You may be right.

 

Def need to PM ed i know he will take care of you as for everyone else you all need to calm down and chill. If this happened to any of your cars you would be just as upset some of you wouldnt even post it and help the rest of the community learn. So with that said lets get this thread back to where it needs to be and help the OP.

 

The weld looks fine, if it were a poor/contaminated weld it would have started at the center of the weld. and went on from there (kind of like a cracked windshield) it starts in a spot and weakens the surrounding material and therefore spreads...

On 16 gauge material (.065 wall thickness) that bead width looks plenty large for the material so I'd bet they had plenty of penetration..
(for those that fabricate, some might know how hard it can be to break a couple of tacks that have no filler lol!)

if you have everything tightened on the exhaust side, and leave 1 thing for last (like a wastegate) you have to put a lot of torque in it for it to suck in, which could put alot of stress and crack any material. Obviously everyone is quick to point fingers as to why it cracked, but unless you were there when it was welded, and when it was installed.. None of us will ever know...

This problem could stem from fixturing/manufacturing as well. There are definitely a million variables other then weld quality / penetration / installation.

 

yes but the argument is still that it was an install error.

 

Alright, i have spoken to vinny at VTR (I love these guys) and he said that he has those pipes in stock and might be able to hook me up. Problem with that is, i have no time to drive down there. I gotta call outta work and school inorder to do that.

I'm still waiting on a reply from Turbonetics.

 

Vinny is awesome guy, knowlageable and not that expensive. I bet you that VTR will exchange this part for him with no charge. If you are his customer he takes good care of you. Have my turbonetics done at his shop and every time i go back to have a new part install for example one hour of installation goes by, two hours goes by, SIX hours goes by. At the end of the day i ask Vinny, how much do i own you? he goes "hmm just give me 100 bucks", or " next time" . Love this guy, and love to hangout at his shop. He never charge me for redynoing my car every time i do some new changes. VTR is the shop to go with. Anyone who knows him, knows what I'm talking about.

 

Sounds like a good guy! word to the wise, I work in the food biz, sometimes I hook people up who come in often, maybe free drinks, whatever seems good for a really good customer, however, as soon as they start telling other customers they're getting free stuff, it stops asap. Last thing I need is someone to go hey, do I get a hook up, next thing you know everyone is your best friend.

Lets hope he does the same for them if not, they're not gonna be happy =)

 

i understand that F/I is always gonna be problematic but how majority of the issues people have with F/I is turbonetics based?

1. initial overboost issues
2. seems like half the turbonetics owners are driving around with no A/C
3. failing turbos replaced with water cooled turbos
4. now bad weld problems?

seriously, how can you not say that turbonetics has not been the most problematic F/I for the Z? yes turbonetics has done a good job of fixing most of these issues but man, initial R&D seems very poor costing both turbonetics and their customers time and money.

 

ya but hes not gonna hook up random people. Hes just good to people that have been his customer and know that they will come back to him.

I deff recommend this shop for the tristate people. Very good shop and even better people.

 

thats great and all.. but that still leaves the OP with gas, mileage and tolls.. unless you plan to cover that for him

 

true true but that might be the only choice i have if i cant get warrantied parts from turbonetics.

 

its always good to have multiple options.. always go for the easiest first.. then have your second deck of cards in your back pocket

 

+1 poor penetration

 

That's not where the problem lies, its the people who think they spend enough money who feel like WTF! either way it's just bad practice to talk openly about getting hooked up. It can only hurt the shop.

 

This is not the first time this type of failure has occurred with this component of the turbonetics kit. I myself suffered the exact same failure, except, I wasn't lucky enough to recover the pieces. They blew off from under the car, and jetted off of the highway luckily avoiding other cars while it scattered off of the roadway. I needed to replace all of the parts including overboost pipe, wastegate and all of the necessary connections and gaskets.
Turbonetics took care of the bill, but the open pipe seen below:


The turbo part failure also caused damage to my radiator and electric fans causing then to melt. Turbonetics took no part in repairing that damage even though it was their mechanical failure that caused it.
They attributed the failure to the overboost pipe being a first production run of parts and that the newer overboost pipes were welded much better and more reliably.
I have to say, dealing with Ed from Turbonetics was great. I sent him a list of parts needed to restore my kit and he shipped it out, no charge. But I can tell you that as soon as the 1 year expires you are most certainly a$$ed out and out of luck."

 

WOW. i can see you upgraded to a greddy kit.

i really hope turbonetics does something. How much do these pipes cost anyways.

EIther way, im disappointed.

 

Don't get me wrong, I loved the turbonetics while I had it. Tremendous fun!!! I didn't pay for the pipes since I only had the kit for a total of 8 months. The replacement was free. God only knows what they charge if you are over the 1 year marker. Good Luck.

 

well i mean. i still have my wastegate. if the pipes are really that expensive, i can just buy another uppipe and run open wastegate dump. its gonna be louad but i love loudness lol.

 

That eliminates 1 pipe, saves some money, improves some performance. Good thing you recovered the wastegate ($$$). Just get some metal caps to seal off the open ports for that mid pipe that also broke. Thats a good alternative. I have a friend that wants to do the same with a turbonetics he wants me to install for him. I think he already has the parts.
Good luck with yours. PM me if you need any help. (I am in Brooklyn & Queens)

 

Wow so many negative posts on this thread.....Geez

If the kit is under warranty I don't need the part back what I do need is a proof of purchase and the photo of the pipe ( which I saw here ) and I wll take care of it UNDER WARRANTY. The pipe that failed was replaced by a new revision so it will eliminate two pipes into one.

Thanks to everyone who mentioned my name in a positive way. I have been on this forum years before I was with TN and as a avid Z driver and enthu so I understand the frustration but TN will take care of it.