Jase

Thieved early this afternoon from the ANZ carpark, Onehunga Mall. > Number plate MIDW4Y Any sightings or info please PM me. Cheers, Jase.

This is interesting. On a V8SC a fairly common failure is caused by the 2-piece driveshaft being assembled out of phase. It's easy to do since the centre bearing is near-solid mounted in the chassis and is a 6-bolt ball type CV joint. You bolt the front half to the rear half, but it lines up every 60deg. We always had letters punched in things and lined them up, then the helpful volunteers couldn't bugger it up (much). The result is a small bind every half turn - try putting two univerals from socket sets between 3 extensions and then trying again with one 90deg out. Obviously the yoke that goes in the back of a Subaru gearbox is splined, and it won't matter how this is indexed. But, the propshaft bolts together in the middle - can this be assembled 90deg out? (180deg out won't matter) How it bolts to the rear diff won't make a difference either, but I recall a rectangular bolt pattern on the flange and am now wondering why this is... Jase. [edit fixed quote]

From what I've seen, the Chinese are fairly good at casting - in some cases outperforming the real thing when it comes to inclusions and porosity in the casting. Reverse engineering is a particular strength also. However in some cases these castings are then machined well below standard. Beware the reseller/manufacturer/box packer who doesn't check the quality themselves before giving it to you. This applies to any product that comes from (ie packed and marketed in) countries other than China too. I've had plenty of stuff from the US that wasn't up to scratch too. Might have been made in China, or might not have been, but the failure was the lack of quality control that allowed it to be sent to the end customer. At the end of the day, it is up to you (and me) as the end user to make sure the part is fit for the purpose, since no warranty will be stood by if anything is modified - and isn't this the real reason we were looking for the go-fast part in the first place? If I was to buy a Chinese turbo I would absolutely check everything possible including pulling the housings off it and sending it to get balanced, even if it voided the warranty (since it will be of no use to me anyway). If I couldn't get the seals, orings, or spares to be able to do this, I wouldn't buy it. I've been building engines and gearboxes, and racecars they go in, for a while and the success or failure of the assembly as a whole relies on the detail (check, improve where possibe, check and check again) and compatibility of every single little part. Keep in mind something like a rod bolt is not the place to try and save 50%, but a blown turbo seal might not be much more than an inconvenience depending on the application. In my opinion what it comes down to is that time costs money. Parts from a source with a good name for quality are going to be more expensive than parts from somewhere that doesn't spend the time (money) to ensure or check the quality of what gets to us before we unpack it. In some cases it's perfectly fine to save that money because the underlying quality of the part is fine, but we sure as hell need to spend some time to check it before we bolt the thing on. In other cases the quality is just inferior and no matter how well we detail something, it will be bound to fail anyway. It is still up to you to make that call, or to find an expert that can. Some will take the gamble, some won't, and some will be ignorant and buy the cheapest piece regardless.