hey guys, wondering if anyone has any experience or info on how to do this. I looked into it on the web and there is some good info on it but thought I would ask. Various shops will charger $400-1000 to rebuild the headunits. Parts seems to range $50-200 depending on where they are purchased.
With your deal on the used charger, will this still be cost-effective, or would you still have come out ahead with a new unit? Sorry, don't know anything about rebuilding them, but wondering if shopping for a used one is cost-effective.
so brand new you can get a kit for $2000 which is the headunit and bracketry and some hoses, no carb hat for a carb setup. And it will only be able to do 8psi. To get something that can handle a little more is about $3300 for a pretty nice unit. Used kits that can handle higher boost range from $1000-2000. Problem is if the headunits need rebuilding you'll still have to shell out some $600 or so for that. The bracketry alone is $1800 new and about $800 used. So for $800 I got a headunit too which I can try rebuilding. Worse case scenario I know a place I can get a used V-1 T-trim for $1000.
ok here we go, the disassembly and later down the road once I get the parts I'll post the rebuild. If you look carefully you can see that there are knicks in the blades. There is also some damage to the inlet which I can smooth out. Looks like the blower sucked up something, maybe there was a chevy nearby that exploded . . . who knows. Also interesting to note. The curved blades I guess mean that the blower isn't the base model which is the A-trim. It's either S or Sc trim. I believe the Sc has straight gears (which mine does) and the S has helical gears. Got the unit on the bench. 5/8th impact and the bolt came right off. There is a washer and a little spacer. There is a little rectangular pin you can see in the picture that comes off and sits in the slotted groove. After that the housing can be unbolted and removed. Used an allen wrench to remove the few bolts that hold on the housing on the gear side. Didn't take much effort at all the head cover came off. There is this little rubber seal there that you can purchase online for $20 but I'm sure cheaper if I knew where they get their supplies from. Here is the pic of the headunit. There is this springloaded spacer that bryant explained as being a shim that doesn't require setting. Unlike diffs that need the right size shim this one is spring loaded so just installs back in place. Then you can see the gears with the 2 bearings installed. Here is the impellar side of the unit. Note the gorgeous knicks to the impellar blades. Took the cover off. No gasket on this side. The thread is a reverse pattern which is why after multiple attemps of getting it off I needed bryant to come over and flip the switch on the airgun . . . showoff. We had a hard time getting the impellar off. Some said to heat it and others said it should come right off. We ended up putting it in the press and pressed out the smaller gear partially and suddenly realized that the larger gear would have to come off first. So out came the puller. This thing is 2 parts. you screw down the clamp then use the puller to pull off the bearing. Here is what it looks like with the bearing coming out in one piece. Use the same thing to remove the bearing off the smaller gear as well. Now I had this. Messed it up a little and broke the bearings but we are gonna put in new ones anyway. Use the puller to get the large gear out of the housing. Really easy. We screwed the bolt back on and you can see the little hook on top that just grabs on to the bolt and one good wack and it came out. Off to the press. Pressed out the smaller gear which is what the impellar sits on. That came out with some force but came off fine. Also broke the bearing on this one and left the race stuck in the housing which is another headache we dealt with pretty easily. This is what the under suface of the housing looks like where the impellar sits. there is a little spacer that can be purchased in different sizes. I believe 928motorsports sells slightly larger ones that slightly increase boost but I would assume decreased your tolerances. Here is everything layed out. The gears look good. I think there is a little wear on the smaller gear but I'll show bryant next time and see what he thinks. The impellar backside shows those notches which is where they took out extra weight in order to balance the impellar. I wonder what machine they use for balancing. There is one more bearing left that I also took off which sits on the gear. The housing has 2 seals on each side. Just hammered them out. I didn't take pictures of this. But when we pressed out the smaller gear the race got left behind. The race is this metal ring that fits tightly in the groove where the bearing goes (it's actually part of the bearing itself). We heated the aluminum housing and tried just tapping the housing to get it out which failed. We ended up knocking it out with a tap from the other side which worked well.
man my press looks alot dirtyer in your pics than live. ill have to clean it up before you take pics on it again.
I didn't wanna say anything but I actually went to clean it up some and retook the picture and . . . I can't quite make it out but something was written there . . . hmmm.
So after doing some research looks like I would be a little better off with a T-trim headunit. Mine is currently an S-trim. For the upgrade the impellar housing and the impellar get changed and a spacer added under the impellar. Problem is the parts for the upgrade aren't available through vortech. They charge 600-700 to do the upgrade. But since mine is completely apart I don't even know if they would do it. They probably going to make me change bearings and seals which would come out to $1200. So I'll look into it if that's a good option. I know someone that is selling they T-trim vortech for $1000 used.
Mo If 600-700 for the up grade include all the parts and labor I don't think you can wrong . You always could buy the one for a grand and have the same problem. Jay
agreed, wouldn't want to do this twice. So talked to vortech. they quoted me $1165 for the upgrade. eeek
Update . . . I got a hold of a fresh Vortech T-trim. Well even though I didn't want to buy another used one, the guy I bought it from will refund my money if there is any trouble, he also is a pretty stand up guy so far in my communicatiosn with him. I spent $1400 and got this head-unit. I had the other headunit shipped out to vortech and I guess they said it's not rebuildable because the intake side of the housing has too many nicks. So I don't quite know what I am going to do with it but I don't think it's salvageable.
There is a high pressure/ temperature epoxy called "Belzona Molecular" that is used to make repairs on pump and other housings that become worn or pitted. I have used this stuff on a number of occasions and I don't believe anything is "trash" anymore.
