My SITE visit to Arizona Speed and Marine! [Archive] - Cherokee SRT8 Forum

: My SITE visit to Arizona Speed and Marine!


BuilderBill
04-16-2007, 02:42 PM
Ok, last Wednesday my wife and I met with the owner of AZ Speed and Marine. When I pulled up to the building I was overwhelmed. It looked magnificent on the exterior. The place is huge and as my wife said, it looks cleaner than some restaurants....even the machine shop.

We were greeted by the owner and he spent over 2 hours with us. The journey started in the impressive lobby (examples of their engines / superchargers etc) and through the glass saw 2 technicians installing the supercharger parts on the JGC. The facilities include full dyno rooms, machine shops, chassis dyno, complete vehicle and boat assembly areas, CAD room, full computer room for modifying and DESIGNING electronic systems. The vehicles there were amazing, we don't want to meet any of these sleepers on the street!

The supercharger for the 6.1 JGC looks beautiful with the polished billet pieces. The stock radiator overflow tank is removed as the supercharger is neatly located on the passenger side and the charge air cooler, with plumbed lines leading to a small radiator in the front of our small grill opening is used. A polished radiator overflow tank is mounted lower to take the place of the plastic tank. A pre-programmed plug in module is neatly plugged into the PCM. An extremely well thought out system. I do think it is priced correctly at $ 7,500 or in that ball park. I'm sure someone out there will once again respond that the superchargers can be had for $ 2,000 on Ebay. :mad:

Now the BAD NEWS:
This ain't going to cut it for MY 426 stroker....damn.
I am going to ship my 426 stroker engine to AZ when it is completed and dyno run in. I will make sure my engine builder puts together a package that puts out the power even at 8.5 compression that it should before I write the final check. AZ will then disassemble the engine to replace the crankshaft tonewheel (targetwheel) with the version I saw. This is due to completely changing the electronics for the PCM. They will then check and assemble the engine and run with their electronics. I will then probably ship them the JGC and have them do the final install and tune.

Please note...I would probably NOT recommend this unless you absolutely need the stroker and perfect electronics. At $ 120 per hour, it will get a expensive and pretty much sideline this project through the summer. The Hennessey SRT 600 price may look like a bargain :eek: even though I am compairing "apples to oranges." There will be at least 2 in existence because as soon as the supercharger is installed on the existing 6.1 JGC the owner of that bad boy does not want to get beat by BuilderBill so his engine / supercharger/ electronics will be duplicated with mine.

I will not be installing an "untuned" 426 stroker and use "untuned" as an excuse for poor results.

Bill

HoustonSRT-8
04-16-2007, 03:25 PM
I'm sooo jealous.

FastSRT8GC
04-16-2007, 06:44 PM
Thanks Bill for taking time to check them out. Make all of us with money down feel a bit more secure in our purchase!!! CAN NOT WAIT!!!

Blown-WK
04-17-2007, 07:42 AM
Thats sounds sick. I hope they pull through and create a monster.

BDNJ
04-17-2007, 09:23 AM
Bill-

Sounds like you got a nice taste of the shop. I wish it were closer to the East coast.

Great report. I think the s/c is a go. After you first..........:D


Brendan

BuilderBill
04-17-2007, 10:35 AM
Bill-

Sounds like you got a nice taste of the shop. I wish it were closer to the East coast.

Great report. I think the s/c is a go. After you first..........:D


Brendan Hey Brendan,
I am making good progress under the hood....how are you doing with the rear axle?
Bill

BDNJ
04-17-2007, 11:02 AM
Hey Brendan,
I am making good progress under the hood....how are you doing with the rear axle?
Bill


My shop has called in my diff #'s to a Chrysler engineer. Last time I checked they were waiting on him. He supposedly knows a lot of people/suppliers. We will see about that one.

FastSRT8GC
04-17-2007, 11:33 AM
I also am waiting for his answer.

slow91
04-17-2007, 11:41 AM
Thanks Bill for taking time to check them out. Make all of us with money down feel a bit more secure in our purchase!!! CAN NOT WAIT!!!

+1........Thanks for the write-up. Looking forward to more news as it is available.

BuilderBill
04-17-2007, 11:44 AM
+1........Thanks for the write-up. Looking forward to more news as it is available.
Slow91,
track the other posting on AZ going on also..lots of info
Bill

BuilderBill
04-17-2007, 11:47 AM
My shop has called in my diff #'s to a Chrysler engineer. Last time I checked they were waiting on him. He supposedly knows a lot of people/suppliers. We will see about that one.
Great work BDNJ....a lot of us will be needing help in that area. Wonder if someone (I am out for tomorrow evenings chat) could ask the Engineers tomorrow evening at the chat about electronically getting ALL 4 tires to hook up and eliminate the dreaded "2 wheel peel".
Bill