Prodigy Performance JL Stage 2 Turbo Kit installed

[jimlove9771]

This week I had my Jeep regeared, as I promised I would, from stock 3.45 to 4.88. Before when I went for 0-60 time I would preload the engine to 1500 rpm while holding the brake and then release while hitting WOT. The car would accelerate quickly and I achieved a 0-60 time of 5.51 secs. Now without preloading but just slamming WOT the Jeep smokes the tires. I have to let off the gas just to stop the wheel spin. It’s a whole new world! I can’t yet go for a new 0-60 time because the new tune is in its infancy and my tuner has cautioned me not to hit WOT for more that 3 secs. Can’t wait til the tune is finished and I can go for it.

At that time I will publish my results along with another Dyno test and we can all see what all of this work and expense has resulted in. Later guys.

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[FlyByU]

Exciting!!! Any reason you cant run your Prodigy provided tune to do some runs to compare apples to apples on the gear change? Gear change and retune will leave us wondering how much of a possible improvement will be from the gears or tune and the combo. Anyway, good stuff regardless.

 

[jimlove9771]

Exciting!!! Any reason you cant run your Prodigy provided tune to do some runs to compare apples to apples on the gear change? Gear change and retune will leave us wondering how much of a possible improvement will be from the gears or tune and the combo. Anyway, good stuff regardless.

You make a very good point and there is no reason why I can’t do that so I will. Unfortunately today is a rainy day but as soon as the roads are dry I will put back the Prodigy tune and get the best 0-60 and 1/4 mi runs that I can and publish them. This will give us a direct comparison of before and after regearing.

 

[FlyByU]

Cool

 

[jimlove9771]

While I am waiting for dry weather I made an aesthetic and luxurious upgrade to my interior. Below are before and after photos. Thank you Katzkin!

 

[FlyByU]

Hey Jim, where did you find that mount for your gauges.

 

[jimlove9771]

Hey Jim, where did you find that mount for your gauges.

Glowshift.com. It’s a universal mount.

 

[jimlove9771]

Just for all of you who are interested, and this is not for the faint of heart, my total investment in this project including the purchase of the Jeep is $61,750! Those of you considering tackling a similar project prepare your self.

 

[JC7]

This week I had my Jeep regeared, as I promised I would, from stock 3.45 to 4.88. Before when I went for 0-60 time I would preload the engine to 1500 rpm while holding the brake and then release while hitting WOT. The car would accelerate quickly and I achieved a 0-60 time of 5.51 secs. Now without preloading but just slamming WOT the Jeep smokes the tires. I have to let off the gas just to stop the wheel spin. It’s a whole new world! I can’t yet go for a new 0-60 time because the new tune is in its infancy and my tuner has cautioned me not to hit WOT for more that 3 secs. Can’t wait til the tune is finished and I can go for it.

At that time I will publish my results along with another Dyno test and we can all see what all of this work and expense has resulted in. Later guys.

You did a 0-60 the same week you regeared? Lol

 

[jimlove9771]

Let me give all of you guys an extreme word of caution. This morning I was testing my latest tune with a WOT after sufficient warmup. The engine blew! Completely destroyed. A new long black is required. Don’t know total cost yet, bet but just guessing somewhere in the 10-15k range. So if you are thinking of adding additional boost (which I had not yet done), don’t.

I will keep you informed as to my final solution. I believe that I will upgrade to Prodigy’s performance kit which is new forged pistons and rods et al. This will ensure that engine failure doesn’t reoccurr. It will add the advantage of additional performance. Prodigy says they have one operating at 18 psi with over 500 RWHP.

Although I wish this hadn’t happened, the silver lining is that I will possibly have the most powerful Jeep JL (short of an engine swap HEMI) in the world. Be careful you guys.

 

[jimlove9771]

I just spoke with Todd at Prodigy and let me expand on my explanation of my engine failure. I don’t in any way blame either Prodigy or my tuner OST Dyno. Fist let me say that I do have a Turbosmart single mode manual controller in line with my wastegate but it is completely shut off. My intent today was to test the latest tune first and see what the situation was and then if I thought I could add boost I would do so and test it again. My previous test showed a max boost of 7.8 psi. I was going to add a small amount to about 8.5 and see what happened. Unfortunately I did not get that far. Please don’t attribute my engine failure to either Prodigy or OST Dyno. It was just very bad luck. I still have the greatest of confidence in both support/suppliers. In fact Prodigy is doing their very best to help me recover from this unfortunate disaster. As always I will keep you followers informed with my situation.

Jim Love

 

[rustyshakelford]

I just spoke with Todd at Prodigy and let me expand on my explanation of my engine failure. I don’t in any way blame either Prodigy or my tuner OST Dyno. Fist let me say that I do have a Turbosmart single mode manual controller in line with my wastegate but it is completely shut off. My intent today was to test the latest tune first and see what the situation was and then if I thought I could add boost I would do so and test it again. My previous test showed a max boost of 7.8 psi. I was going to add a small amount to about 8.5 and see what happened. Unfortunately I did not get that far. Please don’t attribute my engine failure to either Prodigy or OST Dyno. It was just very bad luck. I still have the greatest of confidence in both support/suppliers. In fact Prodigy is doing their very best to help me recover from this unfortunate disaster. As always I will keep you followers informed with my situation.

Jim Love

Man I hate to hear that. You’re taking the high road and I have the utmost respect for that but the fact you had a catastrophic engine failure after installing a turbo makes me wonder what these 3.6s can really handle. Even at 8 psi I would think you’d been bottom end work and studs at a minimum. Have they torn it down yet and seen what happened? Did you put a window in the block?

Once you get it back together if you ever need any Jeep work for the fun stuff let us know. Would love to check out what you’ve done. We’re out of Navasota so about 45 mins from ya

Brett

 

[jimlove9771]

As it turns out I was data logging when the engine gave up. I can’t say for sure but the circumstances certainly would lead one to believe that it was the boost controller which failed causing the catastrophic failure of the engine. Just before testing I inserted a brand new boost controller from Turbosmart. With it cranked down to zero. According to the log as I hit WOT the boost instead of being limited to 8 psi spiked to 29 pst at which time the engine gave up, no wonder. For the future I will eliminate the controller. It’s the second controller from a Turbosmart which failed on me. They have an excellent reputation but make your own judgement.

 

[rustyshakelford]

As it turns out I was data logging when the engine gave up. I can’t say for sure but the circumstances certainly would lead one to believe that it was the boost controller which failed causing the catastrophic failure of the engine. Just before testing I inserted a brand new boost controller from Turbosmart. With it cranked down to zero. According to the log as I hit WOT the boost instead of being limited to 8 psi spiked to 29 pst at which time the engine gave up, no wonder. For the future I will eliminate the controller. It’s the second controller from a Turbosmart which failed on me. They have an excellent reputation but make your own judgement.

What failed? Just lifted the heads or blow out the bottom end? When the boost went super high did the add fuel to compensate?

Brett

 

[AZDustMuncher]

As it turns out I was data logging when the engine gave up. I can’t say for sure but the circumstances certainly would lead one to believe that it was the boost controller which failed causing the catastrophic failure of the engine. Just before testing I inserted a brand new boost controller from Turbosmart. With it cranked down to zero. According to the log as I hit WOT the boost instead of being limited to 8 psi spiked to 29 pst at which time the engine gave up, no wonder. For the future I will eliminate the controller. It’s the second controller from a Turbosmart which failed on me. They have an excellent reputation but make your own judgement.

Look at the bright side, for a split second just before that rod gave out I bet it would be safe to that you did have the most powerful 3.6L JL on the planet.

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