Turbo broke in half?!!!.... (SSAutoChrome/XS Power turbo)

[TeamNextGenChris]

.....i recently helped a friend fab up a turbo kit for his car.he ordered the $700 special from SSAutoChrome for the turbo,mani,wastegate and BOV.
the turbo has "XS Power" stamped on the compressor side,and is a T3/T4 hybrid.
after about 30 miles of driving,the compressor housing broke in half!it appears the two halfs are held together with some kind of epoxy?i've never really paid any attention to it before,but i figured they'd be welded together or some other stronger means.this weekend i'll be back at the shop to check out my turbo and another one from SSAC to compare how the two halfs are joined.
anybody ever seen this happen before?freak occurrence,or a result of shoddy work on assembly of the housing?the edges of the vanes are now folded over from contact with the housing,and the shaft has over 1/8" of play in it.not sure if this is a result of the housing moving and pushing against the shaft making the bushings fail,or if the bushings failed indpendently of the housing,or if maybe even the bushings failed,letting the vanes hit the housing and contribute to the cracking.....






THANKS
Chris

[wantboost]

holy shit, this is a new one to me.

you could just buy a new compressor housing from someone and be ok.

[getnasty]

wow is all I can say!

[AccidentproWn]

WOW!!!! gg ssautochrome

[TeamNextGenChris]

Originally Posted by wantboost

holy shit, this is a new one to me.

you could just buy a new compressor housing from someone and be ok.

i wish,but the bushings are shot,and the vanes are FUBAR'd from contact with the housing.XS claims a two year warranty,so he's going to try that route.if they honor it the new turbo is going straight to Ebay,then use the money towards something higher quality.
Chris

[wantboost]

well, ssac is in nc, just a short drive from you. go give them a swift kick in the nuts

[pimpintyperintegra]

I don't think I have ever heard of that happening before, but it does not surprise me since SSautochrome was involved.

All their stuff is shitty.

Hopefully he can get a refund or something, but probably not because they have very poor customer service and do not care if they sell you a piece of shit that breaks.

I have used one of their manifolds and it was absolute shit, so it is not surprising that their other products that they make or products they just sell suck.

Not familiar with that brand of turbos, but that should not happen to any turbo.

Good luck.

[wantboost]

that isnt a master power turbo, its a chinese made turbo. shitty.

real masterpower turbos are made in brazil and are of very high quality. they are used in many trucks over in europe.

[non-VTEC]

now i think i've seen it all..........

[2point2]

woah.. no offence.. but you just made my day - your turbo problem is 10 times worse than mine

looks like a casting problem - i dont think they test their products. (seriously)

[LS_REX]

HAHAHAAAAAA!! This is a new low for ssautochrome!

Now you have to put extra braces on the turbo too, LOL!!

[TeamNextGenChris]

Originally Posted by wantboost

well, ssac is in nc, just a short drive from you. go give them a swift kick in the nuts

we'll wait first and see how they handle it.i know you can't expect much when you pay $700 for parts that would be probably $1500 from well known manufacturers,but this is ridiculous.there are two other SSAC kits around here that i installed that have had no problems.
Chris

[Frozen E]

Holy Shit!

[Raunch]

OMFG! it looks like it was crazy glued together! Danm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TeamNextGenChris]

Originally Posted by 2point2

woah.. no offence.. but you just made my day - your turbo problem is 10 times worse than mine

looks like a casting problem - i dont think they test their products. (seriously)

luckily it's not my problem ...but it sucks for my friend.i feel bad because he's new to the whole Honda thing,and wanted to build an inexpensive turbo setup.
it doesn't look so much like a casting problem as a problem with joining the two cast halves.it appears to be epoxy,which i just can't imagine would hold considering all the heat,vibration,pressure from the boost inside(this was at only 6psi BTW) and the clamping force of the charge pipe being connected to it.
anybody know how these two halves are normally joined?
Chris

[pimpintyperintegra]

i am pretty sure real turbos are welded together, not epoxied

you can usually see on the exhaust side where the weld is ground smooth

the intake side is usually too smooth to see I think...just looked at one in the garage and it looks like it is one piece cast




Modified by pimpintyperintegra at 11:34 PM 12/28/2004

[CivicEJ1]

Holy..SHIT... SSAC...

[NrG]

It's been proven that SSAutoChrome is junk. You get what you pay for.

[TeamNextGenChris]

Originally Posted by pimpintyperintegra

i am pretty sure real turbos are welded together, not epoxied

you can usually see on the exhaust side where the weld is ground smooth

the intake side is usually too smooth to see I think

that's what i thought.i knew for sure the exhaust side had to be welded considering the heat it sees,plus it's steel.considering that the compressor side is cast aluminum,i wasn't sure if the normal practice was to weld it or not-i'm relatively inexperienced when it comes to welding aluminum,so i wasn't sure if it was even an option to weld it in that particular application.
Chris

[93turbo16]

that is just rediculous.

[B18C1CYA]

yup looks to be glued together , shitty

[wantboost]

after looking at the pics of your turbo and those of ssac. it looks like your turbo was broken before you got it and someone exposied it together

[2point2]

Originally Posted by TeamNextGenChris

it doesn't look so much like a casting problem as a problem with joining the two cast halves.it appears to be epoxy

My god - i was going to disagree with you on that but had another llook at the pics.. there actually appears to be yellowish epoxy type crap on there..

maybe they'll try JB weld next time... lol.

[Luke J]

That is un-believable!

[t04ecvc]

Originally Posted by Raunch

OMFG! it looks like it was crazy glued together! Danm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hahaha, maybe SSAC can sue the crazy glue people!