ravaz

iTrader: (1)

Mine was cylinder 6..

whosdady

iTrader: (6)

I think they were all cylinder 6.
But speaking of S/C Z's with mods and blown engines. Ravaz please post your mods when the engine blew. I know you said it was stock but I heard a rumor that AA altered your ECU. Is this true? I was under the assumption that the rev limiter was raised and it ran lean up top.
Also for you guys potentialy blaming the crawford plenum, you can rule that out because there is a guy in TN that has dynoed over 400rwhp (with the plenum) without running lean.

Mikestro

nevermind

Jeff@Performance

Ours is cylinder number 4 but 6 was also showing signs of destruction.

ravaz

iTrader: (1)

My performance mods were Injen exhaust, test pipes, borla headers.

G3po

iTrader: (8)

I expect that the reason the piston damage appears in the samm realtive postion is a common result of detonation damage. Pistons in general do not perfectly dissipate heat evenly accross the top surface. So hot spots form which are normal. However those spots are typically were the "explosion" begins, hence the most vulnerable. Flat-top or dished arangements distribute heat more evenly , hence why they are better suited for FI apps which need to avoid even minor detonation (plus they lower compression so more psi can be added). Basically these factory pistons are not "ideal" for FI apps, so the A/F ratios should be set conservatively to avoid these piston "hot spots" from initiateing detonation. IMHO

Dr Bonz

iTrader: (1)

"Those holes in the pistons are a really cool mod. Can't wait to get my procharger so I can holes too."


__________________



Sour grapes if I ever heard it!

zland

If for whatever reason, you get those holes, that mod is for free. Removing the holes is what cost a little but they make a great conversational piece and paper weight.

shil01

So lets say i do get a nice conversational peice as a result of this procharger.
What would it cost to repair? Is the risk buying a new engine? Or just some labor and a new piston. I was under the impression it was a "blown engine" and a total loss. If this is not the case then the risk might not be as high as I initially anticipated.

zland

This is the great part about modding your car, you get to mod it to fit your needs. With every mod, there are advantages and disadvantages. The ATI SC does have more hp but also more risk at this point. If it is worth it to you or not depends on how much of a risk taker you are, how much money you got, and how much you need the extra hp.

I know everyone wants more hp. It is up to each individual to determine what they are willing to do to get it.

I hope that ATI SC owners do not think any of us are attacking you or your choice to own an ATI SC when we post info about related problems. We are just making everyone aware of risks involved in modifications (and hopefully making ATI do a little more research into their product they released). Trust me, as soon as I was comfortable with the risk level of ATI SC, I would buy one. They produce a lot of hp (enough for me). I just need more assurance that my Z will not be like the other 3 Z's.

I am not comfortable blowing up the internals and voiding my warranty the first 3,000 miles after I install FI and that is what has happened to those 3 people.

Jeff@Performance

$8000.00 out the door, back to stock. Still not passing blame on what caused it!!!

shil01

Is that just dropping a new engine in? i guess theres no repairing from something like that?

ravaz

iTrader: (1)

I don't know about 8000$. It didn't cost me NEARLY as much including all the internal work I did. I bet that's for a new engine and labor.

FLY BY Z

Remember he said "back to stock" for a repair. Remember that usually parts from the factory are more expensive than superior aftermarket parts.

Sean00500

I dunno about the ATI procharger, it sounds like a great product, with a few unlucky ones, sorry to hear about the cars fellaz, but i think im going to wait a little and maybe pick up the power tt kit, to me it seems to be the best that ive seen so far, i first wanted the greddy, cuz i am new to the tuner world, and i was told greddy is pretty user friendly, but for the pricing of their kit and all the failed attemps they have, i have kind of changed my mind over to the PE TT. But this will take some time either way before i can get it being i am still paying for my car, but for the time being i am looking for a good exhaust not really worrying about price, just keep in mind i want to upgrade to F/I soon, is there any one who could drop some hints my way, of good products. Also if anyone out there could tell me a little more about the F/I of the Turbo and the SC or PC that would be cool. Thanks for the help guys, and take care of those cars.

Dr Bonz

iTrader: (1)

Richard, sorry but I thought I put a in there after my post. I guess it didn't show up in the post. I was just kidding you.

I understand everyone is afraid after hearing of these 3 cars but I think you are overestimating the failure rate here. I also still can't understand the posters who say that they are afraid of this blower but in the same sentence, say they want a TT. The tuning for the TT will most likely be much more complicated and the kit will be much more expensive as well. I'd be more afraid of a TT blowing my engine than the ATI SC kit.

One more point. Richard, if you can find ONE post were I "encouraged" anyone to buy this kit, I'll eat it.

Dr Bonz

iTrader: (1)

I've also posted write ups, pictures and videos of AEM CAI (which I don't even have anymore), CF emblem fillers, LED amber reflectors, XM radio, In-car PC's, NISMO body kits, Zaino products, cell phone installs, painted battery/brake fluid covers and engine covers, oil changes, Z emblems, Valentine One installs, TV tuners, Borla exhausts, and on and on.

It is called EDUCATION not encouragement. I do what I do here for the education of the Z community. These are things I PERSONALLY have done and products I PERSONALLY have used and I write about MY experience with them. I don't think that constitutes encouragement......OK, I'll concede on Zaino

AHHHHH, OK If you say so..............







.

Mikestro

The bottle said "concentrate", so I did.

jesseenglish

I'm sure the people appreciate the fact that you're making them aware of the risks involved and I realize you're not attacking our selection of FI. You have to realize though, that you and others like you keep promoting the fact that the ATI procharger blew their engines. FI blew their engines, it just happened that the Procharger was the FI involved, with some help from tuners I'd bet. Even if I didn't have a Procharger I would feel the same way.

As to ATI doing more research.... What do you propose they do? Please, I'd love to hear it. Since you obviously seem to know of some fault in the design of the ATI SC, let us know what it is so we can all go fix this problem.

You seem to think that more research by ATI can help avoid problems created by poor installations and tuning. I'd love to hear of a foolproof kit, because I'd go out and buy it right now, TT or SC.

The fact is there is no such thing as a foolproof aftermarket FI. Our compression is high, the rods are weak, the ECM is not easy to crack and has no way to sense boost. ATI produced a reasonably priced FI kit for the 350Z. To keep the costs down they designed the kit to use 99% of the stock engine parts.

The ATI procharger is no more dangerous than any non-existant TT kit. Anytime you give people the ability to add FI to their car, whether it was designed for it or not, you have the chance that things will go wrong. People blow their engines from N2O, TT, and SC. It's a fact of life. If people can't deal with the possible consequences of a poor tuner or installer, they shouldn't get the kit.

$100 says within 1 year of the Greddy or PE kit coming out, you'll see the same thing happening. Unless all of the kits are installed directly by the manufacturer. So for all you people blaming the ATI procharger for these problem, how about coming up with solutions instead of pointing fingers. You have no idea what the problem is so the easy scapegoat is ATI.

There are hundreds of people running this kit. The failures are isolated and a small number, so that would lead one to believe that there is something specific that caused this problem.

My money is on the tuners, pushing the limits too close on the A/F ratios. After they were done, the ECM allowed more air in or less fuel than the FMU was tuned for and voila, three blown engines. The simple fix is, have the tuners tune it richer, which is how the FI should be done in the first place.

damen

he makes a very good point. the only questions is, how do we know who the real good installers are and where are they located at? getting the procharger is not the issue for me it's the install and reliability of it all.