My blower exploded...we think it may have all started with a loose idler pulley, but something for sure seized up inside the blower to cause this to happen. I removed the head unit and have sent it back to ATI for inspection. I hope this is warranteed...its been about 2 years since I bought the blower. Does the idler pulley seem to be a little odd to any of you guys??





Does the wear pattern on this pulley seem right?


Ok on to the blower pics










What do you guys think ATI should do in this case? The blower was allways lubricated, even tho it did leak blower oil at a slow pace.

 

Wow, I've never seen anything like that before. That looks like a defect in the volute or maybe the internal bearing went bad. The wear on the pulley is normal. Thats the way mine looked before I bought the SDCE setup. I think they will replace it. They are a pretty good company.

 

Wow! Thats a ton of damage. Hopefully ATI will either warrenty it or give you credit towards a F1

-B

 

wow.. thats impressive how did you manage too find all the pieces?.. hope they take care of you on the deal

 

ati is junk sorry to hear about your trouble, almost the same thing happend to me and somone else i know, i hope you didnt hurt your motor.

 

OMG you really saying that!!

 

I didnt find all the pieces lol, just what was visible on the street..i should know later today what ATI will do for me. Im hoping ill get a new d1sc out of them, but it would be nice to only pay the difference of what an F1A would cost

 

Wouldnt say ATI is junk, as my motor builder blew a t-trim in a similar fashion. Funny thing is i didnt find anything in the intercoolers?! Not a piece! See the hole in the rubber elbow coming off the blower? Well it all went through that hole and out the top of the blower! The small turbine pieces shown on the shop rag were found in the street, and the housing pieces were found above the tensioner.

 

you got lucky that is all, mine granaded from the inside as well but didnt break the housing like yours, just chewed up the bearings and spit pieces of impeller out the hose, my intercoolers caought most of it. It sucks ati wont give you anything, you going to either buy another head unit(good luck they are $2500) or go with something else. youre the 4th ati blower that came apart like that in less then 2 years on this board and i havent see one vortech blower explode like that yet.
either way good luck.

 

ATI's bearings are crap on everything except their race head units. This came directly to me from an ATI employee.

-Chris

 

I had a p600b idler that looked like that. Pulley came loose and loaded onto the head unit. Now, I have a D1 with a 7.6/ 3.4 pulley combo with a 12 rib 41" belt. I noticed upon headunit decelleration, the idler arm would unload due to belt length slack. I ended up adding a small keeper to limit the idler_arm swing amplitude. I loaded the idler for minimum spring belt load, and cantelever load on the crank. The keeper design allowed only 0.060" of belt unload tension_arm deflection. Keeper was attached to the WP mount bolt (longer threaded stud). The ATI bearings cannot take the cyclic vibration load imparted from their design (no damping) of the spring loaded idler arm. Hope no pieces got in your motor. I have not had any luck in the past from ATI support or the vendors. So, I'm on my own. I've used my Engineering skills to fix their design. I question everything. B. (97ss 383-D1 M6)

 

You must have been talking to an x-employee.

 

My idler pulley looks the same, its bearings are fine

 

I have a D1SC with 600 miles on it if you would want it let me know. I want to upgrade to the F1A

Steve

 

Anyone know the end of the story? Did it get replaced by ATI? I am about to purchase one now and would like to know too.