This is my honest and unaltered experience with Frankenturbo AKA Doug Harper. I will try to keep it short. On Jan 20 I Realized the failure of my rear turbo after what I believe was pushing my Stock 60k mile turbos too hard. Between a stage 2+ tune and right after installing xhp stage 3 which raised my rev limiter. My oem failed and I bought into Frankentubo open beta test.
After a 2 month wait, I received my Turbos, (without the ceramic coating that I ordered, But was refunded for). They were clocked incorrectly. They were installed on Apr 8, 2018 and I had issues since Day 1. For the rest of this post I would like to make this part clear. My wastegate rattle with these turbos I was told by doug could be fixed with tuning, by altering the wgdc OR by sending in for him to replace the hotside with the "revised" design. My tuner Wedge did not think changing the tune was the problem and I also tried every setting on MHD rattle fix. I am not here because of the rattle but because of the OIL SEAL failure that myself and many others have experienced.
APR 8, 2018 The turbos were being installed. Here is a video From Apr 15 of the rattle, the car literally spitting oil from exhaust, smoke coming from exhaust tips and Turbo V-band clamp.
.
After some troubleshooting and failure to fix the issue, It's now July 2018. We had the turbos uninstalled, sent in for what Doug said was to install a smaller oil flow bearing he said to limit the amount of oil through the turbos which he said a few people were having the same issue. As you'll see in later photos, The turbos now have a name plate on them. and after installing for the second time, It did not spit oil but still smoked and leaked and rattled. Mind you I had 0 issues with my car before this.
Since then He insisted that It was the car and not the turbos. I tried changing my valve cover, both high and low pcv valves, my turbo oil drain lines, my oil twice, all to no avail. He then changes his story and says that he changed the whole CHRA instead of just the bearing and that theres no way its the turbos. I begged Doug to allow me to purchase a new set. Saying that I wanted to stick with his company. Even after countless plee's he simply could not replace my turbos. He just doesn't have them. He takes peoples money for a product that he doesn't even have. Every batch seems to come different than the last. Some have incredibly close wastegate actuators and do not allow the front inlet on without removing the bolts and even then its a crunch. some will allow the psp outlet to fit and others wont. There was even a time when people were receiving 2 front or 2 rear turbos I believe but don't quote me on that. I could not afford to be without a car by removing and sending them in again and waiting without a car. I asked for another set and then I could send in my old set. but that was out of the question so my only option left was to purchase Pure Stage 2 turbos. And since then I have had 0 issues with my car. Those were installed on Sep 21 (2 months of daily driving so far).
Here's where things get a little trickier. I didn't want the man who continued to point fingers and blame the car or the installer to be responsible for denying my warranty. I figured it would be pretty easy to sell since there seems to be a high demand so I sourced a private buyer who intended to send them in for a rebuild. I sold them for 1,000 and the got lost in the mail so i refunded the buyer with the promise that he would send me the money if he received them. He got the a few weeks later and sent them into Frankenturbo's "shop"? in New york. I found out and Doug was reluctant to help me, saying his priority is to the person who sent them in and not me (who's these turbos were technically stolen from). After getting Doug and the buyer to admit they belong to me. Doug tries to tell me that my warranty does count on parts installed. REALLY?!! He boasts about his "better than the rest" warranty but as soon as you install a DEFECTIVE product, your warranty is invalid. But it wasn't that they were installed. He said that I damaged both turbos causing the rotors to be bent and unable to be re-balanced. So somehow I damaged 4 turbos from him? Yet I had 0 issues with any other turbo. ALRIGHT. His attempt to make a deal with me is disgusting and asking me to go online and say that it wasn't his turbos and it was me lying and that it was my car that damaged his turbos. but his sketchy response to me asking how I could possibly of caused damage to the turbos even from day 1. His response was " If you're asking to examine the damaged product, that is not apart of the deal". He contradicts himself when he says in an email that I have the final design and am not a beta tester. but then later on a public post says I am a beta tester.
Thank you for reading. I have many more peoples conversations having the same issues as I am and of them getting the same run-around that I got and their warranties are getting denied. Many other skewed stories such as hiding the number of actual failures and number sold but I am not and have never tried to bash or Lie about Frankenturbo. I really want to see this company succeed and customers happy but when people are being scammed out of thousands of dollars and the person responsible refuses to admit fault, well that is just too disturbing to not let the public aware. This is only my experience and I am aware many have had great experiences. It also seems Doug does alot of work for this platform so I hope all of this gets sorted out. I cannot say 100% that it was the turbos, It would have been anything but I hope someone appreciates this write up.
P.S. I have not dug too deep on this but it was brought to my attention that its possible Doug's technician "James" is Jim at Cheetah Turbo in new york. where most all Frankenturbos come from. Could be completely false information but It might be interesting to some of you.
Update #1
Update 2: I've been blocked from the Frankenturbos Facebook page for posting about my experience here.
After a 2 month wait, I received my Turbos, (without the ceramic coating that I ordered, But was refunded for). They were clocked incorrectly. They were installed on Apr 8, 2018 and I had issues since Day 1. For the rest of this post I would like to make this part clear. My wastegate rattle with these turbos I was told by doug could be fixed with tuning, by altering the wgdc OR by sending in for him to replace the hotside with the "revised" design. My tuner Wedge did not think changing the tune was the problem and I also tried every setting on MHD rattle fix. I am not here because of the rattle but because of the OIL SEAL failure that myself and many others have experienced.
APR 8, 2018 The turbos were being installed. Here is a video From Apr 15 of the rattle, the car literally spitting oil from exhaust, smoke coming from exhaust tips and Turbo V-band clamp.
After some troubleshooting and failure to fix the issue, It's now July 2018. We had the turbos uninstalled, sent in for what Doug said was to install a smaller oil flow bearing he said to limit the amount of oil through the turbos which he said a few people were having the same issue. As you'll see in later photos, The turbos now have a name plate on them. and after installing for the second time, It did not spit oil but still smoked and leaked and rattled. Mind you I had 0 issues with my car before this.
Since then He insisted that It was the car and not the turbos. I tried changing my valve cover, both high and low pcv valves, my turbo oil drain lines, my oil twice, all to no avail. He then changes his story and says that he changed the whole CHRA instead of just the bearing and that theres no way its the turbos. I begged Doug to allow me to purchase a new set. Saying that I wanted to stick with his company. Even after countless plee's he simply could not replace my turbos. He just doesn't have them. He takes peoples money for a product that he doesn't even have. Every batch seems to come different than the last. Some have incredibly close wastegate actuators and do not allow the front inlet on without removing the bolts and even then its a crunch. some will allow the psp outlet to fit and others wont. There was even a time when people were receiving 2 front or 2 rear turbos I believe but don't quote me on that. I could not afford to be without a car by removing and sending them in again and waiting without a car. I asked for another set and then I could send in my old set. but that was out of the question so my only option left was to purchase Pure Stage 2 turbos. And since then I have had 0 issues with my car. Those were installed on Sep 21 (2 months of daily driving so far).
Here's where things get a little trickier. I didn't want the man who continued to point fingers and blame the car or the installer to be responsible for denying my warranty. I figured it would be pretty easy to sell since there seems to be a high demand so I sourced a private buyer who intended to send them in for a rebuild. I sold them for 1,000 and the got lost in the mail so i refunded the buyer with the promise that he would send me the money if he received them. He got the a few weeks later and sent them into Frankenturbo's "shop"? in New york. I found out and Doug was reluctant to help me, saying his priority is to the person who sent them in and not me (who's these turbos were technically stolen from). After getting Doug and the buyer to admit they belong to me. Doug tries to tell me that my warranty does count on parts installed. REALLY?!! He boasts about his "better than the rest" warranty but as soon as you install a DEFECTIVE product, your warranty is invalid. But it wasn't that they were installed. He said that I damaged both turbos causing the rotors to be bent and unable to be re-balanced. So somehow I damaged 4 turbos from him? Yet I had 0 issues with any other turbo. ALRIGHT. His attempt to make a deal with me is disgusting and asking me to go online and say that it wasn't his turbos and it was me lying and that it was my car that damaged his turbos. but his sketchy response to me asking how I could possibly of caused damage to the turbos even from day 1. His response was " If you're asking to examine the damaged product, that is not apart of the deal". He contradicts himself when he says in an email that I have the final design and am not a beta tester. but then later on a public post says I am a beta tester.
Thank you for reading. I have many more peoples conversations having the same issues as I am and of them getting the same run-around that I got and their warranties are getting denied. Many other skewed stories such as hiding the number of actual failures and number sold but I am not and have never tried to bash or Lie about Frankenturbo. I really want to see this company succeed and customers happy but when people are being scammed out of thousands of dollars and the person responsible refuses to admit fault, well that is just too disturbing to not let the public aware. This is only my experience and I am aware many have had great experiences. It also seems Doug does alot of work for this platform so I hope all of this gets sorted out. I cannot say 100% that it was the turbos, It would have been anything but I hope someone appreciates this write up.
P.S. I have not dug too deep on this but it was brought to my attention that its possible Doug's technician "James" is Jim at Cheetah Turbo in new york. where most all Frankenturbos come from. Could be completely false information but It might be interesting to some of you.
Update #1
Update 2: I've been blocked from the Frankenturbos Facebook page for posting about my experience here.
Last edited:
