Camaro5 Chevy Camaro Forum / Camaro ZL1, SS and V6 Forums - Camaro5.com

A tale of MY experience in search of applied HP (Vortech SC and blower cam install).

Any of the local guys that have been talking to me know that I've been in search of either home DIY install help, or a reputable shop to perform the install since January of this year. In the reputable shop arena there was no shortage in recommendations, and every shop that I reached out to was extremely generous with advice and answering the multitude of questions an inexperienced gear-head like myself had. Specific shout outs to Janetty, RPM, and T&T for topping this list of extremely helpful vendors pre-sale.

I have a fairly hectic work schedule, which contributed greatly to the amount of time I had a SC kit sitting on the floor of my garage. The other contributor to the delay was my insistence on learning from the install process. A lot of people are fine with dropping their car off with their mod request and waiting for the call to pick it up when it's ready. That's fine for those. I'm not that person. So much so that to a degree, I would put the learning requirement above price in the decision making process (luckily I didn't have to). Each shop has their own rules and policies by which they abide so I don't think any less of a shop that doesn't allow customers in the service areas, though T&T Performance was the only shop I talked to that allowed this.

Not only did I get to watch and learn from Tim's (owner) vast knowledge on our car's specifically, but he has an excellent lead tech (MustangKiller) that performed a large portion of the work as well. He was willing to teach as long and often as I would listen; tons of hours (be careful asking questions if you're on the clock). I took full advantage and was there every day all day of the process. On another note, he's mid-way through a monster motor swap, but that's another topic.

Now comes another very important factor when considering shop work, price. I'm not going to go too far in to the details of this. Though, I will tell you that T&T had the best prices for the specific work required to complete my job. Always a lot of variables with each job so your mileage may very. That said, my advice would be to at least obtain a quote if you need some work done. My savings were significant when compared to others.

Now the install. Again, it might just be my own inexperience, but I couldn't get over how familiar with our cars specifically T&T is. I mean down to knowing the size and location of every bolt on the block by memory. That knowledge is a great when learning how to do specific things, and what newbs like myself should watch out for if attempting it on my own. Stuff happens and you can't predict what you'll run in to in each job, but this went flawlessly. The only stoppage was when my used SC kit was identified to have been missing a piece or two and having to wait for overnight shipping.

Since I've noticed that Tim's personal character has been attacked in other threads, I thought it important to mention this aspect of my experience as well. I don't claim to know the details of all the other threads, so don't come in and jack my thread. I'm just saying what I experienced. As mentioned above my SC kit was used and as such was missing a few things. Not a problem but we had overlooked one part when we were making the overnight orders for the others; the 3-bar map sensor. Rather than making me wait 24 hours for a new order to be placed and delivered, he took the one of out of his car and put it in mine so we could get to the tuning. That was great so I didn't end up wasting an hour drive each way. It also caused him to miss the MD Camaro club meet.

The dyno tuning. Well, as you can see from my signature, it went great. At the end of the day I ended up with 649 RWHP (255 RWHP net) from the SC, cam and re-tune on a daily driver.

Overall this was an extremely positive experience. I got my parts installed, and got to learn the entire way, at a VERY respectable price. It's safe to say that T&T has my business with anything else I need go forward.