corvette dave

Car is home. The Vortech unit was an SQ trim.
Dyno numbers were: 533 rwhp 437 rwtq
Car runs great! Idles as well as stock, maybe better.
Install was done by Phil Rickard and Jeremy at Dynotech Engineering, a forum vendor. They treated my car like it was one of their own. Very professional tuner.
The work done was excellent, in spite of some problems with the SC kit.
I have pics of the SC and the dyno sheet but I don't know how to post them.
What a blast to drive!
Dave




[Modified by corvette dave, 12:19 AM 5/15/2003]

runamuk

:party: :party: :party:
Congrats on the new supercharger :cheers:

Racer

Congrats dave, you must be pumped!!! I love my Vortech! :thumbs: :cheers:

king_pin

:cheers: great numbers!!!!

Murder_Inc

if you want you can email me the pictures and i can host them on my site for you and post them up..

very nice numbers by the way :party: :party: :cheers: :cheers: :thumbs: :hurray:

55SUX

What were the problems with the Vortech kit?

Yano

You beat me in getting done!! :mad

My car should be done Friday :party:

corvette dave

Murder, Thanks for the offer. I will send them to you tomorrow.

Yano, Keep us posted.

I will work on posting the entire story tomorrow on the install. It took 8 weeks so I have a lot of ground to cover. I took notes during the install. I want to be fair to Vortech and also give a tremendous amount of credit to Dynotech. The main thing is I want to have all the info correct for you guys waiting to decide on a kit.
Check in tomorrow afternoon. Sorry for the delay. Hope I can have some pics and dyno sheet posted. Can't promise that. ;)
Dave



[Modified by corvette dave, 12:18 AM 5/15/2003]

Crushinator

Congrats Dave! :party: That power has to feel awesome! :thumbs:

JR-CRUZN-C5

HOT NUMBERS!!!!!!! Good luck with your new Vortech!!!

JR :party: :party: :party: :party:

corvette dave

Here is the story on the install:
Car was dropped off at Dynotech 3-14-03 for install. SC arrived about 5 days later. This was a polished SQ trim unit. Additional items to be installed were a Blackwing, ported throttle body and a 160 degree thermostat. Tuning was done with LS1edit. Install was almost finished 2 weeks later when mechanic noticed that the oil drain hose hole on the SC head unit was drilled but not tapped (threaded) to accept the fitting. Vortech agreed to fix it and pay for overnight shipping. The unit was removed and shipped back to Vortech. After 4 days the unit had not arrived and Vortech was contacted. They put my SC repair behind 4 others they were building and said they would repair it when those new kits were finished. Tuner contacted someone higher up at Vortech and explained the problem. He said the next new unit built would be shipped in 4 or 5 days. I asked the tuner to call Vortech and see if they had a satin unit they could send sooner. They had one and it arrived 5 days later.
There was a weekend in there but it was shipped overnight air. We lost 2 weeks on the exchange of head units. New satin unit was installed. Car was driven for a couple of days to do the initial tuning calibrations. Then the first wot run was made and at 6000 rpm the serpentine belt came off. The car had to be towed back to the shop. Everything was checked and appeared to be normal so the belt was reinstalled (belt installation takes 2 to 3 hours). Car was then test driven on the lot and again at 6000 rpm the belt came off. Car was pushed in the shop. While looking over the pulleys, etc. a puddle of coolant was seen on the floor. The intercooler was leaking from a small hole at the weld. More phone calls to Vortech who said that maybe we received an older kit and would send a new kit with new intercooler and updated tensioner pulley. Vortech refused to just send a new intercooler and pulley until they received the old ones. Tuner had to buy the new kit and when Vortech received the bad one they credited the tuner the price of the kit. New kit arrived in 2 days and the intercooler and tensioner pulley were different than the ones in the first kit. Both items were updated pieces. 1 more week lost with this exchange. New parts were installed and several wot runs were made. Belt looked fine.
Car went on the dyno. A couple of runs were made and the belt looked fine. Next day the car was driven a coule of miles and the belt was checked again prior to the car being shipped. It was starting to shred on the inner edge. Mechanic found the specs for the spacers used in the kit. The brackets and much of the kit were removed to check the spacers. All spacers were out of spec and had to be cut to the right size. Everything was reinstalled including a new belt and a new power steering hose that was damaged when the original belt came off. Car was driven several miles and appeared to work fine. I picked the car up 5-10-03 and drove it home 175 miles. Stopped twice to check the belt. I have driven it every day since and see no problems with the belt. Install was on schedule to be done in 3 weeks. With problems it ended up taking 8 weeks. My guess is that the total install time counting phone calls and installing/reinstalling parts was at least 50 hours. I can't say enough about Dynotech and the patience that Phil and Jeremy showed in getting this install finished. Great job on the install!
I have left out my opinions of Vortech customer service and quality of the kit. You make your own conclusions. I am not going to bash Vortech and do not want this post turn into that. I am just reporting the entire process I experienced. (I took notes during the whole install)
Phil said he had done this same Vortech unit on 4 C5’s, with 2 of those being Z06’s, without a single major problem. I believe my experience is not the norm.
Having said all of that let’s get to the point of how it runs now that the bugs have been worked out. The idle is as good as stock if not better. There is a slight whistle of the SC between 1000 and 1300 rpm. The whistle diminishes as the revs climb or maybe I can’t hear it over the exhaust. The whistle sounds really neat. The car drives like stock of course until you go wot. Exhaust seems a little louder. The power is just awesome as you would expect. The belt looks fine. After having the car just 5 days I am very happy with the power, the sound, and the street manners of this unit. It really is a nice unit and except for the slight whistle, looks and sounds completely stock from the outside.
I will try to get some pics and dyno sheet up later.
Hope this helps all considering a SC. Feel free to ask more questions.
BTW: I measured the ride height of the car before the install and after. The front dropped about 1/8” with the added weight of the SC.
Dave


[Modified by corvette dave, 12:23 PM 5/15/2003]


[Modified by corvette dave, 8:49 PM 5/15/2003]

John's vette

Nice write up. Good info.

All of that power must keep you smiling.

corvette dave

Murder,
You have mail!
Dave

jbsblownc5

Congrats on the SCed Z. These blown cars are a ball to drive!
It takes a lot of patience to put a blower on.
JB

Murder_Inc

heres the great pics of Corvette Daves Vette!!!! :party: :party: :party:

click to enlarge







congrats on your Vette!!!! :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :party: :party: :party: :party:


[Modified by Murder_Inc, 2:45 AM 5/16/2003]


[Modified by Murder_Inc, 2:46 AM 5/16/2003]

wamara

corvette dave, congrats to you and Dynotech for this project. What I found interesting in your write-up were your contacts with Vortech regarding the "old kit" or "old design" parts you received, which did not function properly. It is maddening with these cottage industry businesses that they apparently recycle these "old design" parts or otherwise keep them in the pipeline even after it is discovered that they are not performing properly. Obviously they are reluctant to eat the costs associated with tossing these parts that turn out to be inadequate or are otherwise unsuitable for their intended purpose, and pity the poor schmuck that gets them the next time around :mad :banghead:

Zorro

after reading that 'and I for one thank you for your candor' will never buy a Vortech... :nonod:

corvette dave

wamara and Zorro,

Although the thread was mostly about the Vortech SC, the main reason for the thread was to give the deserved credit to Phil and Jeremy at Dynotech.
I believe the original SC unit that was sent for my car was not for a 2002 Z06. I do not know that for sure but it seems that way. Most of the problems stemmed from that.

Thanks to Murder for posting the pics.
Dave


[Modified by corvette dave, 11:27 PM 5/16/2003]

FreddyG

Sounds like DynoTech did everything that they could, and did the best that they could, and should be given a :thumbs:. It also sounds like Vortech's quality control system SUCKS (as I look for a better choice of words). The bottom line is that you're happy with your install, and everything worked out in the end. It could be worse though, look at what Blacksun is going through with his turbo set-up. :cheers: on the new blower!

NBMDVM

I'll chime in here in defense of vortech. I too had significant belt issues with my install(in fact I might be the car from the other tuner referenced in the install story post) and Vortech went out of their way to make things right--including picking up a portion of the install cost!! It was a PIA to get everything right, but I couldn't have asked for better service from Vortech. Everything seems to be good now and the power/smoothness is awesome. Now that the bugs seemed to be worked out, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this system and I'm very picky. JMHO



[Modified by NBMDVM, 8:39 PM 5/17/2003]