steg/stage 5 complaint

[IronTerp]

There is no telling what alloy it is. I can tell you this though. 6061 or 6063 or T-6 Aluminum will not break like that. You would not see a chunk fall out of it. That Aluminum in that pic is junk aluminum with a high/low content of alloying elements. Manganese, silicon, copper, nickel etc.

Very interesting. I've just never seen a chunk of aluminum break out of a sheet like that. While the cracked welds of the early Stage V's have been documented several times, until now there has never been a reported case of the plate actually breaking that I know of. The question for those folks that have the early edition Stage V's, is this just an isolated incident, or is this a risk that could legitimately occur to them. Can't be that many early edition Stage V's running around before the upgraded plate/welding went into effect. You Stage V folks can probably call Steigemeier to see if your model has the thinner plate since I'm sure they have documentation on this.

 

[1BADSNK]

Just send it to POSI, he will fix it.

I know he could but if I have to go through the BS of taking it back off it wont be to just take a dang plate off. I didnt have a blast doing it the first time.

 

[IronTerp]

Just send it to POSI, he will fix it.

This thread is not about Posi, and Brian is to be commended for having the class to steer clear of it. :beer: Brian could/would indeed repair any issues with these plates as that's one of the things he does for a living. But it is to be assumed that he would charge for any such service, while the issue here is will Steigemeier step up to the plate and repair these sub-standard plates for free.

 

[IronTerp]

I know he could but if I have to go through the BS of taking it back off it wont be to just take a dang plate off. I didnt have a blast doing it the first time.

Well, at least it'll be a lot easier this time around since you have the experience....:banana: But feel your pain. It's time spent not making your car faster and down time with these cars is never fun.

 

[STAMPEDE3]

Well, this is a big setback for me but my mind has been made up. If I have to rip the damn blower off again than I'm putting a Whipple back on it. My wife is gonna be pissed. I told her last year that I would be happy getting the port & I didnt want to Whipple the car. So, here I am now having to spend $3,000+ to mess with the blower again. I was excited to do other things with that money to the car that will now be pushed back till who knows when. I hope the plate will hold up through this summer till I have enough money for the new blower. Wish I could get a refund towards the new blower if when I take the old one off & its cracked. Bum deal

Take the blower off, grind the welds and remove the plate.

 

[STAMPEDE3]

For all the metallurgists out there, what in the world could of caused this aluminum plate to break like this? I've been studying the pictures and the insufficient welds and thickness of the aluminum is beyond debate, but the way the chunk is missing is puzzling.

I made a comment on it in earlier in the thread.

Thats not Aluminum stock that one would buy at a metal supplier. It honestly looks like someting they found and cut a plate out of. The ridges or lines or whatever in it tells me that. Looks like they cut it out of an aluminum awning or some shit. LOL Its junk.

There is no telling what alloy it is. I can tell you this though. 6061 or 6063 or T-6 Aluminum will not break like that. You would not see a chunk fall out of it. That Aluminum in that pic is junk aluminum with a high/low content of alloying elements. Manganese, silicon, copper, nickel etc..



EDIT: Id like to add. I own/operate a steel fab business. Im one of the few shops in my area that work with aluminum. Ive been doing it for 17 years. I hae quite a bit of experience with it. Ive never seen quality aluminum break like that and ive never seen aluminum welded to cast aluminum that held up under stress.

While I do not have your amount of experience IMO it looks thicker than any metal awning I've come across and the ridges look to be put in to help reduce vibration/resonating.

The piece that broke is very strange. Almost looks like something hit it and knocked it out.

 

[Black Talon]

While I do not have your amount of experience IMO it looks thicker than any metal awning I've come across and the ridges look to be put in to help reduce vibration/resonating.

The piece that broke is very strange. Almost looks like something hit it and knocked it out.

It is a lot thicker than what is used on metal awnings.

 

[SID297]

Well, I guess I should share my opinion in this thread. I need to preface this by saying that I haven't had an opportunity to read every post in the thread. I'm exceedingly busy right now and that's not likely to change until sometime next month. So if I miss something, misstate something, or leave something out please let me know and I'll address it when i get a chance.

It's readily apparent that Stieg produced a number of blowers that have inadequate welds. They have acknowledged it and made the OP a very fair offer, though I'm not sure how long it took for them to make it. There was also the issue of a recording of Stieg treating the OP very poorly over the phone. Some months ago I contacted the OP to see what his issues with Stieg were and he mentioned the recording. I don't remember telling him he couldn't post it, but without going back and looking through the messages I can't give a definitive statement on that one way or the other. I do recall that I asked him to send me a copy of the recording at that time but he never did. I tried to get a dialogue started between he and Stieg, but at some point the OP lost interest any offer Stieg had to make and the three of us stopped exchanging messages. Months later this thread was started. And here we are.

In any event, LL called me last night and told me a bit about this thread and mentioned the recording. I told him to tell the OP to post it up. When it was made apparent that the OP had permission to post the recording he refused to do so. Not only did he refuse to do so, but he sent LL a pm that was so rude and disrespectful that he had to know it would result in him being banned. I'm not sure what his motivation for doing that was, but it makes no real sense to me. I'll just assume that he got upset and let his emotions get the best of him.

However, since I want to get to the bottom of this situation I have unbanned the OP so he can post the recording of the conversation. If he then decides he doesn't want to post it then we can just all move on from there. At this point everyone should know that we at SVTP expect a level of professionalism that is second to none from our vendors. When one of them slips up we want to know so we can work with them to make sure it doesn't happen again. When a vendor shows that they can not live up to the high standards that we set we remove them as vendors. This just happened with LFP. In fact, I had to refuse to accept delivery from FedEx of a check from LFP that was set to pay for another year vendor status on SVTP. Our members deserve the best an that's what we strive to deliver.

Finally a few comment about this thread. To those who feel that their posts were unfairly removed or they were subject to undue censorship feel free to send me a pm or start a thread in Road Side (one thread about the topic for everyone though, so it's easier to keep up with) and I or some of the other mods will explain our actions and the reasons why SVTP has such polices in place. Dwight, I think you should start another thread here in Terminator Talk where we can discuss the metallurgical reasons for why these failures are taking place and Stieg can explain the processes the undertaking to rectify the issue. I am really interested to hear some theories about what could cause the chunk to come out of the plate on the OP's blower.

As I stated earlier, if I left anything out just let me know. I want this thread to stay on topic. This is not the place to make jokes, superfluous comments, or bring up other topics or issues that are not directly related to the OP's current situation. Please keep the thread on topic.

:beer:

 

[JMD0346]

Very interesting. I've just never seen a chunk of aluminum break out of a sheet like that. While the cracked welds of the early Stage V's have been documented several times, until now there has never been a reported case of the plate actually breaking that I know of. The question for those folks that have the early edition Stage V's, is this just an isolated incident, or is this a risk that could legitimately occur to them. Can't be that many early edition Stage V's running around before the upgraded plate/welding went into effect. You Stage V folks can probably call Steigemeier to see if your model has the thinner plate since I'm sure they have documentation on this.

You wont see that happen with stock aluminum. That plate in the pic is something they salvaged from something that didnt require a 6061/6063/t6... alloy. Aircraft grade. Proper aluminum alloy is stronger than steel.


That hole and the crack are from heat coupled with vibration.


Steig knew this. He's far from stupid. Thus the change to a thicker higher quality plate.


HERES the problem with that as I see it. The HQ plate has, imo, solved the material weakness. However. The problem of welding aluminum to cast aluminum is still there.

The ONLY way I could see this work is full-pen welds along the entire perimeter of the plate. With a 1/4-1/2" break in the bead every 2"s or so. This method only because if the vibration causes a crack it will eventually run all the way around it if the bead is continuous.



At this point however my profesional opinion is to remove the plate.

R&R'ing a blower is easier than an engine.

 

[SID297]

Guys, let Dwight start a new thread about the metallurgy involved here so this thread can remain about the customer service issues.

 

[latemodelracer2]

To add another point did any of the people with issues last year. When you called steig was yours the "only one theyd had it happen to". I know I was told this both times it happened to me.

 

[JMD0346]

While I do not have your amount of experience IMO it looks thicker than any metal awning I've come across and the ridges look to be put in to help reduce vibration/resonating.

The piece that broke is very strange. Almost looks like something hit it and knocked it out.

The awning comment was meant to convey my opinion that the material used is not auminum stock. I dont know where it came from. Those ridges imo were not "put" in there by steig. That piece of material, where ever it may have come from is , imo, a piece that was manufactured for a certain product/purpose. NOT WELDING TO SUPERCHARGERS. Those ridges look like they are mechanically folded into the other pieces. I bet if you could see the underside of that plate youd see just that. The strips have a peak in the center and are discolored from the other material. Telling me its a manufactured piece for some purpose other than fabrication.


However the new material he is using IS what you would use if you wanted to do this.

 

[JMD0346]

Guys, let Dwight start a new thread about the metallurgy involved here so this thread can remain about the customer service issues.

Sorry sid. I posted again before I saw this post. Didnt mean to get off topic.

 

[SID297]

Sorry sid. I posted again before I saw this post. Didnt mean to get off topic.

Not a problem. Dwight stated a new thread here:

http://www.svtperformance.com/forum...-steigemeier-stage-v-torque-plate-issues.html

 

[supercarkiller]

thanks sid for the un-banning. i would also like to publicly apologize to LL, sorry for the rude pm. my point was to get u to feel how i felt the day it all went down. the tape is in the hands of my best friend who does networking for living. he is converting to a computer file and taking some other stuff i gave him too make vid. i know every one wants it right now but it's not gonna happen right away. believe what u want as i don't care ethier way. he and i were making fueneral arrangements for his 27 year old wife today as she lost the battle to cancer as many others. too all the hayters and non-believers take it easy on responses as this is no joke. they had twins that just turned a year old and he's gonna be a single father so keep him and his kids in ur prayers. if u have a wife or a girlfriend go give them a big hug cause u may never know what can happen. not trying to get off track but vid will make it to youtube page at some point when everything calms down. on with the hayting as all i was doing was informing my fellow svtr's and now suddenly i'am the target. thanks but no thanks. enjoy the bashing.

 

[SID297]

thanks sid for the un-banning. i would also like to publicly apologize to LL, sorry for the rude pm. my point was to get u to feel how i felt the day it all went down. the tape is in the hands of my best friend who does networking for living. he is converting to a computer file and taking some other stuff i gave him too make vid. i know every one wants it right now but it's not gonna happen right away. believe what u want as i don't care ethier way. he and i were making fueneral arrangements for his 27 year old wife today as she lost the battle to cancer as many others. too all the hayters and non-believers take it easy on responses as this is no joke. they had twins that just turned a year old and he's gonna be a single father so keep him and his kids in ur prayers. if u have a wife or a girlfriend go give them a big hug cause u may never know what can happen. not trying to get off track but vid will make it to youtube page at some point when everything calms down. on with the hayting as all i was doing was informing my fellow svtr's and now suddenly i'am the target. thanks but no thanks. enjoy the bashing.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend's loss. I'm going to go ahead and lock this thread until you or Bob have something else to add. It seems you both have said your parts about this particular issue. Either of you can send me a pm to let me know if you have anything to add and I'll reopen the thread.

:beer: