02SVTSEDAN,Nov 6 2006, 12:51 AM Wrote:I fell apon this car looking for a beater!...Good buy but the motor wont last long with that kind of boost..Trust me I went throw a motor with the same type of boost and lets just say I had fun till she died..
If you are going to buy this car you need to sink in some more money for stronger internals like the SVT Focus or just buying aftermarket Valves,Cylinders etc. And don't forget fuel delivery and tuning..
Cheers,
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HUH?
I don't think you were looking at the right link or something.
That car was my car, boosted to 9PSI, at a very safe 11.9 A/F ratio (yes, there's even a wideband O2 in that car)... the tune is conservatively safe...
The last dyno I had it on, it pushed out 191WHP and 180FT-LBs running on a bad MAF (so I find out later) @ about 11.5:1 a/f... that car should be safely making close to 200WHP... on a stock exhaust no less.
The only noise the car makes is the supercharger whine, and I loved it that way... especially considering how much attention the body kit got from the fart can crowd... this car was faster than the speed of *FFRRRRRRAAAAAAAPPPP*.
I see they washed the engine bay... hope they didn't get too much water in the ball-o-wire distribution block the Tuner Transformation guys put in. This is the same ball of wire DaSilva Racing and Steeda both refused to touch.
Anyways, the car runs pretty darn good... the buyer should first be aware of all the maintenance required for maintaining the supercharger, as well as the brakes (which may have a broken retaining clip so the pads will grind/squeel and wear somewhat unevenly --thank you KVR!).
Not to mention that the supercharger install was basically done wrong as well as the body kit...
The TT guys couldn't buy a clue to save their lives unfortunately, and the list is long on stuff that I am not happy with on that car (and hence why I dumped it)... someone who's got time and money to spend.. well, the car would be worth it... but it won't come cheaply.
nice things about the car..
all leather
power sun roof
advance trac traction control
bad things..
every bolt/clip holding the bumper on is stripped or broken
huge gaping hole drilled in hatch for rear wing which wasn't required.. looks hideous... ugh
power steering return line was cut wrong and patched together with a hose clamp... it doesn't leak, but it ain't pretty either.
tune could use a bit more work on the idle air control valve to improve driveability.
ball-o-wire distribution block under hood
water intercooler is powered by accessories - not just 'run'
front brakes grind and squeel
alarm's proximity warn away will wear battery down if left undriven too long
battery is behind bumper under headlight.
headlights are held in by 1 bolt and 1 stripped bolt-clip each
air intake at bumper level... sometimes the flexhose would work loose if the dealership was working on it or something.. hasn't been a problem the last couple years tho..
things I fixed...
installed 1 step colder copper plugs and properly gapped to remove hesitation on WOT
removed vortech chip and did my own tune
replaced MAF with SVT MAF and relocated IAT sensor
installed Wideband O2 and boost gauge (with help from meford and son)
fixed the paint damage in the engine bay from when the TT guys walked a drill bit all over the place to drill A HOLE.
installed alarm
re-wired marker lamp as battery tray was improperly installed, interfering with the corner marker.
Now the dealership has the original MAF and vortech chip and flasher (but no software). I told them that if they run into any problems with the tune or driveability, they should just flash the stock program back in, put the vortech chip on and the stock MAF and call it a day.
Anyways.. for 10G worth of equipment on this $16,000 car, the car's not a terrible deal.. just know what you're getting into.
I know I personally wouldn't sell the car to a friend.