PSA: To All Looking To Get Ported -::MUST READ::-
02-21-2010, 02:36 PM
#1
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Miami, Florida
Posts: 162
PSA: To All Looking To Get Ported -::MUST READ::-
As some of you may know there are two players in the eaton porting game.
There is the well known Steigmeier and there is Posi Performance.
Steigmeier has been doing ports for the community pretty much since the car came out and has for the most part had a good reputation.
What is hidden under the rug and whispered in the dark is the truth that has recently came to light in the masses and is now being squelched do to vendor favoritism in certain places.
I will make the best attempt to inform from a unbiased view but will state openly now that I hate Steigmeier and his way of doing business and fully support Posi Performance.
A year or two ago Steigmeier released their Stage 5 Port to compete with Posi Performances Race Port.
There are some basic porting difference between the Stage 4 & 5 but the major difference is a "Torque Plate" that is welded to the bottom of the supercharger.
The idea behind the torque plate was to increase hp and torque as well as lower temps which it never really did.
This is also the same TQ plate that is on all Snake Bites which are a Stage 5 Port with a gear change in the snout to increase boost without changing the pulleys.
On to the problem..
Recently people have started posting that the torque plate welds are cracking and in some instances entire plates have come off or even chunks.
Early on these accounts were squashed as one-off incidents and shunned quietly into the night.
After a recent thread on SVTPerformance that got locked where a gentleman had a CHUNK of his plate come off and fly around inside his eaton and intercooler did the masses come to light.
Now every day someone is coming forward with broken welds and "odd vibration sounds" coming from their eatons.
Expert welders, engineers, and machinests have come forward in these threads and revealed that welding stock aluminum to cast aluminum will NEVER work and no matter how many welds or how good of a weld is placed on the torque plate it will crack do to the harmonic difference and heat rate difference between the two metals.
Posi Performance has a STACK of plates he has taken off and it's growing every day. Posi also has done his own torque plate tests and after seeing the weld cracks abandoned the idea.
Steigmeier has refused to admit these problems and has only responded with ads to his products with pictures of "bigger, deeper, and longer" welds on the torque plate.
These "Revised" plates after just a few months are now showing cracks in the welds as was foretold by the "Experts" in previous threads.
Yet Steigmeier keeps shamelessly plugging his product and ignoring the issue at hand.
Steigmeier is also renowned for having extremely poor customer service over the phone. There are MANY complaints on various forums of people be cussed out and yelled at over the phone, even called in the middle of the night being woken up by a angry Steigmeier over a forum post.
The FACTS: All Stage 5 Steigmeier Ports WILL have a Torque Plate Weld Failure.
There is NO FIX for the Torque Plate and the best option is to COMPLETELY REMOVE IT.
ALL THE PICTURES BELOW ARE FROM DIFFERENT USERS ON VARIOUS FORUMS THAT I HAVE TAKEN A FEW MOMENTS TO COLLECT. THERE ARE MANY MORE OUT THERE.
Cracked Welds, Chip missing.
Cracked Welds.
Same blower as above after being sent to steig for "new welds" a few month later.
Cracked Welds.
Again same as above after he sent it back.
Extreme Cracked Welds & Chunks Missing.
Can a piece that broke off hurt your intercooler and what will happen? You decide.
There is the well known Steigmeier and there is Posi Performance.
Steigmeier has been doing ports for the community pretty much since the car came out and has for the most part had a good reputation.
What is hidden under the rug and whispered in the dark is the truth that has recently came to light in the masses and is now being squelched do to vendor favoritism in certain places.
I will make the best attempt to inform from a unbiased view but will state openly now that I hate Steigmeier and his way of doing business and fully support Posi Performance.
A year or two ago Steigmeier released their Stage 5 Port to compete with Posi Performances Race Port.
There are some basic porting difference between the Stage 4 & 5 but the major difference is a "Torque Plate" that is welded to the bottom of the supercharger.
The idea behind the torque plate was to increase hp and torque as well as lower temps which it never really did.
This is also the same TQ plate that is on all Snake Bites which are a Stage 5 Port with a gear change in the snout to increase boost without changing the pulleys.
On to the problem..
Recently people have started posting that the torque plate welds are cracking and in some instances entire plates have come off or even chunks.
Early on these accounts were squashed as one-off incidents and shunned quietly into the night.
After a recent thread on SVTPerformance that got locked where a gentleman had a CHUNK of his plate come off and fly around inside his eaton and intercooler did the masses come to light.
Now every day someone is coming forward with broken welds and "odd vibration sounds" coming from their eatons.
Expert welders, engineers, and machinests have come forward in these threads and revealed that welding stock aluminum to cast aluminum will NEVER work and no matter how many welds or how good of a weld is placed on the torque plate it will crack do to the harmonic difference and heat rate difference between the two metals.
Posi Performance has a STACK of plates he has taken off and it's growing every day. Posi also has done his own torque plate tests and after seeing the weld cracks abandoned the idea.
Steigmeier has refused to admit these problems and has only responded with ads to his products with pictures of "bigger, deeper, and longer" welds on the torque plate.
These "Revised" plates after just a few months are now showing cracks in the welds as was foretold by the "Experts" in previous threads.
Yet Steigmeier keeps shamelessly plugging his product and ignoring the issue at hand.
Steigmeier is also renowned for having extremely poor customer service over the phone. There are MANY complaints on various forums of people be cussed out and yelled at over the phone, even called in the middle of the night being woken up by a angry Steigmeier over a forum post.
The FACTS: All Stage 5 Steigmeier Ports WILL have a Torque Plate Weld Failure.
There is NO FIX for the Torque Plate and the best option is to COMPLETELY REMOVE IT.
ALL THE PICTURES BELOW ARE FROM DIFFERENT USERS ON VARIOUS FORUMS THAT I HAVE TAKEN A FEW MOMENTS TO COLLECT. THERE ARE MANY MORE OUT THERE.
Cracked Welds, Chip missing.
Cracked Welds.
Same blower as above after being sent to steig for "new welds" a few month later.
Cracked Welds.
Again same as above after he sent it back.
Extreme Cracked Welds & Chunks Missing.
Can a piece that broke off hurt your intercooler and what will happen? You decide.
02-21-2010, 07:54 PM
#2
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Georgia-Gwinnett
Posts: 2,940
Id go with posi anyways if you go the ported route, hes an all around nice guy on the forum even helping people do their own port work at home and offering people free advice on the phone. Hes not trying to hide any advances in porting either like steigmier. All in all id got with a twin screw if you have to cash but there are some fast ported cars out there and since they are competitors ports are cheaper than ever.
-yikes!
02-22-2010, 09:07 PM
#5
3rd Gear Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Massachuetts
Posts: 705
Sorry to burst your bubble there brother but the pics of the water in the lower intake with the measuring tape and the rubber ducky were caused do to a startup of the car with a frozen IC reservoir, lines and Intercooler. Not from a stage 5 failure.
02-22-2010, 09:37 PM
#6
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Miami, Florida
Posts: 162
Good reading though. Bubble intact.
02-22-2010, 10:03 PM
#7
3rd Gear Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Massachuetts
Posts: 705
Still not the same cause or result. Might it happen from a faulty stage 5 port, perhaps. But this is not what happened in this case. And trust me when I say I'm not defending Stiegemeier and they're subpar work of late. Bucko
02-22-2010, 10:11 PM
#8
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Miami, Florida
Posts: 162
It was to show what COULD indeed happen very easily if a piece of metal were to slice into your intercooler the wrong way.
02-22-2010, 10:13 PM
#9
3rd Gear Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Massachuetts
Posts: 705
02-23-2010, 12:11 PM
#10
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 9
Slightly different subject...
Anyone here have a pic of how Steigy does the step-up geartrain on some of the Snakebites? Does anyone know if that's just on the M122 (vs M112 or TVS)?
Eaton does a step-up themselves on some of their smaller SCs so I was curious what approach Steigy was using if anyone knows. A pic of the geartrain or a link would be much appreciated
-Dan
Anyone here have a pic of how Steigy does the step-up geartrain on some of the Snakebites? Does anyone know if that's just on the M122 (vs M112 or TVS)?
Eaton does a step-up themselves on some of their smaller SCs so I was curious what approach Steigy was using if anyone knows. A pic of the geartrain or a link would be much appreciated
-Dan