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

    Henry has called me. It was one of those calls you have to take so you can move on. But you also know that it's not going to be pleasant for either party....


    I asked him to post his viewpoint and how they wanted to go forward. I also asked them to call Dave and let them know that we talked and I would pay for the engine and just chock it up to bad luck. I guess that is what happened. Sometimes things we want to work out the most just don't.


    I appreciate everyone's time that looked at this thread. I will get over the money and move on. No biggie...


    Alpha does have a good turbo system. And don't let my experience with this one-off delivery of my system sway your decision to purchase from them. Like I said once before, my setup isn't what most normal systems look like when they are packaged and delivered... They sent mine out overnight so that I could get it installed and on the road..


    I know that everyone is happy with their Alpha products. I'm sure I will be to. I just didn't want to loose a single friendship along the way. I hope this all passes by with time.

    Sorry it's taken me so long to get on the forum's. This kit was planned with Robert a while back and we knew what it was for so the kit was checked over and assembled and double checked before it was sent out. We have sold over 400 kits and have never had this issue with shaving inside a turbo kit. During the manufacturing process their is nothing we do that would cause shavings like that especially that amount.


    This was also a raw kit we sent out for him to powder coat himself. It was coated once and the color was not liked so it was stripped and coated a 2nd time. The only way we can think of for that amount of shavings would be if the turbo unit was bad and the wheel spun on the housing, but the turbo was said to look fine. I am stumped on how that amount of shavings got there.


    This is a very unfortunate situation for all parties involved. Its great that Dave took care of Rab with a new engine but that should have been discussed prior to the install and expect us to foot it. I did talk to rab a bit ago and I don't want the bad blood between us. Most of you guys know me personally and from day one and know that im not out to try and screw people over or be a greedy asshole.

    Quote from Turbosling

    Sorry it's taken me so long to get on the forum's. This kit was planned with Robert a while back and we knew what it was for so the kit was checked over and assembled and double checked before it was sent out. We have sold over 400 kits and have never had this issue with shaving inside a turbo kit. During the manufacturing process their is nothing we do that would cause shavings like that especially that amount.


    This was also a raw kit we sent out for him to powder coat himself. It was coated once and the color was not liked so it was stripped and coated a 2nd time. The only way we can think of for that amount of shavings would be if the turbo unit was bad and the wheel spun on the housing, but the turbo was said to look fine. I am stumped on how that amount of shavings got there.


    This is a very unfortunate situation for all parties involved. Its great that Dave took care of Rab with a new engine but that should have been discussed prior to the install and expect us to foot it. I did talk to rab a bit ago and I don't want the bad blood between us. Most of you guys know me personally and from day one and know that im not out to try and screw people over or be a greedy asshole.


    Thanks so much for your response Henry.

    I am a little late on this thread but wanted to share something.


    Some of you say this wont happen with a supercharger. Well it happened to me and I have a supercharger. A LSJ unit at that.


    I had metal shaving run through my whole engine recently. My cause of death, valve springs. Lasted 365.3 miles. The place I had do the port work to my head failed to clearance the head for my bigger valve springs. I did not catch this on assembly since I really couldn't see where it was rubbing. After my engine started knocking, I pulled it out and tore it down. Couldn't find anything that caused the shavings (besides wasted bearings). So I started to tear my head down since it was the only thing left. Found the valve springs rubbing on the inside of the head. Bad enough to fill the motor with shavings... And to top that off, my guides were wasted (probably never replaced) and cause my beautiful oversized valves to hit the cylinder walls which also bent all my valves.


    So Rab, sorry to hear about your loss. I know the feeling all too well. But in this industry, anything can happen. One little thing will cause a huge issue. Not pointing blame at anyone as your issue could have been from a number of different things.

    I missed the part where anybody said this couldn't happen to a supercharged engine, it can, but your problem sounds like bad machine work that had nothing to do whether you had a turbo or super installed.

    Why buy one when you can have two at twice the price..... :evil:

    Yeah I don't think @Bugzilla read the whole thread leading up to @TravAZ "s S/C reference. Sorry to hear about your LSJ motor Bug. Contrary to what we have been told by Polaris the "final machining" (ex.right angle drive) is best done before install and initial start-up. :00008862:

    Quote from JoeF.

    I missed the part where anybody said this couldn't happen to a supercharged engine, it can, but your problem sounds like bad machine work that had nothing to do whether you had a turbo or super installed.

    That is exactly my point. It was not the supercharger that caused my problem, it was machine work. I don't think it was Rabs turbo that cause his problem either. Was it something that was in the innercooler beforehand? Maybe some leftover sand from things getting blasted? Maybe it was a combination of an unknown pre existing engine problem and something getting sucked through the engine? Who knows... It could have been something to do with the turbo install but until the actual cause is found, its all a guess. What if it comes down to 2 innercooler pipes rubbing on each other inside one of the couplers? That wouldn't be a problem with the turbo kit or engine. Just install.


    All I am saying is that Rab is in a bad spot. Stuff like this is very hard to pin point. I am not a person who points fingers and blames people. I find the reason why the issue happened and make sure it doesn't happen again. Live and learn. If it was an obvious issue and the builder/installer can admit to it, then they should be fixing it.

    Might need to clarify. When I said "supercharger owners - nothing to see here", I was referring to lugging or loading the engine at low RPMs.


    The supercharger setup is belt driven and won't make considerable boost at low RPMs, so you don't really have to worry like a turbo setup.

    Overall, using your cruise is perfectly fine. But sometimes with big jumps in CC resume and climbing inclines in 5th gear, you'll feel the motor shake/vibrate. This type of low RPM load should be avoided. It is unnecessary stress and with the wrong fuel, plugs, tune, etc., you could blow your motor.

    Owner of Slingshot #263 that has some stock parts left on it. :D

    All of this is the reason that I do not want a turbo charger, even though I would not mind the extra power. Many of you have heard me say that I am not into the care and feeding of a turbo charger and having to pay attention to how I drive the SS. I just drive the crap out of it and do not worry about it and never a day goes by that I do not hit the red line a few times. My grand daughter even likes second and third gear all she says is faster PAW so I hold it under 65 mph. I just do not take long to get there.

    @TravAZ - Sorry I thought you meant something along the lines of having physical turbo issues. Not boost issues at low rpm.


    But having said that, throw a roots style blower on and see what happens! I get full boost around 2000 rpms...

    Quote from FunCycle

    All of this is the reason that I do not want a turbo charger, even though I would not mind the extra power. Many of you have heard me say that I am not into the care and feeding of a turbo charger and having to pay attention to how I drive the SS. I just drive the crap out of it and do not worry about it and never a day goes by that I do not hit the red line a few times. My grand daughter even likes second and third gear all she says is faster PAW so I hold it under 65 mph. I just do not take long to get there.


    Agree... same for me. The idea of more power .. especially in 4th and 5th gear sounds soooo good.... but I'm not willing to trade reliability and don't want another constant 'project' to baby / maintain. I'll pass... keeping it stock.

    Even a NA engine doesn't like being lugged down for to long. This GM 2.4L engine is pretty tuff to beat and highly proven way before it was used in the SS's. Adding forced induction does come with risk, but from what I have read and seen, it's very capable of handling a lot more. I'm looking for that sweet spot of performance and reliability....these threads help out a lot with that. I'm gonna stick with the SC on mine.

    Why buy one when you can have two at twice the price..... :evil:

    Quote from TravAZ

    Might need to clarify. When I said "supercharger owners - nothing to see here", I was referring to lugging or loading the engine at low RPMs.


    The supercharger setup is belt driven and won't make considerable boost at low RPMs, so you don't really have to worry like a turbo setup.


    Overall, using your cruise is perfectly fine. But sometimes with big jumps in CC resume and climbing inclines in 5th gear, you'll feel the motor shake/vibrate. This type of low RPM load should be avoided. It is unnecessary stress and with the wrong fuel, plugs, tune, etc., you could blow your motor.

    I've now concluded that using my CC w/a Turbo simply means setting the CC once I reach the desired cruising speed and downshift if I slow down and want to get back up to cruising speed before re-engaging the CC.

    Quote from BKL

    I've now concluded that using my CC w/a Turbo simply means setting the CC once I reach the desired cruising speed and downshift if I slow down and want to get back up to cruising speed before re-engaging the CC.

    Exactly!

    Owner of Slingshot #263 that has some stock parts left on it. :D