Forced Induction Kit Vendor Feedback Thread

[09nismo498]

Originally Posted by Wattles

I was hesitating to post a response on here because I feel the build is not finished. I say that after 1 & 1/2 years build time. I am driving the car and have been for 5k miles now. The car went to GTM when it was 6 months old at 10k miles. (That is the rate I drove, and currently drive it).

To answer the question, the engine is rock solid as far as I can tell. The tune is next to terrible. Running rich (smoke clouds behind me when I put the throttle down all the way - somewhat embarrassing). Acceleration before 3k rpm is irregular and uneven. The car has stalled in 405 (LA) freeway stop-and-go traffic twice now. After 3k RPM the car smoothes out and has TONS of power (I mean tons!).

The bad:
* There is a loud whistle that developed a week after I took the car home. As far as I can tell its a leak in one of the boost controller lines. Sounds like it have a referee trapped under my hood when I develop boost.

The piping is rubbing on the engine bay on the driver's side. This is the pipe from the Tial (wastegate) unit just off the turbo hat runs toward the front of the car/intercoolers. This is the most embarrassing thing. When I have someone in the car and I step on it, you hear a horrible rubbing noise in the cabin when boost hits about 8psi or higher. I got under the engine and saw the issue, but don't have the tools to try and fix this. Rubbing in one form or another has been an issue from the beginning of this build. Sam said it is more "cosmetic" than a real problem. I can't accept that the car sounds broken when I drive.

One day I noticed when I turned there was a scraping sound. This got worse for a few days so I jacked it up (in my garage) and found that one of the 3 bolts holding the piping to the Tial waste gate has worked its way out and was scraping the steering column. I didn't have a tool small enough to try to put it back in so I pulled it out (which was about 2 screw turns).

I started my build as the initial MHI build wanting to only do the turbo kit and exhaust + boost controller. After an engine failure (unlucky me) I have a built engine and transmission. The cost of rebuilding the old one and having it apart anyway led me to spend more to increase the durability (stage 1 engine) of the engine and transmission (stage 4).

To Sam's (GTM's) credit they gave me a big deal on the engine & trans build throwing in the oil pan. Ultimately the turbos were swapped with Garrett's due to some issues with the MHI's. (I think this has happened with the whole MHI group buy). There were worse issues with rubbing in the engine bay with the MHI's as well. (And no, my car is not lowered in any way - stock suspension).

Like many of the others here, updates were few and faaaaar between (4-6 weeks in many cases).
I now refer to my car as the toy or ticking time bomb, because I can't consider it a reliable daily car.

The good:
The engine bay looks superb! The exhaust sounds great! The power is intense! The transmission feels rock solid! I love having a total sleeper that can beat an M5! I can smoke the tires into 4th gear or at 65 on the freeway!

I have contacted GTM about the issues but they seen too busy to fit me in (and I'm scared if I drop it off it will be gone another 6 months!).

I'm at a point where I want to fix the issues and sell the car. I hate saying that because of all the time, aggravation and $$$ I spent on it, but if I keep having issues my wife will drop me and my car off a cliff.

Sincerely an Infinity G37 IPL owner who drove his 2012 (purchases Feb 1, 2012) for a total of 10 months or 15,000 miles and had the car in the shop for the other 16 months. (Initial delivery estimate was 6-8 weeks excluding the need for engine rebuild and trans build)

wow, sounds like a huge headache, sorry to hear about that! Hope everything gets sorted out for you. That kind of explains all the delays with the mhi kit...

[elperuano]

Cool. Didn't know they had em in Australia.
Who said garbage? You picking it up in the morning or sumthin? Don't make too much noise!

[Alkatraz]

Originally Posted by elperuano

Who said garbage? You picking it up in the morning or sumthin? Don't make too much noise!

I thought that you were saying that there is something wrong with the oil pan and that is why I shouldn't mention it in my second post?!?

Anyway......heading off topic, due to confusion....

[SS_Firehawk]

During the building phase, it was borderline infuriating getting updates from GTM. They did cut me a sweet deal on the kit, and was only 30 days late for my time hack. Which looking back in retrospect is an act of God. They shipped all my parts I sold to the people who bought them, and packeged it really well. They even cleaned up my oil cooler for resale after one sale fell through because it looked like hell. They allowed me to make payments at my convienience (as long as it was paid up by delivery), so I sent them a mortgage sized check bi-weekly. When picking up the car, I was there for two days and roughly 8 hours each day waiting. That was annoying and my Wife was running low on patience.

The craftsmanship on the kit though is superb. Everything fits so tight, it's a miracle everything made it in. The intercoolers are millimeters behind the crash bar, the oil coolers barely fit between the intercoolers and the bumper. The SC oil coolers sit behind the fangs and the filters are right there too. The radiator, fans and shroud are b!tchen and look boss in the engine bay. I got a good first hand look of the oil pans and the baffling system. I'm happy to have it in my car. It was an inexpensive upgrade.

They installed my sways, rotors, lines, pads, clutch, flywheel, and CSC. Everything fit perfectly and they did an outstanding job with it. They warned me about the clutch being on the ragged edge. I wasn't sure if Sam was trying to upsell me or not so I took my chances. Well, the clutch gets soft when I'm beating on it, especially in the heat. They also shopped around to find the perfect meth tank to install in the hatch. I'm glad they went with what they did. It's large, and all I need to do is cut out the carpet for everything to fit flush (the neck and cap will stick out). I should also mention that they finally unf@cked my O2 sensors. They discovered the wiring problem, the pre cats in the post cat location, and of course the melted chaos. Unfortunately for me, they definitely got their money to diagnose and fix it. I will be fair and say they cut me a deal on the hours.

I consider myself fortunate to have the experience I had with them go well (for the most part). All the parts were already there, but they are too busy for their own good. Every lift has a car, and the floorspace is filled with more cars. Because of this, they didn't start tearing into my car until March (it was picked up and delived at the beginning of December). They ran two initial dyno tests on their dynojet and then their new Mustang dyno. As jobs took priority, mine went into the backburner, but they never told me whether it was on hold or not. That was irritating. If there isn't going to be any meaningful progress, tell me so I'm not expecting it. I had second thoughts about the whole thing a few times, especially after seeing the final bill and how much I dumped into it.

I will give props to Sam for working so much on his broken leg. That whole thing became a downward spiral as most of us know to his health. Those health issues are no excuse for customer service that could use some major improvement, but I noticed and appreciate that. When I went to leave the first time, it was discovered a relay had gone bad to my rear tail lights. I called them and drove back. I was also concerned about some excessive squeaking. They replaced a pulley, the belt, and fixed the relay free of charge. They also topped off my meth and gave me almost an entire gallon for free. When my car destroyed a pulley and belt, Sam didn't hesitate to pick up the car on his dime and fix it. There was no arguing, I sent pics, an email and a call. When waiting at GTM, I had great conversations with nearly all of the GTM staff about opinions, the forum, projects, future products, etc. It was pretty awesome learning about things before they put out the word. So cudos for that as well.

For all the communication problems, the waiting, the money, it all faded when I was able to hear her for the first time. They kept telling me how great it sounded. I heard a familiar tone on the rollers when they strapped her down, but it sounded meaner, deeper down low, sweeter mids, and a howl that would make a wolf feel sheepish. The test drive was a revelation. The car wasn't finished, and looked it, but the power was just so smooth and easy. It was exactly what I had in mind when going with this kit. My Wife even got in on the test drive and it sold every penny I spent on the car to her. It even sold her the idea of getting meth installed. Now a big negative for me is that when I delivered the car to them, it was clean as a whistle. When I got it back, it was dirty as hell, so dirty I had to clean the windshield three times to be able to drive home. It's a small thing that goes a long way. Spend the f@cking money and clean your customers car when you deliver it. This was the same thing when I destroyed the belt. It was returned dirty with belt particles in the engine bay. I'm just now scheduling an appointment to get the engine bay detailed, the car clayed, polished, buffed, and waxed from top to bottom. I'm so busy, I can't even clean my own damn car.

In closing, I'm aware of GTM's shortcomings and their strengths. I'm completely satisfied after having the car for 8 months, and 60/40 with my personal dealings with GTM over the course of a year. If I were to build my motor by choice, or because I killed it, I would definitely stil consider them. Okay, now you guys can continue your bjtching

[MMC Racing]

I'd love to be reviewing my GTM CARB certified supercharger kit right now..

[TerribleONE]

I was the F.I prototype car, took a lot longer than expected but Tony always kept me updated. I could not be happier with my kit, or anything else they did on my car for that matter. (Seats, gauges, boost controller, body kit, oil cooler, exhaust, etc. I wouldn't have it any other way it's as simple as that. After over 2,000 hard miles (1.5k by me and 1k by FI) we have had zero issues except the damage that's been done to my Michelin's

[megalapagas]

I wanted Boost Performance's turbo kit because I could afford it but it doesn't fit my AT....I would still buy if they would put a smaller turbo than the one that comes on the regular kit but then again only one can wish :'(

[jwick]

Originally Posted by megalapagas

I wanted Boost Performance's turbo kit because I could afford it but it doesn't fit my AT....I would still buy if they would put a smaller turbo than the one that comes on the regular kit but then again only one can wish :'(

I don't believe turbo size would be the problem. I've never been under an AT Z or G but from the pictures that tranny is massive. I think the problem would be routing the cross-over pipe from the driver side hearder.

[KN21283]

Any news on the aam competition kit?

[TerribleONE]

Originally Posted by KN21283

Any news on the aam competition kit?

Haven't seen anything recently, at least not on here

[Nixlimited]

I feel like this thread is going to go off the rails in three ... two ... one ...

[Chuck33079]

I love my GTM kit. They make good stuff, it's everything else they do poorly. It did take another tuner to really make the car feel like a factory FI car. Sam's tune always felt a little "aftermarket FI kit".

There's also a few engineering choices that make me scratch my head, like daisy-chaining the turbo water lines so the hot coolant coming out of one turbo is used to cool the other one. WTF? I did buy mine in 2011, and it seems like they started going downhil after that.

Now, had Fast Intentions had kits shipping out when I bought my kit, that's what I would have.

[jwick]

BP - I'll save my complete comments until after install and a few miles. Since the kit is in hand I will comment on those aspects. Sasha is the epitome of customer service and his attention to detail is second to none. When I opened my box it included everything (even zip ties, drill bits, proper tap, etc.) I need to install short of common tools any man, or woman for that matter, should have around the house. Every part in the kit is top notch.

GTM - The ones I've had personal experience with are great. Make good power and seem to use quality parts. What I've seen on this forum shows me that GTM has a lot to learn about running a business.

F.I. - No personal experience with any of their products but the TT kit is a thing of beauty. Tony's customer service is extremely good. He was even willing to build me a custom F.I. exhaust to mate up to my BP kit since I don't need the entire thing. Says a lot when another manufacturer is willing to customize his product to support another companies F.I. kit.

[Chuck33079]

Originally Posted by jwick

GTM - The ones I've had personal experience with are great. Make good power and seem to use quality parts. What I've seen on this forum shows me that GTM has a lot to learn about running a business.

That's really the rub- customer service and after-sales support need a complete overhaul. Other than a few quirks I wouldn't have done myself, their Garrett kit is fantastic. There's a reason it was the benchmark for this platform for a while. Unfortunately, they're not responding well to the competition who has brought some spectacular kits to market.

[JMac88]

Boosted Performance Test Car - Sasa had my car for exactly how long he said he would. He called me just about every day to let my know what was going on. I got tons of pictures and he even let me input some feedback. He is a great guy all around and his kit is top notch. Anyone considering a turbo should take a hard look at this kit.

I should point out I have not had one issue with my kit, but I know that IF I did that Sasa would pull through for me and that's a level of service rarely found these days.