Paxton in rough shape

[Oxford_5oh]

So I had a beefcake paxton kit installed by a performance shop end of last summer. After a week or 2 of driving the car the unit began to make extra noise but was assured that each unit sounds different and was told not to worry. Later in the year I did some data logging on a dyno and the techs at the shop told me that the unit sounded pretty normal despite the extra noise.
I finally pulled the car out a week or so ago after winter and the car was running quiet how I expect it to be until I opened it up with a 7000 rpm pull and it began to make a lot of noise and I could even feel resistance in the idle like friction. So I decided to film a clip of the idle after that and send it to vortech. They advised me to RMA the unit in for inspection, so during the tear down process i'm currently doing I found the impeller has been destroyed and some serious scoring has happened to the metal. What would cause this sort of damage?
I'm also welcoming any tips on how to get the bottom left throttle body screw out without taking any coolant hoses off, trying to make this the least messy as possible to get the supercharger off the car.

Clip of idle:

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[AZ_whippleS550]

please take the intercooler off the car as well try to find all those pieces of metal

 

[Slopoke]

That type of damage is usually caused by a foreign object ingestion, such as a bolt, washer, nut, etc. Might want to do a compression test as to check if any of the material made it's way into your engine.

 

[Oxford_5oh]

well this is turning into a lot more than just taking a unit off for a RMA.. Going to pass this issue into the hands of a local shop. How likely would this be caused by installation error by the original shop? This system only has maybe <1000 miles on it.

 

[AZ_whippleS550]

well this is turning into a lot more than just taking a unit off for a RMA.. Going to pass this issue into the hands of a local shop. How likely would this be caused by installation error by the original shop? This system only has maybe <1000 miles on it.

Well its hard to say if a foreign object entered the blower and caused it that object should still be there somewhere either in the intercooler or the air filter. I haven't seen one that messed up before but I suppose its possible a bearing failed and maybe the compressor wheel hitting the housing at high rpm could shatter the impeller like that

 

[SolarFlare]

Sucks to hear OP. Has Vortech quoted you on repair?

 

[schmeky]

Looks like something was ingested, you can see the ding marks all around the inlet's radius. Something came loose or a foreign object was left somewhere in the inlet upstream.

 

[Slopoke]

Like another person mentioned above, thoroughly clean everything down stream of the blower unit, especially the intercooler. You don't want those small bits of metal to go through the engine. Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[SolarFlare]

I doubt it went thru the intercooler. But best safe than sorry.

 

[Slopoke]

I doubt it went thru the intercooler. But best safe than sorry.

I don't know if the intercooler is bar and plate, or tube and fin, but i've seen some cores with sizeable passages and I for sure wouldn't want any material that may still be stuck in the intercooler to come loose and go through an engine.

 

[Oxford_5oh]

It will be awhile before I get any updates. Without any professional experience and this being my 1st centrifugal SC Im convinced before I put it away for the winter I was hearing a bad bearing. Then to hear what sounded like the impeller start eating itself after a big pull leads me to believe that's when the bearing failed.. I still can't imagine something like a nut getting into the air filter but hopefully a proper tear down will reveal more.

 

[sigintel]

That not injestion initiated.
That looks like bearing failure and the impeller was forced into the inner wall of the housing.
Look at all the dust built up on the orange silicon hose and the extensive galling at confluence/wall transition. This was long term damage.
Take a bunch more pics and video of pushing on the shaft looking for any free play?
Also try make several rotations by hand while pressing inwards, if it grinds when you press inwards, bearing failure likely caused a thrust load unrestrained, or unrestrained thrust load caused bearing failure. The compressor tries to lift itself out of the housing and the bearing setup has to be designed to handle that.

Sry op. Your IC might be best discarded and you need to check compression and scope the bores when you check the plugs prolly.

 

[SolarFlare]

Blower experts want you to burn the car down and start all over again lmao. Jesus. Just send it to the manufacturer and let them fix it. Let’s be real, Vortech don’t give a F how many people on mustang6g said the blower ate itself, if they want to blame it on install or ingestion they will. Sucks it happened. Send it to them when you get a chance. Check the inside of intercooler and just check back in and give us an update when you know more.

 

[Veteran]

I do agree with discarding intercooler. Those little pieces of fan blade could be stuck , only to dislodge later on.
Intercooler a lot cheaper than other damage.
Those little pieces of metal could damage a valve or valve seat for sure.

 

[Jbcain]

No doubt about it, that's bearing/shaft failure.

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