1-17-02:  I have been researching the possibility of ordering a turbo kit for about 4 months.  Despite all the horror stories about Cartech I have decided to order a Cartech Street Sleeper kit with an upgraded turbo option and everything HPC coated.  The reason behind this is:  I am not in a huge rush for the turbo and I feel that Cartech is turning things around.  Lastly, I think that the Cartech kits perform and fit great despite their delivery problems.  Cartech was just recently bought out by a new person and they are in a transition period right now, but I hope they can do a good job for me, unlike their past reputation.

I have been emailing with Mike Montgomery of Cartech for the past week or so, he has replied to my emails within 48 hours each time and his answers have been informative and friendly.

1-30-02:  I called Cartech today and placed my order!!  :-)
I decided on the Street Sleeper kit with everything high temp coated and with a T64e turbo upgrade.  The T64e is made by Precision Turbo and it has a max flow rating of 700 hp.  I also opted to stick with the default Bosch bypass (blow off) valve.  With this valve I can't really make much more than 12 psi of boost before the spring fails, but I want to limit myself there so I don't rip the stock block in half <edit, see below, I changed my order to the upgraded BOV>.   They do offer an HKS upgrade which allows you to run much higher boost levels, but I will worry about that later.  I also ordered the kit without a boost gauge since I bought an autometer from a friend a long time ago.
The kit comes with an FMU and the Walbro GSS340 255lph in tank pump.  I plan on using stock rails, stock lines and 42# injectors without the FMU.  We will see how that works out and I will have the FMU just in case.

Mike said that it will take 8 weeks minimum to get my turbo kit and he said he would like to hear from me in 6 weeks.  So I will call him back in 6 weeks.  I am betting on getting the kit in about 12 weeks.

2-6-02:  My credit card is charged with 50% of the cost of the turbo kit.  

2-8-02:  I called Mike back to change my order a little.  I went ahead and upgraded to the HKS BOV, and I told Mike to ship the fuel pump to me a few weeks before the turbo kit is ready.  This way when I am dropping the tank to put the battery in the hatch I can also put the new fuel pump in.

2-15-02:  Mike called today and left me a message to have me call him.  I called back twice but was unable to reach him.

2-18-02:  Mike called back today to tell me that he will be shipping the fuel pump as soon as he gets them in stock which should be later this week.  He also wanted to double check the complete order so that it was to my satisfaction.

3-13-02: (6 weeks later)  I called Mike today for a status report.  He told me he wanted to check things out on my kit and he would call me back.  3 hours later he called me back and told me that everything was still on schedule and that the parts were getting ready to be shipped off to be coated.  I also reminded him that I hadn't got my fuel pump yet.  He apologized and said he would get it out that day.  A few hours later he called me again to let me know that he was putting the shipping sticker on my fuel pump box.

3-18-02: My fuel pump arrived today.

3-20-02:  When I got home today there was a message on my answering machine from Mike, he just wanted to give me an update on the status and he asked that I call him back.

3-21-02:  I called Mike back today, the first call I was told Mike was in but I was placed on hold for about 8 minutes.  I decided to hang up and try back later.

3-22-02:  I got a hold of Mike today.  He said that the reason he called before was just to let me know that everything is going well and they are shipping my parts off for the HPC coating.

3/30 - 3/31:  This weekend I put in the Walbro GSS340 pump and I moved the battery to the hatch.  Sunday I installed some 3.27 gears and put my 3.73's on the shelf.  Thanks to Jason, Byrd, Kyle, and the Croke for all their help. 

4-3-02:  I called Mike today and got a hold of him right away.  He said that he hadn't heard anything back from HPC, but he will call them and see what is up.  He also told me that my turbo had arrived and my intercooler was also ready.  :-)

4-4-02:  Mike left a message on my home answering machine to tell me that my stuff is being shipped from HPC to him today.  He should have them within 5 days.

4-10-02:  I called a few times today but I got their answering machine each time.

4-11-02:  I called today and go a hold of Mike right away.  He said that my turbo kit should ship friday or monday!!  I was really excited.  Then I mentioned that I have a lakewood bellhousing and would that be a problem.  He said that the crossover pipe will not work with the lakewood.  I was pretty bummed about that but he said that he had a car in town that they were working on that had a lakewood.  So he is going to check into fitting a crossover pipe using that car as the test.  He mentioned that he would have to ship out the part to get high temp coated again and that would set me back a few weeks.  He said that he didn't want to set me back at all but he would do whatever I want to make me happy.  I was very pleased to here someone in customer service say this to me.  I told him to check into it and get back to me.

Mike called me back later today to let me know that they will be able to use the other car to fabricate my crossover tube.

4-12-02:  When I got to work there was a message on my voice mail from Mike.  I called Mike back and he said that they will be fabricating the pipe today!  I told him that I live near HPC so I will be able to go get the part coated on my own.  He said great, that means your kit can probably ship early next week!!  I am very happy today!

4-13-02:  I got an email from Preston saying that they had to start from scratch with my crossover pipe.  The pipe is being made up at one shop and it will be finished up at Cartech.  I can't wait until Cartech moves into their new building in the city!!  No more of this back and forth stuff.

4-15-02:  Mike called me today and told me that the pipe is partially finished and it should be in their hands tomorrow.  Once they finish it up they will ship the turbo kit to me and ship the crossover pipe to HPC where I can pick it up.  Mike said everything should ship on Wednesday.

4-16-02:  Mike called today to ask me about my MAF to make sure that the K&N filter they supply in the kit will fit.  That was nice!

4-17-02:  I called Mike this morning to talk about getting the y-pipe supplied in the kit deleted from my order.  I plan on running a custom 3" Y-pipe that connects to the flowtubes on my mufflers.  The Cartech design is only 2.25" and it is designed to work with the stock cat pipe.  I am not sure why I didn't bring this up earlier.  Mike was finishing up an order and he said he would call me back right away.

Mike called me back a few hours later and he said he was trying to determine how much of a credit to give me for eliminating the Y-pipe from my order.  I told him $50 seemed fair to me and he said great.

4-18-02:  When I got home from work today there was a message on my machine from Mike.  He said that he needed to know which wastegate spring I wanted, the 5-7 or 7-9psi one.  He said that if I didn't get back to him that he would assume I wanted the 7-9.  I called him back but they were already closed for the day.

4-19-02: I called today and left a message for Mike to let him know that he was right, I wanted the 7-9psi one and I also wanted him to call me back.

4-22-02:  Mike returned my call this weekend.  I called him back and he gave me the tracking # for my order, which went out on Thursday.  Hopefully I will have the kit installed on my car within a few weeks!!

4-23-02:  I got my boxes today!!  You can see the pics of everything here.  It looks like I didn't receive a passenger side header or an oil filter.

4-24-02:  I called Mike and asked him if my kit was supposed to come with a passenger side header because the instructions do not list one.  He said that in fact I should have gotten one and he will look into it. 
Mike called me back 3 hours later to tell me that JBA is drop shipping and already coated header for me.  I mentioned that I also didn't get an oil filter and he said that I should have gotten an oil filter, a belt, and a section of radiator hose.  I told him that I did not get any of those things.  He said he will look into it and call me this evening.

4-26-02:  Called and left a message for Mike.

4-29-02:  Mike called me back today and he said that he has all my missing parts ready to ship.  I told him to wait until tomorrow because I am going to do a full inventory check tonight.

4-30-02:  I did a full inventory and I was missing approximately 8 odds and ends.  Mike is gathering them up and shipping them to me.

5-1-02:  I called HPC and they told me that they do not have anything under my name or Cartech's name for pickup.  When Mike called I asked him about this and he thought it was strange so he is calling them to find out what is up.  Mike also emailed me some pics of the custom crossover pipe they made for me and of the front mount intercooler mounting.

Mike called me back 5 minutes later and told me that the crossover pipe went to the HPC in Oklahoma not the one in Phoenix.  He wasn't aware that there was two HPC's, and neither was I.  I only thought there was one and it was in Phoenix, turns out I was wrong.  Mike is having them dropship the parts to my house.  :-)

5-2-02:  I double checked to make sure that I didn't have the MAF bracket and hose barb.  I was unable to find them so I called Mike back and let him know.  I also came to the realization that the rubber MAF elbow that came in my kit does not have a provision for the hose from the bypass valve. (to recirculate the BOV air)  I emailed Mike about it and he called me back an hour later and left a message for me.  I called Mike back and he told me that I should have a metal 90 degree elbow that has a provision for the hose and he is having his guys make me one right now.  So hopefully tomorrow or Monday they will be shipping my missing hose barb, MAF bracket and MAF elbow.

5-3-02:  Mike called today and left a message for me telling me that all my parts should be done and ready to ship on Monday.

5-6-02:  My hose, belt and oil filter arrived from Cartech today.

5-7-02:  My shipment from HPC came today.  It included my 3 piece crossover tube and they also sent a passenger side header.  I will have to ship the header to Cartech since Mike already got one to me from JBA.  I also got a phone message from Mike at Cartech.

5-8-02: Mike and I played phone tag today and he finally got a hold of me after lunch.  He just wanted to tell me that my MAF bracket, elbow and drain fitting will be shipping today.  I told him I wanted to start the turbo install this Sunday so he agreed to 2 day air the package to me so that it would get here by the weekend.  He also asked me to ship back the other MAF elbow and extra header at my leisure.  Great customer service.

5-11-02:  I will be installing the turbo this weekend.  Please check the install page for info.

5-13-02:  I had some problems with the install this weekend.  I was missing a turbo drain fitting and the cross-over pipe would not fit.  I am having the x-over pipe fixed by a local muffler shop, I had my car towed there.  Mike called me about 50 times today to verify he was sending me the correct parts and he said he would work with me on the cost of the cross-over pipe.  I am VERY impressed with Cartech's customer service.  But the turbo kit and documentation does need some work.

5-14-02:  Mike overnighted the small parts that I needed and they arrived today!!  The exhaust shop fixed the crossover pipe for a fair price and they did an excellent job on my custom Y-pipe, I'll post pics in the install section.

Well, I have lost track of all the dates of all the times that stuff has gone wrong with this install and parts that didn't really fit right.  But I will say one thing, Mike Montgomery at Cartech has been the most helpful person I have ever dealt with at any company.  I was never, ever lied to and if something wasn't right Mike would ship it out ASAP, the longest I had to wait for a part after he said he would ship it was 3 days.  One item took less than 24 hours!!  I think that Cartech has a lot of business to look forward to once they get their inventory and parts list sorted out.  There were a lot of little things with the kit that I did not like and my kit contained lots of wrong items or missing items.  But Mike always took care of them ASAP.  For more info please check the install page.

Final Impressions

I placed my order on 1-30-02 and it shipped on 4-18-02.  That is about 11 weeks.  If it wasn't for all the last minute stuff at the end with the crossover pipe, I think the kit would have shipped on 4-12-02, or about 10 weeks.  I would say that was reasonable considering I was originally told a minimum of 8-9 weeks.  I also ordered my kit just after Cartech was bought out, so they were in a transition period.  I feel that I was never lied to by Mike or Preston and they always kept me in the loop on everything.  I think that once their new shop opens in San Antonio and they move their operations there that things will be much better.  I would say that I am happy with the overall experience.  I hope that their post installation service is just as good.  It would be great if it was as simple as ordering a Vortech and hopefully someday ordering a turbo will be that easy.  :-)
I believe if my car didn't have so many mods that the turbo install and ordering process would have been much better.  90% of my problems were with the custom crossover pipe for my stupid lakewood bellhousing.  I don't think this is Cartechs responsibility since the kit is designed for a stock mustang with a stock bellhousing.  But they went out of their way to help me by trying to custom make a pipe for me at the last minute.  I was pleased with their effort, I just wish it would have worked, but hey, my car is cursed, I am convinced of that.
I think that Cartech's customer service has improved 1000% over the horror stories I have heard.  Now they just need to sort out their inventory and update the parts list.

Preston has also informed me that once they catch up on their orders that they plan to keep stock on hand for all the parts it takes to assemble the basic turbo kits.  That would mean that they could ship a basic turbo kit order within a few days!