[Build Thread] -- Journey to 700+ WHP [Supercharger]

[cupcakez]

I dont mind waiting a lot of months and saving up the appropriate amount, I just don't want to bring it to him finding out that it will cost way more than I planned for, cause then what?

I much rather save up a huge budget to cover everything. I would think 3k is more than enough to fix the listed issues, but what do I know? Not much.

I have AAA and have three more rows left for this year, at 100 miles each. I can tow it 300 miles and the remaining would be about 63 miles left to be exact.

I wonder, would Triple AAA make me call 3 different drivers for all 3 remaining rows? Lol.

The place is exactly 363 miles from my house.

Hmmm...I like that AAA idea.

[OMGWTFBBQ]

You might need a larger budget than that. That way you prepare for the worst but hope for the best. I had my car towed to Specialty Z expecting all sorts of sh!t to go down but Seb will work with you and give you a complete list of everything he recommends having done and will let you decide which ones you want to tackle first and which aren’t as important and can be done further down the line when finances are better. Things like the CEL are probably more important than getting a fender liner. You know what I mean? Let me know when you’re in town! I’d love to do a side by side comparison of the TopgunZ a2a kit and my baby HKS SC setup lol.

[solidus]

cupcakez, Personal experience says take the car to Seb. Especially don't take it to anyone , not even a freind that is unfamiliar with VQ's.
This is precisely why my car made only 669whp and could'nt hit peak boost on the dyno. I took my car to a friends shop to have my built motor installed. I had many issues prior to the car being done. First I had to personally talk with Charles in the middle of the night , then the mechanic sat and questioned whether or not Charles knew how to install his own fuel system. Second these people "Literally" called Ecutek (unbeknownst to me) in England to question whether or not Seb knew what he was doing with the tune. But the gift that keeps giving is the fact that when the VVEL solenoids were swapped to the new block they did a scientific wild a$$ guess as to the voltage and sync.
You will pay for this lack of knowledge up front or somewhere down the line but it's gonna be paid for. I'm scheduled to drop my car off Tuesday to a Master Nissan Tech who happens to also build engines for teams. That I can trust. I don't care how much it costs I just want it done. And by some of your previous problems you may suffer the same issue as me seeing as you're not getting your boost. Good luck and quit trying to out do me on the Murphy violations.

[cupcakez]

I was talking to Seb guys! Good news! I am going to take my car to Seb once I have enough saved up.

I had asked him if 3k was enough and he suggested to save up a little more than that, and then we can schedule something later down the road!

I'm super excited to be working with him for the first time! As it sounds like he will be able to resolve the rest of my issues all at once from the positive things the community has to say about him -- seems like I can't go wrong. Eugene could have done it himself, but he is a one-man person with a lot on his plate, and to be quite honest, he did a very fantastic job with what he did for the 2 weeks he had my car. He did me a favor bigger than you guys will probably ever know, and I appreciate that man so much. He also recommended I take my car to Seb to finish the job, so that is what I will do.

Seb wrote me today and told me to save up a bit more.
I wrote him back saying I could meet him sometime at the end of June, around June 27th - Thursday, so we'll see if he is okay with that appointment or not!
I can have $4500 - $4900 saved up for a budget assuming nothing crazy comes up between now and then that forces me to spend that budget! (Life events etc)


I am also confident the car is driveable now, and won't be needing a tow.

I took the car today to the exhaust shop in Sacramento (Muffler Tech) which is very reputable in what they do, very honest and well priced. They welded up the exhaust that fell out of place / was disconnected for only $45 and also did a smoke test to find out where the leak was coming from free of charge! Told me it was coming from somewhere in the exhaust manifold passenger side but cannot exactly pin point where, since they'd have to remove the heat shield to find out. But said they were 85% sure that the leak is coming from somewhere up top in the manifold or something.

The car drives very nice other than that issue. I am going to test it this weekend and drive it to work 1 hour 15 minutes away with windy roads going up a mountain ~1700 feet to where my work is.

And drive it around town the next few days before work to see how it feels and goes.

If I am confident (cause I have the highest level of paranoia right now), then I would say that's a good thing!

Otherwise, I won't chance it. And will use three AAA tows after driving out toward Chatsworth from my house about 60 - 70 miles then calling AAA three times to get it to Seb, haha.

Thanks guys for the recommendations, I love the community and will definitely be taking my car to Seb.

Those of you in So Cal, I will let you guys know when I will be down there probably about 3 - 4 months from now so if you wanted to check out my problematic car, you can, lol, at Sebs shop!

Where would I sleep while the car is being worked on? No idea. Maybe I can find a family member or friend who can house me for the days that he is working on my car. Not sure. Didn't figure that part out yet T_T

EDIT:

Nevermind. I think I will just take the train back and then fly back down when its' ready or something. Lol.

[Rusty]

You driving the car around. I would not go WOT until you get it back from Seb.

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by Rusty

You driving the car around. I would not go WOT until you get it back from Seb.

WOT is not even in my vocabulary lol. I have learned my lesson xD

[jwick]

Originally Posted by Rusty

You driving the car around. I would not go WOT until you get it back from Seb.

I wouldn’t leave closed loop fueling, which is basically impossible to do.

[B&W_Evader]

Originally Posted by cupcakez

Where would I sleep while the car is being worked on? No idea. Maybe I can find a family member or friend who can house me for the days that he is working on my car. Not sure. Didn't figure that part out yet T_T

You can just bring a tent and sleep with the homeless. Just need to dress up like a crack head.

[cupcakez]

I think to be safe, I am going to just keep the car sitting in the garage until it is time to bring it to Sebastian 4 months from now. The P2A03 code is annoying, and I just had a smoke test done today to see if there was any leaks from the engine bay ... nothing was found other than smoke coming from the air filter of the supercharger, lol which is normal since everything leading to there was closed and sealed off. So that eliminates a boost leak I would assume, which leads me to believe either the belt is slipping (hard to believe cuz the belt seems tighter than a stock car belt since Eugene wrapped it around very well, and even wraps around most of the crank pulley.



I am going to save up every penny possible until then so I can have enough funds to fix every remaining issue found that needs fixing.

He told me he is going to be out of town the week I wanted to drop off the car but we can still schedule it for that time for me to bring it in (Week of June 27th) so I asked him if I could bring it in the week after when he comes back, since I told him I want him to be working on my car. Unless he is okay with me bringing it in the week of June 27 and then him working on the car when he returns? Going to wait on his reply for that.

The way I will transport the car from my house to his house? Not sure.
Either I will pay a shipping company to flat bed it all 363 miles, or I will call AAA and have them tow it three times (100 miles each tow) after I drive it out about 70 miles from my house toward that address then having AAA tow it three different times which would be a hassle but would get the job done. Then I'd take a train back or fly back home, until he is completely done with the car and then fly back down there to pick it up and drive it back home, worry-free.

If all goes well and as financially planned, I should have 4500 - 4900 saved up to pay Sebastian. I hope this will be enough to fix all the issues. We'll see.

And if after getting it back, something else goes critically wrong, I am thinking to just sell the entire car to someone else lol, for like 20k or something. And buy a different vehicle, keep that stock, and only modify cosmetics. I'm thinking a Lotus Evora or something!

I hope it doesn't get to that point, I don't want to do that but that is my backup plan in case all else fails. Need a backup plan! And that's mine, lol.

Other than that, I won't be doing anymore updates for the next 3 - 4 months until it is in Sebastian's hands.

I will also let you guys know when I am going down there in case any of you want to see this infamous problematic dirty of an engine bay car, lol.

Thanks <3

[FPenvy]

based on your issues and also living in cali (which seems like a waste to even think about modding a car now especially to your extent).......


how about you save up that 5k......


give it to me.......


i'll kick you in balls......


and we call it a day. seems to be how things have gone on this build since day 1.

[sx moneypit]

Originally Posted by FPenvy

based on your issues and also living in cali (which seems like a waste to even think about modding a car now especially to your extend).......


how about you save up that 5k......


give it to me.......


i'll kick you in balls......


and we call it a day. seems to be how things have gone on this build since day 1.

[*J*ap***V*et*]

I have followed this journey since post one...Cupcakez is it time to just grab a GTR and call it a day lol jk bro!! Good luck with the re)build! 👍

[Zoren 370]

I would have just spent my money on fuc*ing dolls if I have 5K to burn!

But thats Zoren I dont know anything about cars!

https://www.loversire.com/150cm-164c...iAAEgK0KPD_BwE

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by FPenvy

based on your issues and also living in cali (which seems like a waste to even think about modding a car now especially to your extent).......


how about you save up that 5k......


give it to me.......


i'll kick you in balls......


and we call it a day. seems to be how things have gone on this build since day 1.

Lmao.

Nah. I have the smog issue resolved legally. I found a coworker who allowed me to use their home address to register my vehicle in that county. No smog checks are done in that county. So that is a positive thing, I can modify my car however I choose to now, without worrying about that.

That, and I actually do have an update.

I ended up bringing it to the Nissan Dealership this morning, and they checked out the code. Said the voltage was off on bank 2. Also, I asked if I replaced the AFR sensors at all, I said well yeah, we did but that was last year and we did have this code for a while back then too, just never was properly addressed since then since I never really got to drive the car to see it!

They did an idle relearn and now the numbers are fine. The short term fuel trims were both identically stable at 103 103 at a freeze frame during a random time in the idling process, and instead of seeing 125% at 2k RPMs and such which was way too crazy for that RPM.

He test drove it at a couple thousand RPMs to see if the code came back, and it did not. Idled it in the shop for a while and kept the graphs running constantly the entire time -- code never came back up and graphs banks 1 and 2 are now identical. No more waviness.

They fixed the code.

Before you guys flame me for bringing it to the Nissan Dealership:
They have a tech who I have been working with the past few times I have been here, and they only have one tech that deals and knows a lot of knowledge regarding aftermarket parts, and performance vehicles. The advisor also knows me pretty well too. They both know what is on the vehicle.

Both banks ran evenly according to the graphs they showed me versus how it was before. I wish I asked for the paper work but I forgot, since I was too happy about it being fixed.

He said the code actually wasn't due to a leak but an idle relearn process that wasn't done when we changed out the AFR (upstream) sensors last year.

He charged me $120 instead of $160 which was really nice of him.
He always takes care of me when I visit, and this is why I am always going to come back. Both the advisor and tech are very honest and reasonable about pricing instead of the usual /dealer scams for money/ mindset.

I'm blessed to have both of them working at this particular Nissan dealership in my city.

They said if the code comes back, then to come back to them to let them know.

They also found no leaks due to the smoke tests they did on the exhaust system and what not, after doing the idle relearn process.

I can now safely drive the car around without worry, and will be able to drive it to Seb at the end of June assuming the code doesn't come back up between now and then - or any other critical issues. I'm still going to baby the car for a while, but the great thing is it is safer to drive than before, and I feel confident driving it.

Yay!

Next on the list is to clean the engine bay.
It is so dirty it looks like the loch ness monster is living in there.
Then detail the exterior of the car with all my car wash items sitting in my room that's been waiting to be used!

And of course, dealing with the possible boost peak issue at 6psi, if that is still an issue? Not sure. Because I haven't pushed the car hard to find out or not, since I'm paranoid from the past experiences every time I tried to make boost lol.

I'll get there slowly though! If that issue is still persistent, I am sure Seb will fix it!
Regarding Seb, I did get a confirmation email from him that I made an appointment officially to drop off the car at the end of June this year! So that's set in in stone unless something crazy happens between now and then that doesn't allow me to do so anymore! Knock on wood!

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by *J*ap***V*et*

I have followed this journey since post one...Cupcakez is it time to just grab a GTR and call it a day lol jk bro!! Good luck with the re)build! ��

Right? You don't know how many times I seriously thought about doing that T_T
Thanks buddy! c: