Gawernator
Go Kart Champion
- Location
- Fremont, CA
Heck yeah. I hadn't even bought JB4 yet and George answered my 20 questions spam.
UPDATE:
We have now numerous brand new IS38's inspected and the cause of failure is very clear....oil starvation....many of the bad IS38's - installed by either our Audi Master Guilde Techs, VW techs or hobby mechanics, at some point, did not get proper lubrication.
We had 3 out of 3 blow on us in a matter of days - all installed by different individuals. I myself blew one in a matter of minutes. I am not perfect - I make mistakes - but literally having a checklist and triple checking each step, I can comfortably say that I believe the turbos are to blame.
Pics form brand new failed IS38's:
Turbine wheel /shaft has extreme bearing transfer on the shaft (the softer brass metal of the bearings (straw color) transfers to the harder shaft metal if there is not proper lubrication in the turbo, ......nothing else can cause this to happen or for the parts to look like this.)
Thrust ring also shows bearing transfer!
Journal bearings are scored on inside and outside!
We got tired of this happening and decided to invest effort into our own in-house IS38, which is still in production.
Featuring a machined cartridge housing with a MUCH LARGER oil feed and drain, significantly improving flow and overall lubrication properties. The turbo is also fully balanced by our partners at G-Pop Shop Arkansas.
We also used this opportunity to enhance the performance of a stock IS38 significantly without the need for custom tuning, making it %100 compatible with APR IS38 software (and likely others however no testing has been done with other companies).
Once dyno numbers are in and further testing has been completed the turbo will be available at BMP Tuning.
More info and specs can be found here:
BMP Tuning IS38+ Turbo Kit
Here are some pics:
Not bad at all. Is this something you send in to convert?
We may consider accepting used/bad customer units to be sent in for conversion, however we are currently only dealing with new OEM units featuring specific cartridges.
The whole idea is to take it a step further than the OEM IS38 in terms of both performance and reliability, for both peace of mind and BOSS-500 / APR stage 3 performance at SIGNIFICANTLY lower price point and hassle/effort.
Are you using journal bearings or ball-bearings in the upgraded units?
The IS38+ comes equipped with journal bearings.
Wow I'm kind of pissed at g-pop shop now. I asked them if they had any upgraded turbine wheels coming up in the near future and they told me no. This was about three weeks ago.
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Sssooo what does this mean for my is38 I got back from littco?? That there's a giant chance of it breaking once I installed it with a Apr tune? I'm just worried now as I was under the impression that the is38 turbos (newer versions) were actually decent and didn't blow like old versions and many GTIs have been running with no such oil starvation issues that I've heard yet
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