63 Nova SS

iTrader: (3)

36 psi and send it

GoodSpeed150

You're not the only one who has had this warranty issue with this turbo. ZZP also denied someone else thats on facebook. They are really dropping the ball on this turbo.

Dieselpunk

I am too contemplating this turbo but after reading this thread... back to drawing board

Solaris99

I had put the Z54 on my wish list for when my K04 fails (or my 09/08 LNF does), but this thread is changing that plan. OP, I hope ZZP does the right thing for you. They need to specify any limits they think these units have before taking money from people and giving them the impression that common boost levels are supported.

Tdubbs

I'm hoping they do good by me. Now my problem is time. I don't need the car, I just have to find the time between how slammed we are at work and the family(got a newborn) to rip it out and send it in.

KeyserCobalt

Hey Idk if this will help you or not but I picked up the same turbo from zzp last summer. I specifically emailed asking them if the turbo an all could handle 26 to 29 psi. They told me yes as long as I had the proper fueling mods. I still have the email if you'd like to see.

Tdubbs

Send it via PM if you could, please and thanks.

Tdubbs

So, just to keep this updated....

Between work and a newborn around the house, I finally found time to pull the turbo tonight to ship back to ZZP. There is quite a bit of shaft play up/down/left/right, enough to where just by touching the wheel you can make it touch the sides of the housing. The big no-no though is the ~5/8" movement in and out. The turbo is definitely f*cked.

Shipping on Monday, we'll see how it goes.

jp0013

It's crazy that an innovator for this market succumbs to shady business practices. This obviously makes one think twice about dealing with them.

Snail_SS

iTrader: (3)

Hopefully the do the right thing man, you obviously had nothing to do with that failure

soundjunky

iTrader: (4)

I think the eventual outcome here speaks more to if they will stand behind their product, and if not, why;
I find it astonishing and disappointing that it seems as though aftermarket turbos are almost good for nothing more than using for one season to get some sort of status (hp or e/t), and then they die;
these turbos, before final assembly are, by my understanding, made from the same suppliers of OEM turbos - so why the apparent quality difference.

... remains subscribed.

hawkssoccer11

iTrader: (13)

some o.e. suppliers for instance borg warner will actually source a product to make a cheaper version but still carry the o.e. name tag. i see it quiet a bit in the aftermarket business for heavy duty trucks. for instance Hendrickson is a huge O.E. manufacturer for many 18 wheelers suspensions. they will have their so called "good stuff" and then they will have their "cheap stuff" but still under their same name. say they get a bushing thats made here in the states, never any issues, great product. well then they will go to china for a cheaper version that looks the same but under performs. i could see borg warner doing this as well.

user 72239

iTrader: (4)

its 1 person out of how many ZZP has sold? Lets guess. pretend they've sold 100. 1/100 is 1% of failures.

maybe they only sold 50? 1/50 is 2%.

thats an acceptable limit for failures in most companies, we aren't borg warner. we aren't ZZP. we dont know their volume

while i dont like ZZP, the real test will be if they warranty it for him. so before we bash them to oblivion, lets give them a chance to make it right

soundjunky

iTrader: (4)

/\ nope.
I have read more than that.
it was starting to look as though this turbo was not significantly better than the 'ftw' turbo.

Tdubbs

QFE.

I know there are a few others that had their Z54 blow recently, but without knowing how many have been sold it's impossible to guess failure rate. Always remember, people are more likely to voice their opinion when things go wrong vs everything is dandy.

That being said, I'll have to agree with leemanfor. I may be displeased with ZZP currently, but I'm not about to start slamming them yet. I thought I read on Facebook someone got theirs warrantied, so there's hope.

I bought one of the first batch they released, maybe there was an issue that was "silently" updated on newer ones, and a hope for the best on the ones already in the wild. (personal conspiracy theory, ignore at your discretion)

63 Nova SS

iTrader: (3)

I hope they come through. Even if you are on it hard I would still expect a cheaper version of the 6758 to make it a year. It's not like it's a $500 turbo bay rebuild, it's brand new. Maybe they need to use a different bearing, and I bet they look pretty hard at what that assembly looks like since it's failed. They won't want a bad reputation on that turbo or their business name.

Tdubbs

Well it shipped to them this morning, so I'll find out soon. Even being a journal bearing it should have lasted longer than that. I did get on it here and there, but it's not like I beat on it every time I drove it. Most of it's life was spent cruising at a steady speed on the highway to and from work.

Henry3959

I remember a time when GM's CS alternators hit a failure rate of 3 tenths of one percent due to bearing failures and heads rolled. I think GM is still at 5-year/60,000-miles on their powertrains, turbos included as long as they are left stock. With that said, It's rare to see any type of warranty on aftermarket performance parts.

Tdubbs

So just another quickie update. I haven't been told explicitly my turbo is being warrantied, but I also haven't been told it wasn't, but that's not the point of this post.

Matt from ZZP had asked me if I was running the stock or an aftermarket bpv in the turbo(I was, I never got around to taking my Forge out of my stocker), and he let me know that they had issues with the spring stiffness in the bpv's of their original units that could cause flutter/surge. I never noticed any surge with mine, but it did flutter here and there, but I chalked that up to the normal "zfr flutter" I've read about on here. He said they have updated them to a softer spring to alleviate the issue. Just thought I'd share that tidbit of info with y'all.

Edit: Just noticed that both the ZFR and Z54 are currently out of stock. I wonder if they're having to tear down some turbos for parts to rebuild the few that had issues recently.

double clutch

iTrader: (1)

So they are rebuilding units, instead of sending new?

Tdubbs

I honestly couldn't tell you. That was just a theory of mine.

63 Nova SS

iTrader: (3)

If it's cheaper to rebuild them I would guess that's what they are doing.

user 72239

iTrader: (4)

flutter wont kill a turbo. lol they are just trying to blame anything

double clutch

iTrader: (1)

^This

Every zfr ive heard does this, and it is only damaging to the turbo if it surges during boost. Pretty easy to hear the difference

Sharkey

iTrader: (1)

i would assume for warranty issues they would be rebuilding your turbo instead of just giving you a new one.

what they are telling you does make sense, if they have discovered the bypass valve isnt working as designed and its causing compressor surge, it will hurt the turbo. in the end its their problem, your using the turbo as it was sent to you, didnt change the bypass valve, and they didnt specifically say dont run it over X boost level.

id guess that if this is a recent discovery and they have made this design change (softer spring) they have taken all their turbos off the shelf to change the spring before sale, and thats why they are all out of stock.

also for what its worth, when i bought my efr 7670 i enquired about the bypass valve. i was told the internal bypass works fine on the small efr turbos, and if i was going to keep the boost down on my 7670 it would be fine, but overall it would be better to run a blow off valve on the charge pipe. this makes sense to me seeing as all efr turbos run the same recirc valve, and its pretty small compared to most blow off valves.