TheSVTKid

Thanks so much for your review based on your experiences. All the items I listed were from reviews of other ATI owners posted on boards. I want both sides, good and bad. Thanks for giving us a good review to balance the negatives.

Jeff

 

SVTKid,
When do your two friends expect their kits to be in? Good post BTW.

 

Good post.

I was wondering (silently) the same thing thanks for verbalizing it.

I like that SC whine as you slowly stop but I doubt I will hear it abobe my exhaust!!

 

As with any introduction of a FI kit, there will never be a system you can just pop on and expect perfect reliable performance without opening the hood again (until your next oilchange).

IMO, when you get to this level, your car becomes a project car. You have to really consider wether your up for the constant tuning and troubleshooting thats required to keep running problem-free and at its best.

To some, thats a blast to do. Yet some others that just want to pay some money for the kit, fill up gas, get oilchanges done at the dealer, and go fast... they might be dissapointed.

 

I agree with you. I can't wait till the GReddy TT is released for public sale. I predict a mixed set of emotions also. "History repeats itself"

 

History repeating itself? Please explain, sorry for my ignorance...Jeff

 

"History repeating itself" in the sense that the concerns stated under this subject will be again be stated under a subject referring to the public offerring of the GReddy kit or PE kit. It's a statement from my warped mind based on an abstraction of the postings. Too much work, not enough play. Or maybe it's from all those wipe outs I had when I was younger, hehehe

 

Hmmm, we must have the same brain, lol. Constant tuning and troubleshooting is good for guys who can work on their cars themselves. The latter group that you mentioned consists of guys who really don't know how to keep up their cars themselves.

I am trying to learn, but I am more like the latter group right now. Hard to think about troubleshooting and such when you can't do it yourself. Gets very, very expensive.

This is also a HUGE reason why I am hesistant on FI right now. Since I can't do the work myself, I can't see myself wanting to pay someone by the hour to tune and troubleshoot.

 

Ok, I am going to claim total ignorance on this one. Why would a properly tuned SC or TT engine need to be played with after it is installed and tuned? The 300TT stock did not need to be played with. If it is set up right, it is set up right. Am I missing something? Now if you are talking about belts flying off etc like some mustang owners claim with ATI SC, then that sounds like a product design or installation problem. It seems like to me a high quality FI set up that is set so it is not breaking internals should be relatively trouble free. If not, then Toyota and Nissan got a lot of SC set ups they are selling that are making people unhappy and I doubt they would sell parts that cause customers to be unhappy.

Jeff

 

Well, I am a bit ignorant on the subject too, as I have never owned a FI car. But from all of the various posts, it seems that FI systems can have some problems. I agree with you though, coming from someone like me who has never had FI, I don't see why it should require all of this "tuning and troubleshooting".

But many people who have had these systems say that they seem to require such work. From a purely outside viewpoint, I don't see why these systems should "require" this work, if they are built right, they shouldn't have any problems, IMO.

Moneywise, unscheduled repairs and maintanace are killer if you are trying to upgrade your car. I am willing to take more of a risk in rims, tires, suspension, and such, but when messing with anything to do with the drivetrain, I will be very cautious, and might forgo FI completely if I see that it can't be done safely and reliably.

 

I agree with zxsaint, vehicle becomes a project car.
There is too much ecu involved nowadays, and it's not just a matter of adding more fuel and boost.

I bought my ATI kit assuming it was just a bolt on, tap into a few wires and that I wouldn't run into problems. Next thing I know, I'm soldering a diode to my MAP sensor, getting check engine lights( due to pcm going to lean mode not understanding what boost is), surging, relocating IAT sensor, fought belt slippage, leak at air hat, doing whatever was in my power to avoid pinging and potentially blowing a head gasket, etc.

This is all after following the instructions to every exact detail.
Not all kits has problems, but you should at least expect some problems to arise.

 

So are you saying you installed it yourself??? We understand what you are saying, but this could be a difficult thing to swallow for the mechically challenged (I'm an engineer, know theory and such, but not a mechanic).

 

I think it depends on how fine-tuned your car is. A car tuned to the edge will require constant readjustment as conditions change. Temperature, engine wear, components aging, different fuel, etc. would require poking and proding to keep things maxed out without risking damage. However, you can also NOT tune the car so tight. You may not get the maximum amount of power out of the engine, but at the same time you don't need to go under the hood every day to tweak things because it's ten degrees colder or warmer outside. I want the power, but I'm willing to settle for a little less in return for less maintenance to keep things running smoothly. There are quite a few turbo and super charged cars that come out of the factory that way. They don't (for the most part) require tinkering with the internals to keep running. Obviously it's possible. I put 100k miles on a turbo eclipse before I upgraded and never had a problem with the car. Expecting that level of reliability, or better, out of a prohibitively expensive after market kit is not to much to ask.

 

Yes, I installed it myself since most of the shops around here wanted $1000+ for install.
This is for my truck btw, it has a lot more room to work with, one of the reasons I decided to do it. I also thought it would be a good learning experience to know what's going on in case anything breaks down.

After I installed it, I took it to a local performance place and had them fine tune it/look over my install. They found my belt was slipping, and replaced it with a different belt, and then helped me adjust the air/fuel.

But even after that I had problems, I was reading messageboards all day asking for advice, and was basically bandaging the kit. The OBDII system isn't really designed for these kits. The adaptives will try and work around whatever you try and modify. A custom ECU might be required. I'm not too familiar with the 350 engine yet, but for my truck, replacing the headgaskets is not gonna be a fun thing to do. Maybe some of you guys have money to spend, in case anything goes wrong. If that's the case then I wouldn't worry about it as much. But the place I took my truck to wants 2gs to replace my head gaskets. I haven't blown them yet, but it's just a matter of time. I have all these mods I should of done prior to installing the s/c. ARP studs, cometic head gasket, just sitting in my garage right now.

I haven't decided if I am going to s/c the Z yet, but I know I am not gonna dive right in. I would prob do a little more research first on getting some better internals first, like stronger head gaskets, etc.

Anyways, above is my experience with a totally different vehicle.
So take it for what it's worth.

But yea, like justice said, he's running a turbo on his car with no problems.

 

I would like to know as well, if you could update me on the progress of any kit involving the g35 coupe 6MT i would greatly appreciate it as i am ready to buy now if the kit fits... my email is run4yolife@***.net
thanks

 

I saw the Procharger dyno 5 times today. Put down 378rwhp, 322 rwtq on 8psi on 92 octane pump gas with stock injectors (plus add-on fuel pump), stock exhaust, stock fuel pump. Also got a ride, UNTUNED. Pretty damn good if you ask me, for un-tuned on a stock exhaust car.

Dan

 

It seems that the Prochargers are starting to get installed. This means people have them on their cars now. Can someone that has a procharger installed give us a detailed review?

1. I would love to know how the install went. Is it easy or difficult? Were there any modifications needed to get it installed?

2. Tuning: What was needed to get it tuned properly? Were there any issues that came up related to tuning it?

3. Driving it: What is the performance like? Noise of blower; too loud or sounds great? Would you recommend it now that you have gone through the experience?

Jeff

 

This is actually my first post here. I have been looking at this discussion and I have a few things to include. I am pretty well known in the Maxima circles because I bought the first Stillen/Vortech V1 supercharger kit all the way back in November 1998. Stillen had never put a kit like this together before. It took 2 months just to get the kit on my car. This was because of the wrong pulley mount, missing hardware, missing air connections, very poor instructions and a few additional parts. Once it was on the car, it took another 2 months to get it tuned out. This was because of some line and FMU calibration mistakes they made. Calling Vortech directly was a tremendous benefit to diagnosing these problems as well as having a good dyno tuner. Stillen just didn't have the experience in fixing these problems. This was on a 97', so it is an ODBII car. I have sold the kit and it is on another car which is also ODBII.

In the 3 years I had it on my car, I had very little in terms of problems and all were Stillen related. They made the drain hose the wrong size so it leaked. It was took close to the tensioner mount, so it wore a hole in it. The belt rubber an A/C line. The fixes were getting a different hose, shaving the corner of the tensioner mount and relocating the A/C line. Everytime I found a stupid(Stillen) problem, I fixed. None of the problems I experiences existed in off-the-shelf ATI, Paxton or Vortech kits. The bottom line on this is that I am a much better mechanic than the idiots at Stillen(so is almost everyone in the world). When I sold the kit, the new owner had a could of problems and I worked through it. The worst of which was he thought whe wasn't getting boost, when it was just a bad gauge reading. This kit is still on the road today running strong.

Sure it was a loud(my particular SC was a V1 and was one of the loudest V1's I've ever heard) but you don't notice it inside the car. The Prochargers I've heard were a lot quiter than my old V1. At first tuning it was putting down 254 fwhp. After years of pulley, fuel and air changes it was up to 302 fwhp. Despite having ODBII and doing blow-through with the MAF, I never had a single code trip or any driveability problems. Saying a bolt-on SC has problems with ODBII is a load of BS. I helped fix a lot of problems with other people who bought these kits later and everytime found a code to be an install mistake or a simple problem with a part in the kit. The most common was the overspray on the tube with the MAF flange where it wouldn't seal.

At the same time, on the other side of my garage was an 89' Saleen (89-030). I was also involved in the local Mustang scene. One of my friends had a hatch with a 332 running an ATI kit putting down 470 hp to the wheels. There were no problems installing it and with it as time went on. From all the kits I have seen from Vortech, Paxton and ATI; ATI had the best instructions and least installation issues. When each of these 3 manufacturers develops a kit, the spend a lot of time R&Ding to get the bugs out(unlike Stillen who didn't have a clue to what they were doing). Keep in mind when I talk from my experiences that I am a degreed Engineer who has rebuilt 2 engines and regularly does all type of work on cars(electriclal and mechanical). I still have the only Maxima in the world with Skyline brakes(a project I took on myself). I have far more confidence in ATI than Stillen putting the right kit together. They definitely have experience on their side. Stillen is doing their first roots-blower kit. Without them having experience in this direction and based on all my experiences with them, the Stillen kit scares me to not want to look at it until at least a year after it comes out. I have a lot more confidence in ATI. Please note: you will notice that I left Powerdyne out of the list for a good reason.

As far as installs go, if you don't get deeply involved in your cars then you should not install a kit. Trying to save money on the install of one of these kits is not your time to start playing weekend mechanic. Have a professional do it. When you are playing with something that a mistake could cause an engine fire or destroy your engine; if you aren't 100% sure of your capabilities, then have a professional do it. If you do oil changes, but no differential or tranny fluid changes because thier too much work; have a professional do the install. If you don't own a factory service manual, have a professional do the install. If you don't own in-lb and ft-lb torque wrenches, have a professional do the install. If you can't follow instructions exactly line by line, have a professional do it. Last, if the instructions say to run cooler plugs or only use premium gas, then you run cooler plugs and only use premium gas.

Very last, hopefully ATI will also keep in mind that there are a lot of G35 owners out there that are also interested in this kit....of course it would only take a couple of tubing changes to make it work.(wink, wink)

 

Hey Loren, any interest with helping me with my kit? I would love to get rid of my check engine light that keeps popping up, MAP sensor too high.

 

Good post. One thing though, most of us here know of the problems of Stillen, and for our car, it is a lousy system. We would be more interested in your comparisons of the Procharger to Vortech or something equilvant as far as reliability and such.

I think most actually like this system, but don't like the price. I am concerned with reliability cause I am not a mechanic.