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So after years and years of debating, last summer I went and got supercharged. Almost 1 year later the installation is complete to where "Iam happy". I am very particular and hence my name "xtreme", I carry things to the very edge and doing out of the norm. With that...feast your eyes on my custom A&A Installed V3si blacked out system on my 2002 Coupe. Yes, that is a custom fabricated radiator support 2 part piece that hides everything and really takes the install to a whole new level in my opinion. The aluminum piece up front was also custom cut and airbrushed as well.
I won't get into who did the installation as I don't believe in talking trash about anybody. We won't go there. Lets just say it was done and then I had to go and double check everything.
For the tuning I went to my original go-to guy Mr. Chuck "Cow" Mosello of Corvettes of Westchester. I was on vacation and he squeezed me in to do the tune. We were out till 3am tuning it and I really appreciated the effort. He has been a great friend and stand up guy! Anybody needing tuning or Corvette work in upper New York State I highly recommend contacting Chuck Mosello of Corvettes of Westchester. Through a recommendation of a friend of mine, Dan Barbarino, I went to see Matt Sanford at Derailed Motorsports to have him put my A@A Supercharged Vette on the Dyno and look over the tune as I changed out blow off valves and wanted to be sure the tune wasn't affected. It was a pleasure to meet Matt who is a very knowledgeable and down to earth guy. He didn't try to sell me anything and said my tune looked just fine to him. If anybody in middle Tennessee needs tuning or work done on their automobiles definitely contact Matt Sanford at Derailed Motorsports. Also big shout out to the guys at A@A Corvettes. Josh and Andy helped me out and even after hours took the time to answer my calls. Great customer service! My car made 551 rwhp and 521 tq from an A@A v3si (Vortech) kit. My other supporting mods are LG headers, LS6 Intake, Corsa Exhaust with high flow cats, BTR Dual Springs w/Titanium retainers, BTR Chromoly Pushrods, CompCams Trunion upgrade and McLeod Dual Disc Clutch.
Still haven't decided if I want to yank mine again or not and get the Decepticon icon cut into them. I guess I didn't fully understand the explanation when we were designing them. It doesn't glow through - but the rest of it looks tight.
Please do a whole thread or somehow share info on the shroud. I'm wrapping up my own A&A install. I sanded my FRCs smooth and sprayed them and the A&A cover plate in flame red. I had heard that A&A was going to offer a custom end plate to secure either end, but nothing since. I've still got my radiator piece. Did you cut one up, or total fab? Liking the look!
"My other supporting mods are LG headers, LS6 Intake, Corsa Exhaust with high flow cats, BTR Dual Springs w/Titanium retainers, BTR Chromoly Pushrods, CompCams Trunion upgrade and McLeod Dual Disc Clutch."
Haha - are you cloning men, Jeff? We're pretty close, just a few opposite options.
Stainless Works headers, high flows, x-pipe, Borla Stingers, same BTR spring and pushrods kit, Straub trunion kit though, McLeod RST.
Did you consider running methanol? I'm not into it for the added power so much as the added safety - same as with the trunion fix and springs.
Here's more or less what it looks like right now, but has cf battery cover and cf meth tank cover:
Still haven't decided if I want to yank mine again or not and get the Decepticon icon cut into them. I guess I didn't fully understand the explanation when we were designing them. It doesn't glow through - but the rest of it looks tight.
Please do a whole thread or somehow share info on the shroud. I'm wrapping up my own A&A install. I sanded my FRCs smooth and sprayed them and the A&A cover plate in flame red. I had heard that A&A was going to offer a custom end plate to secure either end, but nothing since. I've still got my radiator piece. Did you cut one up, or total fab? Liking the look!
What did you mean by "doesn't glow through" and did I do a set for you or were we designing them? I am trying to remember and your name (sorry its been a while).
I ended up taking my radiator cover piece and cut it into 2 pieces to get the look that you see. In order for it to slide under the intake tube I had to really REALLY sand it down. It is not anywhere near as thick as the towards the sides. In order to get it to see somewhat flush I had to use a lot of fiberglass bondo and build up the passenger side after the intake tube. There was so much tension under the piece by the intake tube that it naturally wants to flex up. The added fiberglass for weight and for fit gets it to lie flat over the radiator. It was a lot of trial and error of sanding, adding fiberglass bondo, and then more sanding to get the fit I was after. I wasn't aware that A&A was in the process of manufacturing a piece that would cover up the radiator area. Good for them, Andy is a stand up guy. He helped me out when I had a blow off valve issue.
"My other supporting mods are LG headers, LS6 Intake, Corsa Exhaust with high flow cats, BTR Dual Springs w/Titanium retainers, BTR Chromoly Pushrods, CompCams Trunion upgrade and McLeod Dual Disc Clutch."
Haha - are you cloning men, Jeff? We're pretty close, just a few opposite options.
Stainless Works headers, high flows, x-pipe, Borla Stingers, same BTR spring and pushrods kit, Straub trunion kit though, McLeod RST.
Did you consider running methanol? I'm not into it for the added power so much as the added safety - same as with the trunion fix and springs.
Here's more or less what it looks like right now, but has cf battery cover and cf meth tank cover:
I was considering running methanol and even doing a cam but my tuner said "no just have fun with it and leave it alone". You are at 550 rwhp. Thats the threshold for the LS1 connecting rods. You don't want any more power at all. If you go above that, you need to dive into the bottom end of the motor. To do it right you would be looking at about $6000-$8000.
Yours is looking really good. One suggestion...is that a breather cap coming out the oil fill area? Looks like one. I would recommend running a line from the valve cover down to the airbox instead. Your won't get oil blowing all over your hoodliner and engine that way. In addition run a catch can if your not and plumb that in with a check valve.
From ECS (which is done in a similar fashion) "The catch can depends on the year, but most have the port coming up from the valley under the intake, which then goes to the port on the intake just above it. You want the check valve to let the air flow into the intake, but stop the flow of boost out of it to the crank case.
Earlier C5's have the breather hose coming off the back of both valve covers instead of the valley port, but it's plumbed the same way."
Last edited by XtremeVette; 04-24-2017 at 11:16 AM.
Yes, the final install had the breather running to the air filter. The can has two serious aluminum stop valves to control flow when the engine is in vacuum and then boost.
As for the gauges, yeah, maybe two years ago I put together a simplified dash getting rid of unnecessary icons and hashes. In place of the flags, I had put a decepticon icon in thinking it would glow through the first layer when the lights were on but the first layer would apparently need to be cut out for that to work. I had also gone with blue center gauges and red side gauges (fuel, oil, batt, gas) so they could be subdued. Looks good.
Yes, the final install had the breather running to the air filter. The can has two serious aluminum stop valves to control flow when the engine is in vacuum and then boost.
As for the gauges, yeah, maybe two years ago I put together a simplified dash getting rid of unnecessary icons and hashes. In place of the flags, I had put a decepticon icon in thinking it would glow through the first layer when the lights were on but the first layer would apparently need to be cut out for that to work. I had also gone with blue center gauges and red side gauges (fuel, oil, batt, gas) so they could be subdued. Looks good.
Ahh ok yeah take a picture of the gauges...Would love to see them. Did you use backlight paper?
In the dark. You can see the faint image of the Decepticon. I had thought it would be invisible by day and fully visible with the lights on. Not the end of the world though.
If I did it again, I think I'd go with one solid color. Not sure if it red or blue would win.
04-19-2017, 04:55 PM
XtremeVette went to the Darkside...
