Particle size required to damage a turbo

[Matt@RFR]

Hey boys and girls. I'm wondering how large a piece of 'whatever' it would take to damage a turbo. Check out the pictures of a set of headers I recently had the chance to critique. They are supposedly 321 stainless. The small piece is a sliver left from sloppy end prep where the welder didn't get full penetration, and the large piece (the size of my thumbnail) is a piece of the coating that I broke off with very little effort with my fingernail. The coating puddled and cracked. There is also a couple pieces of media left in one collector from media blasting prior to coating.

Before anyone asks, I am not at liberty to say who made these.

[ProStreet R/T]

Ehh I wouldn't worry about the coating and stuff going through the hotside. If it were my car I wouldn't be thrilled with the coating peeling off, but that little piece won't hurt it. The turbines are quite a bit stronger than the compressor just due to the nature of the beast.

[camcojb]

Thanks for helping him Matt.

Jody

[Matt@RFR]

Thanks ProStreet. What's your thoughts on the tubing flash and the media in the collector?

Jody, it's what I do.

[MrQuick]

It happens...are these prototypes?

I've seen turbos pass larger things but It would have been nice to take the extra time to brush and clean it out better. Sometimes people don't think to do this cause its just going to pass harmlessly out the tail pipe.







BTW, who made these? 8P

[ProStreet R/T]

I would try to get the blasting media out of it as much as reasonably possible but if a little is there and passes through the turbine it won't hurt anything. You would be shocked at what can pass through the hot side of a turbo with out hurting anything, not nearly as delicate as the compressor side.

Did they do any clean up work on the headers? Seems like all that flashing and such should have been ground off prior to them being coated.


Kinda curious why they didn't bother to use a nice merge collector with a center transition and such. If you're going all the way with stainless might as well go big IMO. kinda like

[Matt@RFR]

Vince and ProStreet: These headers are one of the worst I've ever seen, and they are not prototypes nor one-off's. They are a part number that someone sells. And they aint cheap. I'm making a replacement set for the owner, so these won't be used.

Here's another thread I started on another forum asking about another potential problem with these headers.

ProStreet, a set of Burns merge collectors was ordered earlier this week.

Seems like all that flashing and such should have been ground off prior to them being coated.

You'd think, wouldn't you?

[ProStreet R/T]

Wow thats a production part? I thought this was just a home job someone tossed together in their garage.

How does the rest of it look? After you get past the part of them not bolting to the heads that is.

Mind posting a pic of the rest of it?


Oh and lets see some pics of what these are getting bolted too! I always like to see other turbo projects.

[Matt@RFR]

Here's a few more pictures. I think they speak for themselves. I will say that they look fine from about 10' away. I'm not going to post a picture of the entire header because it may give the manufacturer away, and I'm not in a postion to do that. I'll be sending a link to this thread to the owner though, and it's up to him.

The owner won't even let me see pictures of the car! It's going to be a SEMA car, and I guess they are keeping it under wraps. I've been assured that it will be incredibly nice though. From what I hear, it'll be an aluminum SBC running in the neighborhood of 20lbs of boost.

[camcojb]

Car is very cool with several subtle changes from the norm. And yes, the aluminum Brodix engine should run very well. I had the pleasure of assembling it for him, and he cut no corners.

Jody

[Blown353]

I'm having a very hard time keeping my mouth shut about these... but I'll be a good boy and be quiet about the vendor.

Matt, thanks for the analysis and for posting more pics than I had seen previously, my opinion of them just went down even more... I wouldn't take them for free unless I needed a new doorstop! I wish I had a chance to handle them in person as you have although the pictures were pretty damning by themselves.

If a little piece of that coating went through the hotside at idle or cruise the hot wheel would probably be OK. Now if the hot wheel was forced to digest a piece of that coating while spinning who knows how many tens of thousands of RPM at full boost, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of chipping the leading edges on the wheel.

You can't even get reduced diameter 12-point bolts in 6 of the 8 holes...

Maybe you could use these as the centerpiece of a $4000 HabiTrail setup for your Hamster. I dunno. How large of a piece of coating can a hamster pass without being damaged?

[myclone]

Wow thats a production part? I thought this was just a home job someone tossed together in their garage.

Sorry but my "home job" headers look WAY better than those slapped togeather pieces not mention Id be embarrassed to put a part # on them and sell them to anyone.

The above pics are EXACTLY why I build/fabricate everything I can myself. I dont mind spending good money but when parts show up looking like they were thrown togeather over a weekend and a 12 pack it chaps my hind end.

BTW, as ProStreet R/T said the turbine side is a little more durable than the compressor side so it will tollerate small debri unless it consists of rocks/internal engine parts. The compressor side is a whole other story though....just looking at it wrong can cause damage LOL.

[shmoov69]

The top ring land of a piston will hurt the wheel!!

[Damn True]

Those kinda look like dooky.

[jdpepper]

I'd send it back and demand my money back.

Please post the name of the vender so none of the potential buyers and fellow hotrodders will have to go through this same bs.

Thats just plain ****ed up

[OHCbird]

uh, yeah- I'm probably going out on a limb here, but I'm sure that they haven't explored the ISO-9002 issue yet. Wow; Weld-on headers!

*** stupid comment removed ***

[OHCbird]

removed my bad humor for fear of tainting a good name- people work too hard for that ****