Serious - to avoid your car going up in flames

[paulcundy]

Dear All,
Here's a heads up on an item that opught to be added to the regular checks on the Noble M12. We all know the front turbo area gets very very hot. This has an impact on everything in the area and accelerates component degredation. The front turbo oil feed pipe is in a vulnerable place and if it ruptures you've got liquid hydrocarbons being sprayed into a small confined area with loads of red hot surfaces..........

Add this to your regular checks. I've had at least one replaced when it was fraying. Full story and pictures on the USA forum.


www.nobleforums.com/showthread.php?p=12284#post12284

Regards
Paul C

[mgbond]

Paul,

Can you post a picture, can't get in the link.

Bondy

[mr noble]

Its on a restricted page Paul. Not sure what that means. I am a member of the forum and occasionally contribute but am still not allowed to view that page.

G

[paulcundy]

mr noble said:

Its on a restricted page Paul. Not sure what that means. I am a member of the forum and occasionally contribute but am still not allowed to view that page.

G

Oh dear, sorry can't help on that one. I don't understand why and don't know how to get them posted into PH.

I'll e-mail Justin the photos and hopefullyhe do the billy the whizz.
Regards
Paul C

[lucozade]

if its that serious an issue is it something that is checked during a service? If not why not?

[gotapex]

Sorry, that's a Noble Owner's section. Anyone who owns a Noble can get access. Info here:

www.nobleforums.com/showthread.php?t=1239

[chillidog]

Ooh er ... definitely worth asking the mechanic to do an extra check of these so thanks for the heads-up, esp. as I don't have time to get around all of the forums threads at the moment.
--
Richard

[brav]

Here is the meat of the post:

Paul Cundy said:

The thing to keep an eye on is the oil feed for the front turbo. Mine has been frayed in the past and if they rupture you're pouring liquid hydrocarbons onto a red hot surface. Same applies, but much less frequent, to minor oil leaks in that area.
This ought to be a regular inspection item.
Regards
Paul C

Zezinho said:

Paul, to your comment on frayed oil lines, here are some pics of what we found when we were repairing an exhaust leak. You'll note a loose turbo to the flange caused by nuts falling off bolts. Allows the turbo to bounce around and puts pressure on the oil line fitting, can see it's breaking and also can see the scorching as the coating pulls away...maybe one more hard track day before I start spraying liquid hydrocarbons all over the red-hot turbo? Also am showing the new fitting and the final assembly which hopefully is more robust this time...but you can bet it's regularly inspected now!

From Paul:
Here are the pictures. (although I think this is a rear turbo - moral - check them both)





Then JG400 posted:
I have had trouble with the nuts connecting the turbo to the down pipes loosening and falling off. After trying to figure out what was happening I have come up with a solution that I think will address the basic problem,
which is that the steel studs get tensioned when they are tightened up, then they get heated to a very high temperature which caused them to temper and then stretch permanently longer. When they cool down the studs remain stretched and all the tension is lost and now the nuts can vibrate off. I found that ARP sells high temperature stainless M8 studs that you can get as a kit from Summit Racing. Then I got some Inconel High temperature Bellville springs from Solon Mfg. that are rated to 1500 degrees and if you stack 2 of them on top of each other you get 1000 lbs of spring tension. That ought to be enough to hold everything together no matter what happens. I am at Watkins Glen now and after one day at the track I can't budge the nuts. If anyone is interested I can supply more info next week when I get back home.

Jake

Edited by brav on Thursday 6th July 20:45