Blown Engine, What's next?
 

Background:

My G has been supercharged for about a year now. About 55k miles on the motor and trans when i boosted it. auto trans didn't make it through the dyno tune so I had level 10 fully build it for me last year.

What happened:

I was out a few nights ago driving it hard of course and noticed a sudden loss of power so I pulled over to find that the car was on fire. Managed to put out the fire before it did any real damage ( just burned some of the plastic liner). I towed it home and figured out that there's a big hole in the block when i inspected it. motor has 69k as of today.

What's Next:
So i got 2 options
1. I found a used motor for about $1400 with 62k miles on it. Get the used motor, install and retune.
2. fully build another motor and not have to worry about this happening again ( who do you guys recommend for doing the build and for parts)

Obviously the second option is the better option but it's not exactly cheap. The reason I put the first option in there is because I know this motor can easily handle 450-500whp with a proper tune. I've always had issues with my tune and I think that's the reason it gave out because the car was only making 356whp. Also, MAF location of the stillen kit could have contributed because it's reading the wrong IATs. stock pulley on the supercharger. Only thing i upgraded was the heat exchanger. I upgraded from the stillen one to the frozenboost one about a month ago.

Would be nice to hear everyone's opinions and recommendations.

I think it depends on what your goals are. If you plan on sticking with the Stillen then you should just throw another used motor in there and call it a day. Keep in mind though, trying to get over 400whp with the Stillen will just guarantee you more blown motors.

If you plan on swapping to a turbo kit and looking for 550+whp then a built motor would be a 'nice to have'. If there aren't any good engine builders near you then you can look at the offerings Kyle has at Import Parts Pro.

I'm planning to stay with the stillen kit but I will be switching to air to air. From what I've read, it takes care of all the issues that made it dangerous to try to make over 400whp. I'm planning to try to hit 450-500whp and I hear that's fairly safe with the a2a kit.

I have still seen motors blown even with the air to air setup. Seriously, if you want over 400whp ditch the Stillen. Otherwise stick with it throw another stock block in and be content with 400whp.

content with 400whp it is then. Really don't wanna blow another one

is it really the stillen kit causin the issues even with all the precautionary components like a2a and frozenboost...
id suspect is more tuning than anything... am I wrong...
would you be able to exceed 400rwhp if used with built internals...
what is it about the mechanics of the stillen kit that is blowing motors... im not seeing it..

Spot on. OP, you need to find a new tuner.

I think it's a combination of a bad tune and issues with the kit. I was never happy with the tune and should have retuned a long time ago. I'm def retuning when I get the new engine is. I just didn't even know remote tuning was a thing and the person that originally tuned my car is the only one in the state that tunes this car so I didn't have much of a choice. The kit has multiple flaws. first issue is the stock exchanger which i upgraded to the frozenboost one and the second issue is placement of the MAF sensors which could have contributed to the failure.

I would think that is the main issue as most tuning, until Ecutek came, was done off of the MAF sensors. With the MAF sensor in the bumper BEFORE the blower how can you tune for IAT and PSI going in?

Perhaps now that cars can be tuned MAP via Ecutek tuning things could change.. But the history is still there and the Stillen Supercharger kit is the reigning king of blown motors. I even recall a few years ago someone on these forums got their G Sedan tuned at Stillen and the motor blew a month or so later.

If you can't find a good local tuner, go with an e-tune. Seb at SpecialtyZ tuned me from across the country and I'm on the stillen kit as well. If you aren't looking to add more boost, you should probably stick with the W-A. What I do suggest is that you switch over to SD tuning on EcuTek to avoid your MAFs tuning issues.

Yeah we all know stillen's can tune is absolute garbage. I've heard of a lot of people blowing their motors about a month after that tune. My car lasted about 5 months of actual driving on a full custom tune and it was only making 356whp. I had blown my transmission already before it even made it off the dyno when it was getting the initial tune.

I've spoken to Seb and he recommended the a2a kit but said if i don't go that route, I should get rid of the y pipe and put a filter directly on the blower and still relocate the MAFs and also upgrade to the tial BOV. I'm more than willing to push more boost if i can do it reliably with the a2a kit. I'd upgrade to the 9psi pulley and do E85 but I'm skeptical on if I can do that reliably. I would hate for the motor to blow again a few months later.

Yeah, Seb has pretty much tuned all the cars with the A2A kit, which is why he is a great option. I'm currently the only A2A G that I know of, so here's my 2 cents.

1. Agree - Remove the Y pipe and add the filter directly on the volute of the blower because the design is terrible. This will actually net you another pound of boost at least fyi. From here, I would get tuned via SD and disable the MAFs. You could also relocate the MAFs to the charge pipe if you want to, but I see no reason to it if you can go SD.

2. A2A kit (includes y pipe delete and filter upgrade) + BPV + 9psi pulley + E85 should be fine. This option will obviously be more expensive and more involved, but will provide more reliable power due to lower IATs.

Honestly, I haven't really seen any issues with people on the stock kit as long as they were tuned via SD on EcuTek. If you look at the Q50 guys, there's a couple running strong pushing high boost on the W-A kit tuned via SD.

No he was actually tuned on the dyno at Stillen, not a canned tune. I mean if Stillen themselves can't tune their own kit..

That is quite an amount of additional work/money to be spent on top of the amount that was already wasted on the Stillen SC itself to "maybe" get 500+whp reliably. I'd guess that the cost of the kit, modifications to it, and another motor would be more than if you went with a turbo setup to begin with which usually start off around 500+whp.

Based on your research it seems you are interested in getting more power. If that truly is the case, why are you even considering sticking with the Stillen? The kit is good for what it can provide out of the box (~400whp) but if you are seeking more it is a total waste and if you are going to get a new motor put in that is the absolute best time to do a turbo setup.

I agree that it's probably not worth it to the OP to do such an extensive upgrade. I went through this, so I'm well aware of the costs. To my knowledge, there's no single turbo setup for the 7at G, so he would have to go TT, which I doubt he wants to do.

Another option is to sell the Stillen kit and wait for RJM's Whipple kit to come out.