Customer Service, Superchargers, and Problems

[blackf0rk]

Let me first bring out that this is not a thread to determine who is better in the supercharger world or anything like that. I'll put that to rest right now. :rolleyes:

The point of the this thread is this, and it starts off aas a story. So don't be lazy and read it:

As some of you may know, I used to own a 2002 3.4L v6 Chevrolet Impala which was custom turbo charged by a guy I knew. This guy rarely did v6 engines, his palette consisted on 4 bangers and rice. At any rate, the customer support from him with my problems was less than satisfactory. In fact, I got rid of the car and traded it in for my lovely MM because of all the problems. :alone:

Because of this, my wife and I are now extremely leary as to dropping more thousands of dollars on something we already went through - car headaches caused my aftermarket products. In fact, my wife was so upset about it, she made me promise not to turbo or supercharge my MM. I agreed since I was quite upset myself. :bigcry:

I can't help it guys, I already have plans for reversing my promise. LOL I have the need for raw muscle power :burnout:

So the question is this: How many normal problems are attributed with adding a supercharger, and how well does the manufacturer of the supercharger, whoever that may be, help to fix any problems with the car?

In other words, what can I tell my wife that will calm her suspision of another blower screwing up my car? :argue:

[SouLRioT]

I only know of one MM with a S/C have a problem, MarauderMark's MM, that said there have been a few stock cars that have had problems aswell. From what I have read Trilogy has a warrenty, but you'll have to find out more about the Vortec and procharger kits. All in all All the S/C marauders have done well and most on the road for at least a year.

[Dennis Reinhart]

No one warranties a Motor on an SC setup. All of us warranty our SC kits. No matter who's kit you buy there is the remote chance of a engine loss, espeacilay if the car is not maintained and kept with good gasoline, we all try and insure the cars have the safest tune possible with the least amount of timing, a must is good gasoline and regular maintenance, and knowing when something is not right. Jerry B has a great kit Gregg has made a good Procharger kit Kenny Brown has a very good Package and so do I.

[Cobra25]

I can only speak for what I bought, I purchased a Trilogy, I've had it installed only a short time, no problems at all. Customer service at Trilogy is great. When I called a few times to ask a few question's they answered them right away ,and they are so nice on the phone. If you call and leave a message they call you back quickly. The tuning for the Trilogy set up is done by Lidio & the same goes for him, great service and returns the phone calls quickly. Customer service from Both are # 1 as far as I'm concerned. If you hold a interest in The Procharger S/C PM -TMAC1337 he has one . If you hold a interest in the Vorteck S/C them you have to find someone who has one. Same holds for Kenny Browns.

[Directedby]

Seems like you got involved with the wrong person with your Impala.

Although I don't have a supercharger, like anything else it comes dowm to customer care and I must say that Dennis Reinhart goes the extra mile.

I have had some things pop up and needs after buying products from Dennis and at his cost sent me what I needed. He didn't have to do that.

[metroplex]

As some of you may know, I used to own a 2002 3.4L v6 Chevrolet Impala which was custom turbo charged by a guy I knew. This guy rarely did v6 engines, his palette consisted on 4 bangers and rice. At any rate, the customer support from him with my problems was less than satisfactory. In fact, I got rid of the car and traded it in for my lovely MM because of all the problems.

A custom turbocharger installation would require a custom intake, exhaust manifold, and turbocharger mount. If he managed to get that squared away, it would be a matter of tuning and proper turbo maintenance.

[Bluerauder]

In fact, my wife was so upset about it, she made me promise not to turbo or supercharge my MM. I agreed since I was quite upset myself. :bigcry:

I can't help it guys, I already have plans for reversing my promise.
You are screwed ..... :rolleyes: There is nothing you can say or do to convince her at this point that it is not a "Me or It" decision. If you choose "It" ... be prepared to catch the fury of a broken promise. :mad2: Sounds like you give promises rather lightly .... :dunno:

[blackf0rk]

A custom turbocharger installation would require a custom intake, exhaust manifold, and turbocharger mount. If he managed to get that squared away, it would be a matter of tuning and proper turbo maintenance. Everything was done mechanically correct. But I'd saywhen 90% of the mechanical work was complete he turned to half-arsing it the rest of the way. As for tune, there was none, with the prospect of there being one at some point, but after 6months I got sick of waiting.


You are screwed ..... :rolleyes: There is nothing you can say or do to convince her at this point that it is not a "Me or It" decision. If you choose "It" ... be prepared to catch the fury of a broken promise. :mad2: Sounds like you give promises rather lightly .... :dunno: Our promises, in this situation, were based upon assumtive conclusions. Only way I'd get my car supercharged is if she would let me, I wouldn't do it without her permission when I made the promise.

Keep me in your prayers... hahahah

:burnout::burnout::burnout:

[SouLRioT]

My suggestion is to ask her about while on vaction in Hawaii. You'll have a better chance at a yes then.

[FordNut]

My suggestion is to ask her about while on vaction in Hawaii. You'll have a better chance at a yes then.
Sort of like my Cancun vacation when I said "I'm thinking about a supercharger..."

Translation: I bought a supercharger!

[NAVCHAP]

Although mine is a Vortech, can say with confidence that almost everyone is happy with their S/C set up, regardless of whether it came from Dennis Reinhart (as mine did) or Lidio, or Jerry Barnes, or Kenny Brown, or the Pro Charger guys.

Have driven a Trilogy, it powered up nicely. Almost got TMac to take me for a spin in his Pro Charger equipped MM last Friday but he ran out of time.

Have owned a couple of Turbo cars also, you can't beat the power adders for driving fun, no matter which way you go.

PM me for more details because these S/C threads have a way of coming apart. Prefer not to cause any lock downs. Like it around here. Regards, -kjs-

[sailsmen]

I only know of one MM with a S/C have a problem, MarauderMark's MM, that said there have been a few stock cars that have had problems aswell. From what I have read Trilogy has a warrenty, but you'll have to find out more about the Vortec and procharger kits. All in all All the S/C marauders have done well and most on the road for at least a year.

Buckwheat lost his motor.

[gpfarrell]

There's much to be said for research and development.

I had a guy tell me one time "I love to do things for the second time. I feel so smart, because I learned so much on the first one!"

This is a group of people who are pretty fussy about their cars (moisture in headlights, funky paint, do I have a remote fuel filler door release) and I haven't seen anybody disappointed in the superchargers typically discussed here.

I'd think that if you stayed with a conservative tune it should be nothing but fun. If you want to crank things up too much, just beware that you're now doing your own R&D, and that's what breaks the heart & bank!

[SouLRioT]

Buckwheat lost his motor.

Hey, I can't remember everything. He has Logan's old Trilogy, right?

[MarauderMark]

No one warranties a Motor on an SC setup. All of us warranty our SC kits. No matter who's kit you buy there is the remote chance of a engine loss, espeacilay if the car is not maintained and kept with good gasoline, we all try and insure the cars have the safest tune possible with the least amount of timing, a must is good gasoline and regular maintenance, and knowing when something is not right. Jerry B has a great kit Gregg has made a good Procharger kit Kenny Brown has a very good Package and so do I.


Dennis are you saying this why my car blew??

[tmac1337]

I can only speak for what I bought, I purchased a Trilogy, I've had it installed only a short time, no problems at all. Customer service at Trilogy is great. When I called a few times to ask a few question's they answered them right away ,and they are so nice on the phone. If you call and leave a message they call you back quickly. The tuning for the Trilogy set up is done by Lidio & the same goes for him, great service and returns the phone calls quickly. Customer service from Both are # 1 as far as I'm concerned. If you hold a interest in The Procharger S/C PM -TMAC1337 he has one . If you hold a interest in the Vorteck S/C them you have to find someone who has one. Same holds for Kenny Browns.

Zoltan let me drive his Trilogy equipped Marauder for awhile tonight. I was impressed. No doubt about it, if a roots type blower is what you are looking for, the car kicks ass. After dinner Zoltan nailed it at a stoplight. After ripping into the rear tires and blowing a cloud of smoke into the poor smucks windows who was behind us, the car took off like a bolt of lightning. Almost uncontrollable.

Congratulations on your car Zoltan!

After riding in Zoltan's car, I'm jealous as mine is out of commission until I get my chrome tubing back from the shop :( .

[tmac1337]

Dennis are you saying this why my car blew??

Mark, How is your car coming along?

[Dennis Reinhart]

Dennis are you saying this why my car blew??
No Mark that is not what I am saying, I believe you had a rod failure will let Ron determine that when he tears the engine down. What I am saying is it can happen on any ones kit, what we try to do is make the car as safe as possible, we cannot prevent material failure, for example we had a Marauder owner here that lost a transmission do to a stub shaft failure, he sent the part out and had a material examination of the stub shaft it showed an incomplete casting in other words it was porous so for that reason I chose to include a hardened shaft in my Transmission kit.
Another example is When we first started the Vortech Kit we used the Marauder MAF which caused tuning issues and a bad stumble at WOT that's why I went with the 90 MMLM and now I only use the SCT MAF
And it cured the square wave effect we seen on AF Maps and it cured the nose over Mac and Zack and a few of us experienced. Yes, its called research and development, and all of us strive to improve our kits as well as service to better serve the club. Marks short block is being assembled I am sending the entire long block and will try and use what we can, the new block will have a steel crank manly rods, diamond racing pistons ARP fasteners billet oil pump gears, will have the heads cleaned up and and better springs and retainers installed.

[Cobra25]

Zoltan let me drive his Trilogy equipped Marauder for awhile tonight. I was impressed. No doubt about it, if a roots type blower is what you are looking for, the car kicks ass. After dinner Zoltan nailed it at a stoplight. After ripping into the rear tires and blowing a cloud of smoke into the poor smucks windows who was behind us, the car took off like a bolt of lightning. Almost uncontrollable.

Congratulations on your car Zoltan!

After riding in Zoltan's car, I'm jealous as mine is out of commission until I get my chrome tubing back from the shop :( .Thank you for your kind words. I does go very nicely doesn't it? I thought the guy behind me was Ghost03, but later we found out it wasn't. Poor guy who ever it was. Looking foward to a ride in yours next week.

[WhoMe]

I think I've got about the safest setup you can get, but it can still break. I'm using a JT-Trim in a Reinhart kit with the aftercooler to keep temps down. It's detuned down to 415-425 rwhp for longevity on the stock block. The real way to go is with forged internals, then it should live 60,000+ miles. Just don't EVER let it detonate if at all possible.

You've already said why your previous effort was a failure. It was never tuned. Tuning is just as important as the install. Don't try to get cheap once the car runs. Spend the money on a custom tune on a dyno followed by some street testing. Of course I'm a bit tuning biased!!!!


David Posea
R&D Lead, SCT

[tmac1337]

You've already said why your previous effort was a failure. It was never tuned. Tuning is just as important as the install. Don't try to get cheap once the car runs. Spend the money on a custom tune on a dyno followed by some street testing. Of course I'm a bit tuning biased!!!!


David Posea
R&D Lead, SCT

Welcome back to the site David. It's been a while since you have posted. Good advice indeed!

[WhoMe]

Dennis had my blower sitting on a shelf for about a year because I didn't have time to mess with a car while we got SCT going. I'll be around more now that I've got a new toy to play with!!!

Do you like the shift schedule/lock up schedule? I'm going to back to a much more "stock" lock up schedule. I actually like the converter to lock really early unless I'm above about 3/4 throttle, but I'm a little wierd that way :)


David
R&D Lead, SCT

[MarauderMark]

No Mark that is not what I am saying, I believe you had a rod failure will let Ron determine that when he tears the engine down. What I am saying is it can happen on any ones kit, what we try to do is make the car as safe as possible, we cannot prevent material failure, for example we had a Marauder owner here that lost a transmission do to a stub shaft failure, he sent the part out and had a material examination of the stub shaft it showed an incomplete casting in other words it was porous so for that reason I chose to include a hardened shaft in my Transmission kit.
Another example is When we first started the Vortech Kit we used the Marauder MAF which caused tuning issues and a bad stumble at WOT that's why I went with the 90 MMLM and now I only use the SCT MAF
And it cured the square wave effect we seen on AF Maps and it cured the nose over Mac and Zack and a few of us experienced. Yes, its called research and development, and all of us strive to improve our kits as well as service to better serve the club. Marks short block is being assembled I am sending the entire long block and will try and use what we can, the new block will have a steel crank manly rods, diamond racing pistons ARP fasteners billet oil pump gears, will have the heads cleaned up and and better springs and retainers installed.


WHEW!! Thank you Dennis :up: Can't wait to drive my baby... :burn:





Mark, How is your car coming along?
Hey tmac .Nice setup you got there with fanastic numbers as well .Well it's Doctor Reinharts hands now .i'll tell ya though i allways have a dream about driving it or doing something with it all most everynight.Thanks for asking tmac..

[blackf0rk]

Originally Posted by WhoMe
You've already said why your previous effort was a failure. It was never tuned. Tuning is just as important as the install. Don't try to get cheap once the car runs. Spend the money on a custom tune on a dyno followed by some street testing. Of course I'm a bit tuning biased!!!!


Does this apply to me?

No Mark, I think he's talking to me. :beer:

[Haggis]

You are screwed ..... :rolleyes: There is nothing you can say or do to convince her at this point that it is not a "Me or It" decision. If you choose "It" ... be prepared to catch the fury of a broken promise. :mad2: Sounds like you give promises rather lightly .... :dunno:

It was said on hear a while back that 'forgivness is easier to get then permission'. Hey I will have to remember that more often, maybe even a new signature. :rofl:

Yea I know Honey...go find a switch. Bye fellows. :alone:...:corner: :help:

But back to the original question of this Thread, while I have time. LOL!! I have a Kenny Brown S/C Marauder for almost 2yrs now and with almost 10,000mi on her. The car has also had some, non-Kenny Brown, OEM parts upgraded by Dennis Reinhart and to date no problems to report.

[tmac1337]

Dennis had my blower sitting on a shelf for about a year because I didn't have time to mess with a car while we got SCT going. I'll be around more now that I've got a new toy to play with!!!

Do you like the shift schedule/lock up schedule? I'm going to back to a much more "stock" lock up schedule. I actually like the converter to lock really early unless I'm above about 3/4 throttle, but I'm a little wierd that way :)


David
R&D Lead, SCT

David, congratulations on the new toy!

It is good to see you posting on this site. SCT is the premier software tuning company around, we are lucky to have you here among us.

As far as lock up, I think I prefer a slightly later lock up than stock, but not a lot later. I tried a tune once that had lockup much later and personally did not care for it.

Now that you have the time and are driving your own blown Marauder around, I'm sure you'll have some great tuning thoughts in the future.