Supercharged VQ37 Goes BOOOM

BLM

My point was that there should have been some room for fluctuations. Adding a header should not lead to a blown motor. "So perfect"?? Seriously? If it's teetering on the edge of the leaner side of the optimal AFR, changing elevations would mess with it.

OOPS, just saw your sig. You're a stillen guy. My apologies. I saw one of those "so perfect" stillen tuned superchargers up against a GTM on a dyno. People who have installed both speak of the fitment with the stillen and how it makes you fit your car to the kit rather than the other way around.


Either way I feel terribly for the owner but why he would romp on it without a tune is beyond me.

Just goes to show he simply wanted to go fast and didnt have the knowledge. I'm not saying he had to build it himself, but to invest all that money and not understand that he shouldn't get on it until it was properly tuned doesn't add up. It's really his fault. If all he wanted was power then yea, lean it out with the current set-up. But he should have told the tuner to leave it a little on the richer side if he was planning on headers all along.

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K&N // GTM // BERK

red6spd

Was the tune right on the edge of being unsafe? Even when I had my UpRev Tune done the tuner eeked out as much power as he could without going to close to being unsafe.

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2010 Base+Sport 6spd: Stillen G3, FI Non-Resonated CBE, FI Non-Resonated Test Pipes, UpRev Tuned, Custom 24R Oil Cooler, JDM Rear Fog-OEM Harness.
???Whp ???WTQ (Will find out come spring time)

BLM

Any forced induction car should always have one of these:

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K&N // GTM // BERK

Red__Zed

+1. And you should be paying it almost as much attention as the road.

Red__Zed

You shouldn't change anything on the car without modifying the tune. I'm not a Stillen backer in anyway, and have generally been unhappy with how they handled the supercharger deal, but this is owner error. Changing headers certainly changes the tune enough that you should not be driving on it, and definitely not making a pull.


On my S2000, the IP exhaust I had on it separated, causing an exhaust leak. The leak altered my AF readings enough that the car would have done the same thing if I had run it. That's just how FI applications are.

BLM

Believe me I know I had that AEM wideband on my WRX the second it was released. Worth its weight in gold. I feel bad for the guy though

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K&N // GTM // BERK

Red__Zed

+1. I feel like the plug-and-play nature of kits these days has a lot of people feeling nothing can go wrong, and it's not the fault of the guys running the kits, really. If no one tells you how much fire you're playing with, things like this happen.

destinyZ

should have gotten that AFR wideband...

370Zsteve

I love how this thread just, uh, stopped.

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SOLD MY Z MARCH 2018 - another Core OG moves on - new ride 2019 Z Corvette Grand Sport - no mods necessary but already have eyes on HFC and intakes LOL IT NEVER ENDS.

Brazilbro

Just like new stillen S/C install threads

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Juke AWD/240Z SR20
08 Evo 10(Stage 2) SOLD
Fastest Sport 6spd 370Z 11.8 @126.5SOLD

RCZ

Yes and you completely missed my point. You were trying to make an argument that the tune is crap because it didnt have room for an unknown amount of leaning out. Not to mention their tunes are, in my opinion, too safe.

Oops, you're too busy trying to be a smartass to understand things. Thanks for the basic-as-bricks tuning lesson and advice.

A good tune should sit at somewhere between rich and lean...where it's supposed to be. An exhaust mod can swing that balance towards lean and blow it up in no time. Yes you do want to tune some margin of safety into your target afr, but loss of power isnt the only downside of running rich. Believe it or not, running rich can also lead to increased cyl pressures which can cause detonation and blow up the motor. Neither extreme is healthy.

Regardless, Its not whether I'm a stillen fan, I haven't really talked to anyone from stillen in months and judging by their lack of presence here, it seems almost as if they have packed their bags. It has nothing to do with that, just trying to add some sense of objective information to this thread that would otherwise be filled with misinformation...

Could it have been the boost? sure. Is it more likely that it was the headers he had just put on the car? sure.

Sorry I picked you to intervene and make a point, nothing personal bud.

Carry on with the torches and pitchforks folks.

Staples

This post couldn't be further from worthless. As a buyer, the consumer should not have to worry about doing his / her research on which kit is better, both companies should equally do the same amount of research and development - ESPECIALLY a company that's been in business for so long. Safety should always be the first concern, then comes power. Longevity, reliability, maintenance are what a lot of people look for in forced induction.

Stillen, a known company for years has been making great aftermarket products for different car manufactures. To me, their flaw is their supercharger kits. This is not new since they were having issues ever since they came out with a root style kit for the 350z a while back (heat-soak, custom hood, lack of top-end power).

"It's really his fault. If all he wanted was power then yea, lean it out with the current set-up. But he should have told the tuner to leave it a little on the richer side if he was planning on headers all along."

You obviously don't know what's going on. He used a canned tune from Stillen that was "suppose" to be safe enough for him to use as a daily driver. Even adding headers, straight pipes, test pipes, high flow cats or what have you... it shouldn't affect the tune to the point it's too dangerous to even drive the car. The tune should be conservative enough to make changes without sacrificing the motor from detonation.

This isn't the buyer's fault.

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'08 Infiniti G37s - Forced Induction Fed

BLM

Do you really believe the bolded part? Not to be fresh, but are you a Communist? Everything isn't made equally. That statement is beyond ignorant. Consumers shouldnt have to research their products?? Wow. Might I suggest a move to North Korea?

This motor didn't just blow up from him driving normally. He beat on it without tuning it. That's a Darwin Award nomination. These tunes are complicated. If anything, a stock tune from a manufacturer should be very conservative in terms of boost (not allowing the car to reach max), AFR (not pig rich but not too lean), and timing (no crazy advances), with the intention of having it optimally dyno-tuned by a professional. To think that you can just plug and play an F.I. setup is stupid.

Saying that the owner had no personal accountability in romping on his forced induction car with a new modification without a tune is idiotic. It's his car, he should know "hey, maybe I should make sure this is tuned before I beat on it". It's a childish outlook, honestly. You need to take responsibility when this stuff happens. His car didnt fly off the dyno. His car wasn't broken into overnight (as one of mine was). IF something was installed improperly and lead to this then it's not his fault. But still, maybe it's also not such a good idea to just throw money at a car without any knowledge of how it works.

If your bone is sticking out of your leg and you're in excruciating pain but the doctor says it's not broken, are you going to blindly believe him?

Even IF the tune was too aggressive, it's only the fault of the owner for beating on it before he got either A) a second opinion from the manufacturer or B) re-tuned. He could have driven the car normally and been fine.

Why the boost was spiking, that's another story...

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K&N // GTM // BERK