Got my car back from Vortech!-3rd party tests & test drivers thread

[Hawaiian]

Originally Posted by Speedygonzales

Hawaiian keep it coming. Racecomp and gmhookher agree on the header.
I am not sure why everyone is so obsessed with him or his dyno, clearly he has parts we all don't and if they didn't make power I doubt they would be on his car. Whatever power his car makes, it's more than mine
on Facebook I found this and some posts about his setup now with a boost control box, sounds like guy is having fun making power

Anyone else know what else is going on with this build? More info would be nice

Nice find. We can follow gem on his youtube channel.

[Hawaiian]

A little update from Gem,

great news
got ebcs working!
heres what it looks like -fun pics, boost on my pulley hits 1.9 bar=27.55psi
1.68bar=24.36
ambient is 14.8psi today

I getting the joy of a 13psi capable pulley up to 6000revs
the safety of 9.5 psi at redline
map1 is valet mode no ebcs only 7psi boost thru whole curve
map2 adds ebcs
maps 3 add more timing/need better fuel to really use those
gonna test this backwards and forwards then redyno

[Pete]

Thanks for all the updates @Hawaiian. Cool of you to put the effort in.

[charged86]

Dang Thursday I'm going to get my 12 psi dyno tuned better find that hose. And maybe get a ebc and the boost wastegate

[King Tut]

Originally Posted by Amadeus

The hose that popped off in the video looks like a bugger to clamp and reattach. I followed it with a small mirror and it makes a 90 turn up into the intake. What boost was he running when this blew off? I think everyone who is boosted will want to know the psi it let go...

I blew that hose off when I hit 19 psi one day. LJ @ Full Blown told me that it typically will blow off around 15 psi. I removed the intake manifold to put a hose clamp on it where it attaches to the intake manifold and where it attaches to the sensor mounted on the bottom of the intake manifold.

[charged86]

Originally Posted by King Tut

I blew that hose off when I hit 19 psi one day. LJ @ Full Blown told me that it typically will blow off around 15 psi. I removed the intake manifold to put a hose clamp on it where it attaches to the intake manifold and where it attaches to the sensor mounted on the bottom of the intake manifold.

Is it accessible if you remove the throttle body

[King Tut]

Originally Posted by charged86

Is it accessible if you remove the throttle body

I don't remember. I think I left my throttle body attached to the intake manifold along with the fuel rails and injectors when I pulled it off.

[Hawaiian]

Originally Posted by charged86

Is it accessible if you remove the throttle body

Paul @P&L said he moved his ac to get at it and used a zip tie on it. Problem solved.

[King Tut]

What about the connector more toward the center of the manifold that the hose comes from? A zip tie on one end won't keep it from popping off the other end. Mine popped off from the manifold, not from the sensor like Gem's.

[Hawaiian]

Originally Posted by King Tut

What about the connector more toward the center of the manifold that the hose comes from? A zip tie on one end won't keep it from popping off the other end. Mine popped off from the manifold, not from the sensor like Gem's.

Not sure, he told me it came off twice. Once when it was on the dyno, and once when he was driving. He put a "real good" ziptie on it and it's been fine up to 19psi.

On a side note, and back to the main subject of the thread... I talked to Gem this am and he dropped a little nugget.

He's got a WMI kit he will be testing in the near future and pair it up with is EBC. He's got his sights set on about 290 to the wheel on 91, as well as safety.

[King Tut]

Originally Posted by Speedygonzales

Sounds like the intake manifold needs to be pulled to get at both ends of this line, neither have any clamps from factory? damn.

It isn't a factory turbocharged engine. I am sure the engineers weren't factoring in what might happen should 15 psi be pushed through the intake manifold.

[Supermassive]

Ok, so I know Gem aka. Gmookher aka. Huehuecoyotl aka. Sir Bannedalot has wanted as many third party opinions as possible of his setup and since I finally got around to taking his car for a spin I figured I would drop my two cents here.

So today, while at a local BBQ get together I finally took Gem up on his offer and drove his car. I've let him drive my P&L Motorsports Stage 1 turboed FR-S and now it was my turn to drive the Vortech frankenmachine he has going on. First off, a little about what I am coming from.

I am running a base map 7 PSI tune on my P&L Motorsports turbo FR-S...to say it's a base map is kind of a lie since Visconti himself flew out to Phoenix to tune some GT-R's and had an "extra" day to tune my car to get a base map done for future P&L kits...so it was tuned for my car. The car runs about 260 WHP on 91 octane and is fairly quick. I have a 6 puck Clutchmasters FX400 that I have had for over 10k miles now so I'm used to that setup. I also have an open wastegate dump pipe...so when I am on boost my car is NASCAR loud. Now that we have a little comparison data to go off of lets get to the juicy bits.

First off, i forgot how the stock clutch feels...I mean, after 10k+ miles with a puck clutch, the stock clutch felt nonexistent, so that left me a little miffed, but has nothing to do with the Vortech. The Vortech kit is A LOT louder than I expected, I'm not talking exhaust, you cant hear the exhaust over the sound of air being hoovered into the engine. To be honest this is my single complaint with the kit, the intake sound is so loud and so overpowering, driving with the windows down would be annoying, even though it is a sound that means you are making power it is neither a good sound or even a remotely entertaining sound...definitely not like a turbo kit where you can hear the individual parts going about their business. Yes my dump pipe could be considered obnoxiously loud for some people, but for me it's part of the fun of pushing the car...blasting around some canyons and getting the echos of the canyon walls is amazing. Listening to what could be compared to an industrial AC unit just doesn't do anything for me.

Now that i've gotten my gripe out of the way, let's talk about what's good.

Power delivery is butter smooth, nowhere in the rpm band does the car feel like it's not smooth. You floor the pedal lift for shifts and floor it again, and the car goes...fast. You don't have to think about when the power is going to come on. I guess the best way to describe the feeling of the acceleration is that it just pushes you back in the seat and holds you there until you let up for a shift and then it does the same thing. It's not forcing you into the seat like a turbo can, it's just a gradual pressure and then it holds that to redline. Turbo's like to rock you back into the seat rather harshly but they don't really hold you there.

I only managed a couple blasts up to 90 (I was being safe) and the hustles up to the redline, not like my car which rockets up to 9k rpm and if you aren't careful (and quick) will hit the rev limiter there. The Vortech is easy to time shifts because the linearity of the power makes it easy to "feel" the right time to shift. I don't think the 7400 redline on Gem's car is always the right point to shift at, in fact 3rd to 4th gear felt better shifting short of redline because there is a slight taper in power up at the top in that particular gear. I also think that a higher redline might also benefit 2nd gear, one because the power does feel like it's still pulling at redline and also to give that coveted 60+ mph in second.

One thing that surprised me is how easily you could get on the power when turning, the rear might step out a little but not enough to trigger any TC in his car, of course Gem has a really well sorted suspension and very sticky Direzza Z2's which I kinda wish I had on my car to see if that might help sort my rear a little better coming out of a turn, suspension will get you only so far before the quality of rubber becomes an issue.

As a whole, i really enjoyed the experience, and would really like an opportunity to try it out at a track. I personally would not buy a supercharger, because it's not my cup of tea as far as what I want from this car, but I do think that if I were to buy another FR-S so I could dedicate my current one to racing, I think I would go with a Vortech for a daily driver.

[2forme]

The SC is loud? I couldn't hear the one I've driven.... except at idle. hmmmm.... Oh yea, isn't gem using a modified wastegated setup? That would be loud LOL.

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by 2forme

The SC is loud? I couldn't hear the one I've driven.... except at idle. hmmmm.... Oh yea, isn't gem using a modified wastegated setup? That would be loud LOL.

LOL'd