Man Ooh Man Chad you have the worSt Luck With turbos

Turbolab built the 20g on my evo 8 and I can say that I have no complaints with it what so ever. I was extremely worried about this turbo at first since evo 8 20gs are notorious for having surge problems, thus being why there are no evo 8 20gs in production. Austin assured me I wouldn't have issues with this turbo and if I did I could return it to him and we could work something else out. I have about 4k miles on it and it runs flawlessly. The customer service I received from these guys was awesome, pricing was great, and turnaround time was phenomenal. There's no possible way that these guys can compete on the same scale as fp. Fp has been around for far longer, have more money, and more employees. Turbolab has been around for just a year, and only has Austin and Ian working in the shop. I am not discrediting fp, I think they went above and beyond in this situation. With that being said you can't just expect someone to over night you a free turbo, and then expect them to cooperate with you after you put them on blast like this. I agree the way you were treated in the end was wrong but turbolab is a new company and they can only learn from their mistakes and handle the situation differently if it happens again.

I love how people think fp is some gigantic warehouse with dozens of employees at their disposal.

Seems like all the people with TL turbos that have had success, have had the turbo for like 3k miles and never over 20psi. The real test is when you get 50-60k miles and push the thing to its limits like most fp turbos see.

JusMX141 said:

et al

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Help like this is the reason Justin has my business as long as he's building/rebuilding turbos. It's just not worth it to possibly save a few bucks elsewhere when you get complete support like this. My DSM, WRX and diesel truck turbos, when they need it, will be sent to Justin.

BTW ... RE: the crankcase setup... looks like an ebay catch can. I have the same thing, only as soon as I got it, I took a 3/16' drill bit and perforated the top of the can. Problem solved.

OP - sorry to hear about your issues. Caveat emptor... stick with Justin, FP or other reputable OEMs or vendors. I'm sure turbo lab has some loyal customers but just by looking at their website and hearing about your experience, I'd stay the heck away.... especially with a response like "what do you want me to do about it".

I Wonder if OP will get any results from TurboLab.. He stated very good points & if he has logs to prove it oil pressure cannot be used as an excuse.

goodhart said:

I love how people think fp is some gigantic warehouse with dozens of employees at their disposal.

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I agree it is funny to see people think of us as some huge company.

There are 9 people who work here.

Only 3 of those people touch turbos and the least experienced has 10+ years building FP Turbos the other two have been here from the start and one is the owner.

In fact all but 3 people here myself included has been with the company for 8+ years.

While not directly for FP I've got 10+ years experience doing what I'm doing and work for FP back in 05 for 1.5 years and recently came back.

So anytime a turbo leaves here it's been built by someone who knows these turbos inside and out and supported by people who have been involved with the company for a long time.

-Michael

goodhart said:

I love how people think fp is some gigantic warehouse with dozens of employees at their disposal.

Seems like all the people with TL turbos that have had success, have had the turbo for like 3k miles and never over 20psi. The real test is when you get 50-60k miles and push the thing to its limits like most fp turbos see.

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I don't think it's a huge warehouse with dozens of employees but I'm sure they have more than two people, one of which goes to school.

And im running 26 psi.

Michael@FP said:

I agree it is funny to see people think of us as some huge company.

There are 9 people who work here.

Only 3 of those people touch turbos and the least experienced has 10+ years building FP Turbos the other two have been here from the start and one is the owner.

In fact all but 3 people here myself included has been with the company for 8+ years.

While not directly for FP I've got 10+ years experience doing what I'm doing and work for FP back in 05 for 1.5 years and recently came back.

So anytime a turbo leaves here it's been built by someone who knows these turbos inside and out and supported by people who have been involved with the company for a long time.

-Michael

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^^^ is the reason I am a firm supporter in FP products. If I didn't get a deal on my current turbo from a friend I would be running a HTA3794 right now...If/When this turbo craps out I know who I will be going to

I do not know what the first point is... I do not thing that sending me a functional stock replacement turbo overnight was asking a whole lot, even since I said I could pay for shipping. Also, they have to be out of their mind if they think i'm going to pay for a 600 mile tow home and miss the event I was headed to at a cost of 3x what the turbo was worth or even pay to have the car towed 700 miles to my destination. Again, could have offered something since their turbo left me stranded.

I keep saying the shaft was not balanced because after careful inspection looking for balance marks myself, Johnryan, and Michael from FP all saw that there were no balance marks on my turbine wheel. I promise you, that the balance mark shown in that picture, although not very easy to see with the housing on, would be more than visible while looking for it and could have been felt while feeling for such a mark.

Apparently they have beat the topic to death... however this beating to death still has not involved a phone call to me offering more than "i can put the shaft in a drill and spin it" and "the compressor wheel and shaft both look good to reuse, we can build it with a rebuild kit and wont charge labor". Anyone else see why I had a problem here? Turbo stopped spinning and left me stranded, compressor wheel was touching down till it machined itself some clearance, and i'm supposed to run those parts again changing a few seals and bearings out? How would this result in anything other than another failure?

Justin and Forced Performance, would either of you guys reuse wheels that touched down to the point of a no boost situation, and looked like the ones pictured? Also, how do you measure to see if a shaft is bent?

This thread I suppose could help you, if you stand by your product and perhaps actually have AUSTIN CALL ME about this since it seems he is the more technically advanced of the ones there.

I am getting really sick of the "expect everything for nothing" or "people will do anything to get something free" arguments. As Justin posted, things just do not add up here. I only posted this publicly because they started ignoring me and deleting my posts on their FB page.


As far as my crankcase vent setup. Stock PCV, line from the other VC breather to catch can, filter on other top port on catch can. Bottom line of catch can running to hole in back of block to allow drain back as well as ventilation at times if needed. Dipstick fits loosely in tube, and did not ever pop out. It recently popped out on the dyno, but an accidental 43psi for a split second is to blame for that.

I am not trying to simply slam them or run them out of business or anything like that. I just want to get to the bottom of this as things do not add up.

Austin's response.



Edit - too slow.

CrackedDSM- I think the first person that responded on that page hit the nail on the head....
"upset because he failed to oil his holset wrong"
This is exactly my point.

yepes281 said:

I don't think it's a huge warehouse with dozens of employees but I'm sure they have more than two people, one of which goes to school.

And im running 26 psi.

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I do expect then to overnight me a turbo if you jacked it up... Does a company expect me to get a hotel room because they sold me junk???

2 kids in a garage trying to make money. Sounds like every other cracker-jack racecar shop wanna be. FP is around for the long haul and Justin does it because he likes to and doesn't need the extra money to live.

Can't go wrong with Forced Performance or Justin, I've dealt with both of them in the past and service was top notch. Justin is a little on the crazy side, but he sure as hell knows what he's talking about jk jk

Pursuit said:

no matter what pressure you gettin , you can't live the holset with out restrictor. I know from personal experience.

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I ran a similar type restrictor with my HX35 a while back running 40psi of boost. I ended up replacing the thrust bearing twice in a little over a years time. The second time I left the restrictor out, ran the -4 line straight to the turbo, I've always ran a -12 return line and I used the turbo that way for about 8 months before suffering an engine failure. I still have that HX35 sitting in a drawer in my garage, shaft play still feels perfect.

I'm not saying you're wrong, just trying to point out that not every setup on these cars behave the same way. I'm currently running my HX40 without a restrictor, running 33-35psi of boost, same -12 return line, no smoke, shaft play as tight as it was the day I hung the turbo from the manifold (checked this past Sat). Both motors have no balance shafts and the OFH was ported the correct way.

You guys all saw this coming...