If anyone is interested in a little turbo theory, and some pictures, facts, actual knowledge of what is going on.
Lets start by taking his "bearing housing comparison" First of all, if you did not know it, Doug is a liar, and has been known to photoshop things to try to sell products. This time he simply cut the housings in a way that would show things favorable to himself, while also showing some pretty scary issues with his bearing housings. That he is too uneducated to recognize this is another very scary thing.
So let's get started. Let's take a look at the actual comparison below with a bearing housing we use for all our "Stock Frame" N54 turbos. This includes OEM Replacement, Stage 1, Stage 2, and 2+.
We will begin by showing you the actual water jacket of a bearing housing used by VTT with a cross-section taken out. I have highlighted the water jacket area. Notice how different it is from what the other guy is trying to sell you. When not impeded by the oiling area, the water jacket spreads out to almost the entire area of the bearing housing to provide maximum cooling. So if I were to want to try to sell you on BS facts, I would say look at the VTT water jack area. Its 3-4 times bigger than the Frankenturbo water jackets, our turbos must be better. But in all honesty, it's not going to help much except add a little bit more cooling.
Next, and on to the more important part. Below is the same image Frankenturbo is trying to sell you.
I went ahead and added the image of our actual bearing housing, not his BS marketing ploy. I want you direct your attention to the oiling holes. Yes the ones somehow absent from the OEM, and VTT housings in his photo, but present in the Frakenturbo housing. We won't even dwell on the fact that he wants you to believe he cut all 3 housings in the same spot, but in the top two, you cannot see the oiling cavities. this means they were not cut in the same spot, he cut them purposely to make the water jacket look smaller. Does this surprise anyone? This is the person who photoshopped compressor maps.
The important part here is, now that you can see the oilling gallies, look at the VTT housing, you will see 3 areas that feeds the turbo with oil. One small gally to the compressor bearing, one small galley to the turbine bearing, and one LARGE gally to the thrust bearing (the reason the thrust gally is so large ie because this is the most critical area for oil volume in the turbo, more on that later)
Now take a look at the Frankenturbo housing. We see for whatever reason they tried to add double gallies to the turbine side bearing. One would dump directly into the water jacket, meaning you have now mixed your oil, and water basically ruining your engine, and the other he has that same galley dumping after the bearing directly into the oil drain area? This would be a disaster, the car would smoke, and oil would fill the bearing housing causing very swift turbocharger failure. Keep in mind, these are Frankenturbo own pictures, not mine! So either we have a disaster of a bearing housing design OR we have very very poor casting with phantom gallies or large porosity in the mold. Either one is a HUGE issue.
Now let's move on to the REALLY important stuff. The oiling for the thrust bearing. If there is ONE area that will make or break the longevity of a journal bearing turbo, its the thrust area, and oil volume. In all instances the more oil volume you can get to the thrust, the better. There are a couple reasons why. When a turbocharger is loaded up, the turbine wheel is literally trying to push its way through the thrust, this can cause EXTREME load forces, the only thing stopping metal to metal contact, and pre-mature thrust wear, and turbo failures is the layer of oil between the thrust and the thrust collar. This is the main reason we suggest upgraded thrusts. Not only is the area where the thrust collar rides about 30% larger to spread out the load, it adds ANOTHER oil feed, and much more area for oil collection. Take a look at the pictures below, as you can see, our thrust use two much larger oil feeds for the thrust, and collects this oil from a much larger area. This is CRITICAL in keeping the thrust alive. The N54's spin over 200K RPM when at full song, and the thrust load is sky high. This extra oil ensures cooler temps at the thrust, and a film of oil is maintained under the harshest of temps, and loads.
Compare that to the small single hole from the Frankenturbo thrust. Congrats Doug, you added a few more ribs to the thrust collar area and ignored the important area of oil volume. This is like selling everyone an "improved N54 engine with sleeves, closed deck inserts, but installing plastic ring lands. All you did was improve areas that are less critical than the ones you ignored. Now if you know nothing about engine building, this may be something you would do. Since Frankenturbo does not build his own turbos, and literally knows nothing about them. It is clear why such glaring errors would be present.
Bottom line, Franketurbo has used deceptive marketing tactics in the past. Now by his own photos, he is showing you he cut the housing in a different spot, and his thrust is inferior to what should be being used in the N54. His bearing housing looks like a disaster waiting to happen. When it is this easy to take someones own photos, and turn their claims upside down with just a little knowledge, the only words that come to mind are BUYER BEWARE...
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