The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about my last couple of months with my new turbo

As the administrator of the site I don’t ever want to make anyone upset on the forum. However I don’t think I should have to hold the truth back for fear of people being upset. I think people come here to see factual data. Not candy coated truths. When it comes to something like this I just want to be treated as a regular member. Because the last time I checked I was a member… And I have to get this off my chest because I think people look to me and other members for guidance… Truthful guidance.

I have been quiet (too quiet) for a while on the forum and I think I know how to bring myself back from the dead.. I need to explain to everyone how my Slingshot's last few months have been spent.... But first,,,,This isn't a post to make anyone decide one way or another about what to buy or not to buy. It's just a post that explains EXACTLY where I am with my Slingshot and it will give you all an idea of what FREE actually cost.

In fact it kinda surprises me that no one has really noticed that I haven't posted about my last new boosted toy. The new toy that was graciously given to me by Alpha to try out with my new forged engine. More on that later..... It's not all bad and I'm not mad... Just a little disheartened by the way that whole situation ended.

I guess you all are wondering what the heck I am talking about… Why would I be disheartened with a free turbo?? Well it comes down to ME having to purchase a new engine…..Here is how it all occurred…

Everyone saw my whole install right here on the forum in big huge colorful pictures… I posted a bunch of pictures showing every step I made. It fired right up and ran perfect and right after I started driving it I noticed it smoking when I was at red lights and when I let out on the clutch and gave it gas leaving the red light… I first thought this excess oil smoke was due to me not drilling the hole in the intake plenum as the addendum in the installation had shown. But after another day of driving it I sent Henry a text about it. I just explained I was having a bit more smoke than the tiny hole “fix” could possibly eliminate. We talked back and forth about it possibly being a bad seal in the turbo housing and other issues that might cause it… At this point It was my hope that it was just actually just a quirk and that it was just the way the system worked.

Maybe it was the hole in the intake that needed to be drilled out…

Unfortunately it wasn't the hole that needed drilling out….

After deciding to live with the smoke (at least till I drilled out that hole) I went ahead and scheduled dyno time with DDMWorks. Everyone on the forum saw me load my SS up and head to DDM at close to midnight so that I could arrive early.… When I arrived at DDM they backed it onto the dyno and I showed Dave how I could make it smoke by throttling the gas. And now I could see it smoke better at idle since it was inside the building. One thing that puzzled me was while it was at a steady rpm (just like cruising down the road) it seemed to clean up a bit and the smoke didn't seem to be as prevalent.

Little did I know what was about to be revealed to me…

We made the first pull on the dyno and put down around 400hp. The only issue was that after each dyno pull it seemed to smoke more each time. After the third pull it was time to call it quits. So we cooled the whole engine down and pulled the plugs.. It had a couple of cylinders that were a bit low on compression but (to me) nothing terrible. So we proceed to pull the charge tubes off. This is where it really gets confusing so I will go ahead a start a whole new paragraph.

Once we pulled the tube from the turbo to the intercooler we noticed silver glitter all in the neck of the turbo and in the tube itself. It was stuck to the walls of the tubing. At this point most people would say that the fins on the turbine had made contact with the housing…. Well guess what…. Nope! Not a scratch or mark could be found anywhere inside the turbine housing…

I just told Dave to do whatever needed to be done to find out how bad it was and let me know… So I went back to the hotel and packed my clothes and took my sad ass back to Haleyville. And for the time being I told everyone that I was going to be adding a boost controller to the SS to control the boost more effectively… AND I DID. I just didn't tell the whole truth.. And I'm sorry for that… I just felt at this point it wasn’t the time to throw in the towel and say that metal must have accidentally been left in the turbo system somehow. Over the next week, I sat at home waiting on Dave to have time to open up everything and get some detailed pictures of the damage. I know it sounds very silly but it was like having a child in the hospital and each day your 400 miles away and can’t go see them. Well in my childlike world it was… Finally Dave started sending me pictures of what he had flushed out of my intercooler and my heart dropped… It was tiny metal shavings. They covered the bottom of a kids tiny solo paper cup. And that was just one cup. Another cup bottom was covered by metal shavings over the next two days of flushing pipes and the intercooler. The next day the most painful pictures arrived via text. It was every cylinder scarred with up and down scratches. It was terrible…I swear I got so sick. I had just witnessed the death of my 4000.00 engine.

So now at least we know why it was smoking…

I asked Dave what I could do to fix it. And told him I was supposed to be in Panama City for Bike Week. He didn't even hesitate with his response. He said for me not to worry about it and that he would get me going by installing the next forged engine that was coming out of the machine shop…. Wait….. Someone has to pay for that engine… And I just bought one… I can’t afford another one….

He said that he would send all the pictures to Alpha and call and explain everything to them. Yes,,, I can see how they might not understand how it could happen. But it did… And I was clear to Alpha that I thought it had a problem way before I took it to DDM for the dyno runs. Dave said he would let them know what the cost was to install my new engine. He said he would see what they wanted to do. He said if they didn’t think it was their system that caused the damage after seeing all the pictures and speaking to him that he would just let it go… LET IT GO…. No , I don’t think so…. I am not going to let this go that easy. So a couple of weeks ago I asked if he had heard anything. He told me that he had not. He said to give them a little more time to reply.

After a couple more weeks of waiting on their reply to Dave and it never happening, I have decided now that it’s time to at least tell the truth (as I see it) to everyone. AND I WILL PAY DAVE for this new engine…..

Well there ya go…. Now yall know the rest of the story. Counting the new engine, hotel bills, fuel bills, and travel time back and forth to South Carolina the free turbo has cost me around $5500.00.

Do I like the system? Yep, It did very well on the dyno after we cleaned the system out and changed the engine. How well? It was very good..
Do I think I got a “one off” problem? Maybe
Do I think I will keep the system on my SS? Probably not
Why would I remove it? Because once you eat something and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth you don’t easily forget it.
Since you don’t like it will you send Alpha system back? Well, I just bought a $4000.00 engine because of it.. So I don’t think so. I believe I paid the cost of admission to the Alpha club… I will keep the pretty bling…

I love all the vendors on the forum. Especially Alpha… I honestly do think they have a great system… I just managed to get a bum steer. We all get a bad steak every once in awhile… I just wanted them to work this out between each other and nothing has happened. If something changes and they decide to contact Dave or me I will promise to update this post immediately. And I will even go as far as to publish the new dyno numbers that I pulled with this system after I changed the engine. You Alpha guys and gals would be proud of this system. But as much as I want to brag about how powerful the system is I CAN’T. Not unless something changes.

Thanks for the replies.....

@MACAWS that wasn't pain in my eyes, it was tears. Im not embarrassed to say it.... I don't know why stuff like that get to me the way it does but I have a weird attachment to my motorcycles and autos. Im sure everyone does in one way or another...

@VIPNiSS it wouldn't be something that would happen after it had been run on another bike... So your ok... Most likely your seeing fuel smoke. Which is kinda a good thing... My post was not to scare anyone... It was just to explain what I had experienced... And this hole that needs to be drilled may also be your issue.. Henry explained why it needs to be drilled. I believe it was because it was sometimes not completely open from being molded wrong.

@bigdew My "opinion" was that it had to have some metal somewhere in the neck of the turbo where they weld it onto the turbo. I would have never noticed it... And no one else would have... However I could be wrong about the neck... It may have been in the intercooler. Remember I said we saw glitter in the turbo neck and the tube going into the intercooler. I am guessing that when you partially let off the gas you get back pressure against the blades and it could have been pushed back into the turbo. And if it was small pieces of aluminum you will have glitter.... And not the fun kind.

Quote from bigdew

@MACAWS I seen the metal in the cups, but that is where I was confused because rabtech said the impeller was intact from the turbo and didn't make contact with the housing.

I just posted above your post.... Hope that explains what may have caused the metal. Its the best guess we can make.....

I can say that the engine never went down... It was still kicking some serious ass. Just smoking worse and worse on each pull. It is pretty amazing what a perfectly built forged engine can overcome... It had pieces of the metal in the ring (which was scratching the shit out of the cylinder walls) and was still putting almost 460hp to the tire.... And that was within 10hp of the (true loaded) dyno run of my Hahn system. We overlaid the Hahn dyno pull and the Alpha pull and that is when we saw how much faster the power comes on.

I can say that after the whole system was cleaned out with brake cleaner and the intercooler was flushed with water over and over. And the new engine was put in it made some serious HP. And It wasn't the HP that impressed me the most. It was how FAST it made the power. I want to brag so badly but for now I will leave it at that.... I think everyone understands why.