WTB: Supercharger Kit for Z4M - VF570 or VT525

[NotAJock]

BIMMERPOST / Classifieds

Asking Price:

None

Item Interest

Looking for a used supercharger kit for a potential project. Must be complete and ideally installed and removed professionally. Let me know what you got.

[WeekendWarriorz]

Good luck finding this one, not many of them out there! VF kit is better quality by far.

Just be careful if you buy a used VF kit it better be mint with every single piece there. VF providing good support off a used kit? You're better winning the lottery. Their customer service is inversely proportional to the quality of the kits.

ESS wise, you'll get great customer service. This is coming from someone who had a VF N/A tune and blower on their car.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by WeekendWarriorz

Just be careful if you buy a used VF kit it better be mint with every single piece there. VF providing good support off a used kit? You're better winning the lottery. Their customer service is inversely proportional to the quality of the kits.

I have a feeling that the TS will visit Frank Smith Tuning for the software part of his project, which is probably the most finnecky part requiering the most support.

[WeekendWarriorz]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

I have a feeling that the TS will visit Frank Smith Tuning for the software part of his project, which is probably the most finnecky part requiering the most support.

Not just software, replacement parts

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by WeekendWarriorz

Not just software, replacement parts

Thats quite serious if an organisation has difficulties shipping parts
Thats the easiest thing to do generally.

With ESS I never had any problems about that.
I have recieved the wrong parts at one point (mind you this was over 9 years ago when their webshop was still somewhat undevelopped, so I got parts for an e46 and not a z4; they slightly differ), but one phonecall and a few days later I recieved the right parts and got to keep the wrong parts.

Service wise they were great, both on the phone (their norwegian mechanic/shop floor manager actually diagnosed a hardware fault listening through the phone ) and per email,
So they always took their time and interest, also after I purchased their stuff (as it should be in this branch, service is everything)

[WeekendWarriorz]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

Thats quite serious if an organisation has difficulties shipping parts
Thats the easiest thing to do generally.

From someone I follow

[GuidoK]

Yes thats pretty serious.
Here I've also read that there also have been VF customers with the vf570 kits driven an inch from the madhouse because of their customer service. (wasn't that member Rated M for roadster? )

The only problem I had with ESS tuning was their shipping time. They (and I) use 24h shipping with ups, but they are located in such a remote area in Norway (I deal with ESS europe), that the postal truck only comes there once a week (so 24hrs UPS shipping seems to be to Oslo airport and not the norwegian bushbush).
Normally not a problem, but I wanted to use that car for a holiday alpine hoon. Still my tuned ecu got delivered in time.
As far as shipping, wrong parts etc they are very easy and certainly not let you pay for any extra costs.

I would never buy something like a supercharger kit from VF. Not that I dont trust their hardware quality but all their stories about customer service... thats not something I want to deal with. I'm a competent mechanic but still you need their help. The chance that there is a wrong part in your kit, or a broken part or something else thats not 100% is more a rule than an exeption, with all suppliers from these kits (things go wrong at ess, but also at VF or AA or G-power).

As far as spares go I'm usually the first one to look for who was the original OEM for that part and buy it in the aftermarket (that obviously doesnt work for bespoke parts like some silicone piping, brackets etc, but the belts, tensioners/rollers etc are usually off the shelf products. My rolles come from a toyota camry... At ess $90, at napa or such $15...sorry ESS...I'm just like that, cheap,...

[LevelM]

I sold my vf570 kit locally to a guy for his e46 m3. Someone side swipped his car before he had a chance to install.
I ran it on my z4m.
Dont know what people say but Mike from VF was very helpful and fast when i needed some parts.

Let me know if interested i will pass on guys info and you can make a deal with him.
Cheers

[GuidoK]

Good to read that ist not all hell and suffering at VFs customer support.
I have no personal experience with them, I only had contact with AA, ESS and G-power (all those were OK, especially ESS and G-power but that might be due to that those actually have z4 kits, AA doesnt.).
I base my opinion on VF on what I read. Good to see that they also do things right.
But the multiple negative stories scare me. I dont know if thats good reason, but it just does; on ESS or G-power you read virtually no bad stories, except on b-i-m-m-e-r-boost, but the administrator there has a personal vendetta with Asbjorn (ESS)(they have a personal history)

All these kits are shipped or constructed or tuned in such a way that its imho over a 60% chance that at one time you'll need customer support (this can be advice, a wrong part, broken part in shipping, etc etc), prior to long term use that parts actually start to wear.

And there's no such thing as a perfect supercharger kit. Every kit has its pro and cons, either in performance, smoothness, quality, longevity, service etc etc.

[NotAJock]

Originally Posted by WeekendWarriorz

...

Originally Posted by GuidoK

...

Thank you guys for the info, will certainly keep that in mind.

Originally Posted by LevelM

I sold my vf570 kit locally to a guy for his e46 m3. Someone side swipped his car before he had a chance to install.
I ran it on my z4m.
Dont know what people say but Mike from VF was very helpful and fast when i needed some parts.

Let me know if interested i will pass on guys info and you can make a deal with him.
Cheers

I'm interested, please do. Thank you!

[WeekendWarriorz]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

Good to read that ist not all hell and suffering at VFs customer support.
I have no personal experience with them, I only had contact with AA, ESS and G-power (all those were OK, especially ESS and G-power but that might be due to that those actually have z4 kits, AA doesnt.).
I base my opinion on VF on what I read. Good to see that they also do things right.
But the multiple negative stories scare me. I dont know if thats good reason, but it just does; on ESS or G-power you read virtually no bad stories, except on b-i-m-m-e-r-boost, but the administrator there has a personal vendetta with Asbjorn (ESS)(they have a personal history)

All these kits are shipped or constructed or tuned in such a way that its imho over a 60% chance that at one time you'll need customer support (this can be advice, a wrong part, broken part in shipping, etc etc), prior to long term use that parts actually start to wear.

And there's no such thing as a perfect supercharger kit. Every kit has its pro and cons, either in performance, smoothness, quality, longevity, service etc etc.

Sticky on Bimmerpost is a Gintani supercharged customer which gintani is just.. well you can do the research. Not surprised with his hate towards ESS.

In terms of ESS I actually called them today to ask about a kit and talked to AJ. Try calling VF and talking to them about a kit I couldn't even get a sales rep to talk to me for more than 5 minutes when I went in person to their shop last week.

The VF kit is my favorite by far, but with myself going to be racing the car and running full e85, meth, and pushing the limits customer support is important. Good luck OP!

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by WeekendWarriorz

Sticky on Bimmerpost is a Gintani supercharged customer which gintani is just a scam in general. Not surprised with his hate towards ESS.

Yes indeed, Sticky, that was his name. (I havent been there in quite some time).
I dont know what happend between Sticky and AJ, but all I know is they know eachother from some meeting/event and something happened between the two
So the hate is maybe more personal than technical. Sticky is a huge twinscrew fan.
He always raves about the twinscrew system, how much better it is than roots and in efficiency rivals centrifugal without the downsides etc, and as it happens ESS is currently (and has been) the only company that makes a twinscrew bmw kit
I think Harrop (another awesome engineering firm btw) now also makes a TVS set for the e92 m3 but I think an Eaton TVS is still technical a Roots and not a twinscrew...

I'm not really familiar with gintani. I know they have an e46 m3 centrifugal kit (vortech based) which look ok but thats all I know.
I dont know if they've been around for a long time like for example G-power. Thats for example a company with an extreme long record/experience in this business

But I also like Sticky. Its a bit of an odd forum that he runs, but the level of knowledge of some of the members there is pretty high.
But if I read all the mishaps between Sticky, AJ and all the others in the supercharged scene, I'm glad I live on the other side of the world. The Germans, Norwegians, British and Dutch are pretty easy to get along with
From what communication I had with AJ and Hans (he runs the shop in Norway) it'll be pretty difficult to get into a fight with them, they are extremely patient and interested (only Sticky can pull that off apparantly )

But in the end this is all a dying art as factory turbo cars become the standard. None of these companies are a known name in turbo development, so they have huge competition in that field (burger motorsports and such)

....TS sorry to pollute your topic but its all in the name of general interest. We all seem to like AJ (ESS boss)