I don't think you're fully contemplating the context. This is VTT, they have one of the worst reputations as a vendor. Speculation in this case is pretty well justified.
VTT's reputation is really no worse than others these days. Most of the flack they get comes from people on FB brand new to the platform who's only "experience" with VTT is reading decade-old arguments between Tony and Rob. For many of us who've been around for a while, theres plenty of VTT parts that are widely used, sought after, or were wanted for the platform from day one that no one else offers to this day. Whether that be a metal valve cover, the oil cap breather, an excellent all-in-one customizable CC solution, being the first to offer true TD04 sized turbos or Garrett turbos, being the first with any (functional especially) DI-only fueling solutions- VTT did it and has not only gained but deserves respect from any unbiased consumers.
Every company has had their failures or has a handful of complaints due to the whole "quiet majority, loudest minority" effect - people complain about Motiv's products (usually because they dont keep their electrical system maintained), about VS being a scammer (not realizing it's a one man operation selling 100% custom parts and hes primarily just an enthusiast himself), etc. Shit, on FB people complain about MHD being 'unreliable' because they get misfires after switching to it and running a more aggresive map than JB4 map 1 or 2, not realizing that "hey, maybe my car could use some maintenance", not to mention people thinking that burble is unsafe and MHD owes them a new turbo or engine when the user enabled it. Pure gets shit for being expensive or not getting close to making advertised HP numbers even when pushed. VRSF gets shit for being Chinese made or cloning company's products. RB gets shit for making essentially the same exact turbos now that he did in 2009. It's like companies on this platform can only do one-two of the following things because of the consumer base;
A. Keep making new offerings because they want to, yet potentially risk some of their reputation for doing so if something goes wrong or the user had unrealistic expectations or the product owner is at fault for any issue (MMP, Motiv, VTT, EoS, MHD)
B. Make limited quantities of higher-end or experienced hyper-enthusiast parts or custom designs without much regard for low cost or mass sales (EoS, DocRace, VS, several things in the MMP, PR and even VAC lineups)
C. Stick to easy-to-use, easy-to-make mass-produced simple parts that dont require much if any specific R&D and can sometimes be sourced or made from places that are used as a bad word by competition and some consumers (VRSF, BMS [with the exception of the JB4 to an extent], Fuel-It!, BMP)
D. Only ever offer a very small handful of successful but simple products that unfortunately might have taken years to accomplish, or are potentially sold at a high markup which could make the companies sales die down eventually (Fuel-iT!, BMP, RB Turbo, Pure, FTP, COBB
The companies that push boundaries and bring *new* things to the platform will have a failure on a product here and there as that's the nature of the beast when you're on un-treaded land. So what if it's VTT this time around? What if the hub failure *was* due to something other than the Splock spinning, is it still a bad part? If the Splock itself is the failure point, what if this is the only Splock that ever spins? Is it a bad part because of a bad company, or could it be that the combination of being on a full-blown racecar and running other parts that are contraindicated are the reason behind it? These are all rhetorical questions of course because I know how blind hate and the echochamber are on this platform - if you already dislike a company nothing will change most people's mind. But FWIW I've seen several people with built motors who went the Splock route already, including BMS who used it without issue at the semi-recent 1/2 mile event iirc.
@Payam@BMS or
@Terry@BMS can probably clarify that for you, and I also think
@GhassanAutomotive has shipped several built motors with the Splock installed - any issues there yet guys?
I think everyone is jumping the gun before we have an pictures or confirmation from Ghassan about what happened. There is no doubt that it slipped given the dampener marks are not correlating with piston 1 at TDC. The question left was if the Harmonics from the ATI dampener caused the bolt to back out or something else broke causing the dampener marks to not correlate with the pistons 1 at TDC.
If the ATI dampener is producing this much vibration into the crank, why hasn't this been addressed sooner and why is it still being sold for the n54? I would like to hear from ATI concerning that issue.
Either way more information is needed. Im hoping this was a bolt that backed out.
Actually, if you've been around on the various different N54 forums for a while youd know the ATI dampener has been shown to cause issues several times to the point where I believe some vendors stopped even carrying it altogether and it became harder to find. I can think of two reasons why ATI would continue to sell it - one being profit, especially since they're the only ones who offer such a thing. Two, it might be that the Dampener doesn't cause issues for lower-power vehicles or that it's negative impact isnt felt by vehicles that arent at the top of the rev range for long periods of time - most BMW enthusiasts are either backroads-corner-chasers, AutoX drivers, or road course racing which would most likely mean more time is spent in the low to mid RPM range and not using large turbos or extra high revving when being pushed. Unlike those cars, a drag built car is going to see mid RPMs at their lowest during the launch, and high-mid to tip-top RPMs for the other 90% of the time.
Good on you though for realizing we need pictures and info from Ghassan and/or VTT before jumping to any conclusions on either side. No it's not a pinned crank or hub where it would be a bit more likely to stop any hub slip but still. Motiv ran Jake's all-out, giant ST and nitrous E90 just on stock slip disks for years without issue until very recently. Considering my understanding of how metallurgy, interference fitting and splining is, + the uniqueness of this build all together I'm still giving the SPLOCK the benefit of the doubt at this point.
, this is a full blown "street" race car, racing involves breaking parts and building things better, we are still working with Tony to find out what happened and how to prevent it. No speculations please, all we know is that the hub slipped about 20*, our ATI damper was set TDC with the crank at TDC, after the burn out and the car dying, we pushed the car back to the pit, put piston one at TDC and the damper was not at TDC which was an indication of hub slippage. We do not know why the hub slipped, we will do our best so that VTT and our selves can provide better products to the community as a whole.
