hey guys, as some of you probably remember I've had some noise issues with my Apten ported Eaton. I should note that my Eaton received more than just the standard port job, to my understanding, it had to be fully disassembled in order to strip the factory powdercoat, sand and grind the case smooth so that I could have it painted.

for more details review this thread:
https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...ighlight=apten

well since the truck is down I sent the thing back last week to see if they could find out what was wrong.

the folks at both Apten and Stiegemeier have been friendly and very helpful.

Today I got a call from a gentleman named "Kurt" who I assume works for Apten or Stiegemeier. He informed me that they found the bearings in the snout of my blower had failed.

from what I could gather from the conversation, this is not a common problem, and these bearings were supposedly NOT removed when my blower was disassembled and stripped for smoothing/painting.

Kurt let me know that they had a guy who does alot of T-Bird S/C blowers who had replaced these bearings a few times. he went on to talk about clearances increasing and decreasing between the rotors and housing, and boost loss, etc.

basically the long and short of the conversation was that there is a (his words, not mine) 50% success rate on this repair. and that we won't know if it worked or not until I install the blower. even though the noise concern should be resolved, they say I COULD have a noticeable loss of boost!

at this point, I am waiting for the repair to be made. they say that the bearings are readily available, but they are waiting on the associated seal(s), and that I should hopefully have the thing back next week.

please note, I am not complaining... just posting an update.

kurt also mentioned that they were able to disassemble the blower case without any significant damage to the paint job!!!!!!!!!

so far as I said, the folks at both Apten and Stiegemeier have been friendly and helpful.

I look forward to getting the truck up and running again ASAP, hopefully without any further noise issues or loss of boost.

later,
chris

 

Chris, the bearing change is easy I have done it quit a bit with no issues as far as noise or leaks.

Here is the info on parts...

Motion Industries Bearing Supply house
seal - Chicago Rawhide 7967 - $22.
Bearings - NSK 6204 - $8.

The nose takes 2 bearings and 1 seal.

Did he say why it would lose boost? Remember my question when I called you earlier? That may be my answer? I do have my spare blower snout on. Matter of fact thats when my problem started. It is a new snout !

suavy

 

I would be worried about them pulling your blower apart.

Magnuson Products did mine and as far as I know, they are the only qualified people to perform this service. There's a special press they use to pull the blower apart and only Eaton has the other one.

If you had metal in your nose snout oil, I would suspect the person that ground down your snout before painting did'nt completly seal the bottom of the blower with tape. The metal from grinding the outside got into the inside and eventially caused the bearings to fail. I know this because I did it to mine and what you are experiencing is the same thing.

For around $260 they did a complete rebuild on my blower and replaced ALL the bearings.

Good Luck

 

Thanks for the update, but why ...

Why don't you just get a new snout and replace it? Wouldn't that me much easier and decrease the chance of it not being fixed?

 

yes ben, that would be alot easier, but I haven't been able to locate another sonic blue blower snout...




I'd have to go through the stripping/sanding/painting process again, (which I don't have the money or time for), or else ride around with a blue blower and a factory grey snout, maybe I'm being picky, but that would look not so great IMHO.

plus I was told by brian @ apten that they would take care of this.

the blower was an '03 with only 13,000 miles and no noise when I sent it to them, and upon return it had metal in the oil and made noise.

I'm not slamming them at all, because I'm glad that they appear to be taking care of the situation even though brian is no longer with the company.

I'm just explaining why I didn't just go out and buy another snout.

1. I don't have money for that right now

2. I don't want a mismatched paintjob

3. Apten is supposed to be taking care of it under "warranty" so to speak, so I might as well excercise that option first in hopes that they can fix the existing blower.

later,
chris

 

That's cool! I don't think you would be able to find another snout as pretty as yours.

I don't have a port job and I have noise from my snout. I am going to replace my snout here soon! I am hoping that the bad bearings in the snout is what robbed some power on the dyno!

Any idea how much a snout goes for?

 

Could some of that metal have contributed to your engine failure?

 

I would think not, as its contained in the blower snout not the rotor case.

 

Superfords,

Did he say why it would lose boost? Remember my question when I called you earlier? That may be my answer? I do have my spare blower snout on. Matter of fact thats when my problem started. It is a new snout !

 

Chris I still have my stock eaton in my garage that you can use indefinately if you need it. I am just keeping it in case I ever want to put the truck back to stock (ya right). I'm only an hour away. I know its not nearly enough for your setup but it's hear if you have a problem so you can at least drive the truck till you can afford a real blower.

 

thanks Shane! you've done too much already. I've got my fingers crossed that the blue eaton will be ok, but I'll keep you updated if I need to borrow your stocker.

From what Sal said today, and from what I remember reading here, and was also posted above by TampaBlack99 the only people that have the required tools to do this job are Eaton and Magnussen.

so I don't know how they are going to do it, but I don't know what I should do, besides let them give it a shot.

I've spent too much on this blower already between porting, stripping/sanding/preping, painting and shipping back and forth.

it's a fluke thing, but maybe I should bought a KB. it's starting to look like it would have been more cost effective.

oh well. we'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.

later,
chris

 

Chris, superfords!

I will start another thread with pic. tonight and show everyone how to do this job. The only special tool I used was a press.

Suavy

 

I dont want your truck to be off the street just because your blower is out getting frequent flyer miles. If you need it for a break in or a hold over let me know its just sittin here on the shelf.

 

Hey Suavy, thanks for the P/N's on the bearings and seal. Mine is a bit noisy, so I'll order them and look for your post on how to swap 'em. My memory says the 6204 is an open (unshielded) bearing. I'm going to look around and see if there is a ceramic equivalent. The ceramics are happier at higher speeds, not that anyone runs the blowers any faster than stock.....

 

good news: UPS showed up at the dealership just a few minutes ago with my blower back from stiegemeier.

bad news: neither stegemeier nor apten bothered to tell me that it would be coming back to me today, or more importantly that they were shipping it COD for $100.

so UPS took the blower and put it back on the truck because I didn't have a check for stegemeier that I didn't even know I needed.



oh well, the other good news is that ups usually comes back to the parts department for pick ups in the afternoon, so I'll go home and get a check at lunch and hopefully catch the ups man this afternoon and get my blower today.

that means I can put the truck together tomorrow!!!! barring any other unforseen problems.

just updating.

later,
chris