Whipple gen3 locked up... discuss next options?

[DougS550]

Call Whipple and state your case. I can not believe a company like Whipple would not except your SC and evaluate at no charge. To me, I would want to know exactly why one of my blowers catastrofically failed with so few miles on it. If it is a defective part of the blower they would immediately re-engineer that part to prevent their blowers from premature failure and meet the minimum reliability standards they have set for their product. But: If it had little or no oil, that would be on you. Good Luck.

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[SolarFlare]

My buddy’s trackhawk 3.0 failed. 2-3 street pulls and a couple dyno pulls. Probably not even 500 street miles. They gave him a credit for a 3.8 but didn’t want to fix for free.

 

[Angrey]

My buddy’s trackhawk 3.0 failed. 2-3 street pulls and a couple dyno pulls. Probably not even 500 street miles. They gave him a credit for a 3.8 but didn’t want to fix for free.

I've seen a LOT more failures posted with the 3.8 than the 3.0. The biggest issues I've seen with the 3.0 were the coatings on the rotor delaminating, (and guys finding the debris in the intercooler brick area and making it's way into the ports/motor, but it's rare to see a complete failure/lockup.

If Whipple won't help here, I wouldn't give them MORE of my money. Again, this is assuming there's no proximate cause from something else (no oil, bad installation, etc). I'd want to know exactly what caused it before I rolled the dice and had it happen on a rebuilt unit AGAIN.

 

[WD Pro]

I've no experience of these things, but is it possible that its ingested something that's jammed it (e.g a bolt) ?

It might be a best case scenario for you - remove obstruction, get the dremel out to smooth any rotor burrs, clean out any debris from the blower and intake and then reassemble (perhaps with a very small percentage loss of efficiency) ?

Either way, I hope you get it sorted

WD

 

[rolfe.oliver]

Maybe Kong will rebuild it too.

 

[doodguy]

Not possible it ingested a bolt; I'll try to send some pics of inlet; inlet looks fine, rotors look fine, I am debating removing back cover, as I don't know how its put together back there but I assume the issue lies with the gears that connect the jack shaft to the rotors.

 

[DougS550]

Not possible it ingested a bolt; I'll try to send some pics of inlet; inlet looks fine, rotors look fine, I am debating removing back cover, as I don't know how its put together back there but I assume the issue lies with the gears that connect the jack shaft to the rotors.

- So you found a bolt within the blower assembly screws?
- Did you find any blower bolts missing?
Sorry to hear about your bad luck, I kln ow that stuff sucks bad. Been their, done that. Good Luck

 

[doodguy]

I have not disassembled the blower, I only removed the head unit from the car.

I was replying to WD Pro's comment about the bolt. It did not ingest a bolt.

- So you found a bolt within the blower assembly screws?
- Did you find any blower bolts missing?
Sorry to hear about your bad luck, I kln ow that stuff sucks bad. Been their, done that. Good Luck

 

[DougS550]

I have not disassembled the blower, I only removed the head unit from the car.

I was replying to WD Pro's comment about the bolt. It did not ingest a bolt.

For me, I couldn't sleep until I knew what caused it. If you take it apart and think it was a design or manufacture causation, I would call Whipple management about it. Good luck

 

[Ruiner46]

Looking back through your build thread, it looks like you are running a 3.0 pulley with a 20% overdrive crank. Have you ever calculated the max blower rpm with that combo? Whipple lists max as 18k rpm. A 10 rib 20% OD ATI pulley is 7.88 in diameter. So, blower speed at 8k engine RPM with a 3.0 pulley is 21k.

Removing the gear cover is easy, just make sure you keep track of which bolt is which. There are several different bolt lengths. Here's what it looks like under the cover:

 

[doodguy]

Looking back through your build thread, it looks like you are running a 3.0 pulley with a 20% overdrive crank. Have you ever calculated the max blower rpm with that combo? Whipple lists max as 18k rpm. A 10 rib 20% OD ATI pulley is 7.88 in diameter. So, blower speed at 8k engine RPM with a 3.0 pulley is 21k.

Removing the gear cover is easy, just make sure you keep track of which bolt is which. There are several different bolt lengths. Here's what it looks like under the cover:

Thanks! I'll plan to pull it off this weekend and post some pics.

Yes ran 3.0 pulley, several others have run smaller just fine for years so dunno. It's only been wot a few dozen times.

 

[Ruiner46]

I guess my point is to everyone blaming Whipple for not owning this failure... You're running a pretty extreme setup and you've had the blower for a few years. No way to prove to them it only had a few thousand miles on it. I don't understand why they expect Whipple to pony up and fix it.

I think the best bet is to get someone to rebuild it, but then again, with this setup, it might just grenade again. If you are chasing numbers and want to hit 1000hp, maybe it's time for turbo or a 3.8L... something you don't have to overspin to hit your goals.

 

[doodguy]

I guess my point is to everyone blaming Whipple for not owning this failure... You're running a pretty extreme setup and you've had the blower for a few years. No way to prove to them it only had a few thousand miles on it. I don't understand why they expect Whipple to pony up and fix it.

I think the best bet is to get someone to rebuild it, but then again, with this setup, it might just grenade again. If you are chasing numbers and want to hit 1000hp, maybe it's time for turbo or a 3.8L... something you don't have to overspin to hit your goals.

I don't expect anything free. It would be nice if it is a manufacturer defect if whipple would own it. At the very least not gouge me for 5k plus to fix it. If it needs new rear gears I find it hard to believe that costs 5k or more.

That said if you look at the rotors you can tell it is not very worn. Heck they look to me like they still have original coating.

I dunno the answers is why I came here as I'm sure others have been through this scenario so curious to see what route they took. What they would have done differently.

 

[Angrey]

Something isn't adding up, if you're running overdrive with a 3.0, you should be making like 1100 wheel.

And I agree, if you spin the blower past what Whipple stipulates as the max RPM, you're a bit on your own. Might work fine and live, but if something fails, kinda hard to place the blame on the manufacturer at that point.

I also agree that it shouldn't cost $5k to rebuild.

 

[doodguy]

Something isn't adding up, if you're running overdrive with a 3.0, you should be making like 1100 wheel.

And I agree, if you spin the blower past what Whipple stipulates as the max RPM, you're a bit on your own. Might work fine and live, but if something fails, kinda hard to place the blame on the manufacturer at that point.

I also agree that it shouldn't cost $5k to rebuild.

I don't have an answer on horsepower ratings. Blame the dyno blame air who knows.

I spoke to Mike malicoat about pulley I was running in past, and he said many people run that pulley without issue.

Not placing any blame or saying Whipple sucks or any of that nonsense.

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