I Disagree, if your rings go, allowing the piston to chatter, hit the cylinder walls etc. This causes the piston to shatter, pin let go etc.. once theres no piston, that rod will go through the block. Seen this on many different motors. Common problem. So yes, lean conditions can throw a rod.

I understand what you are saying, but I would consider that piston failure. The rod getting thrown would be a later effect. How long would it take for the piston to chatter enough to shatter and then cause a thrown rod? I've had piston chatter before than it is very noticeable longer before the piston fails.

Maybe you're just disagreeing for arguments sake.

At high rpm and heavy load, if the rings let go, the piston will follow.
followed by a rod, this can all happen in half a second.

No , not for argument sake, First hand experience in this issue.

I have read that there's a lot of cutting up and altering things in the engine bay to install this SC and that it is rather difficult to go back to stock. Any input on this? I wouldn't plan to go back to stock, but you never know and cutting stuff up makes me a bit concerned.

Not true, I had zero piston chatter, mine went from no noise right to rod knock, and mine tossed out in reverse and it was at idle backing up.

the install is far from "bolt-on" as described, take that part with a small tiny grain of salt.

There is certainly cutting to be done, most are minor things, not sure about going back to stock, never thought about it. There's also bending of pipes etc.. to be done to get clearance.

if you are even thinking about going back to stock at ANY time, grab yourself the BP turbo kit and save the time.

Also if you have had faster cars in the past, the power will be fine for a few months and you'll want more, much harder to get more power out of this kit than a turbo kit.

The kit however has quality products and is put together well, daily driving the Z with this kit is no problems at all, drives like a stock vehicle until you put the foot down then turns into a different beast.

Agreed with Mikey, I went back to stock pretty easily, I keep all the stock parts and fueling. You do that you'll be fine. After the power comes EH Don't mod it for more WHP. The motor wont last. ;/

This is dead on, Get the BP kit.. I regret going with stillen. but then again bp wasn't around when I was on the market for boost.

If I was to go turbo, it would be the Fast Intentions kit.

The drawbacks of turbo vs SC for me are:
1. no CARB sticker

2. Much higher cost, I have a 7at so tranny upgrade is needed also

3. turbos are much more complicated meaning a lot more potential for small things to go wrong or get loose, etc. which means more maintenance (I am a novice who doesn't know much about this stuff so it would be to the shop for me)

4. I have never driven a boosted car, but am told that until I am pressing the throttle down pretty hard, no boost will be made which means I will only be getting the power when I am accelerating hard whereas with SC, I am always getting some boost at all levels.

Not quite. You'll still get boost at partial throttle. It's actually a challenge to keep a turbo car out of boost. You'll likely get more boost at partial throttle than with a sc setup.

:iagree:

Exactly, with a centrifigual SC such as GTM or Stillen the blower has to spin up like a turbo to provide boost and does around 2500-3000 RPMs (slightly different per kit). Now if someone produced a roots blower for the VQ then yes you would have boost at anything over idle as it instantly builds.

So that leaves concerns 1 through 3...especially 3. Everyone tells me that if I go turbo, I should be ready to have some downtime periodically when something eventually breaks or comes loose, etc.

1) That is Cali so either stay under the radar or avoid boost

2) Higher cost can even come with the SC & 7AT depending on how much power you push through the system, really it comes down to TQ and the higher gears that fail.

3) Things can go wrong, but a quality install and checking the kit during routine maintenance will keep it up & running well. Say during an oil change you need to poke around and check clamps, bolts, etc. Also, having a daily driver is a huge plus because if the car needs to go in for a few days you have a back up ready to go.

1) I know, but it only takes being unlucky once, and I'm afraid boost will be addicting and hard to stay off of

2) I believe the 7at should hold up fine with the Stillen kit since it's only going to make around 300 trq, even not counting the tranny upgrade, there's substantially higher costs

3) My concern is that not being mechanically knowledgeable car-wise, I'm not going to know what and how to check. Also, can someone tell me the maintenance differences between the 2? From what I understand, for the SC, it's just replacing the fluid once in a while.