Stillen v3 Blower Issue
 

Hey everyone,
Just today I had the same issue as what happened in this post:
http://www.the370z.com/forced-induct...r-blew-up.html

Looks like the output seal gave out and it started to make metal clinking noises...
Anyone know of any shops in California that can help with this? Really new to all this, I bought the car this January and had no issues what so ever until today, really bummed out about all this.

Send it to Vortech If it came with pre-owned car

Your V3 is requiring a rebuild. Good news is depending on where you are in CA Oxnard is probably not too far from you to drop it off or ship to them for rebuild. Then though the V3 is a self contained unit they are prone to failure like any other centrifugal supercharger. Once you go F/I catastrophic failure is always possible. Consider upgrading your V3 if you can swing it.

+1 on this!! Upgrade the unit to the Si blower when you send it in for the rebuild. I bought a secondhand unit and sent mine in for a rebuild and Si impeller upgrade.

just wanted to note how good of customer service I recently had with vortech. I sent them my SC to do a impeller upgrade and they kept in contact with me every step of the way plus more. It was pretty quick turn around as well.

Do you know if he ever changed the oil? I guess that is a question you cannot answer given it was used and he can say he did.

Did you change the oil when you got it?

The oil is only good for a set amount of miles. Proper maintenance is required to extend the life of the mechanics. Just like everything else.

Unfortunately I did not change the oil. The previous owner did tell me that I should probably change the oil, said he would ship me some oil when he got it so waited on that. It was my fault for not changing it.. got a quote from vortech. Said it’d be about $400 for the rebuild, $300 extra if the impeller is messed up.

Anyone recommend any shops in CA that are really good with z’s and running this setup? Before all this the car had some motordyne test pipes and was throwing p2096 and p2098. Bought some cats and they went away but now getting a p0300, so wanted a shop to look at it. Went to z car garage in San Jose but due to miscommunication made the 3 hour trip from Fresno for no reason since I had test pipes. So just want to see which other reputable shops there are that are familiar with z’s and can check it out. Not sure if I need new injectors, if it has an air leak, or if it needs a re-tune. Sorry if I’m all over the place lol, just new to all this still.

The best shop in CA for Z's is Specialty Z but you're a little far away for them unless you want to make the drive. Even if they don't do the maintenance on your car, Specialty Z (Sebastian) should do the tune (remotely). By the way, I've been responding to your posts on facebook (Patrick). If you're on Instagram you can check out my build (@redondoaveb)

Send your car to Seb at Specialty Z. You’ll be glad you did. [/thread]

In all honesty though. I’m speaking from experience. I had a bunch of “reputable” shops work on my car. It ended up being a sh!t show from day one. So much so that I let my car rot on the street for three years without ever moving it because I gave up on throwing money at it. Last year I decided to resurrect it from the dead. Towed it 80 miles to Specialty Z. They went through the entire car and fixed every single issue with it. I daily the car now because I love it so much after getting all the big and small issues fixed by Seb and LJ at Specialty Z. Seb knows his stuff when it comes to the Z. His personal 370z is rocking a Fast Intentions twin turbo kit. He’s done plenty of Stillen supercharger setups and even TopGunZ a2a kits. Mines a custom HKS supercharged setup and he had no problems making it run flawlessly. Do it right. Do it once. Good luck!

Vortech Update
 

So I just got word back from Vortech saying the unit is unrepairable. :confused:

This was one of the reps response:
"The unit you sent in has been looked at, there are quite a few issues. The unit is not repairable, there is damage to the INPUT bearings on the pulley shaft. Typically, these steel caged bearings are pretty tough to break unless there is significant tension being placed on the pulley shaft. The unit has had the pulley size changed since the last time it was here and the shipping plug was never removed and replaced with the new vent fitting that was sent back with the unit before being run.

The unit will need to be replaced as it is unrepairable, a new unit will need to be purchased thru Stillen directly.
Please let me know if you would like the unit back as is, there is a $100.00 inspection fee if sent back, if not and we scrap it there is no fee at all. "

Thoughts on what my next steps could be? Confused as to why they're sending me through stillen for the blower..Didn't even know the pulley was changed. Giving them a call tomorrow. Wanted to update everyone.

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It has to be purchased through Stillen because of CARB. Vortech is not allowed to sell superchargers or supercharger parts within California due to them not being CARB approved. Stillen has CARB approval for their supercharger system. Bureaucratic ********.

That makes sense if they spent the money getting their kit CARB approved but doesn't make sense why you can't replace the Vortech blower with another Vortech blower..
I was checking Stillen's webiste for the blower itself but can't find anything.. I sent a message on their little website chat thing..
:(

Like I said. Bureaucratic ********. You could find new one's on ebay, you could also try SOHO Motorsports or TopgunZ on the forum here. One of them may sell just the blower. You could also call 928 Motorsports, show them the pictures and see if they think they can rebuild it.

Ahhh okay thank you! I'll give 928 Motorsports a call tomorrow! Might just ask for the super-vortech upgrade... lol
https://928motorsports.com/parts/super_vortech.php

Talk to Carl. They did the super vortech upgrade on mine.

Looking at those pictures and based on what Vortech said, I'd be really pissed at the person you bought it from... If I recall right, there's literally a yellowish-orange tag on the shipping plug that says "remove me". I'm sorry about your bad fortune.

A V3 with the Si impeller and the 928 bearings seems to be the ideal setup for the blower. The Si impeller flows a little better and the 928 bearings allow you to overspin it.

Good luck!

Hey Chernandezz22. I can get you a new blower if you need one. It will be an upgrade from what you currently have also. PM me for pricing.

You know what the funny thing is. When my blower was blowing a lot of oil out of the vent plug (3.47 jackshaft/2.85 sc pulley). I called vortech and talked to one of their engineers who said that they've seen guys run their blowers with the shipping plug in with no issues. I didn't want to take the chance so I installed a 3.00 sc pulley instead.

I stand corrected haha.

I personally wouldn't want to run with the plug in since when the oil heats up and pressure builds, it has nowhere to go. I think this puts more pressure on components that weren't necessarily meant to see that pressure. My 2 cents.

I've been talking to Carl. He asked about the condition on the shafts since 928 can't get replacement shafts. Then after talking with Vortech, they gave me the bad news that they are also damaged.. :(
Apparently the pulley was changed at some point and then changed back to the original one since there's a missing seal on the pulley bolt according to Vortech. The previous owner apparently doesn't have any receipts of the work done so I'm not sure who has worked on what. Attachment 142064

PM Topgunz per his above post. He'll work with you on getting you a new blower.

According to the vortech engineer I talked to, there is very little pressure build up. I wasn't willing to take the risk either. I did think about fabricating a pressure gauge set up that would screw into the vent port to see what kind of internal pressure the blower does produce but I never followed up.

Yes we just sent each other a PM. Thanks everyone. Once this is all resolved and I get a new blower installed, what should the next steps be? Should I head over to SpecialtyZ and get it looked over? Not sure what would be a good starting point after this.

You can never go wrong with Specialty Z. It probably wouldn't hurt to have them look it over and then tune it. Better make an appointment now. I'm not sure how busy they are right now but there's usually about a 2 month wait.

My V3 ate its own oil slinger. Bits of the slinger forge weeded themselves to the inspiration shaft gear. First I thought it was just bearings that were shot since I’m overspinning. 3.47 jackshaft and 2.95 s/c pulley. Apparently the factory vortech oil slinger is prone to failure.. 928 offers a high speed oil slinger that can take the abuse-see last picture. Anyways I used a jewelers file to get all the bits off. Put back together. And it sounds like garbage. No metal in oil no abnormal power loss just sounds like crap.

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With that setup you are overspinning by 10,000rpms. That is pretty rough on things as 928 doesnt fully understand how these work.

The biggest problem with highly overspinning the unit is that the oil is not designed for this. It aerates and becomes "whipped" inside. This then creates a ton of heat and the oil cannot properly cool down the unit. So no matter what material 928 states they can put in there you will always have problems with spinning it that fast.

There is no warranty with 928. I have seen impellers blow apart from them. I have seen head units only run for 1000 miles from them.

Stay with the V3 Si and keep your warranty.

You are pulling in 15psi with that highly restrictive KN filter from my old kits. My new velocity intake can make close to that (14psi) while spinning it at safe levels and im guessing at least 17-18psi if overspinning by 10k.

The factory oil slinger is prone to failure regardless of how fast the blower is spinning. Not to say that couldn't have contributed to your issue.

Aaron is correct about the oil aerating and not lubricating properly. That was verified with vortech. Fortunately, mine never had that issue, maybe due to the ceramic bearings I had installed.

My 928 impeller had a vane break off and the sc ate it. I haven't opened it up yet to find what damage it did, but it's noisy as hell too. I'm hoping it's rebuildable. Carl at 928 was sent pictures of the impeller and he never accepted responsibilty, he just told me not to run it anymore (no sh1t Carl). I'll never do business with 928 again.

It sounds to me like your bearings are bad, I've seen where oil slingers have failed and metal particals have gotten into the bearings.

If you want to overspin the sc like I was doing also, go to the V2 H/D Ti like Aaron recommended to me. It has heavy duty bearings and although it's rated 52000rpm, vortech verified it can be spun at 60000 with no issues. It's also external oil fed so you won't have the aeration issues that the V3 has.

Edit: The V3 oil slinger isn't prone to failure as I stated above. They have been known to fail.

My apologies, but I'm having a little difficulty understanding what you meant here.

I've heard of them failing but they aren't prone to failure (they don't fail on a regular basis). It's not like there's a defect in them and that causes them to fail.

I don’t know understand why you blower guys have the 370z platform disease, what I mean I by that is move on from that shitty v3 blower. So many better options out there. Evolve the kit, obviously money isn’t a issues if you’re going force induction. Only a small handful of guys have opted to move. Sohos car made 900whp j7 unit I believe, surprised none of you guy have tried the c-38r especially the gtm blower set ups. It’s like you guys are stuck in the past, determined to make the v3 unit work.

What disease is this Elmo? The 1% of guys that are having issues with the blower are the guys who are pushing things to the absolute limits (and over it) or modifying it to something outside of what Vortech recommends.

The J7 only makes sense if you are going for fully built block/full suspension/full roll cage numbers. Otherwise, its an unnecessary drag on the engine. It also costs a lot more and you cant run a filter with it since it sits even CLOSER to the radiator support. The C38R doesnt fit in the area where the V3 sits as its 2 inches deeper. The GTM kit is a huge pain in the *** to install and has no way of sourcing parts or help if it needs them. Everyone knows I get them replacement parts and support asap as soon as they need them/it.

By leaving the V3 as is we can make over 650whp on my new kit with a filter which is the max for the stock block. If you want to start dumping TONS of money into the car to make 700whp+ and build the block/suspension/massive clutches/etc... then yes move into a turbo.

Just FYI, I had to replace my turbo twice, never replaced my V3.

^^^^^This

I'm one of those that pushed the V3 beyond it's limits and the only issue I had was with the crappy 928 impeller. As Aaron stated, the V7 is only a good choice on a built block, the stock block doesn't make enough power to support the V7. After a discussion with Aaron (Topgunz) he recommended the V2 H/D Ti trim for my application. Vortech completely agreed. The V3 is perfect for 95% of the guys wanting to go supercharged.

Fair enough