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

[Yruyur]

Lol. I hope I'm not becoming a deciding factor in people buying these kits. I was just lucky enough to drive both your awesome cars.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[Jeff86]

Great video Gem! I enjoyed it very much! My interest in centri SCs is rekindled

[Huehuecoyotl]

I have good news and bad news.
Good news first. The suspension dialed in great. With help from @AZFA20 we ended up with the front bar at full soft and the rear bar in the middle setting, car rotates great with a little throttle, darn neutral now, no more push, no more under steer

So that's good, right? Now I'm nailing my exits HARD
Well the down side next

At 111 degrees farenheight shit happens on the track(91 in shade hotter in paddocks)
After my second session, in the middle of my third session, I revved outta a180 corner and nailed it perfect, and smelled the tell tale scent of a SC oil

Now, I been dynoing and running smaller pulleys literally trying to see where the limits are.

Yesterday I changed the oil, put in a 4oz of fluid, today at they track, it's clear fluid leaked out. Sure it's free to fix, and I'm sure they will find I had too much fluid in there, as it worked flawlessly till before my fluid change. Did I overfill? I must have. Next time I will fillet with 3.5oz not 4
Did I drive it hard? Yes, 111f and driving at 9/10 is hard. My first laps I took it easy as I broke in my new tires, by the 2nd session I was having fun
Car runs fine, you would never know it happened if you didn't pop the hood.

Stay tuned, I'm sure vortech set me right, and lets see if I can break it again...
Pics when I get home

[akuhei]

Originally Posted by Huehuecoyotl

I have good news and bad news.
Good news first. The suspension dialed in great. With help from @AZFA20 we ended up with the front bar at full soft and the rear bar in the middle setting, car rotates great with a little throttle, darn neutral now, no more push, no more under steer

So that's good, right? Now I'm nailing my exits HARD
Well the down side next

At 111 degrees farenheight shit happens on the track(91 in shade hotter in paddocks
After my second session, in the middle of my third session, I revved outta a180 corner and nailed it perfect, and smelled the tell tale scent of a blown sc seal. Now, I been dynoing and running smaller pulleys literally trying to see where the limits are.

Yesterday I changed the oil, put in a 4oz of fluid, today at they track, it's clear I blew the shaft seal, fluid leaked out right at the rear of the charger. Sure it's free to fix, and I'm sure they will find I had too much fluid in there, as it worked flawlessly till before my fluid change. Did I overfill? I must have. Next time I will fillet with 3.5oz not 4
Did I drive it hard? Yes, 111f and driving at 9/10 is hard. My first laps I took it easy as I broke in my new tires, by the 2nd session I was having fun

It blew when I was taking someone for a ride, so I was not alone when it happened. Car runs fine, you would never know it happened if you didn't pop the hood. I'm not as pissed that it blew a seal as I am that I drove down to spend the day at the track, it was four hours of driving there and back, I didn't get to cash in on the other remaining three sessions, and I didn't get to do any data logging. The track I was at is a rare treat and we only get to run it twice a year

I have product test lined up all week, with other vendors wanting to test their kit with the vortech sc, so lets see what @Brian@Vortech can do to get me up an running ASAP

Stay tuned, I'm sure vortech set me right, and lets see if I can break it again...
Pics when I get home

Need a dislike button. That really sucks. Good luck getting it all fixed up soon.

[civicdrivr]

I assume you didn't fully drain the old oil?

[Supermassive]

Originally Posted by Yruyur

Lol. I hope I'm not becoming a deciding factor in people buying these kits. I was just lucky enough to drive both your awesome cars.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Lol no I'm just playing! I'm thinking that i will be just doing a 12lbs gas tune since it will be a while before i can afford the flex tune and kit with all the crap i have coming up with this car in the next few months. 300+ WHP should suffice, I'm already getting bored with the 260 I have right now. Tires are a definite, sway bars and links are a definite, a good alignment is also a definite...but that's about as far as I am taking my performance side for a while. I am still waiting on my bumper and have considered going for a completely different one, I have also found a rear end i want and that is gonna cost big bucks. The money hemmoraging never stops...I still need a wing too

[Huehuecoyotl]

Originally Posted by Supermassive

300+ WHP should suffice, I'm already getting bored with the 260 I have right now. Tires are a definite, sway bars and links are a definite, a good alignment is also a definite...but that's about as far as I am taking my performance side for a while.

/build takeover ON

LOL "300+ WHP should suffice"
You clearly have NOT tracked your car, have you? or you wouldnt be sayin that!

...let the rest of your car catch up, and figure out how to track it, and eventually apply it off track, or its just power on paper, wheelspin,etc.

After my time at the track today your post was funny. my 2nd gear is STRONG, and yours is even stronger. Dude, you got more TQ than me, and more TQ than I would know how to handle on this chassis, even possibly want- with my suspension all dialed in I still dont think I could manage the power delivery you have coming out of a decreasing radius 180 degree carousel type turn with the foot down-we spent most of my time there working on suspension to dial out any push for twisties like that. Next week, I am dialing back some rear camber in hopes of putting down power better outta corners.

And tire pressure. I spent the last week making atleast a dozen adjustment to that and my front height for handling. If youre bored, come out to play, you wont be bored long. I'm happy with my handling now.

It costs less than continued modding too, so come to the track man! Had fun just wanted to drive more, and more and more. I'm gonna be at FIR for next two weekend. your next MODS may be to get a set of sticky tires and sway bars. Then we will see how much more power you need or want.


/build takeover OFF

[Supermassive]

Originally Posted by Huehuecoyotl

LOL "300+ WHP should suffice"
You clearly have NOT tracked your car, have you? or you wouldnt be sayin that!

...let the rest of your car catch up, and figure out how to track it, and eventually apply it off track, or its just power on paper.

After my time at the track today your post was funny. my 2nd gear is STRONG, and yours is even stronger. Dude, you got more TQ than me, and more TQ than I would know how to handle on this chassis, even possibly want- with my suspension all dialed in I still dont think I could manage the power delivery you have coming out of a decreasing radius 180 degree carousel type turn with the foot down-we spent most of my time there working on suspension to dial out any push for twisties like that. Next week, I am dialing back some rear camber in hopes of putting down power better outta corners.

And tire pressure. I spent the last week making atleast a dozen adjustment to that and my front height for handling. If youre bored, come out to play, you wont be bored long. I'm happy with my handling now.

It costs less than continued modding to, so come to the track man! Had fun just wanted to drive more, and more and more. I'm gonna be at FIR for next two weekend. COME out to PLAY, your next MODS may be to get a set of sticky tires and sway bars. Then we will see how much more power you need or want.

As my daily driver, I want the acceleration. I have almost all the rest of the goodies to dial my suspension up, and yes I'll likely have fun getting it all sorted on a track some day. But right this second I want more straight line acceleration, it's the thing that I get the most joy from on my daily commute since I have zero twisties between my house and work. As for tracking my car AMP will not let my car play, FIR is soon to be closed, and I just never have time off to go to these Saturday events since they always seem to end up on my long weeks and as much as I like driving I'm not gonna take a day off to just go to a track (I lose too much overtime taking saturdays off.)

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by Huehuecoyotl

Whats there to dislike? Oil seals? FYI,Turbos have them too, and my opinion, they leak even more than SCs*

Gem, I think he meant a "dislike" button to say he dislikes the situation that happened to you (being without the car for some days, having to stop your track day, the hassle of sending the product and waiting for it to return, etc), nothing directly towards seals or SC kit, just the whole situation in general.


Like me saying I'm sorry this happened to you, hope you have the car up and going in a few days.

[2forme]

Turbos run hotter, but have constant oil and coolant flow through them. Unfortunately this is a risk you take with enclosed lubrication systems. It's a whole other system to monitor/manage.

I believe the Vortech instructions say to use 4oz and check the dipstick. If you followed these instructions, then you did it correctly. Let's hope they can get you a replacement quickly.

[akuhei]

Originally Posted by Huehuecoyotl

Whats there to dislike? Oil seals? FYI,Turbos have them too, and my opinion, they leak even more than SCs*


I'm looking for the LIKE button.
why? I share all my stuff, and I dunno, maybe you will see the good in my kit choice and my kit vendor when you see how this all plays out.

I just heard from Vortech on a saturday just hours after my post. LIKE.

You dont need no LUCK geting anything fixed if you break it. They are VORTECH, I could get used to this red carpet ...LIKE.

@Brian@Vortech thanks for reaching out late on a weekend, LIKE.

It IS looking like my user error, after all.(Hey I'm human) I apparently did some things different than their instructions say.

They still got my back. LIKE

Stuff like this can happen to anyone with any kit who tracks it at redline all day long in triple digit heat- all have oil seals, shafts, SCs, TCs have oil seals alike so this can happen to anyone any kit.,SO if you dislike oil seals, stay NA! Those of you considering a TC and planning to track it, BEAR in mind, *TCs run hotter than SCs, and that is even tougher on seals(by virtue of TC being driven by hot exh gasses vs a belt)

Clearly overboost at the track is not a motor concern, no big booms here and thats NICE. REALLY LIKE.
EVEN if you drained it incompletely, or messed with their drain orientation, & got stupid with it, you tracked it overfilled and you maybe over revved it & broke it, they still got your back. Thats Vortech. LIKE.

Dislike blown seals and a blown chance for a great day at a fun track. I know you are used to people just jumping up and bashing you, but i did follow up my dislike button with "sorry it happened..hope you are back up and running soon.". Hell, i am on your side. A turbo seems great but i really want a supercharger for my FRS. And i seriously considering purchasing vortechs kit. Just dont like that you are in that situation.

[s2d4]

Originally Posted by Huehuecoyotl

Oil seals? FYI,Turbos have them too, and my opinion, they leak even more than SCs*

I like how you subjectively objectify your opinions by laying them down as facts.

[sw20kosh]

Man has A LOT of love for vortech.

Keep your bashing of other vendors down to a minimum though. It just looks petty. FBM's turbo kit is on team VCMC's tuner witch is seeing tons of track time. Avo's Japan car is constantly being tested on track and they even post videos of it.

Sigh

I do want to point out that the R32 golfs had issues with tracking the vortech kit at higher boost levels. Back in the day my dad's shop guy went through 6 blower units. Not saying there is a direct correlation here but just want to add a dose of reality to your "it's always sunny and rain doesn't exist" post. I look forward to you further stress testing this kit though so that others can make an informed decision on what kit is reliable in track conditions.

[2forme]

Gem, it IS possible to post your experiences without putting down other kits. You don't have to tell everyone how much you think other vendors are Shit. Just an FYI.