Prodigy JL Turbo Kit experience

[jimlove9771]

I started this thread to encourage any or all other Prodigy JL Turbo kit owners to come forward and voice their experiences with their kits, good or bad and as of yet no one has responded. Please chime in. If I am off base say so. If I am right then speak up and warn others not to waste their money.

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[alphalife9]

I started this thread to encourage any or all other Prodigy JL Turbo kit owners to come forward and voice their experiences with their kits, good or bad and as of yet no one has responded. Please chime in. If I am off base say so. If I am right then speak up and warn others not to waste their money.

Based on your experience as documented here, I would say you are being too kind. Definitely saved me $10K.

I hope Prodigy figures out how to make things right with you. Hopefully you'll get the results they advertise someday or be compensated to some degree if its not possible to deliver on what you were sold.

 

[ShawnC]

Prodigy just sent out an email blast (I received one) asking for "positive" owner stories... they also touted 2020 JT/JL compatibility...

Have they given you a response to this dyno test result? Or one other than "every dyno is different"?

Looking at what you went through, and the avoidance of honest questions I asked them over the phone, it almost looks like they removed all the hype gains from their site then bumped down the performance of their tune to something that is over-conservative.

This stinks... not just for all of us considering their kit, but especially for you or anyone else thats been burned by their marketing hype and poor performance...

I started this thread to encourage any or all other Prodigy JL Turbo kit owners to come forward and voice their experiences with their kits, good or bad and as of yet no one has responded. Please chime in. If I am off base say so. If I am right then speak up and warn others not to waste their money.

 

[jimlove9771]

And to think that I was the absolute very first customer of Prodigy to have installed and operating of their new JL Turbo Kit. I trusted in them and this is where I ended up.

 

[ShawnC]

And to think that I was the absolute very first customer of Prodigy to have installed and operating of their new JL Turbo Kit. I trusted in them and this is where I ended up.

Do they know about your current dyno results? Have they commented?

 

[jimlove9771]

I sent them a copy but they won’t talk to me anymore. I threatened to publish it if they couldn’t improve on it at which point we both became very angry and ceased to communicate. So I published it.

Remember I paid them $400 for remote tuning service plus $200 for HP tuners credits and you have seen the results.

 

[Fire Burns]

I've got zero dogs in this discussion. Hell, I have the 3.6L! But I do read with sad fascination the issues these days of trying to improve power from the factory. If folks are getting mediocre results after spending $10k (or more) for a new turbo, you can pretty much forget about adding even modest (i.e. noticeable) gains for a naturally aspirated engine without similar major expense (turbo or supercharger kit). Especially as engineering and computer modeling improve, coupled with increased need for better mileage and engine performance, the factory designers have already nearly fully optimized most major components which the aftermarket had traditionally targeted (intake, fuel systems, headers, exhaust, ecu, etc.). Factory intakes, headers, and exhaust are now so good that it takes a massive engineering effort and cost from the aftermarket to eke out any modicum of improvement. This cost of course is passed to the consumer who must pay an ever increasing amount of money for an ever smaller amount of horsepower. This is further exaggerated on the electronics front as tuners find increased difficulty accessing and modifying modern "locked down" ECUs. Upon cross examination with such tuners, most tough questions are almost never answered in a straightforward way, often giving only vague, or no responses at all. Indeed, to give a legitimate response might give away proprietary information they would prefer the competition does not have (who can blame them), or it might mean they just don't have a satisfactory answer. Either type of response is not exactly confidence building for future potential clients.

Unfortunately for consumers, I don't see the $$:HP ratio improving much going forward, and will likely get worse as time goes on as new, even more efficient models are introduced. Sadly, the golden age of performance tuning shops is likely past...

Thanks for reading.

 

[jimlove9771]

Impressive insight. I wish I had thought it through more closely before I wasted my money.

 

[ShawnC]

There are folks that are really happy with their supercharges... Check out @Torero's posts about his ProCharger experience... they have treated him very well and he seems very happy with the performance. But I agree with you that as engines become more and more efficient, the amount of performance enhancing you can do is limited.

Hopefully we'll see more real world reviews of the Edelbrock, Magnuson, and upcoming RIPP superchargers.

Jim, your experience sounds incredibly horrible. I honestly don't understand how a company can just walk away from an experience like yours. I'm not really a lawyer/suit kind of guy, but given what you've been through it may be worth a shot. Prodigy built some awesome JK's, but I don't think they are being honest about their capabilities with the JL.

For the smarter people on this thread... what could it be about the turbo that is causing so many problems while the supercharger vendors don't seem to be experiencing the same problem?

I've got zero dogs in this discussion. Hell, I have the 3.6L! But I do read with sad fascination the issues these days of trying to improve power from the factory. If folks are getting mediocre results after spending $10k (or more) for a new turbo, you can pretty much forget about adding even modest (i.e. noticeable) gains for a naturally aspirated engine without similar major expense (turbo or supercharger kit). Especially as engineering and computer modeling improve, coupled with increased need for better mileage and engine performance, the factory designers have already mostly optimized nearly all major components which the aftermarket had traditionally targeted (intake, fuel systems, headers, exhaust, ecu, etc.). Factory intakes, headers, and exhaust are now so good that it takes a massive engineering effort and cost from the aftermarket to eke out any modicum of improvement. This cost of course is passed to the consumer who must pay an ever increasing amount of money for an ever smaller amount of horsepower. This is further exaggerated on the electronics front as tuners find increased difficulty accessing and modifying modern "locked down" ECUs. Upon cross examination with such tuners, most tough questions are almost never answered in a straightforward way, often giving only vague, or no responses at all. Indeed, to give a legitimate response might give away proprietary information they would prefer the competition does not have (who can blame them), or it might mean they just don't have a satisfactory answer. Either type of response is not exactly confidence building for future potential clients.

Unfortunately for consumers, I don't see the $$:HP ratio improving much going forward, and will likely get worse as time goes on as new, even more efficient models are introduced. Sadly, the golden age of performance tuning shops is likely past...

Thanks for reading.

 

[jimlove9771]

Prodigy claims that they found the breakthrough in unlocking the ECU that has enabled supercharger manufacturers to make their products viable. Funny part is this is probably true. And Prodigy claims that their turbo system still is superior to all superchargers. All of this is on their web site.

Even if I were to sue, I don’t have the resources. Thus the best I can do is to tell of my experience, post my factual independently measured results and let those who are concerned and might be potentially involved to reach their own conclusions.

 

[rustyshakelford]

Prodigy claims that they found the breakthrough in unlocking the ECU that has enabled supercharger manufacturers to make their products viable. Funny part is this is probably true. And Prodigy claims that their turbo system still is superior to all superchargers. All of this is on their web site.

Even if I were to sue, I don’t have the resources. Thus the best I can do is to tell of my experience, post my factual independently measured results and let those who are concerned and might be potentially involved to reach their own conclusions.

As a neighbor I’m especially upset hearing of your horror story but unfortunately things like this are all to common. Thank you for sharing you experience and hopefully you’ll save others headaches. That’s what makes this community so great is everyone can share their experiences and lessons for others to learn from.

One thing I applaud you is clearly and almost unbiasly giving forth your experience and lessons. At no point have I seen you slander or say anything remotely nasty even though this experience has cost you close to 20k! I could only hope I’d handle the situation as classy as you. Have you loaded your custom tunes back that gave you the best power

Brett

 

[TrailTorque]

Based on your experience as documented here, I would say you are being too kind. Definitely saved me $10K.

I hope Prodigy figures out how to make things right with you. Hopefully you'll get the results they advertise someday or be compensated to some degree if its not possible to deliver on what you were sold.

My thoughts exactly to a (T). Well said.

 

[Kevin Mojito]

need to start a go fund me page for HEMI swap.
Sorry did not mean to pour salt in your wound.

 

[jimlove9771]

Thank you for your support. I know I am understandably biased but I have tried my best to be objective. To answer your question, No. I have yet to make any changes to my last tune from Prodigy. I can’t decide what to do. At this point I have paid precisely $1200 for tuning services and yet I remain confused as to what to do.

Initially my goal was to get as much safe power as possible. Now I have given up and must decide upon what is the best for the longevity and durability of my engine. I have reverted to consulting with my original tuner as to my final course of action. I am still embroiled in that decision.

I am sure that I will survive all this. I just wanted to get my story out in hopes to save at least someone from duplicating my experience

 

[ShawnC]

Prodigy has a user forum on their site now... https://prodigyperformance.com/community/

Looks like its been up about 5 months... says ~200 members registered... but unless I am doing something wrong, the only posts I see (and there are only a handful) are by Prodigy employees... weird...

On a positive note, they just sent another "$1000 off" email blast...

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