Carl Fausett

Brad Allore is embarked on a spirited campaign to discredit us and our products because I will not replace his damaged impeller without inspecting it.

Please take his posts with a grain of salt.

Mr. Allore is upset because he dented his billet impeller somehow and he refuses to let us inspect it. Until we see it, we cannot determine the cause of the failure and replace it under warranty. Brad told us he would make life miserable for us unless I replace the impeller for free, and so far, he's been trying. I just do not respond well to extortion.

Our impellers are fully warranted to be free from defects in materials or workmanship. All Brad has to do to get a new impeller is send in the broken one. He wont do it, which tells us he knows its been hit or dropped.

Looking at the photo he is posting around, the impeller vane is bent in. Generally speaking, when an impeller vane stress cracks under load, they are bent backwards. When they are bent down as in this case, they have been hit or dropped. But without the opportunity to inspect the failure, I can only guess.

I can say this: we are now in our 4th production run of these impellers and have sold hundreds of them over 2 years and have yet to have one fail as a result of materials, design, or workmanship.

We have many, many, happy installs with these impellers and some have been kind enough to send us dyno charts before-and-after because they are so happy with the results.

As to Mr. Allore's claims about the bearings, he is wrong again. Our bearings start their life as a KBC bearing with metal shields. Then they are remanufactured here in the USA to replace the factory lubricant with special synthetic high-temp grease, and the shields are replaced. They have no special markings on them, they will simply say "6202Z" on the race. But, they are not ordinary bearings.

Been rebuilding and upgrading superchargers for 9 years now.
Have built a few more than Mr. Allore. These KBC bearings, built to our specifications, have been outlasting the SKF bearings we used to use.

Of, course, I cannot say how Mr. Allore installed his bearings that caused them to fail in 100 miles like he reports, nor can I say what belt and pulley and shift point he used, nor anything else about his competency. What I can say is that bearings can be damaged during the installation if not done properly and that will yield results such as these.

If any body has any questions or concerns, My name is Carl Fausett.
I am the owner of 928 Motorsports LLC and I can be reached days at 920-485-0928 and via email at carl@928motorsports.com

Accurate information about our billet impellers (which hold US Patents) can be seen here:
http://www.superchargerupgrades.com/

Carl Fausett

As to the 928 in Stroud being fitted with a supercharger.

Its like developing a kit from a distance. The customer did not want the air filter assembly that came with the kit for his 16v car, so he requested the 32v air filter assembly we manufacture. Paul Anderson did not want to use the crankshaft pulley we supplied because that required a change to the alternator pulley - which we also supplied.

Paul requested to use the crank pulley from our 32v supercharger kit, and we supplied it. But as it is longer, the bolts and brackets all now need to be adapted.

You live an learn. I will not alter one of my kits on the fly again. I thought I was doing what the customer and installer wanted, but I should have stuck to my guns. Ultimately, I will be blamed for what they perceive to be a difficult install.

The parts they need are on special-order now, they will be provided, and the car will run well. It will be a one-of install.

123quattro

I was going to mention this as well, but figured I wouldn't since most didn't agree with my initial post.

John - MSME WVU 1999. My master's research was in FEA.

kccampro

Not long ago I had someone take to the forums and say some unfriendly things about me simply because I sold some parts at Hershey to someone else and not to him. I now have a new found respect for what you're going through.

Carl, I feel for you in this case and hope there’s no impact on your business

fesuvious

Fair Play for coming on here and saying your piece properly.

docmirror

I'll defer to John. I'm only an EE. I did work at Solar turbines for a while. We saw a fair amount of blade cracking like this showing the same kind of axial twist. In thinking back, these blades had a much higher aspect ratio than a turbocharger blade. This could affect the inertial moment, but John would be a better judge of that. At the time, we used a Spectral Dynamics 300 series analyzer to align and balance the rotating assemblies. This crack looks a lot like the cracks we would see in rotors that weren't quite right. Big difference in application though.

Most of the outward cracks we saw at Solar happened after an unstart condition which resulted in a compressor stall, and then subsequent flex of the blades. Again, unlikely in this application.

I stand by my statement regarding the bearing. It was not suited to the application, needed to be modified by the vendor, and still failed in some way.

Hope it gets sorted out to everyones satisfaction.

FBIII

Doc you live by this: Advice or expressions provided by me is for entertainment purposes only. It is not to be used as professional, or legally binding authority by any persons or businesses. I reserve the right to alter, revise, or delete any statements at any time.
And now your casting doubt with less than complete information on one of our long time venders/supporters. Not a very nice or professional thing to do.

Tom. M

Getting advice on the internet is only worth what you pay for it..

porsche928guy

Thanks for posting your side Carl. It sounds pretty simple he should return the impeller and go from there.

928worldwide

I don't understand, if the guy just returns the item, and lets the warranty process unfold, everything is cool right? SO why doesn't he just comply with the requirements of the warranty??? If this was a chronic issue- there would be plenty of others piling on.

heinrich

Not knowing the actual facts from the BS, I have to say I side with you Carl ..... it is never acceptable or successful to do the pi$$ed-off ex-wife thing and take the fight to the streets. Btdt.

123quattro

Sorry, I was having a crappy day at work.

cold_beer839

Carl,

You should bid on his auction, win it, and then leave him bad feedback!!!!

Ruin that 100% positive rating of his!!!

docmirror

You have the same information I have. I've given my opinion supplemented later by John who is more qualified than I.

We have two sides, one says it's a materials and workmanship fault, and the other says it's the installer. Frankly, it troubles me that the installer is working inside the turbine housing at all. The unit should come as an assy or cartridge and not be messed with by the installer.

My first post was a rebuttal to a previous post indicating FOD. I respectfully disagreed, and gave my thoughts why. Could I be wrong? Of course! With more info, I could change my position on the damage. I'd like to see close up photos of the whole impeller. Ideally, like Carl I'd like to inspect it personally. Of most interest from Carl's post is the blade angle incendence or any impact damage further out on the blade in question that we can't see. Carl may be correct that it's installer damage, but at this point, the only thing we can work with is what we can work with.

The bearing troubles me. This is a common wheel bearing used in scooters, arbors and low speed low temp applications. Basically, it's a twelve dollar bearing in an application calling for a very high stress load. Not good.

Also, comparatively speaking, I've seen better machining on impellers that are rated at 36k speeds. Maybe it's the photography, or maybe it's the after-affects of removal, but something that speed usually looks finely crafted, with no divots, and maybe a nice polish on it. Google the compressor blades of a turbocharger for a good example.

Finally, my standing here is just as a member. I'm not a vendor, I have no ax to grind, and I value all vendors including Carl for bringing products to the 928. If it were me, I would have shipped a new impeller, bearing, seal kit and be done with it, or alternately ship a whole new turbine assy and charge a core until the old one is returned complete. It's not up to me, but I can provide a smidge of insight having worked on Solar turbines, Paxton and other turbo-superchargers for a while.

Carl Fausett

That is correct. It's simple.

He refuses to send it in for inspection and replacement, and we can only assume he has something to hide.

The cost of developing and producing this part is in the tens of thousands of dollars. Engineering, CNC programming charges, prototyping, high speed arbor manufacturing, overspeed testing and certifications (we tested these impellers to 72,000 rpm before we went to production on them. Thats a 20% over-speed test where, in the impeller inductsry at 10% over-speed test is normal), then patent searching, application and patent filing. THEN, after all that, the cost of manufacturing.

Because of the significant investment, I take this matter very seriously.