Mark,
Very long story short, I'm having an overheating issue. At the very least the truck runs too hot.
It may be for a number of reasons of which no one will agree on.
I've had a 160 t-stat installed, electronic fans and I'm trying to get someone to stand behind instilling an aluminum radiator. I've heard it will not solve your problem to they leak so we refuse to install them by Cerritos Hummer where the truck is today. Mark Christopher Hummer of Ontario, Hummer of Pasadena, Jessup Hummer-palm springs area, and Lynch Hummer of MI have all said basically one of the two before mentioned excuses. The folks at Lund Hummer in Phoenix have said bring it on down and we'll install the radiator as we've done on every SC'd H2 we've done. So I'm hopefully about that bit of news. It just s*ucks having to make a 10hr drive to get one more piece of a puzzle installed which will hopefully resolve my overheating issue.
Yes my truck, (when I have it) is running a bit too lean but I've been told not enough to cause an overheating issue. And since my truck rarely sees anything above 2500rpm's and I'm not towing anything or racing it most folks swore to me that the amount of lean it's running isn't enough to be any trouble. The SC doesn't kick in until around 2k rpm maybe a bit before.
Having spoken with Magnacharger on many occasions but most recently about there stock tunes they've said that their stock tuning is meant for a stock H2 with nothing having been done to it except placing the SC on the motor.
Meaning no Airaid, no Volant, no mass airflow thingies, no headers, no use of a programmer to adjust for shift patterns or tire size, nothing. Their tune is meant for a stock H2 with stock everything except the SC being added.
If you/I have these before mentioned things then "Custom Tuning" is required but they will not recommend anyone to do it... So short of my driving to see HGW whom I don't believe does anything with custom tuning I'm been sort of stuck trying to find someone qualified to do custom tuning. When I asked Magnuson about the place I had a dyno run (The LAPD- Los Angeles Performance Division) in Chatsworth CA. the teck at Magnuson simply giggled and said he wouldn't use them. ? I'll continue to call them and ask for a different teck they have to know of someone or be able to recommend someone to do custome tuning.
Every dealership I've spoken with from Reno, north of me, Phoenix to the east, and several in S. CA have all said they don't have the ability to do a custom tune.
Oh and it was Towbin Hummer of Las Vegas that did the install for me. (to answer one of your questions)
Personally I wouldn't purchase the extended warranty that Magnacharger offers. It appears to be worthless and its not executed by Magnuson they've farmed out the warranty work to Dell Auto Warranty out of Farmington MI. who you'll have to deal with for any warranty issues, since your factory warranty will be or has been voided by the work you've done or will be doing to your H2. Dell Auto is obviously overworked and under staffed since my truck has been sitting with it's heads pulled off at a machine shop for the last week waiting for an adjuster to show up take a look at the heads and somehow see that a valve is bent. (Whatever)
Until this happens I can't get a loaner vehicle so that I can return to Vegas and get back to work. Yes I know I should simply rent something myself and return home and try and get reimbursed latter. It's the principle of the thing, why have insurance if it's not going to be there when you need it?
You've asked what exactly happened. In a nutshell Towbin didn't think the process threw. And once things started going wrong in their perfect world they threw up their hands and said we don't know what to do.
Assuming you have someone you trust, someone who has installed many SC's and someone who can handle the custom tuning you're going to need, all should be fine and you'll love the power that the SC will bring to your H2. I do agree with Alec that SC-ing and wheeling seam not to mix very well but I don't wheel hard enough to worry about it. It's kind of hard to wheel when you've only had a truck for a few months out of the two years you've owned it.
Best of luck I'm sure you'll be fine. Do you homework (which I didn't when I started this whole process,I have since), or make certain that whoever is doing your install has.
