the turbo kit is for well over 1000rwhp no one has made that much yet but some one is making on 20 PSi with the greddy over 700rwhp if im not mistaking which thats a heck of power considering the amount of torque and you not going to have any traction. but i think the greddy can pass the 800 rwhp mark.

And yes if you want to make more power between greddy and APS TT yes greddy has bigger turbo's.

 

When I was quoting this, I noticed you had edited this so I will resond to the real information later, although I had to grab this part and single it out as this is got to be the first time I have heard this from someone publicly aside from being pleased with their products.

I am glad you have this feeling with APS, it's good see that maybe the tide can turn, however for the first full year that I had my APS TT, I got nothing but attacks about APS Customer Service and this mainly had to do with Peter, and then of course other historical matters that should be let go.

I personal was left with a very bad taste in my mouth in regards to how peter interacted with me and several people I know personally.

Peter has had a very poor attitude when it comes to some "commonly expected customer service and business methods" and I have seen a lot of this first hand.

What I can say is that Peter must know what he's doing, or he wouldn't be where he is, and I wouldn't love my product, so what I am saying here isn't to be taken all bad.

Actually from my personal business and professional experience, when you are working directly with an owner, you will have to tolerate the "direct experience" and take it in all it's forms.

Owners are rarely good at the "pretty please with sugar on top" bit and that is why they have employees.... So they can do it and make sure the right message gets deliveried to customers and fellow employees alike....

If you find the original APS thread here, you will find me as an eager and satisifed customer with a few concerns, and I did have some problems, which Peter quickly blamed on my car, and to this day probably thinks the same thing, as I did have a similar experience with someone else from APS so it only confirmed the line of thinking that "APS is perfect and everyone else is not".

On many things you can probably say that is almost true, but the fact is no one person/company is perfect unless your are Jesus Christ and your company is GOD, Inc (please insert your prefered religious name/title)

 

Again, this is good information and I and others will be glad to see it, please remember this as I ask more questions/throw in my .025 cents! (yes there is three digits after the decimal, I value my .02 slight more than some)

As far as this goes, how much of this issue was "specific exhaust" vs "better exhaust"?

The only thing about FI is that it is ALL ABOUT THE FLOW which you learned the hardway, but also know has to be considered!

In order for any FI solution you must be able to breath/flow at the rate to sustain the desired results.

I currently have the stillen exhaust, and that is going to limit me when I want to take the current bost past 16lbs. There are some people out there that do not know there are "needs" to take their APS TT kit past 12lbs and it's not APS's fault or poor design, it's actually good on their part.

You need better exhaust to support more boost, and of course you are going to need better internals to handle more power.

 

I understand what your saying but with the T'netics kit you can use any exhaust and it will hold boost regardless. The APS ST doesn't seem to be as compatible. The only exhaust that will fit is the APS exhaust and it is the only one that will hold boost without issues. All aftermarket exhausts are designed for better flow anyways so you'd assume they would be more than sufficient for a ST setup. They obviously are for any TT setup. If the stock exhaust is sufficient to hold boost for other kits than surely any aftermarket kit should be. It really sucks to buy a kit for 7 grand and then find out the only way to get all the power is to spend more money. Your kinda stuck in ditch at that point...

Aside from this... I don't like the look or price of the APS exhaust but most importantly I don't like the way it sounds.

 

Again, thanks for the info/feedback.

You made a very good point about the exhaust not being compatible, and you are right that you shouldn't need a particular exhaust to hold boost, however I wonder if you ran slightly less boost (I don't know how much and if it would make a noticeable difference or not) if you would still have that problem while still getting "what you want" outta the kit/turbo without really sacraficing power/performance.

I personally don't think that is right, and that would go back to the message I made about "business methods" @ APS.

And you originally mentioned something about the sound from the BOV... I didn't really notice anything wrong when I was working with the ST at Brainstorm, but if you are referring to the "dual stage" portion, then you may want to consider the fact that it is dual stage and allows you to spool quicker by retaining some of the boost and not venting it all.

You could change your BOV if you want more pleasing sound, but then again that would be more money.

 

Not true at all....do some research. Our problems with aftermarket exhausts and boost issues go the other way...

 

Didn't mean anything by it just threw it in for kicks

 

Oh I'm fully aware of the blown engines due to running lean if thats what you were referring to...but thats mainly the cause of the reflash...point is that you can still use any exhaust and hold boost or overboost for that matter...

Besides if I had a T'netics..I wouldn't dare use the flash. You can even change the engine management and still come out cheaper than the APS kit..

 

I personally recalled that there were exhaust issues with Tnetics but as I don't like to speak without being certain I didn't want to even suggest that, and I don't have the details to bring them in, but since you raised the issue, I can somewhat more confidently state that there is more to that then what was presented.

However the underlying fact is still dissapointing, and should be addressed better, and in this case with BOTH companies.

Thanks for the info KcoBean!

 

What are your power goals? If it isn't over 550 WHP, just go with the APS ST.

 

Are you saying that the APS ST will be able to put down up to 550RWHP?

 

Anywhere from 500-600 WHP should be possible with the APS ST depending on the modifications done to your 350Z/G35.

 

Brandon, those are some lofty goals for the single turbo, and yes it can be done, but with what needs to be done to achieve that, you mine as well do twins, although as I've said before, the ST and TT are very similar at the top end.

But such a big difference along the way there with the TT.

 

ST is good choice for the DD...since youll have some more lag, so you wont always be on boost(tho i could be wrong i have yet to ride in a ST).........but who could deny the want for quick spool up and instant max boost in seconds.......

I still wanna see a Z with a T88 hooked up...talk about sick

 

Zman, due to the concerns you had raised with your experience with the APS ST, I went and looked into it a little further.

I did suspect your comment about "holding boost" had more behind it and I believe I have found some of it.

As I've always said, with any FI kit, it's Tuning, tuning, and tuning, done right by people who know what they are doing, and it can help to have experience with Unichip and APS of course.

I don't know what you exactly experienced, and unless we get all scientific, I would have to say that something was up with the Tuning more than anything else.

Might I ask where this was tuned?

You don't necessarily want peak boost, up through and during redline..... You would normally bring boost in, have it work it's way through the HP curve in the RPM range, then start to bring it back just a bit.

Now depending how this was tuned, you might be getting too much too soon, and then noticing the drop off, vs getting "just right" all the way through abd back.

The problem with the check valve doesn't appear to be "an issue" as of yet, but that could just be due to lack of info/installs to date, but hopefully that will not become an issue either.

Then as far as exhaust go, there are always issues, and there is always opinions and preferences......

What area are you in?

Joe

 

I was the first APS ST installed at GRD and tuned by Tuan at GRD. I didn't necessarily have the boost drop issue. The only issue I had was the faulty check valve to be quite honest, but I was the first person to experience this as well and so we didn't have a clue as to what the problem was. It cost me $$ trying to dagnose this issue. Finally after seeing it was the valve we decided to clean it out and try it again. Voila..it worked...only to happen again though 3k miles later. This is when APS sent me a new electronic solenoid replacement which cured the issue for good. Only problem now was that my car was running lean all of a sudden to the bad MAF sensor from all the oil in the exhaust. I did not even know what the problem was till I sold the car and sent the car back to GRD to have it fixed and sent on to its new owner. I was beyond frustrated at that point bc I needed a car and it was always down. Kinda sucked bc I am in Medical school here in FL and was spending more time fixing my car than studying.

The faulty check valves have come out as of recently. There are 4 others besides me that I know of that have had this issue now. I put the most miles on my car and was the first one to have the kit so I suspect it'll take some time for all the faulty check valves to show. APS knows about this and said there are about 20 faulty valves out there...so its not something that is hidden...