My weekend with Jason and Kerim, The partnership that is: Powergains

[neil_jdmr]

So being many miles away up in Northumberland I set away at around 02.30 with a plan to get most of the miles done to Essex while it was as quiet as possible and covered Morpeth to the M25 in three and a half hours. I found Powergains without much trouble and after some breakfast Kerim met me at the gates around 7:30. After a good bit of banter and showing me around his current projects and the many number of high powered rotary showcases yet to be unleashed Kerim dropped me at my humble abode for the weekend so he could get started.
I stayed two nights at the premier inn Brentwood which facilties wise was as any other premier inn. What was different was pretty much every room was filled with very very pretty and seemingly game female TOWIE fans. Alas iam married but must admit this would be a single guys dream hotel on a Friday/Saturday night. For £140 two nights inc breakfast, bargain!!!!

Anyway I digress I caught a few hours kip and met a mate who lives close by after moving from up north and we duly went out and got slaughtered. Staggered in at 3.30am after sampling the "sugar hut" which was an exceptional nightclub.

I got up and had a couple of messages from Kerim and photo\'s to show progress and as always many of my supplied parts didn\'t have the correct brackets etc but both the guys were very reassuring that all can be made up and welded. I was kept well up to date throughout the day although if I\'m honest I was a little hazy.

Rolling onto the Sunday Kerim picked me up from the hotel at my kick out time of midday. We went over the garage where Jason was just finishing my WI install. As I was looking around my almost finished car I was very taken by the quality of both the guys work and attention to detail. They spotted my centre pulley was warped and swapped it straight out also gave the car a good check over and any hardened hoses replaced. I know they had had a right headache with my fmic and rad set-up but I swear it looks a factory fit affair now.

Anyway I hung around with the guys down there and chatted with some of the other forum members ( hey mick). Jason and Kerim left with my car and spent the next few hours mapping my car and sorting little problems which arose like hoses popping off due to high boost through a unsuspecting rats nest.

Everything sorted and I drove away a happy man with a well sorted sequential twin turbo running 0.9bar on low setting and 1.2bar on the high. All round it\'s a different car to drive and pretty much an animal for street use on the high boost setting. My temps just get lower the harder its driven due to the WI and feeling confident with sub 85% duty cycle.

Between Jason and Kerim I was very well looked after and supplied with lunch and many a Stella shandy on such a scorching hot day. Nothing seemed too much trouble and advice and info was all readily given unlike some other rotary expert I\'ve used.

Price wise for everything done was very very reasonable and a lot of the extra labour was just waved away as part of " just getting everything right". I would not hesitate to recommend Powergains to anyone wanting even smaller parts fitting jobs up to full race builds as I had a fairly long list of parts to be fitted some proving very awkward and a very tight schedule to keep too. All in all I paid out for a fab weekend clubbing, talking cars and driving home in a transformed car for less money than I have spent previously on a weekend stag do with pals and this was pretty similar with just so much more.

For anyone up north thinking "aye but its miles away" my thinking was yes, it is but wherever you go you will have to drive a few hours and for me personally Essex was a right blast.

Thanks guys

[Grant Monkhouse]

Good stuff. Pictures would be even gooderer. (Is that even a word??) did they run it on the dyno or street tune only??

[neil_jdmr]

Ill get some pics in due course, it was live mapped mate

[Bobbit]

sweet, pics dude!

[C J R]

Neil,
I would fully endorse everything you wrote about Powergains and Kerim & Jason.
 
I travelled down from nr Leeds on a number of occassions for the guys to (1) build me an engine from scratch in a couple of days,
(2) spend huge amounts of their time on the phone talking me thru\' stuff,
(3) stripping out the old engine harness and fitting a new harness, plus fixing all sorts of other issues that were wrong with the FD, before dynamic mapping,
(4) giving me back a significantly better car to drive home.
(5) providing a more than reasonable price for the above.
 
The Customer service these guys offer is brilliant, no job too small or big and the quality of their work is great.
I\'ll be off down again later in the year for another mapping session once the engine has covered more miles.
 
Chris

[Grant Monkhouse]

Neil,
I would fully endorse everything you wrote about Powergains and Kerim & Jason.
 
I travelled down from nr Leeds on a number of occassions for the guys to (1) build me an engine from scratch in a couple of days,
(2) spend huge amounts of their time on the phone talking me thru\' stuff,
(3) stripping out the old engine harness and fitting a new harness, plus fixing all sorts of other issues that were wrong with the FD, before dynamic mapping,
(4) giving me back a significantly better car to drive home.
(5) providing a more than reasonable price for the above.
 
The Customer service these guys offer is brilliant, no job too small or big and the quality of their work is great.
I\'ll be off down again later in the year for another mapping session once the engine has covered more miles.
 
Chris

I though you went to WGT?

What\'s the spec of your engine etc now? No updates on the thread?

[C J R]

  Needed something to spool that laggy turbo, so Kerim built one of his very large half bridge engines, brap, brap, brap.
 
Oh, the reason for the new engine was a broken eccentric shaft in the old engine !!
 
Chris

[Grant Monkhouse]

Half bridge, pffft go full bridge or go home :p

When you coming to look at the rx4? And take for a spin;)

[neil_jdmr]

An awesome place to get your car sorted tap that with a night in the sugar hut and Stella.

Now that is customer service

[JayDee]

Thanks for the great write up from both of us. It was good to meet you,  I\'m glad you enjoyed your time and see some of the sites in Essex...
Oh it should have been us southerners on the shandy lol!

An awesome place to get your car sorted tap that with a night in the sugar hut and Stella.

Now that is customer service

[neil_jdmr]

You guys talked me round lol I was half expecting you to top it with lime ;-)