For the past 3 months we have been trying in vain to keep our LSJ Stage 3 kit in stock. It is selling so well and so many people are enjoying its benifits that our suppliers are hard pressed to keep up the pace. A lot of people have been asking about belt slippage and if we plan on using GM's reflash for fueling and whether or not we are future proofing the kit so I thought I would post a few ideas, statements, and thoughts regarding the kit.

On cars with more than a few miles on them (10k ish) and a few directly from the factory (weak tensioners?) belt slippage seems to be an issue. While the correct way to handle this is with a smaller belt we have had a hard time sourcing one. We are waiting for the GM stage 2 kit to be released and we will attempt to stock the belt that comes with that kit. In the meantime we found a larger supercharger tensioner pulley that will take up the slack but requires some slight grinding to the tensioner bracket. This may be the answer for some and depending on the price of the smaller belt may be the cheapest alternative.

We have our feelers out to a few people regarding PCM access and we hope to make some inroads regarding this after GM releases its kits. We hope to be able to learn from it regarding tuning and improve our kit. The 04 Redlines especially may benefit from this upgrade as it appears that the PCM tune is either poorly written or very much hampered by some sort of torque management. Here is why I say this:

We have been getting a few reports from 04 Redline owners where the kit set with our recommended settings has been either causing the car to run extremely rich or "chuggy" or no power. We were unable to figure out why but finally had an 04 Redline visit us on Friday and we took it to the dyno. It appears that even with stock MAF, Plugs, injectors, and a 2.8 pulley the PCM is either unable to account for the extra boost or is hampered by torque managment settings. The AF curve is completely wacked out. It is possible that there are dead spots in the AF programming or random data in MAF ranges that GM engineers never expected people to get to. The 05s work well with our kit just as the 05 and 06 cobalts do. We are experimenting with using 05 PCM code in 04s to see if this can be done to correct the problem. Until then, if you have an 04 redline and are experiencing problems with our kit, our suggestion is to return the MAFT, Injectors, 2.8 pulley and stick on a 3.0 pulley. The PCM seems to be able handle this much boost and with a 3.0 your not in danger of going to lean on the top end.

We hope to make some progress on this front for the 04 guys but until then I am taking them off our application list for the Stage 3 Kit. As for the rest of you feel free to post questions regarding the kit and its future direction and enhancements here.

 

good update! That is bad to hear about the 04 owners.. wonder why they cheapened on programming for that year. My guess is because they just wanted to get the product out so quickly and did a sloppy job in the process.

 

They just used the 04 RL as test dummys to see what would happen. So pretty much you should thank all of us 04 RL owners that took the programming hit for you cobalt guys. I ordered the GM stage 1 kit already just for the reflash cuz I've already known that the 04 programming is BS. I bog out when I launch and noone else does (all have 05 RL's) but my car has taken all my mods and has taken them well. I never have any knock and the car runs like a champ, I just cant wait for the reflash. Im assuming that my car is holding something deep inside itself that it wants to let out but it cant until GM tells it too. Thanks for all your hard work intense. I wont be going with your kit cuz I want to give GM a try with thiers but we have a guy down here that has your system (an 05) and his car is a bat out of hell. Maybe once I get my reflash I'll see what you guys have got going on and when I go for power outside of GM your guys will definatly be it.

 

question I have for GM although I am sure they cannot answer it for me is will this bring the PCM up to date for all year models to the newest or do they have seperate PCM's for certain years that still has programming specifics. The world may never know...

 

I've heard that the new program that comes with the stage kits will level the playing field for all years.

 

I sure hope so

 

Yea me to, I have a 2004.

 

Yes I have the Intense kit on my 04 right now and its not working so great, its wonderful to know after you buy it that it doesn't work for you application. Whoo-hoo

 

Thats why they offered you a refund It happens sometimes when you are told that the pcm's are all the same, guess thier source was wrong.

Props to them for admitting to an error and offering a refund.

 

Given the info above though , if the stg1 PCM does bring all years to equality .....you could order GM stg 1 kit for the tuning , fine tune the MafT for the 2.8 pulley , sell the injectors that come with stg. 1 or sell the intense injectors to recoup a little bit of money .....and be a leg up on everyone else and have a bitchin Redline in the process .

If a pcm tuning is not available by late spring thats the formula Im gonna use . GM Stg 1 for tuning , with the Intense stg3 , and fine tune with the MafT for the 2.8 .

 

INTENSE is offering a refund to all 04' RL owners who bought their kit...

That sucks for 04' RL's...

I will be installing the kit this saturday when I get my car out of storage...

 

We are offering refunds to the 04 Redlne owners. I will put an announcement up on our site on Monday. We suggest that you use a 3.0 pulley instead of the 2.8. That coupled with the boost bypass mod will get you some good power increase without the fear of going lean and since you already have our MPS hub on it will be simple change. If you have an 04 and would like to return it, just shoot me an email and I'll take care of you on Monday.