Just a quick write-up on this compact gate and the customer service I experienced when there was an issue.
I recently changed turbo setups and ran into some clearance issues.
It was Friday afternoon for the first test fit and although there were some minor clearance issues there was one major one that was going to derail the whole weekend plan. The new exhaust housing was about 1/2" further to the driver's side than the BEP housing, which put the TiAL 38mm gate right into the power steering pump.
I hopped online and looked for some shorter gates in the same flange and found the Turbosmart Ultra-Gate 38, which was over an inch shorter than TiAL. I found it on Amazon with 10 minutes left to get it by Saturday *phew* (anyone else love Amazon Prime as much as I do?). The gate showed up Saturday morning and I had everything pretty much ready to go.
The 38mm Ultra-Gate from Turbosmart took care of all the clearance issues. Very cool little gate. The bell mouth is quite a bit bigger than the TiAL so the valve is less shrouded.
Tons of room.
Boost control was good, but I noticed it was a bit more "choppy" than before. A lot changed at once so I'm not pointing fingers at this point; just an observation.
I am running an external dump and noticed a cold-start exhaust leak a few days after the initial install. I narrowed it down to the gate leaking so I pulled it out to inspect. I popped the seat out and saw what was going on pretty fast.
The porosity of the seat, or the "chunking" away of material right below the area with the carbon buildup was interesting to see. I've had TiAL gates start leaking once they get some buildup, but that usually takes a long time if at all. In those cases you can lap the valve/seat and it will seal up.
As this was a new gate I didn't want to mess with it as I suspected the leak was due to an issue with the seat or the valve. Just to confirm this I lightly lapped the valve/seat to see where the margin was sitting and it was good, in the middle, but the spot where it was leaking was a low spot.
Thankfully it was snowy and freezing so the downtime wasnt really an issue so I looked up Turbosmart's customer service and started the process.
This isn't supposed to be a vendor review, but wanted to share a good customer service experience I had with these guys.
I sent the gate back in to be inspected about the same time everyone left for PRI, which seems to happen every year, at every company. A quick e-mail to check in got a response and they called the same day.
The tech I talked with was Marty and we discussed the issue and we decided to try a new seat as the valve looked good. Nice guy to talk to so I told him about the oscillation in boost control I was seeing and that I had ordered extra springs to increase the baseline pressure. The larger outer spring (I sent the gate in only with the spring it came with) didn't seem to seat correctly in the upper hat. Marty said it should lock into place when you turn it counterclockwise. The one I had was too large to lock into the closest ring and too small to sit square in the larger ring.
He said: what boost do you want I'll throw new springs in it and send it back. I told him 25psi and he put two new springs in it and they all lock in how they should. The springs are $30 a pop so just sending a new set of springs was generous. The gate shipped out the same day and I will have it back to install over Christmas. I haven't dealt with TiAL's customer service, but I will definitely consider Turbosmart in the future given this experience.
The slight oscillation I was seeing could have been due to the spring issue, but I'll update this once everything is back together. Given the forecast I don't expect to be back on the road anytime soon, but it was nice to encounter a good vendor that is responsive and doesn't try to give you the runaround.
I recently changed turbo setups and ran into some clearance issues.
It was Friday afternoon for the first test fit and although there were some minor clearance issues there was one major one that was going to derail the whole weekend plan. The new exhaust housing was about 1/2" further to the driver's side than the BEP housing, which put the TiAL 38mm gate right into the power steering pump.
I hopped online and looked for some shorter gates in the same flange and found the Turbosmart Ultra-Gate 38, which was over an inch shorter than TiAL. I found it on Amazon with 10 minutes left to get it by Saturday *phew* (anyone else love Amazon Prime as much as I do?). The gate showed up Saturday morning and I had everything pretty much ready to go.
The 38mm Ultra-Gate from Turbosmart took care of all the clearance issues. Very cool little gate. The bell mouth is quite a bit bigger than the TiAL so the valve is less shrouded.
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Tons of room.
Boost control was good, but I noticed it was a bit more "choppy" than before. A lot changed at once so I'm not pointing fingers at this point; just an observation.
I am running an external dump and noticed a cold-start exhaust leak a few days after the initial install. I narrowed it down to the gate leaking so I pulled it out to inspect. I popped the seat out and saw what was going on pretty fast.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
The porosity of the seat, or the "chunking" away of material right below the area with the carbon buildup was interesting to see. I've had TiAL gates start leaking once they get some buildup, but that usually takes a long time if at all. In those cases you can lap the valve/seat and it will seal up.
As this was a new gate I didn't want to mess with it as I suspected the leak was due to an issue with the seat or the valve. Just to confirm this I lightly lapped the valve/seat to see where the margin was sitting and it was good, in the middle, but the spot where it was leaking was a low spot.
Thankfully it was snowy and freezing so the downtime wasnt really an issue so I looked up Turbosmart's customer service and started the process.
This isn't supposed to be a vendor review, but wanted to share a good customer service experience I had with these guys.
I sent the gate back in to be inspected about the same time everyone left for PRI, which seems to happen every year, at every company. A quick e-mail to check in got a response and they called the same day.
The tech I talked with was Marty and we discussed the issue and we decided to try a new seat as the valve looked good. Nice guy to talk to so I told him about the oscillation in boost control I was seeing and that I had ordered extra springs to increase the baseline pressure. The larger outer spring (I sent the gate in only with the spring it came with) didn't seem to seat correctly in the upper hat. Marty said it should lock into place when you turn it counterclockwise. The one I had was too large to lock into the closest ring and too small to sit square in the larger ring.
He said: what boost do you want I'll throw new springs in it and send it back. I told him 25psi and he put two new springs in it and they all lock in how they should. The springs are $30 a pop so just sending a new set of springs was generous. The gate shipped out the same day and I will have it back to install over Christmas. I haven't dealt with TiAL's customer service, but I will definitely consider Turbosmart in the future given this experience.
The slight oscillation I was seeing could have been due to the spring issue, but I'll update this once everything is back together. Given the forecast I don't expect to be back on the road anytime soon, but it was nice to encounter a good vendor that is responsive and doesn't try to give you the runaround.
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