My motor grenaded.
 

I know this thread is gonna blow the f*ck up and it's gonna get ugly. But I've held back long enough and this morning was a kick in my soul and I have to say something or I'm gonna have a stroke. It was the worst news I could possibly get concerning this whole clusterf*ck that I've been dealing with for so long. I'm so distraught right now I can hardly put it into words. I understand some will lash out at me and somehow blame me for the end result but people need to objectively weigh the facts and come to the only obvious conclusion. No doubt Bobby/VSR has been waiting for this thread to pop up all day so he can deny any and all liability, I surly won't disappoint them. I have been keeping a couple of you informed with what's been going on and I appreciate your support through this whole thing. I will answer all questions to the best of my ability and understanding.

Ever since picking up my car from VSR it hasn't run right, the problem has been like finding a needle in a haystack. The day after picking the car up I took it back to Tampa (2 hour drive each way) because it wouldn't boost pass 8 lbs, it should have never left in the first place. It was determined that the problem was the BPV. Since there wasn't another on hand and I didn't want to drive another 4 hours to get it replaced I decided to go to RevWorks in Longwood to get it installed, Bobby stated that Marti at RW was someone he used to work with a couple years ago. I ended up having to come out of pocket for another BPV AND installation which included an extra hour of labor for a diagnostic that wouldn't of happened if Bobby would have communicated a little better with Marti at RW. Total cost: $267 + $180

There was definitely something wrong with the original BPV, when the new one was installed it sounded different and there was a slight difference in a seat-of-the-pants feel but no difference in boost levels which still wouldn't go past 8 lbs. I called Bobby before I left and requested that he re-tune it since there wasn't any significant change. He agreed and I told him I could be there Tuesday (today). Last Friday, on my way to work, there was a noise that seemed like it was coming from the front of the vehicle. Saturday I left for work and I only made it down the street before I turned around and came back. The noise at this point sounded like a beer can being knocked around so I didn't want to drive it any further. I had it towed to RevWorks where I had the BPV replaced Thursday. There was nothing loose that they could see so they dropped the oil pan and discovered pieces of the motor on the bottom of the pan.

I immediately called Bobby and told him the motor had let loose. You could tell by his voice that he already knew what happened and he confirmed it by telling me Marti had already emailed him about the situation before I made the call. Almost immediately he started to defend his tuner. It was like he knew that accusation was gonna fly at him. He tried explaining that it was a motor that was just "1 in a 100" that couldn't take being boosted. I disagree. The motor had less that 14K miles on it, it's a bolt on supercharger, WTF ELSE COULD IT BE ??? Everything I've ever heard on this forum is that the tune is EVERYTHING. He had no business giving me the car in the first place, it wouldn't boost past 8 lbs and wouldn't get out of it's own way. As a performance shop how could you give someone their car back running no where near the way it's supposed to if you actually gave a shi*t ???

I believe the dyno results were complete bullsh*t. They were either manipulated or completely falsified. According to the dyno sheet the motor stopped making power at 6950 RPM and from what I understand it should make power all the way to redline with a SC. Why the hell didn't they even rev the motor to redline? Not to mention I have a text from Bobby saying that it hit 11 lbs of boost but the boost level is conveniently obstructed on the dyno print out and anything above 8 lbs has yet to be seen in person, even with a new BPV.

Bobby offered to rebuild the motor and give me a "good deal", If he can't handle a tune for a supercharged car I don't think I want to go back for another good deal. I don't think I should pay a dime for anything, however, it sounds to me like Bobby won't be standing behind his 'work'. Que COSMO's response. So now I'm stuck with a new car and payment that I can't drive because someone really didn't want to do his favorite install, he should of just told me he wasn't interested and I would of moved on. I've talked to quite a few people already that I will not mention because they didn't want to be thrown into this but they all agree that it was the tune and NOT a '1 in 100' motor. I really don't know how Bobby could claim otherwise except to deny liability. It's gonna take what little resources I have left to cover getting this taken care of and I understand that you should have money if something like this happens but I never thought it would happen to me.

I guess I'll stop here and let the sh*t roll down hill and I'll respond accordingly. Your turn, Bobby.

Wow Infidel,
so sad to hear this happen. I know how much of a nightmare just gettin the kit has been but then to go thru this.... sorry bro.
So far, ur side seems very reasonable. Never heard of the "1 in 100" motor just couldn't take boost. That's a lame excuse. Man I was following VSR n FB n was following Cosmo thread. Guess my hope of a good tuner in Florida with uprev is lost.

No tuner should let a car out of the shop half-assed. At the minimum tell the guy not to drive it hard. 1 or 2 weeks of being boosted and motor pops is a crap tune.

Good luck buddy!

Wow, sorry to hear this man. Is this a GTM supercharger with a re-tuned GTM base map? On a 10 psi pulley?

Hopefully, everything gets worked out.

Man o man. Wow, what a terrible experience. I agree, your side does sound reasonable, however their is always two sides to every coin.

I hope Bobby from VSR decides to come here and explain his side. If he doesn't........then it looks like he fvcked up.

VSR should have never, ever released your car if it wasn't properly tested, both on Dyno and off. This is just common sense and more importantly ethical.

I hope this all works out for you and VSR backs you and their work 100%.

I was in the market to get their kit later this summer. If they do not come here to explain themselves...........I will look for another alternative.

I hope you spoke to previous customers about their installation and tune. If you didn't ask for previous customers then its difficult to have empathy for you. Either case i hope u have the funds to survive this major bump in the road.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

He'll be here in a few, I'm sure.

From the talk I had with Bobby this moring I'm on my own.

GTM 1.5 SC with a confirmed 88mm/11 lb pulley. Bobby said he didn't need a canned tune from Sam and that he'd custom tune it :shakes head:

"1 in 100" is complete ********, especially at your power levels. no doubt theres plenty of signs of detonation. start by pulling all the plugs

I wondered why you hadn't posted, I wish it was because you were having fun with the car. This sucks, sorry for your problems.

Yea that "1 in a 100" crap sounds as ridiculous as it can get. Sounds like someone who phucked up and just trying to justify it by any means they can. That's why I think his side is reasonable.

Good luck with everything. Sorry for your problems. I hope everything works out.

Honestly, I would look into a LS motor drop at this point.

Sorry to hear of the issue, I hope it gets resolved for you. Interested to hear the reasoning behind this 1 in 100 claim as well, otherwise I guess we all need to start crossing fingers.

any pics of the dropped oil pan?

Sorry to hear. I hope you and Bobby can work something out to get your car back running with a built motor.

Not likely, especially after this thread. Not like I didn't know this when I posted it. Besides, all I was gonna get this morning was a 'good deal', probably not missing much. I wouldn't trust him around my car now, anyway. I resided to the fact that I'm pretty much f*cked.

Umm....no. Don't trust me?? :ugh2:

Were you running any kind of gauges for monitoring? I am curious to see what AFR you were running I am wondering if they dumped a crap load of timing in it to try and compensate for the missing PSI. I would also like to know the part when,I am assuming a rod bearing? There IS a chance that something let go and it was not anyone's fault, I am a service advisor, I see stuff break all the time, but, Nissan did do a good job with our motors with the exception to the 09-10 debacle. I was nervous my whole tune sesssion, it was on the dyno for 28 runs(not all wot, a lot of drivability tuning) and that was some damn good torture testing for these motors, but stuff does happen.

Here is what I would do, I would ask bobby to put the car back to stock or the closest you can, get the ecu flashed back, and tow that shiz to Nissan and get a new motor. Then I would trade the car, sell the gtm kit, and go buy that sexy new Nismo.:leghump:

PS keep your head up, you'll good through it!

If you knew the car wasnt running right you should have never taken it home. I'm not taking sides here but its hard to say what happened to the car after it left the shop.

Just curious what happened to the motor. When you say it let go, did it spin a bearing? Did it puke a rod through the block? Rod knock?

This would be my guess. I had a boost and AFR guages, The AFR mid to low 11's in throttle and mid 14's at idle. There is a lot to get back to stock, it would cost probably $1500 or more to get it there and then I'd have to sell one hell of a ticket to a stealership. Besides, putting this thread on the forum probably doesn't help.

God man I dont know where to begin. Let me start by saying Iam sorry to hear about what happened. I if fact know that feeling when I drove my car to z1 motorsports for a custome tune when it blew on the dyno. At the time my car made no noises and didnt give any hints to that happening prior to that event. I couldnt blame john at z1 because there was no knock or anything to throw a red flag but it happened. Everyone on a stock block takes that chance going fi without forged internals and while alot of people seem to be alright there are others like me that for some reason it failed. I feel awful because I referred vsr to you and now this happened. At this point I know your very upset but I'm sure bobby will do what he can to make things right regardless if this was their fault or not..

Maybe so, but you can't blame the customer. Besides, I DID tell Bobby that the car felt weak when we went for the test drive before I took it home.

Don't know what completely happened because it hasn't been pulled apart. I just know that the oil pan had huge chunks on metal on the bottom.

You do not have to sell crap to the dealer, all you know is its not running right, unless they can PROVE, when I say prove I mean legally show proof that you caused the engine to fail, they cannot deny you warranty work, period. Do not listen if they give you horseshit. Also someone around your area must know which dealer to go to, some are better than others obviously, my local dealer tried to blame second gear going out of my trans on a shift knob, and the damn manager knows who I am and that Im an advisor for Honda, it was the most pointless conversation of my life...guess what I got a new trans. Only thing they might be able to get any grasp of anything if they will know the ecu was flashed if they look, but just deny you did anything, which I am sure that you did not personally flash your ECU...

Mine also had alot of metal chunks as well. I know what your going through right now but understand this is big boy stuff and to play you have to pay sometimes not knowing the outcome. It could have been a bad gtm part, who knows but if I had it all to do again I would not use gtm. From what I hear sam just ships anything he can find out because they are hanging on by a thread. Dont know of any vsr turbo kits that have blown..

I appreciate your sympathy and I don't hold you in any way responsible for MY decision to take it to VSR. And yes, I'm upset. However, my motor didn't see 40 lbs of boost...it barely saw 8 lbs. Bobby reported 408hp the first time he dyno'd it, then mysteriously it gained 90+hp because he supposedly fixed a coupler that was kinked??? Is he serious??? This install was FUBAR'd from the beginning but it all points toward the tune being the culprit. After EVERYTHING that has happened in combination with this thread I seriously doubt Bobby wants anything to do with this anymore and neither do I if I have to pay him another dime.

My motor grenaded.
 

Man that's terrible, I hope vsr steps up a little more than giving you a deal on the rebuild. I'm/was very interested In their single turbo kit, I'm interested in how this turns out. Best of luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't want a "DEAL" on a rebuild.

Wow man, very sorry to hear this happen to you let alone anyone! Kinda has me second guessing the noise I'm hearing.. mine is more like the louder valve chatter from the VVEL like the 08-10 issue from the G37s etc. I first noticed it the day I got back from Tampa. I sent a video to Bobby and he said it was the VVEL and advised me to change the oil to Ester oil which I did and no luck. I took the car (as instructed) to the dealer I bought it from to get it recalibrated and they didn't want to touch it for liability reasons. So I'm dealing with that. The car drives fine and pulls strong, Ive done some logs everything is supposedly fine. AFR looks good. So I'm not sure.. I'm gonna look for some metal in the oil I drained tomorrow but this has me wanting to pull my pan off and check things out.

My other issue has been white smoking which I think I've narrowed down to oil trapped in my muffler and midpipes. The feed line I got was different then the normal steel braided one. Bobby thought that was the problem because it was a little bigger diameter line? Anyway I see no signs of oil pooling in any plumbing/piping besides the very rear exhaust after switching lines so hopefully after ditching this stock exhaust that goes away fully.

I really hope you can get this resolved in some reasonable way. I remember seeing your car when I went to pick mine up. Bobby and I talked about how much crap you have dealt with. This is the absolute last thing anyone needs but things do happen. However I am with you on the "it wont happen to me" train of thought. Not sure I buy the whole 1 in 100 excuse either but what do I know. I know I took a risk going this route and I usually have shitty luck. I'll be interested to see what actually broke and what Bobby has to say. Our cars are alot alike besides the kit.. 13' about the same mileage.. regardless I wish you the best of luck man try to keep your head up!

I already talked to Bobby. He basically said he's not at fault and blamed it on the motor. It won't be long before he responds and we'll get a chance to hear what he has to say to the community.

ETA...I sincerely hope you have no issues. Send some oil to Blackstone Labs, they'll let you know.

I would also ask for all the dyno runs with the AFR printouts from the tune, I think they are worth seeing. The truth is we may never know, but if you lost a rod bearing that's usually due to low oil, or you just had a bad one, but there are a lot of "ifs" until we know more.

I got a text this morning from Dale (Infidel) with the bad news... It felt like I was the one who got a kick in the balls...


And COSMO, I didn't expect to see from you, but :tiphat: brother

Until the motor is torn down, its hard to say its the tuner's fault. If the motor was starved for oil due to a bad oil pump you cant blame it on the tuner. Again, not taking sides... But there are so many factors outside of the control of the tuner.

Joepro's suggestion would probably be best. Put the motor back to stock and have the dealer look it over. Keep in mind, if the dealer does figure out the car was modded you can be on the hook the diagnostics labor.

I definitely understand your point of view and the amount of disgust you must have right now. I haven't spoke to him in a week or two.. hope he has a thorough explanation. Hold your head.. you aren't the first or last one for something like this to happen. You know in this game all you can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst. :(

I agree, only if he's reverting back to stock. Leaving the SC is a no-no; they'll get you by saying that the engine was never designed for a SC.
IF you go this route, or are thinking about it. Delete this thread. You have my backing 100%

:iagree: If he fixed a kink, the PSI would go up too, not just a shitload of HP gained

:iagree: I don't think I could give them the right to tear my engine apart if they are giving me a deal because (IMO) they screwed something up...

I would suggest getting a good nights sleep and rethink things in the morning. Decision making while being upset is not a good idea and often never solves anything...

Very true. and Nissan is now full of cheap motherfuckers so they'll be LOOKING for unscrewed nuts and bolts. You can deny, yeah, but how much?

Yes, I need a good night's sleep. A quaalude and a couple of shots of whiskey would be a good prescription.

To get it back to stock to the point it would be believable in itself would be a huge gamble for the price it would cost.

I have price used motors with most everything for around 4k and would be more than happy to help you find one if thats what you decide on..

Just wanna point out there has been around 2-3 blown motors with VSR.

wow how many engines does this make for VSR/sr w\e? didn't the first few cars with their kits all blow up too?

edit: ^ beat me to it

My mind is fried right now thinking about options. As I said before, my resources are tight. Might have to sell a rifle or two, that alone makes me want to throw up again. I'll try to get some sleep tonight and get the car back in the driveway tomorrow. I'll be 'minivaning' it for a while, Andrew will get a kick out of that one. :roflpuke2: