Whipple 2.9, pulley broke off from blower... what to do?

[oppolocker]

Hi guys,

I have a 2011 Ford Mustang GT500. I ordered and installed a Ford Racing GT500 Whipple 2.9 through a shop less than a year ago.

I was driving normally couple days ago and suddenly I heard a loud bang coming from engine bay. The car gave out a "Check Charging System" message and the battery light came on. I turned off the car immediately and found out that the pulley had broken off from the mount.

The blower&pulley is completely stock(came with the kit).

What's the extend of damage here? Do I just need a new pulley& drive snout?

Here is the picture of the blower/pulley:

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!


SOLVED

Turned out Whipple used shorter screws to hold the pulley in place. Sent in new parts and car is running again. Thanks for your help!

 

[rotor_powerd]

Does the blower spin freely? Are the bolts broken off in the snout?

First step is determining why it came off. If the bolts got loose and backed out that's one thing, if they sheared off I'd wager the blower locked up. If the blower locked up, the car needs to go back to whoever did the install for a thorough check up. No telling what kind of garbage could be caught in the intercooler.

 

[Stri8ed]

It looks like 2 bolts backed out and 2 sheered off. Maybe when the 2 bolts backed out it put much stress at a bad angle on the other 2 bolts and eventually broke them off. Judging buy the scaring on the inside of the pulley, it looks like the pulley bent itself crooked and the strain of the belt broke it off. That is just my opinion based on nothing... But its a guess.

If I am correct, then the blower SHOULDNT be hurt, but I would replace the entire snout just incase. it could have gotten bent internally.

 

[NightRide]

That's a first, take it back to the shop and see what they say. I can't imagine them or whipple charging you for new parts less than a year old.

 

[stroked mach]

looks to me that two of the bolts backed off like said good luck keep us posted

 

[Stri8ed]

That's a first, take it back to the shop and see what they say. I can't imagine them or whipple charging you for new parts less than a year old.

They will if the directions say to use loctite and when they pull those last 2 bolts, there isn't any on them. Just a guess though.

And if that is the case, the shop should be paying for it.

 

[RIO RED SNAKE]

Ouch man, sorry to see that, hopefully it gets resolved quickly aNd doesn't cost a ton

 

[VNMOUS1]

Ford warranty.

 

[Ninjak]

^ This

Since this is the Ford Racing Whipple kit, does it not come with a warranty ? Its listed as a upgrade kit for our cars. As for what happen its what the others have said. It seems two bolts came out, and the other two snapped from the pressure.

 

[brandonflood123]

intrested to see what happend here

 

[Silver_Serpent]

I dont know much about the whipple kits, but I know quite a bit about bolted connections. It appears there are 4 bolt holes right? However, the bolt holes seem to be threaded in the blower snout and the pulley?? Is that right?? There also appears to be two "other" holes, larger holes that are not threaded. Is there any kind of dowel pins that are supposed to go with the kit and be installed in the pulley after the bolts are torqued?

I agree with the possiblity of two of the bolts backing out and the other two not being able to support the torque on their own. Bolts in shear, in general, are not very good, which is why I asked if there were dowel pins.
Also, if there is no dowel pins, then the torque that the bolts were tighted to becomes very important. This is because you are now asking the bolt to do two things, hold the pulley on the snout, and turn the snout. Turning the snout is the part that puts the bolt in shear. If the bolt was torqued fully (80% of yield, TTY, or if it was overtorqued), then the bolt is already so fully stressed, that it doesnt have much left to contribute in the shear direction. Sooo ... maybe they were overtightened and/or the dowel pins are missing?

 

[Tob]

Hi guys,

I have a 2011 Ford Mustang GT500. I ordered and installed a Ford Racing GT500 Whipple 2.9 through a shop less than a year ago.

I was driving normally couple days ago and suddenly I heard a loud bang coming from engine bay...I turned off the car immediately and found out that the pulley had broken off from the mount.

The blower&pulley is completely stock(came with the kit).

First, contact Ford Racing and let them know what happened and that you can forward photos of the damage to them. The GT500 FRPP/Whipple kits are not assembled by Ford but rather are made to order by Whipple in Fresno, California, and shipped directly from there when you order one from a FRPP vendor. These kits come with the blower pulley already installed by Whipple.

If I was you, I would also be contacting Whipple and letting them know the same thing you shared with Ford Racing. I've dealt with Michael Malicoat at Whipple with great success in the past when I had an issue.

That said, it would help if you could clarify a couple of things. First photo...

Two adjoining bolts have clearly sheared off in their respective snout holes and the other two are gone. You implied that you didn't touch anything, indirectly, but didn't say it. Did you remove these two bolts (I assume you did not) or were they simply not there anymore and the pulley was just laying there when you opened the hood after the damage occurred? If you did not, then the possibilities are:

1) They were never installed by Whipple. I don't see that because it would have had to have been missed by Whipple QC, the shop that installed the blower, and you at some point. That pulley stares you right in the face when you look at it and I honestly don't see how even an untrained eye wouldn't have noticed the lack of symmetry with respect to the blower pulley bolts.

2) Somebody removed them, post-install. Beyond sabotage, I can't fathom why this could have occurred.

3) They were installed by Whipple in Fresno installed but somehow backed out on their own after the installation on your car was complete. I do not know if Whipple uses a thread locker on the drive snout/pulley bolts when they are assembled at their facility. It would make sense to at least use blue as red normally requires heat in order to remove. I don't know their spec. Regardless, they should have been torqued and I'm curious as to how the friction applied could have been overcome and as such, allowed the pair of bolts to back out (simultaneously?) and to disappear.

It is odd that two bolts were gone (again, I'm assuming there isn't some other explanation from your end that wasn't stated in your original post) and that two bolts stayed in. While the Whipple Pulley(s) look to have two additional indexing holes there aren't respective locating pins in either the snout or the pulley. I don't think Whipple uses any but I may be mistaken.

ON EDIT...Silver Serpent, I was wondering the same things. I'm going through FRPP's install pdf's for other Whipple blowers they sell looking to see if they use a dowel and so far I haven't seen them. I thought I saw them on Coyote kits but can't find the photos now. I have a feeling that anyone from Lethal should be able to answer this. I'm also curious about the snout OD vs the pulley ID and whether there is an interference fit at all, however minor.

I'd be curious as to what these guys have to say regarding whether or not they have seen this issue before.

 

[19COBRA93]

The Whipple pulley's don't use dowels. It's very clear from looking at the backside of the pulley, that two of the bolts backed out and the pulley rode "loose" for a time. You can see the contact surface has been rubbed to raw aluminum on part of it (it should be anodized black), and dark on the other part, with thread imprints from the remaining bolts in at least one of the holes (which are not threaded).

And for what it's worth, the last Ford Racing/Whipple kit I got in did not have the pulley installed. It was in it's own small box separate from the head unit.

 

[Kenneth]

That's a first, take it back to the shop and see what they say. I can't imagine them or whipple charging you for new parts less than a year old.

NOPE, not a first.
On my son's 2007 F-150 with a Whipple, pulley broke off, ended up having to pull the Whipple off the truck and send it back to them to change out the damaged shaft.

 

[Silver_Serpent]

The Whipple pulley's don't use dowels. It's very clear from looking at the backside of the pulley, that two of the bolts backed out and the pulley rode "loose" for a time. You can see the contact surface has been rubbed to raw aluminum on part of it (it should be anodized black), and dark on the other part, with thread imprints from the remaining bolts in at least one of the holes (which are not threaded).

And for what it's worth, the last Ford Racing/Whipple kit I got in did not have the pulley installed. It was in it's own small box separate from the head unit.

I agree with this.

And FWIW, I would bet that the other two bolts had wiggled loose also, but just hadnt "fallen" out yet, otherwise, it shouldnt have been riding that loose, or pressing that hard against the threads ... enough to leave imprints. You could probably remove the remaining bolt shanks in the snout rather easily if they were already partially backed out.

 

[Tob]

The Whipple pulley's don't use dowels. It's very clear from looking at the backside of the pulley, that two of the bolts backed out and the pulley rode "loose" for a time. You can see the contact surface has been rubbed to raw aluminum on part of it (it should be anodized black), and dark on the other part, with thread imprints from the remaining bolts in at least one of the holes (which are not threaded).

And for what it's worth, the last Ford Racing/Whipple kit I got in did not have the pulley installed. It was in it's own small box separate from the head unit.

Interesting. I noticed these and wondered if some kits (but not the Ford based kits anyway) did use a dowel at that location...
https://jonbondperformance.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=26_1_114&products_id=624

ON EDIT...I see these pins are used elsewhere on a (non-specific) Whipple. Yes, that isn't a GT500 FRPP/Whipple blower.

Sam, "last Ford Racing/Whipple kit I got"...are you talking about one of the FRPP GT500 Whipple kits as not having the pulley installed? Because I see that some of the other FRPP/Whipple kits didn't but not any that were earmarked for the GT500.

 

[Nsssane1]

Hmmm, that's clearly a 3.00 pulley mine came with a 3.250, can you choose your pulley? I had to put my 3.00 on myself.

 

[Tob]

Was yours a Ford Racing/Whipple blower? If not, that's why.

This was mine, from the 725hp FRPP/Whipple kit...

 

[Steve@Tasca]

I'd be curious to know exactly which kit number it was, I've sold dozens and dozens of Whipples over the yeas and have never heard of a Whipple installed pulley coming off.

 

[19COBRA93]

Sam, "last Ford Racing/Whipple kit I got"...are you talking about one of the FRPP GT500 Whipple kits as not having the pulley installed? Because I see that some of the other FRPP/Whipple kits didn't but not any that were earmarked for the GT500.

It was a GT500 FRPP/Whipple kit for a '12, about 6 months ago. Every kit that I get in I go through personally to make sure everything is there before it goes to the customer or out to the shop. When I opened the main box I found a small box with a 3.00 pulley in it, and remember wondering why it would come with an extra pulley. It wasn't until I checked the head unit itself that I realized it didn't have a pulley on it.

This may have been a one time thing, or something they're doing more recently, as I've had kits before with the pulleys already bolted to the head unit.

Hmmm, that's clearly a 3.00 pulley mine came with a 3.250, can you choose your pulley? I had to put my 3.00 on myself.

I believe the FRPP/Whipple kits come with the 3.00 pulley, and the regular Whipple kits come with the 3.25" pulley.