it would appear that I have a bearing or two on the way out.

those who have been playing along at home will remember that my blower seized due to a blockage in the oil feed. this caused oil starvation and resulted in the whole shebang being replaced under warranty (about 3 years ago).

now I'm getting a bearing squeal under low loads (i.e. partial or no throttle and when backing off/engine braking). under load it seems to go away. I have contacted Sprintex and they were particularly helpful in providing part numbers for the intermediate shaft bearings, but I have little experience in pulling the kit apart to replace them.

I know I'll need Loctite blue or grey maxx to seal the housing up again, but if anyone has any pointers about pulling it down and replacing stuff I would very much appreciate it (Heath and Jase, I'm looking at you!!).

cheers,
.wook

it would appear that I have a bearing or two on the way out.

those who have been playing along at home will remember that my blower seized due to a blockage in the oil feed. this caused oil starvation and resulted in the whole shebang being replaced under warranty (about 3 years ago).

now I'm getting a bearing squeal under low loads (i.e. partial or no throttle and when backing off/engine braking). under load it seems to go away. I have contacted Sprintex and they were particularly helpful in providing part numbers for the intermediate shaft bearings, but I have little experience in pulling the kit apart to replace them.

I know I'll need Loctite blue or grey maxx to seal the housing up again, but if anyone has any pointers about pulling it down and replacing stuff I would very much appreciate it (Heath and Jase, I'm looking at you!!).

cheers,
.wook


Can i ask you, since you said 3 years ago it was replaced/fixed - how long have you had your blower, and when did sprintex first produce the magna blower kit?

Can i ask you, since you said 3 years ago it was replaced/fixed - how long have you had your blower, and when did sprintex first produce the magna blower kit?

ok, so I thought it was installed in January 2006... turns out it was January 2007. it broke in May 2007. Sprintex started producing the kits in 2005. http://www.nextcar.com.au/n.sprintex.2005.magna.awd.05mar.html

so I've had the blower on for 2 years, and almost half of that it's been off the road!! damn!

it would appear that I have a bearing or two on the way out.

those who have been playing along at home will remember that my blower seized due to a blockage in the oil feed. this caused oil starvation and resulted in the whole shebang being replaced under warranty (about 3 years ago).

now I'm getting a bearing squeal under low loads (i.e. partial or no throttle and when backing off/engine braking). under load it seems to go away. I have contacted Sprintex and they were particularly helpful in providing part numbers for the intermediate shaft bearings, but I have little experience in pulling the kit apart to replace them.

I know I'll need Loctite blue or grey maxx to seal the housing up again, but if anyone has any pointers about pulling it down and replacing stuff I would very much appreciate it (Heath and Jase, I'm looking at you!!).

cheers,
.wook

Check the tensioner first before looking at bearings, mine has shat itself.

FYI both Jase and heath havent stripped down blowers, but mearly installed them.

I used black silicone sealant for the top of my blower housing, you can use blue as well same crap diff smell.

pretty sure it's the intermediate shaft bearings (or the main blower screw bearings... eek!). there's no noise coming from the tensioner, and I see some belt shudder on the main gates belt.

I have all the bolts out of the top plate but I'll be buggered if I can get the plate off. stupid loctite. anyone know how to dissolve it to loosen up the top plate?

cheers,
.wook

pretty sure it's the intermediate shaft bearings (or the main blower screw bearings... eek!). there's no noise coming from the tensioner, and I see some belt shudder on the main gates belt.

I have all the bolts out of the top plate but I'll be buggered if I can get the plate off. stupid loctite. anyone know how to dissolve it to loosen up the top plate?

cheers,
.wook

get a block of soft wood (pine) and wedge it between the lid and the bottom part (where the fat gates belt sits) then hammer down to crack the seal.

Being wood it wont damage anything, or use a rubber mallet on a corner hitting horizontally on an angle to "spin" the lid and to crack it.

Thats how ive ever got the lid off.

Yeh pretty sure that's what my mecanic did when he removed the top plate off my blower. I remember him using the word mallet too lol

Alrighty, now after the fiasco today, rain + washing trucks = not fun.

We have worked out that my issue was NOT the tensioner.

It is either the blower itself has seized, or the bearing thats on the shaft were the 6pk pulley and the GT3 pulley is (the one that sits in the case there).

Pic inc shortly.

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/8899/arrowyz6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The bearing that usually resides in there is i think my problem.

Car cranks without belt on, car does not crank with belt on.

can you spin the blower input shaft?

can you spin the blower input shaft?

Not by hand, but ive never been able to, and i cant get the GT3 belt off until i pull the lid off and undo that side of the pulley as its attached to the middle section of the manifold.

I can turn the blower pulley though, the main one (the one not in the red arrow) but only 1/4 turn though

hmmm thats a pain!

two blowers or bearings on their way out @ similar time!

coincidence? how many kms have you guys done on the blower itself?
and what oil do you use?

mines doing fine, but i'm only @20,000km after 25 months, on Shell Ultra 5w-40

wonder if that bearing might be a weak/heavy wear part

hmmm thats a pain!

two blowers or bearings on their way out @ similar time!

coincidence? how many kms have you guys done on the blower itself?
and what oil do you use?

mines doing fine, but i'm only @20,000km after 25 months, on Shell Ultra 5w-40

wonder if that bearing might be a weak/heavy wear part

Done about 40k myself, i use penrite HPR 5, but the bearing that im talking about is sealed unit, so it might be a crappy batch/throwaway unit.

that's the bearing I think is playing up on mine.

I have pulled everything apart (gotta love a 2lb rubber mallet!!), but cannot get the intermediate shaft off. after spending much time getting the lid and pulley and outer bracket off, I can't see any easy way to release the intermediate shaft. do you need to remove the gates belt before the shaft will come loose?

and I'm having problems with the spring that holds the bearing in the outer bracket. anybody got any tips to release a circular spring clip?

I was told that my entire unit was replaced 5k km after it was installed, so this blower has done less than 12k kms in about 20 months. 9 of those months it was sitting idle though. the bearings that I think are the problem are sealed units so the oil feed doesn't matter. they are also very cheap (I picked up 2 for <$27), it's just the labour that's spendy!! (and unskilled labour is cheap. I work for beer!)

my blower will spin freely whether by hand or by belt. there's also a bolt in a hole directly below the main oil feed which you can undo to check that the blower is getting fed enough oil. it's a 6mm allen key bolt and you can use a cable tie or similar to make sure that there's oil getting to blower housing.

cheers,
.wook

that's the bearing I think is playing up on mine.

I have pulled everything apart (gotta love a 2lb rubber mallet!!), but cannot get the intermediate shaft off. after spending much time getting the lid and pulley and outer bracket off, I can't see any easy way to release the intermediate shaft. do you need to remove the gates belt before the shaft will come loose?

and I'm having problems with the spring that holds the bearing in the outer bracket. anybody got any tips to release a circular spring clip?

I was told that my entire unit was replaced 5k km after it was installed, so this blower has done less than 12k kms in about 20 months. 9 of those months it was sitting idle though. the bearings that I think are the problem are sealed units so the oil feed doesn't matter. they are also very cheap (I picked up 2 for <$27), it's just the labour that's spendy!! (and unskilled labour is cheap. I work for beer!)

my blower will spin freely whether by hand or by belt. there's also a bolt in a hole directly below the main oil feed which you can undo to check that the blower is getting fed enough oil. it's a 6mm allen key bolt and you can use a cable tie or similar to make sure that there's oil getting to blower housing.

cheers,
.wook

The way i see to get that bit off is to, remove the lid, remove the spring tensioner (btw its a pita if you dont have a set of chinese hands to help put it back on) and there is another hex key right next to it that holds that part of the assembly on, remove that bolt and it all should come loose, well loose enough to remove the GT3 belt and remove the bearing from the casing anyways.

Ill let you know on Monday as thats when i shall be doing it (hopefully)

The way i see to get that bit off is to, remove the lid, remove the spring tensioner (btw its a pita if you dont have a set of chinese hands to help put it back on) and there is another hex key right next to it that holds that part of the assembly on, remove that bolt and it all should come loose, well loose enough to remove the GT3 belt and remove the bearing from the casing anyways.

Ill let you know on Monday as thats when i shall be doing it (hopefully)

yeah, I got that far, and actually got the pulley and outer bracket off. but the shaft still feels like it's attached or connected somehow. I'll take the belt off and see if that helps.

yeah, I got that far, and actually got the pulley and outer bracket off. but the shaft still feels like it's attached or connected somehow. I'll take the belt off and see if that helps.

Belt and rubber mallet, it is usually just sitting in there from memory (the bearing case) so probably 1 decent tap and it will fall out.

ok, so there's a bunch of info available if you talk to right person.

the plenum side bearing of the intermediate shaft was held in on the earlier models by a circlip. this didn't allow the shaft to grow when heated and placed stress on the bearing. I would dare say that bearing is my problem. in the later models the circlip was removed and the bearing press fitted into the plenum housing. this allows the bearing to move with the shaft when it grows and relieves the lateral pressure.

I still haven't got the intermediate shaft out of the plenum, but when I do I'm expecting to see a circlip holding the bearing in.

I have a sneaking suspicion these parts weren't meant to be serviced! the fits are sooo tight!

cheers,
.wook

ok, so there's a bunch of info available if you talk to right person.

the plenum side bearing of the intermediate shaft was held in on the earlier models by a circlip. this didn't allow the shaft to grow when heated and placed stress on the bearing. I would dare say that bearing is my problem. in the later models the circlip was removed and the bearing press fitted into the plenum housing. this allows the bearing to move with the shaft when it grows and relieves the lateral pressure.

I still haven't got the intermediate shaft out of the plenum, but when I do I'm expecting to see a circlip holding the bearing in.

I have a sneaking suspicion these parts weren't meant to be serviced! the fits are sooo tight!

cheers,
.wook

Hmmm interesting, ill be tackling mine tomorrow, have a nice decent sized rubber mallet there as well just incase.

ok, so there's a bunch of info available if you talk to right person.

the plenum side bearing of the intermediate shaft was held in on the earlier models by a circlip. this didn't allow the shaft to grow when heated and placed stress on the bearing. I would dare say that bearing is my problem. in the later models the circlip was removed and the bearing press fitted into the plenum housing. this allows the bearing to move with the shaft when it grows and relieves the lateral pressure.

I still haven't got the intermediate shaft out of the plenum, but when I do I'm expecting to see a circlip holding the bearing in.

I have a sneaking suspicion these parts weren't meant to be serviced! the fits are sooo tight!

cheers,
.wook
That's some interesting info there. Since my blower was the 2nd last one ever made i'm guessing it has no circlip and hence no bearing failure. I've put 20K km on mine now.

RAWR!

Pulled the top cover off tonight, and found this

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/8120/snc00028zg8.th.jpg (http://img19.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snc00028zg8.jpg)

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3539/snc00023fm1.th.jpg (http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snc00023fm1.jpg)

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/5662/snc00024fr6.th.jpg (http://img16.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snc00024fr6.jpg)

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8905/snc00027km4.th.jpg (http://img10.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snc00027km4.jpg)

Pictures say 1000 words.

Looks like you've been mincing meat with it! now what?

Admittedly, im no doctor, but how was that ever considered to be a sensible design? Looks like an accident waiting to happen.

Admittedly, im no doctor, but how was that ever considered to be a sensible design? Looks like an accident waiting to happen.
Care to elaborate? How else is a twin screw positive displacement blower meant to work?

Care to elaborate?
Obviously these things have a high failure rate (due to people trying to get too much out of them, manufacturing defects, etc). But just looking at that, having 2 separate blade things spinning that close together, when even one being slightly out of place for whatever reason will cut into the other and bugger both blades?:nuts:

Note: I in no way shape or form, know much about turbos and superchargers in general. The above posts are my personal opinion.

mauled blower

Crikey. Have you spoken to Sprintex about this?

Looks all the world like ingestion, or a casting on the blower itself has failed (one of the rotors appears porus in the photo - like the casting has fractured or something) - if it was ingestion, there is usually signs (ie. a pretty serious imprint in the casting of what fell in) - the only way the rotors can touch is bearings in the blower itself getting too loose, or the gears flogging out.

If you want to start the car with the blower in this condition, stop it from moving (ie remove intermediate belt) and wire open the bypass valve (ie. in the position it is normally under vacuum/idle)

Sprintex should have rotors etc available but why it did this is a bit odd....

Crikey. Have you spoken to Sprintex about this?

Only just found it tonight, will ring them in the morning.

But blower is off the car as well as everything else blower related, will source the new fuel rail feed, and balancing pipe tomorrow and should have the car back on the road by friday.

Also articuno, seriously if you are going to be like that then leave. You obviously have no idea how a twin screw blower works, this has been on the car for about 40k on mine, another 5k or so on Heaths, ive found out it was rebuilt less then 12 months ago so hopefully sprintex will come through and repair it then it will be up for sale.

Heath: Didnt find a single thing in the inlet tract or TB assembly when i pulled them off, i will pull the blower off the manifold tomorrow and have a peak inside and see what has happened. Oil flow was fine as well (well it gushed out when i took the return off).

Also the pics dont do it justice, they are tame compared to what its like when your looking at it.

Obviously these things have a high failure rate (due to people trying to get too much out of them, manufacturing defects, etc). But just looking at that, having 2 separate blade things spinning that close together, when even one being slightly out of place for whatever reason will cut into the other and bugger both blades?:nuts:

Note: I in no way shape or form, know much about turbos and superchargers in general. The above posts are my personal opinion.

lol
You said it yourself in your 2nd paragraph. If you dont know what your talking about you shouldn't really comment; ask a question sure.

On a few of those pics to me the damage doesn't look like it matches rotor to rotor (in terms of an interference) which would indicate to me there's been some sort of contamination. Some of those gouges are quite deep and imo if a bearing were to cause such i would believe there would be moreso a catastrophic failure. Theyre very precise parts and would sound horrid and fail massively for such to occur.

Is there any trace of such contamination, i suppose anything of even washer size would cause the same complete destruction i mentioned... not sure

Thoughts??
edit* re-read above comments... any signs post blower??

dude, that's horrible. I'm with Heath on the ingestion path. but I guess a bad bearing could make them move close enough to munch each other.

I have been commenting to just about anyone who'll listen about the beauty of the twin screw setup. I mean, to manufacture en-mass a pair of interlocking screws that come close enough to compress air to about 10psi, yet never touch each other (when working correctly) is amazing to me.

it does look like you'll be up for the expensive part of the setup. at least you can ask them exactly what blower you need to replace it with. or you could upgrade and get one to make 15psi!! :cool:

cheers,
.wook

lol
You said it yourself in your 2nd paragraph. If you dont know what your talking about you shouldn't really comment; ask a question sure.

On a few of those pics to me the damage doesn't look like it matches rotor to rotor (in terms of an interference) which would indicate to me there's been some sort of contamination. Some of those gouges are quite deep and imo if a bearing were to cause such i would believe there would be moreso a catastrophic failure. Theyre very precise parts and would sound horrid and fail massively for such to occur.

Is there any trace of such contamination, i suppose anything of even washer size would cause the same complete destruction i mentioned... not sure

Thoughts??

Not that i can see, you can still spin the blower with a hex key about 1/2 a turn and some of the marks do line up, just those particular pics you cant really tell. I dont think it was a bearing i think (well Heath thinks and i agree) that something has come loose in the blower and being sucked into there. When it did stop was a lot of noise then the motor cut out, then couldnt get it started without the 6pk belt on, so tbh i have no damn clue.

Hmmmn, Blower with a horrible failure rate due to various causes... awesome design, hey!



Sorry, gotrice, i forgot that personal opinions werent allowed on this forum.

Hmmmn, Blower with a horrible failure rate due to various causes... awesome design, hey!



Sorry, gotrice, i forgot that personal opinions werent allowed on this forum.


Most have been caused by the owner running more boost or different ECU package, there has been several that have been genuine faults though (mine, Wook's etc)

The fault rate is no different to any other thing really. Same will probably happen with the Raptor (aka bearings going etc etc) nothing lasts forever.

what you don't hear about are the numerous (even on this forum) owners who have had Sprintex kits on their cars for ages (4 years) without a single hiccup.

most of our problems are because we've not been content with the standard package and want to squeeze more out of it. my setup stood up to 3 or 4 heavy track days without a single problem... then I had it tuned and bang.

I think the majority of owners are happy with the standard setup and have never had a problem.

it's just no one feels the need to post up and say "hey, I DON'T have a problem with my supercharger."

the more I get to know about this kit the more I appreciate the engineering and complexity of it.

what you don't hear about are the numerous (even on this forum) owners who have had Sprintex kits on their cars for ages (4 years) without a single hiccup.

most of our problems are because we've not been content with the standard package and want to squeeze more out of it. my setup stood up to 3 or 4 heavy track days without a single problem... then I had it tuned and bang.

I think the majority of owners are happy with the standard setup and have never had a problem.

it's just no one feels the need to post up and say "hey, I DON'T have a problem with my supercharger."

the more I get to know about this kit the more I appreciate the engineering and complexity of it.

+1

Except mine was rock stock haha. But 40,000k's + without a single issue aint bad.

phil had a sprintex on his car, was running the standard tune that comes with the kit
and he had a few problems with it, being in WA he could take his car straight to sprintex to get it looked at
think he was up to his 3rd blower

Any part will fall apart when it injests something like this one obviously has. Yet again you come here to spout worhtless opinion about something you simply knownothing about. Glad to see some things do not chage

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, how about backing that opinion up for a change?

I would highly doubt it was bearing failure as the damage is localised and not all along the rotors. It looks to have injested something, I would say something rather soft at that as a nut or bolt would have done far more damage than that if it even got through

I would say the engine should be ok given the size of the object and the fact it went through. WOuld be worth to check if the rotors are still straight as a bent rotor/pair may indicate something larger. Also check the internals of the housing for damage to see if the rotors flexed out at all.

Pity this is not for sale in a few months, would like to play with one of these on the 3.0 and see how it goes with the little 3.0, Mrs would shoot me if I got one now I think

Any part will fall apart when it injests something like this one obviously has. Yet again you come here to spout worhtless opinion about something you simply knownothing about. Glad to see some things do not chage

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, how about backing that opinion up for a change?

I would highly doubt it was bearing failure as the damage is localised and not all along the rotors. It looks to have injested something, I would say something rather soft at that as a nut or bolt would have done far more damage than that if it even got through

I would say the engine should be ok given the size of the object and the fact it went through. WOuld be worth to check if the rotors are still straight as a bent rotor/pair may indicate something larger. Also check the internals of the housing for damage to see if the rotors flexed out at all.

Pity this is not for sale in a few months, would like to play with one of these on the 3.0 and see how it goes with the little 3.0, Mrs would shoot me if I got one now I think

Well it will be up FS tonight give or take.

Uploading pics to sprintex now.

Hmmmn, Blower with a horrible failure rate due to various causes... awesome design, hey!



Sorry, gotrice, i forgot that personal opinions werent allowed on this forum.

Its not a personal opinion its the fact that you criticise the twin scrolls design in an area which is vital for it to function. No opinion just wrong.

Its not a personal opinion its the fact that you criticise the twin scrolls design in an area which is vital for it to function. No opinion just wrong.

Sorry Mr Infallible.:nuts:

what you don't hear about are the numerous (even on this forum) owners who have had Sprintex kits on their cars for ages (4 years) without a single hiccup.

most of our problems are because we've not been content with the standard package and want to squeeze more out of it. my setup stood up to 3 or 4 heavy track days without a single problem... then I had it tuned and bang.

I think the majority of owners are happy with the standard setup and have never had a problem.

it's just no one feels the need to post up and say "hey, I DON'T have a problem with my supercharger."

the more I get to know about this kit the more I appreciate the engineering and complexity of it.


lol.. hey guys I DON'T have a problem with my supercharger!! 35,000km and counting :)


back on topic.. interesting damage, I will be looking closely to see the results of further investigation..


as for a certain someone's posts... the design is the concept of that type of blower dude.. thats how it is. sure these things have had some issues. but 99% have been because owners have wanted more (trying to beat me perhaps:P ) as soon as you start playing with things that aren't really meant to be played with you will start to have issues, if Sprintex wanted people to push them harder they wouldn't have provided base maps etc... just like when u do performance mods to a magna u have issues, some do diffs etc.. sure the sprintex kit is not the most efficent and def' lacks in potential compared to what is on the market today... but for what it is and the application its intended for its fine.. Not my cup of tea and was never a consideration for me but thats my personal opinion...

lol.. hey guys I DON'T have a problem with my supercharger!! 35,000km and counting :)


back on topic.. interesting damage, I will be looking closely to see the results of further investigation..


as for a certain someone's posts... the design is the concept of that type of blower dude.. thats how it is. sure these things have had some issues. but 99% have been because owners have wanted more (trying to beat me perhaps:P ) as soon as you start playing with things that aren't really meant to be played with you will start to have issues, if Sprintex wanted people to push them harder they wouldn't have provided base maps etc... just like when u do performance mods to a magna u have issues, some do diffs etc.. sure the sprintex kit is not the most efficent and def' lacks in potential compared to what is on the market today... but for what it is and the application its intended for its fine.. Not my cup of tea and was never a consideration for me but thats my personal opinion...

What are you talking about? you have had issues, IIRC something about the W2a expanding and leaking water? that to me is an issue.

lol.. hey guys I DON'T have a problem with my supercharger!! 35,000km and counting :)


back on topic.. interesting damage, I will be looking closely to see the results of further investigation..


as for a certain someone's posts... the design is the concept of that type of blower dude.. thats how it is. sure these things have had some issues. but 99% have been because owners have wanted more (trying to beat me perhaps:P ) as soon as you start playing with things that aren't really meant to be played with you will start to have issues, if Sprintex wanted people to push them harder they wouldn't have provided base maps etc... just like when u do performance mods to a magna u have issues, some do diffs etc.. sure the sprintex kit is not the most efficent and def' lacks in potential compared to what is on the market today... but for what it is and the application its intended for its fine.. Not my cup of tea and was never a consideration for me but thats my personal opinion...


Get a room with your supercharger, im sick of you constantly gloating about good it is.

Get a room with your supercharger, im sick of you constantly gloating about good it is.

Yep and i will be the first one to let rip if it does let go.

Get a room with your supercharger, im sick of you constantly gloating about good it is.
:bowrofl: good call

geeeez guys take a joke, was merely saying that there would always be me saying hey, nothings gone wrong with my supercharger.. lol
lighten up a little guys, however i agree it was a good call!!

w2a cooler expanding was due to the blower being too efficient for the bov.. issue with the overall kit design moreso than the blower itself
which btw was rectified at no cost to me at all.. even offered a car to use whilst mine was in the workshop...

why not gloat about the facts...


anyways, back on topic.

how would something have got in there to do that sort of damage to the rotor

geeeez guys take a joke..

go for it if/ moreso when it does let go..

w2a cooler expanding was due to the blower being too efficient for the bov.. issue with the overall kit design moreso than the blower itself

anyways, back on topic.


how would something have got in there to do that sort of damage to the rotor


Mate its not a joke though. Like i can understand where your coming from because you went the different option, and it has turned out great for you. But whenever a thread like this comes up, or anything to do with a Sprintex, you always add your 2c in about how much better you and your supercharger is thank a sprintex model. Honestly, the more you do it, the more people get added to the "gonna give you **** when it goes bang" list.


Well done for being original, but suss out your nearest book store for a dictionary - then look up humility.

Mate its not a joke though. Like i can understand where your coming from because you went the different option, and it has turned out great for you. But whenever a thread like this comes up, or anything to do with a Sprintex, you always add your 2c in about how much better you and your supercharger is thank a sprintex model. Honestly, the more you do it, the more people get added to the "gonna give you **** when it goes bang" list.


Well done for being original, but suss out your nearest book store for a dictionary - then look up humility.

Understand, just havin fun man is all..

and I'm fully ready for the **** im gonna get when it goes bang thats more of the fun.. hell my boys gave me **** when i had the issues with the cooler..

Understand, just havin fun man is all..

and I'm fully ready for the **** im gonna get when it goes bang thats more of the fun.. hell my boys gave me **** when i had the issues with the cooler..

Fair call, just saying how it comes across from our perspective. :)

Nice sig.

Yes, some people have had issues with the Sprintex blower but majority have not. Me being a case in point. I've had mine for 20,000km and still going ok. Only issue was a rubber seal that leaked some oil but that was replaced under warranty by Sprintex for no charge. Not really a design fault but more so a bad rubber seal.

When i had power loss issues during my manual conversion we thought it was the blower but Sprintex weren't able to find any issues with it when they inspected it. Since they had it there i got them to rebuild it anyway as it didn't cost much to do this. It's now back on my car tuned for even more power and still going strong.

I think you'll find more issues with Sprintex as there are more of them out there than other blowers such as Raptor, Rotrex, etc. And with some people playing around with them (not pointing at wookie or magna00), there's going to be a chance that some of them have issues.

Add to this dont forget sprintex are on more than just Magna's, they are all over the place.

I know of just as many people who have issues with factory fitted turbo's dropping bearings and seals as well

it just seems these sprintex supercharges cant go for long without SOMETHING going wrong.. has a single magna had a sprintex supercharger fitted and had NOTHING go wrong at all.. minor or major...

the feedback, on these forums, of the sprintex charger has turned me off them for good.. on any car, not just a magna.....

sprintex are crap, simple

dunno why i bothered

it just seems these sprintex supercharges cant go for long without SOMETHING going wrong.. has a single magna had a sprintex supercharger fitted and had NOTHING go wrong at all.. minor or major...

the feedback, on these forums, of the sprintex charger has turned me off them for good.. on any car, not just a magna.....

i had mine on for 40000km with no issues

sprintex superchargers are on a lot of marine engines and v rod harleys, im not sure how many other cars actually have these

it just seems these sprintex supercharges cant go for long without SOMETHING going wrong.. has a single magna had a sprintex supercharger fitted and had NOTHING go wrong at all.. minor or major...



Mine hasn't had any issues so far. Done about 15,000km so far on my car, plus 20,000km on the car it was on previously, from memory. So far 35,000km and a few track days, hopefully it'll stay issue-free.

I agree an alarming number of people have had problems their Sprintex, but IMO the majoity of the problems have been caused by people playing around with it, and idiocy from incompetent tuners/fitters.

So far I'm pretty happy with how things have panned out with my Sprintex setup, and have no regrets. Though no doubt if I suffer an unpreventable catastrophic breakage my opinion will change quickly.

Sorry Mr Infallible.:nuts:

Just do better.

In regards to the faults due to sprintex kits it's just part of modding cars. Things tend to break when we experiment we just have to try be a bit conservative.

And for gods sakes stop trying to make arguments out of every little thing. Over the negativity. Disregard my above retort.

whoa those pics are painful!
hope you get all the repairs sorted out!

give sprintex some credit, they were the First to make an
affordable kit for the magnas. we had nothing else affordable back then.
morning you walk in, paid the $7k, and sameday 8 hours later picked up and ready to go.

albeit eastern states people had more dramas, but for a first to market product
it was a decent job. fully cnc milled manifold and anodised cover, etc, etc woulda taken quite a few man hours.

whoa those pics are painful!
hope you get all the repairs sorted out!

give sprintex some credit, they were the First to make an
affordable kit for the magnas. we had nothing else affordable back then.
morning you walk in, paid the $7k, and sameday 8 hours later picked up and ready to go.

albeit eastern states people had more dramas, but for a first to market product
it was a decent job. fully cnc milled manifold and anodised cover, etc, etc woulda taken quite a few man hours.

Exactly.

Anyways the blower didnt fail on mine, the bypass valve did, just found a huge chunk of aluminum and a decent hole in the butterfly of it.

Its amazing how many people will critisise a performance part.

Each part has a certain % of failures, even from factory. Look up the Eaton M90 supercharger history if you want to know about supercharger failures.

Chances are the sprintex supercharger isnt any less reliable than any other brand out there, and as magna00 just stated, it looks like his by-pass valve failed, not the supercharger itself.

People just seem to expect that every part that comes out of any factory will be 100% perfect, granted for the amount of money some of these parts cost, they should be perfect, however its financially impossible to check every component for 100% accuracy.

dont think tzaboy has had a s/c failure. his is pumping 10.5psi into his engine. its his engine that goes bang.

dont think tzaboy has had a s/c failure. his is pumping 10.5psi into his engine. its his engine that goes bang.

He has seized a blower, on MM08 he did i believe.

so the bypass valve caused this damage to the charger?

please excuse my nooby question. but shouldn't the bypass valve be after the rotors??


was there a verdict on Wookie's issue?

so the bypass valve caused this damage to the charger?

please excuse my nooby question. but shouldn't the bypass valve be after the rotors??


was there a verdict on Wookie's issue?

It is past the rotors, the bypass valve is for offboost/part throttle when it is open and allows air back into the front of the blower, its basically a vaccum operated butterfly, now i dont know what exactly caused it, but i have found several large chunks of metal inside the unit, as well as bits missing out of the bypass valve. The blower sucked something in causing this damage, now it wasnt anything externally as no marks on the TB, MAF honeycomb is still there, no marks or holes on the air filter.

was there a verdict on Wookie's issue?

only just got the plenum bearing and intermediate shaft out last night. I have a new fave tool! it's called a blind hole bearing puller.

anyway, the two new bearings are being pressed on to the shaft this morning and will be installed tonight. the plenum bearing didn't have the circlip on it, but it was leaking grease and had a shredded piece of metal sticking out of it! I hope that was the noise I was hearing.

I'll bolt it all back together tonight, let the sealant cure overnight and test fire tomorrow some time.

fingers crossed for no more bearing squeal!

cheers,
.wook

Sounds like you might be lucky... maybe these units need to be opened up every 30k for inspection, and or bearing replacement ?

but IMO the majoity of the problems have been caused by people playing around with it, and idiocy from incompetent tuners/fitters.

totally agree with this

It is past the rotors, the bypass valve is for offboost/part throttle when it is open and allows air back into the front of the blower, its basically a vaccum operated butterfly, now i dont know what exactly caused it, but i have found several large chunks of metal inside the unit, as well as bits missing out of the bypass valve. The blower sucked something in causing this damage, now it wasnt anything externally as no marks on the TB, MAF honeycomb is still there, no marks or holes on the air filter.

DAMN thats impressive!! maybe a sign the intake wasn't up for the task, blower was soooo hungry and could not get enough air it had to start eating itself, presuming this debrie has gone through into the engine?? what sort of damage would you expect to be in the engine?

DAMN thats impressive!! maybe a sign the intake wasn't up for the task, blower was soooo hungry and could not get enough air it had to start eating itself, presuming this debrie has gone through into the engine?? what sort of damage would you expect to be in the engine?

Who knows, all i know is it isnt covered under warranty, and the car gets traded in the moment its on the road again.

so the jury's still out on the bearings that I replaced. the car is back together and running, but I experienced the same noise on the first drive. since then the noise has not returned... I do have problems with the alignment of the pk6 belt at the moment. it's rubbing against the belt cover and making an awful racket. I'll deal with that tomorrow morning.

**note to self** when the car sits for a week and still has the iPod attached, you should put the battery on a charger/conditioner :nuts: silly wookiee!

although I may not have sourced the problem, I have expanded my knowledge about these blowers by about 500%. to me, that's the main point.

also, I have a line on a 55mm pulley (mmm, 10.5 psi!) for about half what Sprintex wanted. if anyone else is interested, drop me a line. the more we get interested, the cheaper it'll be! obviously you'll need to upgrade some other components (like fuel system and have a tunable back).

cheers,
.wook

And forgies Wook...

Anyways car is back on the road NA, got a very loud ticking noise in the head, probably a lash adjuster or something like that no doubt.

Such a POS to drive now, no guts too quiet, just very very boring of its former self.

Mine hasn't had any issues so far. Done about 15,000km so far on my car, plus 20,000km on the car it was on previously, from memory. So far 35,000km and a few track days, hopefully it'll stay issue-free.



OK I retract this statement:bowrofl:

Yesterday I noticed an unfamiliar whiny/rattly noise coming from the sprintex blower. Stuffed bearing (the sealed one, so nothing to do with oil supply). The rotors have made some light contact with each other.

Blower is now on it's way to Sprintex, not looking forward to the repair bill. But better it happened now than on the track I suppose. Thought my run of not breaking anything despite regular track use was too good to last:P

OK I retract this statement:bowrofl:

Yesterday I noticed an unfamiliar whiny/rattly noise coming from the sprintex blower. Stuffed bearing (the sealed one, so nothing to do with oil supply). The rotors have made some light contact with each other.

Blower is now on it's way to Sprintex, not looking forward to the repair bill. But better it happened now than on the track I suppose. Thought my run of not breaking anything despite regular track use was too good to last:P
Should I be so bold... "Another one bites the dust"

which bearing was it? as far as I know, there's only the two on the intermediate shaft which are outside of the blower, and they won't cause the screws to touch (unless they absolutely fail).

on a positive note, after replacing my intermediate shaft bearings my blower is running well.

cheers,
.wook