I wanted to start a thread about the ZFR longevity/durability. Those of you that have the ZFR, how long have you had it, do you like it, any issues as far as shaft play, oil burning, etc. I've seen a few threads and videos of exhaust housing cracks, shaft play issues etc. I figured I'd ask and see how everyone like the turbo long term.

 

The exhaust housing cracks in the zfr housing is usually casting marks and not actual cranks.... the manifold cracks are not issues either. I've never seen one brake completely off.

as far as the turbo itself goes plenty on here have had good success....turbos are wear and tear items. If you expect to never maitenece it then your in for a treat

 

My main concern was the reliability of a journal bearing turbo vs a dual ceramic ball bearing turbo like the ZFR. If it fails, it may be expensive to fix, or not fixable if it doesn't last say more than a year or so vs a journal bearing that can be rebuild by re-pop turbo shop for like $200.

 

We have had a handful of EFRs have issues varying from oil seals to bearings. However, we have sold around 100, so the reliability has been reasonably good for a turbo that performs noticeably better than others that it competes against. I feel that they are still in the learning stages with all of the new design involved with this product line.

We had an exhaust housing returned to us with cracks, but found the ears of the mating flange pulled down as if there was interference to the exhaust manifold when the turbo was bolted down. We already clearance the casting in this area since the tolerance is tight, but it is possible that there is enough variance in the factory exhaust manifolds that this could happen. I will look into casting the housing flange thicker in the future to move the housing further away from the manifold. Hopefully we can avoid ever having that issue again.

 

If only I had a ZFR to tell you my experience.

 

Thanks for the honest reply Matt. How long would you expect a ZFR to last in miles if used on a somewhat conservative tune, maybe 22-23 psi on a daily driver? I'm not looking to set new HP records, just need a turbo that flows a decent amount of air, and the only real options that bolt on are the WR3 and the ZFR, and the price for the WR3 is a bit steep for a pretty similar turbo base. I recently broke 3rd gear in the LNF tranny with my e47 tune and swapped in an LSJ 4.05 LSD with a ky stage 3 clutch, so i think i'm set there as long as i slow the spool down and limit midrange torque with tuning. I was looking at the s20g, but with the adapters and surging issues i'm steering clear, and I'm not willing to push a bnr2871 almost to its limits to reach what a conservative ZFR can get me.

So, basically, after reading the forums and searching for about a year now. The ZFR really is the best bang for the buck for bolt on performance.

 

Turbos are tough to put an expected mileage on. Some stock turbos last 150k miles or more, while others fail at 10k. The EFR is no different. There are too many variables and too much that can go wrong to expect 100k plus miles, but I'm certain than many people will see that anyway.

 

Even though my ZFR blew in 7 months (prototype beta tester) I still recommend the ZFR kit over any other turbo upgrade. Matt@ZZP has one of the best customer service. I got his personal Cell # and told me to contact him if I ever had a problem.

ZFR is the best, that's a no brainer.

 

Thats what i was talking about, I've seen one video on youtube about a zfr that had really bad shaft play, scraping the sides of the turbine housing, not sure if it was yours. But............. I'm still, going with the ZFR especially since the customer service is there to back it up. Thanks guys.

 

If zfr lasts as long as my stock turbo on 22 psi I'd be pretty happy, planning on zfr ing soon, stock turbo has 90k Kms and still going stong.

 

I have one of the EFR turbo's thought to have been blown and it's fine. Donkeyballs old setup (same turbo as the ZFR but not their exhaust housing just a EFR 6758) and it checked out fine through Borg Warner, he was at 27 PSI and 450 whp on an ethanol blend.

 

ZFR should last you enough time depending on abuse, tune and maintenance of the car, but do get your info straight...22-23 psi whp range is not the max whp range of the BNR. In my exp ZFR/WR3 are 3rd gear breakers, dunno how much of a slow spool u need to really make them "safe" for your tranny if that is ever an option, maybe it will stand the abuse but it's a timing bomb. Anyway don't expect any turbo to last 100k miles without ever looking at it since installation day and also don't expect your car not to break if you race it or do any kind of hard driving, on the other hand I have never heard of a BNR going bad...but I may be wrong.

 

ive been boosting the **** out of a BNR since 45k miles. as high as 30psi. im at about 90k with no issues and the BNR had 3k on it before i bolted it onto my car. still going strong. Ive heard of a couple zfr's failing but its not zzp's fault.

 

^Been awhile you need to bring us some new kill vids of that bnr powered tc

 

Well blitz, what would you recommend is a safe turbo for 3rd gear, being that I recently had to swap in an lsj 4.05 bc my k04 blew 3rd on my e47 tune.

My only issue really with the bnr is that the turbine housing will only support so much flow.

I'd love to wait for the 7163 zfr to see how that pans out. I thought about making my own. I don't need nor want fast spool, if a turbo was at full boost by 3800-4000rpms I think that would be ideal for me and what I'm used to on my other cars, I don't want insta-torque.

 

Can anyone that is running a ZFR post how long its been on your car????

Anyone have an opinion on if the stock intercooler would be a choke point? I will upgrade soon to the zzp intercooler and charge pipes, but for right now I was thinking about running the ZFR on the stock pipes and intercooler.

I have $4100 extra, and dropping $2500 into the cobalt a little into my R1, and the rest for "in-case **** happens" money lol

 

why would you zfr on a stock ic...

 

Stock intercooler is a break point. The plastic end tanks break easily in cold weather. Can blow at higher boost

 

I've been running 25 psi through them for the last 2 years, no problems. I was just concerned about if it flows well. I live in Houston, not really cold here lol.

I am getting the intercooler very soon, but what gets me is spending $400 for the charge pipes, kinda expensive for pipes.

I see most people only getting the upper CP, why is that?

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08 SS/TC, E47, K&N SRI, Alky/Water injection, Badmab catless DP, Stock muffler, LSJ 4.05 LSD tranny, KY stage 3 clutch, HP tuned by me

 

I have the ZFR on the stock intercooler (I'm driving a Solstice GXP though, but I imagine GM would have made the stock intercoolers approximately the same size), and it's definitely a choke point. My IAT2s were going from 70 to 130-140 in just one third gear pull. It's doable, you just have to run a little richer up top and nowhere near the same amount of timing so you lose a considerable amount of peak horsepower.

 

Well then I'll bite the bullet and get the full size intercooler from ZZP also, Should the stock charge pipes be ok for awhile or are they also a huge choke point ya think?

I really don't want to drop the timing since i'm running E47. Maybe start with a baseline tune of 18-20* up top with 22psi boost ramped to see how she likes it?

 

26 psi on ZFR over a a year now....went about to change boost soleniod

 

so thats all that went wrong was the BCS went on it? Thats not too bad, how many miles have you put on it do you think?

And just as im about to order, the full size intercooler on ZZP is not an option on the website so i guess that means they're out of stock on the bigger one, damn it. Will the smaller core even be ok with the ZFR?

 

Zzp didn't answer my questions in my email whether the smaller core intercooler will be fine with the zfr or not, they just said they'll be out of stock on the larger cores for a while. This sucks, I'm about to order everything tonight, so hopefully someone can give me a good answer.

 

The full size and short intercooler have the same efficiency range. Ones just made for people with stupid low cars.