Please forgive me if this has been covered before.
I do not know if this is interesting to all of you, but I think we all should put on some form of standard to measure reliability for forced induction systems. I know a lot of new turbo and possibly supercharger kits have recently been done, whether its custom, or meant for the public, and everyone is worried about the reliability.
For example, being an engineer, in the automotive field of disc pads and brake linings, we have tests here that measure how noisy brakes are under certain conditions, tests to find out the performance behavior under conditions of pressure, temperature, speed decel rates, etc. We also have testing to find out how much wear life a certain formulation in disc pads or brake linings have under various conditions of use.
Maybe we all can get some input or a set of guidelines as to consider when an FI kit is considered reliable, like maybe 10,000 miles of street driving, 50 runs of dragstrip racing, and maybe 2000 miles of track driving (Im just putting out some numbers here). If the kit can go through all this with no problems once installed and not “touched” again, then the kit is labeled as reliable. If the kit has some problems, then the person/company making the kit has some further work to do to fix the problem, and then retest again to meet the standard.
This way, we can label something as reliable, and perhaps it would stimulate people to go out and buy certain FI kits to fulfill their need for speed (instead of waiting and waiting to see if its reliable) and, of course, it will help out the people who are selling the kit to at least get something started with it (instead of losing money over a kit that is complete, and then finding out they cant make money right away because people are waiting a few years to see if its reliable). There will still be a risk involved with this sort of thing (As different car manufacturers seem to have different levels of reliability, such as measured in the JD Powers Associates, they measure something like number of shop visits per 1000 vehicles or something like that). But its probably a lot better than a subjective rating based on one persons opinion of reliability (One person can easily say something like 100,000 miles with no problems, then its reliable, and this might cause other people to think the same way, and hence start a whole debate on reliability based on another persons subjective idea).
I’m seen some standards set by Lud and others, and I think perhaps we should work from there and sort of make them “Official, written on paper” standards that NSX owners would like to see in an FI kit.
Just a thought, I do not know if this will work based upon the vast diversity of NSX owners and their opinions, and whether or not persons/ companies making FI kits would commit to such an idea. Of course they don’t have to commit to it, but then its customers risk of buying it from them, and Im sure any customer may feel a bit better about the fact that the kit has been tested under a standard for reliability..
Any feedback is appreciated. If this sounds like Im talking out of my ass, then I apologize for bringing it up.
Thanks!
I do not know if this is interesting to all of you, but I think we all should put on some form of standard to measure reliability for forced induction systems. I know a lot of new turbo and possibly supercharger kits have recently been done, whether its custom, or meant for the public, and everyone is worried about the reliability.
For example, being an engineer, in the automotive field of disc pads and brake linings, we have tests here that measure how noisy brakes are under certain conditions, tests to find out the performance behavior under conditions of pressure, temperature, speed decel rates, etc. We also have testing to find out how much wear life a certain formulation in disc pads or brake linings have under various conditions of use.
Maybe we all can get some input or a set of guidelines as to consider when an FI kit is considered reliable, like maybe 10,000 miles of street driving, 50 runs of dragstrip racing, and maybe 2000 miles of track driving (Im just putting out some numbers here). If the kit can go through all this with no problems once installed and not “touched” again, then the kit is labeled as reliable. If the kit has some problems, then the person/company making the kit has some further work to do to fix the problem, and then retest again to meet the standard.
This way, we can label something as reliable, and perhaps it would stimulate people to go out and buy certain FI kits to fulfill their need for speed (instead of waiting and waiting to see if its reliable) and, of course, it will help out the people who are selling the kit to at least get something started with it (instead of losing money over a kit that is complete, and then finding out they cant make money right away because people are waiting a few years to see if its reliable). There will still be a risk involved with this sort of thing (As different car manufacturers seem to have different levels of reliability, such as measured in the JD Powers Associates, they measure something like number of shop visits per 1000 vehicles or something like that). But its probably a lot better than a subjective rating based on one persons opinion of reliability (One person can easily say something like 100,000 miles with no problems, then its reliable, and this might cause other people to think the same way, and hence start a whole debate on reliability based on another persons subjective idea).
I’m seen some standards set by Lud and others, and I think perhaps we should work from there and sort of make them “Official, written on paper” standards that NSX owners would like to see in an FI kit.
Just a thought, I do not know if this will work based upon the vast diversity of NSX owners and their opinions, and whether or not persons/ companies making FI kits would commit to such an idea. Of course they don’t have to commit to it, but then its customers risk of buying it from them, and Im sure any customer may feel a bit better about the fact that the kit has been tested under a standard for reliability..
Any feedback is appreciated. If this sounds like Im talking out of my ass, then I apologize for bringing it up.
Thanks!
