sorry to hear all the bad news
if i could do it all over again i would not have gotten in as deep as i did
i can say stillen supercharger then vsr turbo and built motor and all the little stuff in between is 25k easy

and atm 2 little sensors are still stopping me from hitting the 600+ mark
and i keep thinking price of the car + 25k in mods = used gtr lol

I still just can't believe they missed something so small and now it's causing even more time and money to be fixed.. I can promise that if there is anything else that goes wrong on their end they better be ready to settle on an amount or fork out for a good lawyer... I'm skeptical even at the thought of my car being in anyone else's hands besides my own since there have so many mistakes on their part since this all began. Trust me it makes me sick to my stomach thinking about this situation everyday...

What are those 2 little atm sensors you mentioned ???
Thanks,

UpRev GT MAFs

pretty sure he means the MAF sensors, depending on the piping sizes/location they can max out at different HP levels.

honestly, if you cant be happy with ~500-550whp, its a money pit and you should walk away unless youre willing to keep spending money on it. the best approach for our car is low boost (8-12psi), stock block, conservative tune from a good tuner(use e85 if you can). I say stock block because its proven to handle the hp/torque (despite what people claim are the limits) and its far less likely to have issues that built engines can have if not done properly.

Since you're already built, I would simply advise against turning up the boost too much and hope they're good at what they do despite the rear main seal. Find the best tuner you can, make sure they use knock ears when turning up the boost and keep it safe.

Good at what they do is yet to be seen!!! lol I spared no expense on the internal parts in hopes this would remedy any future issues but like you said How good are they. That seems to be the question at hand here. Only time will tell and if not w will be going to court and it wont be just for the cost of my built motor.

Sort of thought that that was what he was referring to ... I've taken more notice and have gotten a bit more critical of information since my motor took an early retirement......:eek:

Thanks for the clarification .......:tiphat:
I had those installed as well ... researching the GTM MAF's
Good ??? No Good ???

The real question is would you actually receive them. If UpRev's work for your situation I recommend that route.:tup:

What is the typical, and your, cause of spun bearings in these motors? I am going built and am using OEM bearings since they are really all we have to use. Is it pre-det that is the cause?

as long as assembly is handled properly, which it was in my case, it's knock. I would suggest getting the bearings coated by calico, really effective against wear

Don't quote me on this but if memory serves I have read that the GTM MAFs ARE the UpRev MAFs with at most rebranding on them.

Personally I bought the GTM MAFs back a while back for my Stillen kit and they have worked well.

GTM chimed in on this and said that their MAFS were made at the same factory as the UpRev's ...
GTM did say that their sensors were tunable with the UpRev software, but were made to their specifications and had more adjustment latitude in the midrange.
I'm hoping I've remembered that correctly ...
Will edit if I can find that post by GTM.

One of the other curveballs thrown at me after the fact was the K&N filters may have had an adverse affect on the MAF's.

Went to the K&N website and read their rebuttal ...
At this point I don't know ... but I won't be putting them back in just to be on the safe side...

Should be getting my motor back from Import Parts Pro in a few weeks ...
Then the fun begins again ......:icon14:

Tell me more about this KandN filter deal? What adverse effects?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2

I'm guessing that's w.r.t. over oiling and the oil messing up the MAF

On the KN's and other type of oiled filters. When you clean them. DO NOT over oil them. I've seen the oil coat the inside of the inlet tubes, and anything else that sticks down in the tubes. :eek:

Even if you have problems with filter oil coating the MAFs over time, a solution for that is to clean the MAFs more often, which you should be doing anyways. It takes like 10 minutes to pop them out and hose them down with MAF cleaner.

(on another earlier point: the GTM/UpRev MAFs give more range, but yes they still need to be tuned, just like stock ones. Step one is to map out both MAFs and adjust the MAF tables to get them accurate before you tune the rest of the engine using MAF data. No two MAFs leave the factory reading exactly the same...).

i feel your pain when stiff just dont work out.
i had je imports pull the supercharger off to put the turbo kit on that vsr sent me. just to find out that they sent me the wrong cross over pipe and a few items missing
1500 bucks for them to undo what they started and get the car mobile enuff
to get on a truck to florida
another 1200 bucks for transport to and from
it was a nightmare but once it passes and you get the car back on the road you will be a lot happier

Here is the link to the K&N filters response : The real or imagined controversy is because of the potential for the oil to reach the sensors.
In my case the sensors and the filters were brand new ...
I wasn't there for the install so I can't comment if the filters were overly drenched or not.

K&N Response to Mass Air Flow Sensor Concerns

I can only assume that my brand new UpRev MAF's were calibrated as you've described prior to the new tune.

Ready for a Laff ???

Here is the short version of arranging for the tune after the car was ready.
As you will see, there were many hands stirring the pot and fingers pointing every which way after the motor blew.
The MAF's and K&N filters were included in the list of suspects...

Sit back and enjoy the SitComedy of Errors.....:confused:

Here is the list of characters:
Tuner A was my guy doing the wrenching - he's the one on my side.

Tuner B, located in Central NJ about an hour away, was one of Tuner A's buddies that had the UpRev license and would be able to do the tune with Tuner A present...since Tuner A could not access the ECU to do the tune himself.

Tuner C was an heretofore unknown Tuner located across the border in NYC; but he was familiar with Nissans and was a licensed UpRev dealer.

Now on to the day it was supposed to be tuned by Tuner A (my guy):

Tuner A couldn't unlock the Stillen cable to install a basic tune to start the car.
Called Stillen and they didn't have a tune ready for the 9 lb pulley...and weren't able to provide us with a work around.
So we didn't get to start the car.

Made arrangements with Tuner B ... he could squeeze us in the next week...and Tuner A (my guy) and I would do the tune.
The car was to be flat bedded down there ahead of time.

Next week came and went ... Tuner B could not do the tune due to a death in the family.

More time elapsed waiting for Tuner B's situation to ease ...
Tuner B did not respond to a number of attempts to contact him.

Searched around and found Tuner C located about 40 miles away over the stateline border into NYC.

Tuner C agreed to Dyno time and would unlock the tune.
Tuner A (my guy) was to be present ... I was to drive him there and wait while while he did the tune.

Flat bedded the car there the day before the agreed upon Dyno day.
Tuner C called and rescheduled the tune for another day.
The car sat at Tuner C's facility for another week or so.

Finally got Tuner C to reschedule ...
We (Tuner A, my guy) and I arrived only to find that Tuner C had already done the tune without our being present.
Tuner C informed us that the car had some starting issues due to the 1000 injectors.
The car was off the dyno and out in the parking lot.
I got hit with an additional $1200 for the tune and $375 for the flat bed.
Tuner A (my guy) drove the car back to his shop.

More fun ...
Tuner A (my guy) held the car for another 3 or 4 weeks testing it and trying to contact Tuner C to get it back on the Dyno to fix the start issue, which he (Tuner A, my guy) had determined not to be the injectors but that the tune needed to be tweaked.
Tuner C did not return any calls...
In the meantime Tuner A (my guy) also discovered that the car would sometimes stall by itself and then again upon braking or going around a quick turn...which he (Tuner A) didn't really tell me about.

The plot thickens ... after 9 months of planning and building, I became impatient with all of the delays and excuses and took the car for a shake down cruise ... it was peppier than before and I was assured that it would be OK to drive and even do a few passes with it at the track the next day.
The 'minor' problems could and would be resolved once we had another dyno session.

1/4 mile later and I'm flat bedding the car back to the shop ... this time it was a $575 bill for the tow.
The car is now sitting in my driveway under a car cover, filled with boxes of it's own innards, parts, pieces, and with it's nose pointed to the air without it's motor.

Are you Dizzy yet ???

In another ironic twist of fate ... Tuner A (my guy) just purchased a flat bed truck of his own and I was to be his first customer ...
The car was sitting back at his shop for about a month taking up space and he needed the room so he asked me if I would be OK with having him 'store' My car in My driveway until the motor got back from rebuild...

Sounded reasonable ... what could possibly go wrong ???

Welllll ... after backing the truck in to my driveway, the cable let go when they were winching it off the bed ...
The car rolled off the back of the truck and headed straight towards my garage doors : the exhaust tips dug 2 trenches in my driveway : the driver/operator did a flying superman leap in thru the drivers window to pull the emergency brake just in time to stop short of plowing into the garage ...
Oh, I forgot to mention, when we got back to the shop from Dyno Day at Tuner C's, I got rear ended in my G37 while stopped at a traffic light about 2 blocks from Tuner A (my guy's) shop.
Only about $600 damage on that one ... :icon14:

Since I need to replace the MAF's and filters anyway, and I'm shooting for more power (whynot), I thought I'd ask about the GTM's

Thanks :-) hope you enjoyed this Tale of Woes !!! (I know it was a long read for a short version - but it was even longer in real time as it was happening) !!!

Ya can't make up stuff like this...but it is kind of funny in a painful kind of way.

Tuner C still hasn't returned any phone calls ... and is rumored to have moved to Florida.

ps I should have purchased my own UpRev software and cable from GTM in the first place - who'da thunk ??? - aaarrrggghhh

Holy hell! You better name your car Christine!

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You may need to start your own thread on the maf thingy.. lol

LoL ... I call her 'Zippy'

lol ... I'm currently condensing my build notes ...
That should be a fun read when it's done ...

I was told transportation for my car is supposed to be here first thing in the morning. Fingers crossed will keep everyone updated on any and all progress...

I hope all goes well for you bud.

Taking a factory NA car and turning it into a tuned FI machine is not a trivial task. I'm not saying it's not possible to do it reliably, but honestly when people are selling $10K kits and making it sound like it's a simple install + tune job, they're full of ****. You need a reliable shop that can do all the work from start to finish and own the project, and which has some track record of success in similar projects. The meta-problem here is the waffling between three different guys, none of whom seem to be capable of doing the job. I highly doubt that K&N filter oil on the MAFs is at the heart of this problem. That's really a relatively minor issue, and easily addressed.

In the big picture, you see so many more failures than successes in these endeavors that I wonder why anyone goes down the FI-upgrade path at times. It's always going to cost significantly more than you think it will, and it's always going to have reliability problems (well, unless you use a really badass shop that can own the process and do it right, but then it's going to cost even more). If you need a 600hp car, maybe buy one that's meant for it by the factory. Or just drop a tuned LS7 in the thing; figuring out altering mount points and making a custom driveshaft is way easier than this.

you should have just taken the car to RAD in NY. They do FI uprev tunes on Z's every week and have done every kit out there.

Thanks for the input ...
Some good insight for sure ... and I'm learning as I go.
The actual cause for the motor failure hasn't been determined, but there hasn't been any lack of speculation though.

I agree that these cars weren't made to be pushed beyond a certain practical limit without inviting problems.

Wish't I would'a know'd that before I got this far in to it.

It wasn't my choice to waffle between the 3 tuners...well, really only 2 Tuners...the third one wasn't actively involved but the fact that he closed his shop to deal with his family loss did put pressure on to come up with another plan.

In defense of Tuner A (my guy) ... he's really a great guy and knowledgeable in what he does - which is mostly Lambo's, Mercedes, Ferrari's, Audi, and the like.
He's built a monster Ultima GTR kit car for a client.

He's done some 350z's as well, and the original build with the stock Stillen went off without a hitch - no complaints.

He also did a bit of racing when he had the time...building own and turning a 9.6 with his Eagle Talon.

I don't think either one of us could have anticipated some of the problems we faced going forward with the build from there on though.

It wasn't an easy thing trying to organize the plan once goal was set, research the options, weigh the pro's and con's, and then work with the different vendors.

He is a small but personable shop and does work with other shop owners when he needs to outsource something.

That lack of full in house capability came back to bite us.

I didn't realize that things could/would get too complicated and we would exceed the shops capabilities.

The merry-go-round with the Tuners started when he wasn't able to unlock the canned Stillen tune...and then it got a little out of control trying to find a solution.
(I never did get to meet Tuner B and Tuner C did have some credentials regarding racing and tuning the Z cars).

In hindsight, it's been a bit stressful with so many variables with mechanics, parts, vendors, and schedules.
But even the reputable full service shops mentioned on this Forum have their problems with these cars.

I guess it's the price to pay for Speed.

Well the car is now gone and on it's way to vsr. I was told it would be finished by Tuesday. Stayed tuned because this should be interesting..

God man sorry , that's a long road the 9 months was right I line with minghe. 3 days later I BOOM'd .:(

It's sure Tuesady should be interesting !

Damn... Sorry to hear about all the issues going on. I hope you get everything resolved.

After hearing of no confirmation of my car getting there last night I sent bobby a text late and got one back saying it was there..

Awesome ! Cosmo,
We've all been sweatin' it out with you...

Hey Mike !

How long did it take for you to resolve it ???
I'm still a rockin' and a reelin' a little ... tho' I'm back on the horse and hopefully will avoid an encore...


Looking to hear some good news from Cosmo soon and that his predicament will be totally resolved...

Pm'd man, don't want to thread jack, :)

Glad the car got there ok ? Hoping this goes well for you!

Had to text to get an update, so as of today the main rear seal is finally in there now. They still have to top off the tranny fluid, bleed the clutch, recharge the a/c system, install the 1000cc injectors and tune it. Also mate my exhaust with the gtm 3" downpipes. Fingers crossed guys, I feel like one of my children is in surgery..

I had to send bobby a text to just check on the progress of my but to be honest shouldn't they be following up with me since this ordeal isn't my fault. Am I not the one being inconvenienced here but to now be blown off knowing my car is in someone else's hands? Sorry guys but at this point I'm really worried because I even emailed bobby cliff notes on the car just to make sure nothing was over looked like the oil level and the fuel pressure at idle needing to be at 52 psi since the venture jet had to be drilled out. I may be an alcoholic before this whole ordeal is over!!!