Stillen Supercharger reliabiity

irondoc

I have no trouble with the clutch, but I am not racing the car.
Regarding the injectors, I am running the injectors that came with the kit. I asked my tuner about this, he seemed to feel they were more than adequate for my current warrantied Stillen tune at 395 whp

Osiris

Nor am I racing the car. I've had the kit for 2.5 years now and my stock clutch is going out. I plan to replace clutch and most definitely the CSC. I'm currently experiencing slipping under heavy acceleration. I've already had the clutch fluid boil on me and turn black. had to fully drain and refill. But this is most likely due to the CSC going out....it is plastic after all!

So, if you have this kit or any FI, i'd recommend a new clutch & CSC in your near future.

__________________

^^^^^^^^^Like our Facebook!^^^^^^^^^

darli328

Maybe I missed something, but how reliable is the stillen tune? I read through (and searched) here and read that it sucks and also read it's conservative. Does it suck because it doesn't make power or because it's not reliable or both? I'm looking into 50 state legal options for forced induction, I don't want to make ridiculous amounts power. Just a descent amount over stock and still be 50 state legal with somewhat stock reliability. Maybe it's a pipe dream, I have no idea.

irondoc

I suspect that many of the negative comments you read about the Stillen tune were in this thread in response to my troubles being the first to do the Stillen SC on a 2013. (I have not read about any similar issues on 2009-2012 models).
There were troubles at the outset, but those issues have been resolved. I am at 395whp with snow tires with no attempts to improve on the Stillen tune - (I will have it re dyno'ed when the Summer tires and wheels go on).
It is my DD, it is reliable and seamless with roughly 1000 miles on the kit.
I will post issues if and when they occur, and do an update in any case when the kit has 5K on it.

darli328

Not to sound completely ignorant but what does having a 2013 have to do with anything in this case? Correct me if I'm wrong but they didn't change anything other than the bumper/wheels right? And, neither of those would effect the Stillen SC. Also, a lot of the negative comments I've read about the Stillen SC are from a year or so ago. Mainly to do with how crappy the tune is, and how the install process requires you to cut/trim/bend pieces of your car. Personally I don't want to do that, I'd like something that doesn't require me to cut stock wires, bend and cut stock parts of the car to make something fit. But, I know this thread isn't about Stillen SC installation and I could be completely wrong on the install process.

irondoc

You don't sound arrogant, you sound like you are assuming you know something that you do not.

According to Stillen the ECU programming changes every year and so Stillen's tune has to change as well.
According to Stillen - the 2012 tune will not work with any year but the 2012, and so on.
The 2013 was a new ECU for them. I had to buy the UpRev cable and software before the SC kit, and do a ROM dump so that Stillen could "Crack" the ECU code. Thy did so and said the tune would be 80% good to go. It was not, the car would not run at first. Then there was an install problem with the TBA, that was ultimately solved. Finally the car came home stalling every time I would decelerate to below 20mph. Stillen had a fix for that and the fix was included in the original kit. It is a shield that covers the air flow sensors to reduce turbulence. It did not fit the 2013 because of the change in the bumper. Rather than modify it to fit, my installer assumed it was superfluous and did not install it. Stillen would not even discuss the issue further until the shield was installed. They were correct. The shield had to be significantly modified to fit the 2013, but when installed it solved the problem.

darli328

Ahh, I had no idea they change the ECU every year. I knew I was missing something, thanks.
Just curious, am I the only one that doesn't want to mangle my car to make something fit? Maybe it's a pipe dream of mine to want parts to just bolt up without modifications... If anyone can't tell I'm new to this so please excuse my ignorance

Kirkster

I think my clutch is on the way out also... Have not had any problems with the CSC and I drive it like I stole it every time I start the car.

After 20k on the stock clutch it seems to be going.

__________________
Powertrain Warranty voided on 5/14/2011
Mod List:GTM Supercharger,SmartTop module, Oil Cooler, GT-R Start button, Nismo Exhaust, BC Racing ER Coilovers, Backup Camara
For eastwest:

dansracing

Thats not bad man. Im leaving the stock in till I burn it up.

__________________

irondoc

I generally do not keep my cars much past 100K miles, but I have had a single clutch go to 117K (without signs of wear) at which point I sold the car (1998 BMW 540i).
I have seen people do things with a clutch that make it clear they have no idea how a clutch works. A friend of my parents would go through the clutch in her 320 very 10k miles.
I have no doubt that the massive increase in the power of our FI Z's puts the stock clutch under increased stress, however, I also believe that the life span of a clutch will be most determined by how well you use the clutch (clutch spends as little time as possible "partially" engaged, and as much time as possible either all the way "in", or all the way "out"), rather than how hard you push the car.
So, my Z now has 3200 miles 1500 of which are with the Stillen SC. I am very curious to see how many miles I can get out of the stock clutch. I will not be babying the car. I drive it with traction control off most of the time and am continually amazed at how easy it is to leave rubber on the pavement, without actually trying to do so.

Sh0velMan

My philosophy has always been "clutch out whenever possible" just because putting wear on a TOB (or CSC in our case.. ugh) for no reason by holding in the clutch doesn't make any sense.

I think the #1 thing that people do to wear out clutches prematurely is engine braking improperly.

Rather than double clutching to match engine revs/input shaft to the lower gear, they just slap it in gear and ease the clutch out, forcing the friction material to bear the brunt of bringing engine revs to where they should be...

I have friends that do this to their cars all the time and I shudder every single time.

__________________
Buy My Car! | Build Thread

irondoc

No argument clutch out is better than clutch in. Best place for your left foot when you are not actually changing gears is on the dead pedal.
Clutch wear comes from clutch plates sliding against each other. I have seen people stop on a hill at a red light and keep the clutch half engaged with a little bit of throttle to prevent the car from rolling backwards. They seemingly have no clue as to the damage they are doing.