PTE51 failures....Pictures of Red's units

[Steve Wood]

Red took some more pictures of his turbos and posted them at

http://communities.msn.com/IntercooledBuick/shoebox.msnw?Page=1

His camera does not focus well at very close range but these are clear enuf to show some interesting things.

I find it strange that the broken blades failed in almost exactly the same location with the same failure line. I also find it strange to see some of the bending of the blades.

I don't know what has caused this failures but I don't think they originated from debris coming thru his exhaust as they would appear as random breaks.....or so I would believe.

I have no idea with regard to the wheel manufacturing process but I wonder if there was not a defective batch produced.

I believe he should be given credit for having a legitimate problem and these failures given serious investigation. He may be unlucky but I don't believe bad luck repeats itself in this fashion.

 

[Intercooler]

So what can be done? PTE has made no statement yet and the wheel is shared with other turbo configs that nobody has expressed failures on. Can someone get PTE's side of the story on this? I relayed it to Patrick but no response yet. If this follows suit of the budget roller fiasco then I guess a poll or sticky on the total amount of bad turbos needs to be generated then a statement will be made.

 

[Turbojorge]

WOW! That is incredible!

 

[Steve Wood]

It may not be PTE's fault..if they were sold defective parts...

I just hope these wheels were not made by Comp Cams...


I am sure that the matter will be given serious deliberation before it is over.

 

[national]

It may not be PTE's fault,but they need to address the problem & take care of it in the right fashion with everyone..maybe a upgrade or downgrade to another turbo..send it in & they will change wheels out for another size or something then take it up with the manufacture that sold them the part..I think it would be in there best interest to look into this.kinda have a recall..I know it would cost alot to do but in the long run they would be better.
Guess ill have to go past my 21 psi & see if mine break in the same place..mine didnt look melted really to me but I also didnt look for cracks either..wish I had now
Brian

 

[REDS HOT AIR]

atleast i got some desent pics up...and now its up to you guys that have these turbo's to check yours if you dont and it breaks on you then you have noone to blame but yourself for the towbill home.

i didnt intend to bash pte but i would want to know about it a head of time myself.

but so far noone on here is pushing their turbo's to the extent i am therefor they are not breaking.

a fact in the case is that the turbo is advertised to go 585 hp and in the high tens and i cant get them to do as advertised and its not lack of motor.

you guys have fun with it i put up the pics and im done for now..im trying to look out for you guys giving you a heads up but got bashed myself in the process..

and really i dought you can break a high ten second turbo running in the 12's after all the stock turbo will do that

 

[d0n_3d]

that is very interesting...

i was considering buying a turbo from them later in the year...i assume the te-44 turbo does not have any problems from pte??? cause that's my next turbo

 

[Turbo PeppeR]

did you suffer any damage to your engine from the turbo failure?

 

[REDS HOT AIR]

Originally posted by d0n_3d
that is very interesting...

i was considering buying a turbo from them later in the year...i assume the te-44 turbo does not have any problems from pte??? cause that's my next turbo

i havent heard of any problems from their 49 or 44 turbo's

 

[REDS HOT AIR]

Originally posted by Turbo PeppeR
did you suffer any damage to your engine from the turbo failure?

no engine damage at all since all the failures are on the ext side only damage is my ext if full of oil .

i put my factory stock over 100,000 mile turbo back on it yesterday and it runs like a top but spools verry verry fast.

i was trying to get some of the oil burnt out of my ext. i was smokin the place up pretty good..

i have checked everything i can check without going into the motor and all is good...motor awaiting money to put a good turbo on it so i maybe can get a desent pass with the car before pulling motor to go in elcamino.

 

[S2V6RACER]

IF particles were sent through the turbo it MAY cause a self destruct within the exhaust housing as the sections of the blade(s) involved would probably circulate around a few (or hundred) times before exiting causing massive damage.

I'm not dismissing the wheel theory but, just my opinion.

BUT I would think if you have that much material being thrown from the engine to the turbo, the problem would have surfaced by now.

That's a lot of cheese in turbo's sitting on the table. Are you stuck with them?

What about metal in the oil?

 

[REDS HOT AIR]

notice the pics the shafts are not messed up at all as far as bearings in the turbo they are not in real bad shape consitering what they went thru all of them ended up bending the shaft on the ext end causing the oil leakage.

look at the one in the pic still assembled and between the wheel and the plate you can see how much the shaft bent.

 

[TurboJohn]

How many miles were on these turbos?

I wondering and worried, look at my sig. Anybody want to buy a low mile PTE-51?

 

[REDS HOT AIR]

first one to die was onthe motor for 2 weeks and never put in race trim...second one had been on there for 4 months in street trim..first night i put it in race trim it went out the next morning a brand new one was bolted on and car was still in race trim i made 2 2nd and high gear passes on the street beside my house and all was fine loaded on trailer and headed to the track and it died right around 100 ft out the gate on the very first pass..

thats the point im making in high 11 trim (street trim) it lasted for a few months then once it was set to low 11 high 10 trim it died.

hope noone is being offended i am just answering questions that are brought up..

 

[strikeeagle]

FWIW, I've run a 52 at 28 PSI with no problems. I hope this thing get sorted out quickly and to everyone's satisfaction...

 

[Reggie West]

Looking at those pictures, I dont see any stress cracks.

You really cant see much with those pics. Them being out of focus does not help much.

It looks like there was debris that tore up the blades.

In any case, Red you need to send those turbos to PTE and let them look at them. Bashing the hell out of them wont do you any good.

I would like to hear from PTE as to what they have done here as well.

As far as your motor is concerned it can still run just fine after you have blown some crap out of there.

Of course this is just my opinion. Everyone has one.

 

[Steve Wood]

Too many clean breaks, too many strange similarities. Too many turbos doing the same thing. Looks like they just went limp and broke off.

Looking at the pics, I think Red has been remarkedly reserved in his comments. He must be a real masochist.

I think I would send the pieces to an independent party for analysis given the patience he has already exhibited. I think there are a number of Garret approved turbo guys around.

I still think there musta been a defective batch of wheels put out by whomever makes them.

 

[REDS HOT AIR]

Originally posted by Reggie West
Looking at those pictures, I dont see any stress cracks.

You really cant see much with those pics. Them being out of focus does not help much.

It looks like there was debris that tore up the blades.

In any case, Red you need to send those turbos to PTE and let them look at them. Bashing the hell out of them wont do you any good.

I would like to hear from PTE as to what they have done here as well.

As far as your motor is concerned it can still run just fine after you have blown some crap out of there.

Of course this is just my opinion. Everyone has one.

you must be the one vote by itself in this thread
http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=232890#post232890

other than that you need your glases updated they are plenty clear enough to see and if you read above each pic it tells you what im trying to show in that pic.

but everyone has an oppinion.

only a few of the pics are real blurry..

and since you think my motor did it then you go ahead and buy one cause oviously you dont want to know about defective products...

 

[Reggie West]

Red you dont have to get pissed at me.

I can certainly understand you are mad and why.

Yes there are coincidences going on here but, you wont get anything accomplished unless you deal with PTE. They are the ones that sold you the turbo. They are the ones who will have to make it right.

This board could stop a Buick vendor cold in its tracks with posts of bad products and or bad service.

There are three sides to every story. Yours, theirs and what really happened.

To your advantage, if you used a credit card to make the purchase, you are certainly able to dispute the charges.

good luck

 

[rtviper]

It is strange that since all the talk of failures with the pt51 PTE has put that turbo 1st on their list of turbos on their website.They also have revamped their estimates of how fast it will run.They use to say the PT51 was good for 10s and now the new listing says deep into the 11s?If you scroll down the list of turbos you can read the original post of that turbo being good for 10s.I am not implying anything sneaky here just strange?