Hi Ray -

I don't know if the valves are damaged, but the metal powder you see in the intake has likely been deposited on the valve stems and degraded the seals and valve guides..... and it's probably gone through the cylinders and done some damage to the cylinder walls and rings..... perhaps even been pumped through the oil gallery to the lifters.... and eaten the bearings and journals a little. It's nothing a tear-down and go-through won't cure, but I wouldn't continue to drive it until I at least did a complete inspection and cleaning.... that stuff is like metal talcum powder and it can go everywhere in an engine.

I called Magnacharger and explained what I found - acknowledged that it was out of warranty and asked if they had had other reported similar rotor bearing failures. The answer was "I've never heard of that happening and don't see how it's possible". Yeah, okay, right..... a blower should be good for 80-100,000 miles before a rebuild - so what happened and what can you do? "I've got an MP62 take out that's been completely rebuilt we'll sell you for $550." Ummmm.... no thanks - until you can tell me what caused this, Hell will freeze over before I buy another one of your blowers. "Well, I'll get someone in the sales department to call you tomorrow - it's their call and if they decide to honor the warranty, they'll build you a new blower." Yeah.... okay..... I'm waiting.

So, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until I hear further, but I don't think this is going anywhere. They're within their right to deny any claim - even at less than 10,000 miles. Even if they gave me another one, if they won't admit what could cause the failure I don't think they're being honest and I probably wouldn't want to put their replacement on another fresh engine without an acknowledgement that they've seen the issue before and a rational reason why it happened (like a bad bearing)..... anyway, good engines cost a lot more than blowers and without some reasonable explanation from them, I won't risk another engine. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Too bad - it really ran well.... and I was looking forward to doing some cam trials that I think could have made it even better. There's a lot of unleashed power still in that engine.

I suppose the effort wasn't a complete failure, but finding that mess and not knowing how to keep it from happening again will be enough reason to try another route next time.

Frank