ok.. my car.. 03 Redline.. bought last Saturday.. it had a ATI Procharger with 38K miles on it.

Me, I have not been in a "fast" car in almost 4-5 years... so coming out of a Jeep into this was a BIG change for me. The car to me was crazy fast.. for the week I have been driving it anyway.. sooo... today I decided I was gonna change out the oil in the SC.

During the process of changing out the oil I noticed that 1). The hose feeding the front of the SC was not clamped down properly.. no biggie, I can fix this.. THEN after checking more into this I also notice that the hose that connects to the intake tubing is ALSO not connected... almost as if it was too loose. Regardless, I can see where it was connected over time and know that it had come off before I bought the vehicle as it had "grime" built up on the end of the pipe where the hose normally would have been secured.

I am excited at this point as I now figured out that this whole time I was not running off the SC and that more power was awaiting with just a few adjustments.. so, 3 hours later.. all hoses fitted properly.. I take her for a test drive.. CRAZY difference in performance.. I mean 1st, and 2nd were just tires spinning... LOVIN IT!!. I took it out to our old school fake 1/4 mile spot and gave it a few runs with a buddy of mine..

At this point I feel like its a whole different vehicle.. it runs like a totally different car..

So I head over to a buddy's house.. crack a few beers.. his old lady asked me if she could drive the car as I promised her I would let her when I bought it. I trust them both, her and her old man as we are childhood friends.. throw her the keys.. he decides he's gonna take a ride with her... infact, he takes the keys and took the initial run himself. Now.. I drive the **** out of this car.. and just got finished pushing it on 3 runs.. with no issues..

I get a call 5 minutes later... he said when she was driving and leaving from a stop sign that the car stalled and wouldn't start.. I can hear him on the phone asking her to make sure the clutch was all the way in.. she said it was... so they swap seats all while on the phone.. he gets in, cranks right up...

5 minutes later he pulls up.. said it was because she didn't have the clutch in.. no big deal. it stalled because she wasn't used to the clutch..

He then asked me if the "check engine light" had been coming on.. No, it hasn't.. he said it came on when they were leaving the store.. I go over and crank it up and the CAR RUNS LIKE CRAP.. The motor is seriously in bad shape.. "Check engine light" is blinking.. and its missing like a ****.. The whole engine is shaking...

Ok.. I don't blame him for what happened.. it TOTALLY sucks yeah, but if it would have happened to him it would have happened to me.. he had a 300Z TT in the past and a bunch of other vehicles to where I know he knows his cars... more so than me.. regardless, he feels like total crap and kept saying that he shouldn't have drove the car to begin with... you know, when you take someone else's stuff and it breaks you are always gonna feel like crap regardless if it was your fault or not....

I don't know.. mixed feelings at the moment.. I hate, really hate that this happened to me as I only have had the car for a week at this point.. but I am also bothered that he is at home bugging seriously over this.. I called and told him to not worry about this as the car's motor is still under the drivetrain warranty..

Now.. what I have to do is take the SC off and make it appear to be stock before bringing it in to the dealer... I know something is wrong internally with the car... just what I am not sure yet... I am going to take it to Autozone tomorrow to get the ECU error code checked to see what error code it's throwing..

Ok, so assuming it is internal damage.. I need to get ahold of the stock intake. I need to get the parts that would have normally been on the car before the ATI Procharger C2 was installed..I don't have these parts. I am posting this here in hopes that someone who has FI has these parts laying around willing to sell them to me so I can get this done.. What I also need is some input on what to expect at the dealer when I bring the car in.. I need to take the SC off, and also remove the fuel pump that was installed for the SC... anything else that you can think of?

Another concern.. do you all think that this 7psi ATI SC could have done this damage? I have no idea how long the hoses could have been off, but not too long as the prior owner would have noticed the performace decrease and surely mentioned something to me when I spoke to him after buying the car...

I also do have an extra motor with 4K miles that came out of a 04 Z.. I could always throw this in if the dealer some how manages to not honor the warranty.. but I don't want to go this route if possible.. I was gonna build this motor.. but damn.. what the hell?

God this sucks... I was the happiest person alive for about 1 hour tonight after correcting the issues with the SC hoses.. now I am TOTALLY bummed.. I am gonna shower and go to bed... in hopes that maybe someone will steal my car so I don't have to worry about this come tomorrow...

input is very much appreciated at this point..

 

I am from Gretna.. the funky bank.. and I honestly do think something is "blown"... but do I take the chance with the dealer? I don't know enough off top to be sure that when I do bring it in that they won't be able to tell that it was FI. I have read where they can log the "blackbox" and see the RPM's and such.. maybe other things as well..

Anyone have any experiences with this in the past? Should I just go with replacing the motor with my spare minus the SC? I don't know if I will be confident enough to run with that thing installed now that this has happened...

 

I would never let my car be driven by someone who a does not own a Z (or a high power forced induction car), and I would absolutely never let anyone drive it while I was not in the passenger seat. Only 2 people have driven my car besides me, and that is the guy who installed by turbo (who is an FI nissan guru), and my friend that owns an APS TT Z.

For all you know at this point, they downshifted from 5th to 2nd and hit 8k rpms and blew the ringlands out. Who knows...

You're right that the first step would be pulling the code with an OBD2 reader. I wouldn't drive the car to Autozone to do it, however, I'd see if I could find one to borrow to bring it to the car.


Last, I just wanted to say that I think it would be pretty low of you to take off your supercharger and try to warranty the vehicle. The reason I say this is that things like this is why so many dealers refuse to touch anything with aftermarket parts. You're just contributing to the problem and potentialy ruining someone else's chance for warranty service that actually has a legitimate issue. By agreeing to buy a car with aftermarket forced induction you know that you're forfeiting your right for warranty engine service.

If you have to pull the motor, just build up that 04 motor you've got siting around with some rods and pistons and drop it back in. You won't have to worry about this again.

 

Taurran. your right man... It's not in my nature to try and get over on "people" but I was just coming home not even 5 minutes after this happended when I posted the thread..

I just don't know what I am thinkin at the moment.. I went from one extreme high to another in a matter of minutes.. I just know that my car is jacked.. and I sit here hoping that I wake up and it's a bad dream..

I think I am just gonna have someone swap the motors out minus the SC when going back in.. I am new to the whole scene and I really have a bad taste in my mouth at the moment..

My buddy could have done as you said.. then again, it could have been a stroke of bad luck with him being in the seat when it happened. Regardless, I will talk to him tomorrow and see about having him cover the cost of doing the swap...

Anyone have any ideas with what something like this would cost?

 

If you indeed have experienced a motor failure, here's what I would do if I were you:

1) contact an engine builder on this forum
2) talk about getting a stock motor, as they may have good and reasonably priced sources for this
3) work out details with a local mechanic or dealer of getting the new motor swapped in
4) contact performance nissan parts department for any OEM parts that you are missing
5) find out from the previous owner, or by some other means, how the car has been tuned. if the ECU has been reflashed, technosquare can reflash you back to stock. if the car has a piggyback ECU, you'll have to take it out.
6) enjoy your stock 350z

 

ur gonna make ur bud pay for a swap now?

I'll tell u what happened. U had a huge boost leak. U fixed the leak and the motor detonated itself to death. Bust a few ringlands.are u sure u were only running 7psi?

Ive give the previous owner a call. Let him know the situation and ask if he knew how it could of occoured.

 

so you owned the car for an entire week thinking that the S/C was working properly, but in reality, it wasn't even running?! You should definitely talk to the previous owner. Something seems a little fishy.

 

Sorry to hear...hopefully it's not a blown engine.

 

Weqster, it's the 7psi C2 from ATI.. Why would the motor detonated itself to death after fixing the boost leak? How does that make sense? The car was tuned by professionals.. I do not have the name of the shop on hand.. I do know that it was installed on the car at 11K miles.. it now has 38K.

I am going to call the prior owner this afternoon and ask questions about the car not having the hoses connected.. I actually bought the car from a dealer that he actually traded the car into.. so I am not sure what could have happened after it was at the dealer..

 

some more advice needed..

I may be bringing my car to the local dealer to have them do the motor swap.. I know how everyone feels about having the dealer work on cars and such, but I do not know anyone locally that I can trust that can handle this... The mechanic at the dealer said he could have this done for me within a week.

The question I have.. is about going back in with the SC.. I do not know what happned last night when my buddy drove the car.. he told me he did not over rev the motor.. and to be honest, I believe him.. So, I will assume that this is the case...

If this is the case.. then something wasn't correct with the SC and the motor.. whether it was the tuning, motor wear.. not sure... The previous owner had this car tuned when it was installed.. it would have had to of been done as it's been on the car since 2004 at 11K miles.. Why would it kill the motor now? I know the SC wasn't hooked up properly when I inspected it.. but I do know it was for some period of time... am I making sense? Or am I just having wishful thinking?

What would you do given the circumstances.. would you go back stock, or slap the SC back on the replacement motor with a proper tune and write up what happened as just the nature of the business.. I am trying to figure out what could have caused this.. and I can't help but wonder what happened when he drove the car last night.. even though I believe it wasn't "driver fault" as he told me it wasn't...

and for the record.. I am not sticking him with any costs... I've been giving this whole thing more and more thought.. and **** happens.. not gonna stick him with something like this..

 

Never buy a FI car with high mileage;your just asking for problems

 

What ems is in the car? ATI was more of a tuner deal meaning no ems came with the kit. The popular j&s safeguard was used early on with alot of ati setups.

At this point you have 2 questions to ask yourself.
1. How much cash are you willing to part with to get car right?
2. If the answer to question one is less then 6 or 7 k then have dealer rebuild it leave it stock and sell the sc.
You may work a deal with the dealer if they are cool maybe you by the shortblock and they supply the labor and the core if the block is hurt.

If you can get that worked out with the dealer then your looking at maybe 4k for shortblock and tune after dealer is done. GL with it.

 

Congratulations on the car man, and sorry about the unfortunate chain of events that followed your purchase. If you are replacing the motor, and your able to go ahead with an engine build etc. You might as well, since the car is new you are probably planning on having it for some time. thus, might be in ur best interest to ensure the car gives you a good run. Or you can just go to stock and sell all the parts.

Good Luck with whatever it is you decide, hope all works out. The Z is a great car, and dont let this incident put a bad taste in your mouth.As with any car you mod you have to be a little more cautious with who and how its driven. With time your going to get to get to know your car better and with that you'll definitely be able to spot issues with the way ur car runs much quicker.

 

well.. I already have a used motor with 4K miles on it.. so I am not worried about having it rebuilt or buying a shortblock.. I am not even worried about adding anything more to the car performance wise other than the SC.. I would love to be able to go in with my used motor w/SC but am concerned about the reliability of this since this happened. ATI claims that this kit with a 7psi pulley doesn't require any mods to the stock internals..

As far as the ems, it's installed with what came from ATI..nothing aftermarket past that..

as far as high mileage, would you consider 38K high miles??

 

No.. but some people who are "****" about it will lol

 

ok.. on the road to recovery..

Saturday I drop the car and extra motor off.. I then leave for a week for Turkey Day.. the plan is to be back on the road when I return.. but without the SC.. I just don't feel right about going back on with this at the moment..

I plan to keep my existing motor in hopes that it is still in good shape.. I will use this for a core in the future when/if I do decide to go with a built motor with FI.. more than likely TT. I still have a lot of reading and studying to do in the aftermarket world of parts.. so I am content riding with a stock motor.. as it gives me more piece of mind for the time being...

As fas as what I am going to do with this ProCharger.. I have no idea... I think I am gonna put it on the end of some test line and go fishing in the MS river with it (not really)... I may end up selling/trading the kit for parts and such if I do decide to build a motor in the future..

Ok.. one last question.. I asked this before but nobody answered...

Is there such a thing as a reliable FI motor? I would want to build something in the area of 350-450WHP but be reliable at the same time... any thoughts?

 

From the info you provided if the car does not have a way of dealing with timing (earlier ATI engine failures have been attributed to this) before you brought the car to its max performance capability (low boost) by repairing leaks the engine internals were capable of handling the forces/loads on the engine.. Rod's, pistons, rings etc.. When you brought the ATI to its full capability (higher boost level) the internals couldn't stay intact without some timing being pulled...Conjecture on my part but plausable given what you described..Does the system have a way of dealing with the timing??