Yikes - supercharger problem 10 hours before Rally Xport

[jaxgt]

What a crazy morning. With one of my busiest weeks of the year at work, and suddenly my GT blows a supercharger bearing a few hours before pickup.

A special shout out to Shelby (at Elite Auto) and Mike Klawitter (at Reliable Transport) for routing us through Arkansas so the GT can get patched up at Shelby's joint. Also have to thank Kendall (at Cooltech) and Rich (GT Guy) for the phone and email assistance.

This forum rocks !

 

[The Grey Ghost]

Glad to hear you came up with a plan Mitchell.

After each of us doing the rally last year in rentals, I know what is like not to have a GT there.

The Tungsten is strapped in the trailer and we head out Thursday afternoon.


See you next week.

Jeff

 

[Wwabbit]

You can have your SC off in less than an hour and see if there is debris sitting on top or the inter cooler. This will tell you how damaged the SC is .. good luck !!

+1, if you are just hearing the initial 'ticks' from the SC it's unlikely that it has progressed to passing much material below. The intercooler vanes in fact stop a lot of it from passing to the engine. I've done a couple and I doubt you will see much. SC can be replaced in an hour without a lift and you are back on the road. Best bet to send your car via Shelby - all will be good.

 

[Ed Sims]

Good news!

Ed

 

[Specracer]

That's awesome! See you next week!

 

[Black GT]

I am on my 3rd Whipple. My first one didn't make boost, and my second one did the same thing. Rotors touched. Had some metal in the intercooler. Just had to clean out the intercooler. No metal made it into engine. We took apart oil filter. Whipple sent me a new one. And she is running great now. Mine is the Gen 2. Glad to hear you will be good to go. Shelby is the best. Have fun in Vegas everyone!

 

[GKW05GT]

The Reliable truck left Fayetteville Ga about 7:30 AM headed for Elite Auto. They should be in this evening.

 

[Thugboat]

Take your CGT, enjoy the Rally and definately talk to Ed about your Gen 2 whipple. Guarantee he has some interesting info to share.

Larry

THUGBOAT

 

[Thugboat]

Oops, see that you have solved the issue, Shelby will have your car like new. My whipple cratered also and with time spent was able to remove small amount of debris on top of the intrcooler. Nothing matches driving the GT with everyone else.

Have a BLAST.

Larry

 

[jaxgt]

It's pretty crazy how many stories I've heard in the past 2 days of Whipples dying. I suspect most folks, don't even have many miles on them. I have about 10-12,000 on mine, 95% of which weren't even hard driving.
Makes you wonder.

 

[RALPHIE]

...Makes you wonder.

Yup! :agree:

 

[Fast Freddy]

My intercooler was fine after both Whipples died. Only the one Whipple grenaded & sent metal on top the intercooler. No metal in engine. Intercooler was fine.

Ed

PS I was told they only have a 10,000 mile life span & can't be rebuilt. I'm not believing that anymore. At least the rebuilt part of it.

did you break a 4.0L

 

[Ed Sims]

Yup. A 1st Gen & a 2nd Gen both broke. Over 10,000 mi on each. They don't last long in my book. I am actually thinking of replacing my 3rd one before it strands me somewhere.

Ed

 

[FBA]

What kind of crap product have we bought, that has a 10K mile lifespan????

 

[PeteK]

Since I bought a 3.4 Gen 2 Whipple set up from one of the list members a couple months ago, I'm bummed. Only 10Kmi?? I hope someone from Whipple is monitoring this forum and can respond with an explanation. Does anyone here know what the failure mode is? Gears or bearings? A supercharger oil with more HP additives might help. And a "magnetic chip detector" might be a good investment, to warn of impending failure.

 

[MAD IN NC]

I've over 10k miles..... outside of the chirp I love the Whipple. Hope there is a rebuild option............. why replace a known bad component with another. BTW- the belt I have is ~ 8K old. Still havent put my Fubar custom on yet....

If the Whipple crashes I seriously have to look at taking my chance's with a TT for next upgrade considering 10K for a new Whipple or $1 per mile would go a long way to a TT............

 

[BlackICE]

I'm not vouching for these guys, only that there are places the rebuild them. Ed's on the right track to rebuild or replace before failure.

Pure guess on my part but either the bearings on the rear side fail, they are sealed and not in an oil bath like the front ones, or the rotors crash from getting too hot from thermo expansion. It not easy to get close rotor clearances for efficient running while allowing for the differential heating of the rotors. The air gets progressive hotter as it moves from the intake at the rear (~80 - 100F) towards the discharge port at the front well over 300F.

My Gen 1 has about 8K on it without an major problems. I did have a pulley alignment issue solved by a space Evan created and a bypass valve that came loose.


http://www.thehighspeedlab.com/catalogkb004.html

 

[Whipple Charged]

What kind of crap product have we bought, that has a 10K mile lifespan????

The superchargers have a 100,000 mile life expectancy in standard applications. Higher rpm levels can lower life but in general only a small percentage. 10,000 miles is not even close if 18,000rpm is not exceeded. Gen 1 and gen 2 have to do with rotor design. The only issue we've come across is the rear shaft on the 3.4 which was upgraded in what you consider Gen 3 although we don't reference them that way. The 3.4 was typically pushed near or passed the limit as the power levels kept climbing. The 4.0 liter is better suited for the flow levels required. Gears never have problems.....

With that being said this is news to us because we clearly have not heard about some of these or most of these. We've got plenty well passed 10,000 miles so that is clearly not accurate. They also are fully rebuildabe and should only be done by us, sending to someone other than us is simply asking for issues. We design, make and build them and can certainly work with the customer in he best way possible. If this issue was brought to our attention the sc maybe could've been to us and back to customer on Friday.

Either way we are here to help, I can be reache'd as always, dustin@whipplesuperchargers.com. Email is best as phone for me is tough to get back to everyone. Otherwise you can call and talk to Mike or Dennis.

 

[twobjshelbys]

Now there's customer service!

 

[2112]

How do you know which Generation your 3.4L is?