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My present to myself came in today. And my new air filter is in. Should fit perfectly once I drill out the rivets where the hood latch mounts. Cant tell if the pictures skew the size or not but this beast is 9.5" tall with a 5" diameter so my air filter restriction issues should be minimized now
Props for not giving up the supercharger to achieve your power goals. This may be a touchy subject but what do you have planned to deal with belt slip? 8 rib?
Who's got the hole in the wall dyno setup? Pretty slick...
I've been busy myself. Should have this z fully restored and running TT in about 1.5 months with a fresh long block & open dumps. Every freakin bearing and u joint is new oem... Every god damn bushing; front, rear, drivetrain and subframe is poly or aluminum... Will be worth it come first drive.
Props for not giving up the supercharger to achieve your power goals. This may be a touchy subject but what do you have planned to deal with belt slip? 8 rib?
Who's got the hole in the wall dyno setup? Pretty slick...
I've been busy myself. Should have this z fully restored and running TT in about 1.5 months with a fresh long block & open dumps. Every freakin bearing and u joint is new oem... Every god damn bushing; front, rear, drivetrain and subframe is poly or aluminum... Will be worth it come first drive.
Not a touchy subject at all for me. Im an open book when it comes to current projects and mods. And unlike what most people think, my 6-rib belt is not whats slipping. I was actually stretching my cog belt, and when it stretched the pulley would slip inside of it and just destroy the belt.
I got my new Gates Kevlar lines belts to help that and just by feeling them with your hand you can feel that it is a much stronger belt. So my belt slip 'should' be fixed now. Im waiting to catalog until my new bumper-routed intake is made.
I wont know if the belt slip is fixed until then because for now Im going easy on the car and the slip really didn't start until 20psi of boost.
And that hole in the wall was down in NC where RZG Motorsports is. That isn't RZG's dyno but a bunch of shops in that area seem to be started out of garages for some reason. There aren't many large 'legit-looking' shops down in that area
Not a touchy subject at all for me. Im an open book when it comes to current projects and mods. And unlike what most people think, my 6-rib belt is not whats slipping. I was actually stretching my cog belt, and when it stretched the pulley would slip inside of it and just destroy the belt.
I got my new Gates Kevlar lines belts to help that and just by feeling them with your hand you can feel that it is a much stronger belt. So my belt slip 'should' be fixed now. Im waiting to catalog until my new bumper-routed intake is made.
I wont know if the belt slip is fixed until then because for now Im going easy on the car and the slip really didn't start until 20psi of boost.
And that hole in the wall was down in NC where RZG Motorsports is. That isn't RZG's dyno but a bunch of shops in that area seem to be started out of garages for some reason. There aren't many large 'legit-looking' shops down in that area
Oh wow I missed that, in my experience it's the drive belt that slips so that's surprising to hear. The Kevlar should do it, if not, some sort of chain drive modification is probably very very doable after exhausting all belt options.
Do you have your drive belt torqued to **** to get that to hold? My buddy had to with a 2.87, I find that extra bearing stress to be uncomforting...
I see that RZG offers E tuning. Would you recommend going to them instead of RT for a turbo tune (in person then touch ups remotely)? I just wasn't feeling any reciprocation at RT tuning and didn't appreciate being spoken to in a condescending manner after driving 5 hours and building the car for a year straight prior to that.
Obviously the tune was great as Vince is competent and knowledgeable, but the experience is also important. It was a big hassle to get them to touch up my tune remotely. I had to shell out a lot more $ for the remote support after repairing some tiny vac leaks. Spending $ for a touch up is somewhat normal, usually when you make a change, not when it is after fixing a small leak, but that's not my major complaint.
The thing is the car never idled right, even on day one, due to the park neural switch not being hooked up after 6 speed swapping it. I asked about that before mentioning I had found some small leaks, but I never got email replies when asking about that. Vince was ultra supportive before that and deleted the codes he knew would pop up due to the swap and followed up to make sure the base tune was running well. All was good.
I had to send them the remote tune $ then they kept insisting vacuum leaks were causing my high idle, but never considered what I was asking them about... When I would roll down the road right at 3mph the idle would kick up to 1100 and throw a code instantly and would remain high until resetting the ecu. I have learned since then that it was definitely that wire, but it was frustrating to be blamed repeatedly and I just could not get 3 minutes of Vince's time on the phone to clear it up until spending more $! I shelled out just shy of $1350 in person for the FI tuning session and tech support before another $250 for remote support. Now I'm hesitant to contact them because the experience was pretty terrible. Yes, some was my fault, namely the vacuum leaks I missed during the build, but that is what the pre dyno check is for.
What do you think I should do in a few months when it's time to tune? I want to take a day or two off work to enjoy the experience.... Would prefer to not go through any **** again.
Last edited by yosip1115; Sep 7, 2017 at 09:12 AM.
Oh wow I missed that, in my experience it's the drive belt that slips so that's surprising to hear. The Kevlar should do it, if not, some sort of chain drive modification is probably very very doable after exhausting all belt options.
Do you have your drive belt torqued to **** to get that to hold? My buddy had to with a 2.87, I find that extra bearing stress to be uncomforting...
I see that RZG offers E tuning. Would you recommend going to them instead of RT for a turbo tune (in person then touch ups remotely)? I just wasn't feeling any reciprocation at RT tuning and didn't appreciate being spoken to in a condescending manner after driving 5 hours and building the car for a year straight prior to that.
Obviously the tune was great as Vince is competent and knowledgeable, but the experience is also important. It was a big hassle to get them to touch up my tune remotely. I had to shell out a lot more $ for the remote support after repairing some tiny vac leaks. Spending $ for a touch up is somewhat normal, usually when you make a change, not when it is after fixing a small leak, but that's not my major complaint.
The thing is the car never idled right, even on day one, due to the park neural switch not being hooked up after 6 speed swapping it. I asked about that before mentioning I had found some small leaks, but I never got email replies when asking about that. Vince was ultra supportive before that and deleted the codes he knew would pop up due to the swap and followed up to make sure the base tune was running well. All was good.
I had to send them the remote tune $ then they kept insisting vacuum leaks were causing my high idle, but never considered what I was asking them about... When I would roll down the road right at 3mph the idle would kick up to 1100 and throw a code instantly and would remain high until resetting the ecu. I have learned since then that it was definitely that wire, but it was frustrating to be blamed repeatedly and I just could not get 3 minutes of Vince's time on the phone to clear it up until spending more $! I shelled out just shy of $1350 in person for the FI tuning session and tech support before another $250 for remote support. Now I'm hesitant to contact them because the experience was pretty terrible. Yes, some was my fault, namely the vacuum leaks I missed during the build, but that is what the pre dyno check is for.
What do you think I should do in a few months when it's time to tune? I want to take a day or two off work to enjoy the experience.... Would prefer to not go through any **** again.
Do you ever get on the Facebook or follow any of the group's? Their is a dude named Pay that many people seem to think is a tuning overlord.. He seems like a legit dude and honest so you might wanna look into what he can do for you.. He is in Maine though, but from what I have gathered he travels frequently and will tune it remotely or on the street.
I originally was tuned by Vince@RT when I was stock motor. I never e-tuned with them because they were only an hour away from me so making the drive wasnt bad. Now Im using RZG and I did drive down there for my original tune but the rest of it I will be e-tuning.
From my experience with RT, they are an EXTREMELY busy shop. And while that is good, it makes it very difficult to make an appointment and like you said find the time to just talk to someone.
RZG is not like that thus far, Ray has been very helpful with me and has helped me with multiple things not even related to tuning or my engine build. The other massive difference I have noticed so far is the price. I found that RT did a very good predyno check on my car, but I think they like to charge people for every little thing. So you go there for a $600 tune and its nearly guaranteed you'll be between 800-1k when you leave. RZG thus far has been entirely the opposite.
RZG did require me to pay for my motor in full before they built it (duh...), but the price for them to build the motor is the first place is incredibly low compared to other shops. And when I went down to NC for my original tuning session Ray messed with my car for over a day and a half. We were fighting some electrical things at first and he took initiative to get it sorted out so he can get to tuning the car since I drove such long way to get there. Once my car started shredding belts he even went back to his house to get all of his extra cog belts (all 4 of which I shredded as well). All he wanted for his entire day and a half of messing with my car was some Rays lug nuts I brought down to sell to him. Of course when my tune is finalized I will be sending him more money, but Ray is just a straight up guy. He knew I was pretty disappointed with how my car/tuning was going and he definitely helped with that.
I have no experience with Pat who Mike just mentioned, but to me he seems better at just doing N/A cars rather than boosted applications.
Overall I can say that Ray has my business from here out. Between price, his VQ knowledge, and his readiness to help he just seems like the way to go. And he has no issue with e-tuning because he just street tunes most cars anyway.
So Im not here to knock RT by any means. I was very pleased with all of the work they did for me, I have just found something that fits my needs better now.
Do you ever get on the Facebook or follow any of the group's? Their is a dude named Pay that many people seem to think is a tuning overlord.. He seems like a legit dude and honest so you might wanna look into what he can do for you.. He is in Maine though, but from what I have gathered he travels frequently and will tune it remotely or on the street.
I will look into what he has done, I can say I cannot trust someone who does not know boost controllers and turbo characteristics of the VQ. Will research... Thank you for the suggestion. I would like a trip North instead of South!
Originally Posted by craig12895
I originally was tuned by Vince@RT when I was stock motor. I never e-tuned with them because they were only an hour away from me so making the drive wasnt bad. Now Im using RZG and I did drive down there for my original tune but the rest of it I will be e-tuning.
From my experience with RT, they are an EXTREMELY busy shop. And while that is good, it makes it very difficult to make an appointment and like you said find the time to just talk to someone.
RZG is not like that thus far, Ray has been very helpful with me and has helped me with multiple things not even related to tuning or my engine build. The other massive difference I have noticed so far is the price. I found that RT did a very good predyno check on my car, but I think they like to charge people for every little thing. So you go there for a $600 tune and its nearly guaranteed you'll be between 800-1k when you leave. RZG thus far has been entirely the opposite.
RZG did require me to pay for my motor in full before they built it (duh...), but the price for them to build the motor is the first place is incredibly low compared to other shops. And when I went down to NC for my original tuning session Ray messed with my car for over a day and a half. We were fighting some electrical things at first and he took initiative to get it sorted out so he can get to tuning the car since I drove such long way to get there. Once my car started shredding belts he even went back to his house to get all of his extra cog belts (all 4 of which I shredded as well). All he wanted for his entire day and a half of messing with my car was some Rays lug nuts I brought down to sell to him. Of course when my tune is finalized I will be sending him more money, but Ray is just a straight up guy. He knew I was pretty disappointed with how my car/tuning was going and he definitely helped with that.
I have no experience with Pat who Mike just mentioned, but to me he seems better at just doing N/A cars rather than boosted applications.
Overall I can say that Ray has my business from here out. Between price, his VQ knowledge, and his readiness to help he just seems like the way to go. And he has no issue with e-tuning because he just street tunes most cars anyway.
So Im not here to knock RT by any means. I was very pleased with all of the work they did for me, I have just found something that fits my needs better now.
I am glad I can stop preparing $1500 for tuning then... I was counting on that occurring like you said happens there, which is sad.
What convinced me to go to RT is their track record with FI vehicles (pun intended), and the fact that they have built VQ's boosted successfully.
Very cool to hear RZG has both of those under their belt too. But, what about turbo FI applications? Hasn't all been superchargers, right? And would they be able to get me dyno #'s for a tq comparison at the hole in the wall?
We typically stop at ~400 wtq with our engines, I'd like my tuner to target that number instead of a boost level because that varies from kit to kit as you know. In fact, Vince said to go for 420 wtq/475 hp with stiffer waste gate springs next time for some more fun without sacrificing reliability. Psyched.
Yea you can have your car dyno'd at the hole in the wall. Its a dynojet but he said it does read lower than most. My 589whp pull on that dyno would likely be 620-630 at RT. I will say I have never seen a dyno as generous as the one RT has, so thats a bonus for them I suppose.
But yes RZG does lots of turbo stuff too. His girlfriends personal Z is turbo'd and I think he's at like 560whp on the stock revup motor right now.
And my tune from RT was 503whp and 422tq and that motor held up strong. A lot of that was definitely from vince doing a good job with the tune
Yea you can have your car dyno'd at the hole in the wall. Its a dynojet but he said it does read lower than most. My 589whp pull on that dyno would likely be 620-630 at RT. I will say I have never seen a dyno as generous as the one RT has, so thats a bonus for them I suppose.
But yes RZG does lots of turbo stuff too. His girlfriends personal Z is turbo'd and I think he's at like 560whp on the stock revup motor right now.
And my tune from RT was 503whp and 422tq and that motor held up strong. A lot of that was definitely from vince doing a good job with the tune
Were those numbers of yours with a DE engine or revup? Either way, nice!!
Honestly I haven't heard of someone with such high HP on a stock revup (560)... That's freakin cool.
It sounds like RZG would handle things just fine then. I'm definitely going to be reaching out to them for a more one-on-one tuning experience, which would pave the road to my next tune with a built engine next year or so. That's some exciting stuff, I appreciate the recommendation.
I'm going to put some pics up after dropping the motor this weekend. Open dump tubes are coming in tomorrow.
When you contact RZG or Ray do me a huge favor and say I sent you their way. That'll even let them know you're serious. And for what its worth, Ray knows I used to tune with RT. Doesn't bother him at all. Him and Vince aren't enemies, I think they both respect each other's work
When you contact RZG or Ray do me a huge favor and say I sent you their way. That'll even let them know you're serious. And for what its worth, Ray knows I used to tune with RT. Doesn't bother him at all. Him and Vince aren't enemies, I think they both respect each other's work
How long did the motor hold up for? What was the failure mode?
Will do though. He'll appreciate that I'm sure, maybe it will save you a few buckaroonies too
How long did the motor hold up for? What was the failure mode?
Will do though. He'll appreciate that I'm sure, maybe it will save you a few buckaroonies too
-Mike
That motor had 85-90k miles on it when I originally boosted it to 438whp. That lasted solid and then I bumped the power to 503whp right at 100k miles. I pulled that motor out of my car at 111k miles and it never went out.
I built a spare long block proactively and when it was ready to go I just pulled out my stock motor. And many people can vouch, that stock motor took a beating at 500hp. It saw 11k miles in a matter of 3-4 months and it would see 15psi multiple times every drive.
I actually put my old stock motor in a car I picked up that had a rod knock. Sold that car to a local guy and he knows the whole story behind the car and I can say that motor is still as solid as it was on day 1.
That motor had 85-90k miles on it when I originally boosted it to 438whp. That lasted solid and then I bumped the power to 503whp right at 100k miles. I pulled that motor out of my car at 111k miles and it never went out.
I built a spare long block proactively and when it was ready to go I just pulled out my stock motor. And many people can vouch, that stock motor took a beating at 500hp. It saw 11k miles in a matter of 3-4 months and it would see 15psi multiple times every drive.
I actually put my old stock motor in a car I picked up that had a rod knock. Sold that car to a local guy and he knows the whole story behind the car and I can say that motor is still as solid as it was on day 1.
Holy crap. You just made my month. I will follow your path and previous power goals. I'm meticulous so if the engine goes it will be due to metallurgy not neglect... was only at 12.5 psi last run but already have the new wg springs.
Turbo vs supercharger are two totally different battles when it comes to stock motor longevity. But hopefully you end up with a good story to tell like I have.
That certainly beats the 12 piece silicon monstrosity a buddy had made to do that job with his SC. How long until it gets painted flat black? lol.
It's hard to believe a month ago I was just putting this car on stands to tear it down... Should be just a few more weeks before I call Ray up to schedule.
