Stkjock, let me say one thing...then its all technical after this.
Wow... Man you guys are passionate!!!
I think some of you may be more upset than me. Thank you for the support though!!
Frankly, I don't blame anyone. Like some have said, building a high horsepower motor/vehicle is a gamble and I understand that.
First of all, Jim Jr has been great answering all my questions and concerns. I am happy with the motor as this baby made over 600 rwhp up to the day it was pulled. Even with washed out cylinder walls it still made over 600 rwhp and over 580 rwtq at 16 PSI with only 16 degrees timing using 92 octane fuel. It never smoked or did anything unusual other than consume oil.
Now, my only grief with JDM was the tune experience. I could not get a working tune out of them, car stalled, RPMs shot up, etc... I understand race season was coming up and Jim Sr which creates all the tunes was not readily available. After spending one year putting my car together and over $40,000 in parts and what have you, I wanted to drive the car. Reluctantly, I looked for reputable local tuners and finally through word of mouth ended up contracting Lito's services. Lito got the car up and running in two revisions. Even though I was tuning with Lito, I still tried to work with JDM to get me a tune. I spent another $1,000 on a local shop that supposedly worked with JDM to try to get me a working tune; we got close but still had drive-ability issues. JDM's and Lito's tune were identical...horsepower and torque numbers were within 5-6 HP/TQ. The only difference was that Lito's tune drove like stock.
So, other than the whole tuning issue, JDM has been great!!! Would I get another motor from JDM? Sure I would!! But in all honesty, if I am not local to NJ, I would go elsewhere to have it tuned after my experience. Now, I am not saying JDM can't tune, I just feel Jim Sr was not there for me as he was distracted with his race team. Lots of great JDM tunes out there. Check out their drag car, its awesome!!!
My only suggestion to JDM is to get a dedicated person to create and handle tunes.
Jim Sr is too involved in R&D and the race team to effectively provide reasonable tuning service (long distance-wise).
Moving on, I wish I knew then what I know now. I would have never gone with FRPP 80LB injectors. I believe my issues all stem from the 80LB injectors. Jim Jr did initially suggest the 60LB injectors, but after researching and talking to Ford Racing, they advised the 60LB at my (at the time) power goal (700 rwhp) was too small; 80LB were recommended. I debated this with Jim Jr and we settled upon the 80LB since Jim Jr said they can tune for it. Being a Ford OEM part and tons of people running them what was the harm?
Now, I run and will only run from now on ID1000s.
These ID1000s are amazing!! I wish I would have gotten them first.
So, where are we at now?
The motor is completely torn apart with exception of the short block:
I will be sending the short block to C&D Engine Performance; after numerous recommendations and several high horsepower street and race car owners high praises. They will tear apart, inspect, and rebuild the short block.
I don't expect any warranty or financial compensation from JDM. Jim Jr did suggest I ship the motor back to them, but frankly shipping the motor to and from JDM would have cost a lot more than just having it done locally and would take longer. JDM would not do anything different than a reputable local shop would do. The cost of one way shipping to JDM cost the same as having the motor redone locally.
I ordered new heads from Tasca as Steve gave me an awesome deal on Stage 2 FRPP heads (standard CNC-Ported heads). My current JDM motor had new FRPP production heads JDM put together. I ordered new heads as I was 90% convinced it was the heads that had the issue. I still haven't torn them apart, but I can say with 95% certainty after looking at the cylinder walls that its most likely not the heads. But I did wish I had put the Stage 2 FRPP heads on initially, so here they are; who doesn't want more power?? lol
So I will have short block rebuilt by a local engine builder. I definitely would like JDM's collaboration during this process as I feel they have a great performing setup. Hopefully JDM doesn't put me on their blacklist after this thread.
I bet there will be challenges with the new engine builder as I can see him recommending reducing the compression ratio with the boost and fuel I am running. But we will deal with that when the time comes. I will definitely post all the technical details.
I don't want this thread to turn into a finger pointing or bad mouthing anyone.
Like I said JDM is great and they know what they are doing. Would I recommend them? Yes and I have to several people, but I have warned them about the tuning part relating to my own personal experience.
So lets move on and get into the nitty gritty of making big power!!!!!
