Alright well that's a valid point that I was not aware of. I thought the modifications were within the limits of my kit and if they weren't I wold have assumed AAM would know that and would have discussed with me. With only 8200 miles on the car I don't want to run i long term with this setup and have it cause a problem so I need to figure out what I want to do to preserve it. Possibly remove the pulley and install my new heat exchange and oil cooler setup and run it on custom tune vs the stock stillen tune... again, it gets driven maybe a couple hundred miles a month, if that...

Has anyone reconfigured the intake tubing to move the location of the MAF? Aside from a complete different kit, it seems like that would be one of more simple solutions to that issue.

OP at the present time the only way to go is Air 2 Air....it's really a lot safer set up and will give u true IAT's as the MAFs are post blower which is what is important. The inaccurate readings of having the MAFS preblower along with the A2W cooling system is what makes the Stillen kit dangerous. If ur concerned about longevity of the car then switch to the Air 2 Air....

I was going to be upgrading the heat exchange to the frozen boost front mount bit knowing this info now the air to air makes sense. What a2a replacement kits are recommended?

(Long post... sorry.)

What people are saying is incorrect. It's true that the Stillen setup is NOT ideal, but when they say that the intake temps are super high, they are right, BUT (and this is important) you were tuned on that high temp. So while your MAF is reading 80*, and the engine sees 120*, those were the same conditions you were under when you were tuned, so you ARE fueling correctly for the intake temps.

So with the W2A setup, with the Frozenboost intercooler, from what I've seen, the intake temps are in the 120-150* range, the A2A kit drops the intake temps by 20-50*, or a few degrees over ambient. THAT'S where the increased power comes from, as well as where the safety margin is. It's a good kit, and I'd have one if I weren't moving to CA and needed my car to be CARB legal, but the standard kit isn't as bad as everyone is making it out to be.

Especially if you are not running it out to redline. Don't forget that it's a centrifugal supercharger that builds boost as rpm's increase. So if you only change gears under 4-5K, you aren't building more than a few pounds of boost. Did you get a boost plot when you were tuned? If so, you would see that you only see 9psi at 7K-ish, and it's a gradual build up to them. So if you shift at 4K, you probably aren't seeing anymore than 3-4psi, which is fine on a motor. It also shouldn't be building super high intake air temps. It would be a different story if you were at a track day, where you spend 25 mins running each gear out to redline. But on the street or even a dragstrip, you aren't going to be in the danger zone for prolonged periods.

Everything will depend on how you were tuned. There are more things that could go wrong when you're trying to tune for super high intake air temps, and that might be the reason why Stillen has a reputation for killing motors, but if it's a good tune, then the difference of MAF temp -vs - intake air temp isn't the reason for blown motors. High intake temps by themselves and bad tunes are what I would call the reason for blown motors. Add to that, the Y-pie intake/MAF housing is difficult to scale, so that would be more of a reason for a bad tune.

If I were you, I would get tuned via ECUtek to tune with speed density to eliminate the variable of the inconsistent intake. I would also highly recommend the TopgunZ A2A kit. If you don't do the A2A kit, I'd at least do the Frozenboost heat exchanger. A 34 row oil cooler and upgraded radiator would be good on any motor, boosted or not. But your car isn't going to blow itself to pieces instantly, if you don't get the A2A kit.

Thanks for the in-depth response, I appreciate your feedback. After doing a bunch of research after this issue was brought to my attention I decided to move forward with the topgunz a2a kit.. Which led me to my next thoughts which were "now I can do the other upgrades that I was limited to with the stillen setup"..

So, will be adding:

Topgunz A2A intercooler
Z1 34 row oil cooler
Impeller upgrade
800cc Injectors
UPREV MAF GT
Replacement BOV.

I'll keep you posted with the build and new #'s once it's been done and dyno'd. Just waiting for the topgunz kit to be built...

Awesome! Yeah, keep us posted! It's looks like a great kit, and Topgunz is great to deal with!

TopGunz a2a IC installed w/TIAL BOV, and SI impeller upgrade, 850cc injectors, high flow MAFs, and oil cooler.

Pre install 446whp & 339tq
Post install 485whp and 385 tq (90 degree w/60% humidity)

And she got some new kicks too... :)

https://i.imgsafe.org/467b20e71f.jpg
https://i.imgsafe.org/467b10aaec.jpg
https://i.imgsafe.org/467b576a52.jpg
https://i.imgsafe.org/467b622bf7.jpg

Looking great!

Thanks!

Wow very nice numbers and great looking car. Now aren't you glad you made this thread just to share your numbers ;)

*Note ... AAM does a ton of TURBO's [especially their own] and only a few SC'rs every now and then.
They are not up to full speed with the STILLEN plagues and idiosyncrasies.
Check out TOPGUN's AIR to AIR solution for the STILLENs ...

BTW - real sharp looing 'Z' !!!

I had TopGunz a2a installed and runs great! Thanks !

No details on the new kicks? What is this?! :D

So uh.. What wheels are those? Size? Offset? They flow way better with the car than the bronze wheels and they simply look fantastic on the car!

Thanks!

Theyre Aodhan AH01 19x11 et15 and 19x9.5 et22