switchblade turbo

[remington88]

anybody ever heard of the switchblade turbo made by blaylock turbos? there about 30 min south of me. just went and talked with the owner jim about a possible job or internship while i am in school. he showed me the shop and took me for a spin in his dodge with a switchblade on it. all i can say is HOLY CRAP THAT THING SKOOTS! instant boost and gone. i want that truck

 

[remington88]

i wonder what one of these would do on our trucks. would be interesting

 

[gonecrazyi]

Get some pictures.

 

[bigoilburner20]

dont the 02 plus ford powerstroke have that and the problem with them was the deposits on the blades making them unuseable??

 

[88 Ford]

You are thinking of the Vgt on the 6.0 Powerstroke. Those were electronically actuated turbos and they did have problems with sticking. Iirc an easy way to keep them from sticking is to actually open up the turbo vanes by spooling the turbo all the way. That cleans off the turbo vanes.

Here is a video on the switchblade turbo...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xflspZUdoU

 

[bigoilburner20]

oh ok well thats my only consern rock on then lol

 

[remington88]

i would have loved to get pictures but i didnt think it was the proper venue for it as i am trying to get a job there. but i think its an awesome product non the less.

 

[hce]

http://www.blaylock-turbo.com/switchbladeturbocharger.asp

 

[hce]

switchblade

http://www.blaylock-turbo.com/switchbladeturbocharger.asp

 

[bigoilburner20]

awesome I wish I had my diesel then I would really like to put that on there and see what that old girl could really do!!

 

[remington88]

it produces boost really fast. i would love to eventually put one on my idi and see what would happen. prolly just send the heads flying. but would be interesting to try

 

[FordGuy100]

Looks like a glorified VGT setup to me. Haven't heard anything bad about them really, although I don't hear about many people running them.

 

[Dave7.3]

Looks like a glorified VGT setup to me. Haven't heard anything bad about them really, although I don't hear about many people running them.

You nailed it.

Alot of buzz on the cummins forums about those for a while. One of the guys over there tried it and liked it...but don't expect to pay anything under about $3000 for one. Most came to the realization that compound turbos were cheaper and had more power potential. So not many ended up buying into the idea...

Forum link here:
http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/98-5-02-performance-parts-discussion/448429-switchblade-turbo.html

EDIT: An alternative that many mentioned were using a "spool valve" instead (much cheaper at about $500). But that, from my small bit of reading, would only benefit much larger turbochargers.

 

[88 Ford]

You nailed it.

Alot of buzz on the cummins forums about those for a while. One of the guys over there tried it and liked it...but don't expect to pay anything under about $3000 for one. Most came to the realization that compound turbos were cheaper and had more power potential. So not many ended up buying into the idea...

Forum link here:
http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/98-5-02-performance-parts-discussion/448429-switchblade-turbo.html

EDIT: An alternative that many mentioned were using a "spool valve" instead (much cheaper at about $500). But that, from my small bit of reading, would only benefit much larger turbochargers.

I was actually about to mention the spool valve then I saw your post. There are a few guys running the spool valve on their Cummins also and they seem to work pretty well. I do know that BD diesel sells the valve as well as a few others. Those spool valves would actually help make quite a bit more power on a setup like an idi would need but it would have to be on a turbo that has twin volutes. A good turbo to use IMO would be a Borg Warner S400 series turbo kinda like Eric is running on his build. It would really help spool that turbo a lot better but he still does need more fuel that what the stop IP produces. Also having a big turbo like that would decrease backpressure and egts quite a bit which is the best of both worlds when couples with a spool valve. Overall, it is a cool idea and hope to see someone try it some day...

 

[wmoguy]

woosh! 3 g's for this turbo? Thats what I paid for my 94.

I noticed on their site that they like to compare their back pressure info against a non-variable geometry turbo. I'd be curious to see them compare it side by side with the HE351VE vs. the HE351 they compared it against. The housing on the HE351VE trumps the size of the Switchblade by a substantial margin.
If you want Variable Geometry, buy a He351VE on flea bay for $400 & either build your own controller (like Switchblade did) or Fleece now has a universal one available. The controller on that Switchblade won't work on our non-electronic IDI's