Jicky SS Diesel Supply GM8 Turbo Replacement - China?

[uniquediesel]

So,

I had a customer buy some parts from SS Diesel Supply to repair his truck (I didn't get to talk him out of it prior to his purchase). One of the parts purchased was SS Diesel's Replacement GM8 Turbo for all GM4-8 turbo's.

Here are the ad Details:

JiF edit - Non-Supporting Vendor link removed.
Can be found on SSdieselsupply.com website


"Brand new model GM-8 Turbo, replaces OEM# 12512988 GM-4 and GM-8 turbos in 94-00 C/K pick-ups, Suburbans and Tahoes. It is warranted for one year. Complete with wastegate and wastegate actuator. This turbo will upgrade the GM-4 used on 94-95 trucks to the 96+ GM-8 model, which is hands-down the best turbo ever made for the 6.5 diesel. Expect more performance and mileage."

$549.99

This is a very mis-leading ad, the customer thought he was getting a new OEM turbo, and the add almost reads like it.

So, this things arrives. It's defintly reproduction aftermarket copy quality. The brand is F-Diesel, but it looks like it'd mount up. I found it annoying that a new turbocharger didn't have the studs in the turbine housing already to mount to the exhaust manifold (had to remove them from turbo removed).

I go to install it, it's a hassle. A couple of things don't fit correctly.

1) The Support brace up top will not clear the casting on the turbine housing and mount properly w/o a ton of grinding on the support brace rod itself.

2) The Breather tube from the CDR wouldn't mount correctly to the compressor housing. It has a cast nipple on the compressor, and it's 3/8" too long and pushes the mounting of the bracket back, which pulls the hose out of the boot going to the inlet on the turbo. Solution = Sawzall nipple down, drill/tap nipple for screw (labor money out the door).

3) Compressor housing was not indexed anywhere close to bolting on the engine.


I have definite concerns with the quality of this turbo.

Oh, you get $200 for your old turbo as a core, so you buy chinese junk and send your oem stuff away so when the crappy turbo fails you're stuck finding an OEM to rebuild or buy out right.

Has anyone else installed this turbo?

What did you see for boost numbers? This truck was supposed to be stock, I'm seeing 12psi boost on the stock chip/pcm, wondering if it's the turbo, hasn't set codes yet. It's possible something was done to the chip, seemed weird. Boost gauge was installed after the turbo install so I didn't have a before and after comparison.

 

[WarWagon]

Remove turbo and send it back for a refund. Esp. as it was advertized as GM not China Copy... Course what did you expect with that price with GM8's going for $800+?

Way better turbo's out there for the 6.5! A GMx is bad (restrictive) enough without being a copy. A bigger made in China and finished in the USA turbo, aka the A Team Turbo, is a choice worth looking at.

 

[NVW]

Someone had a thread on a GMx type replacement turbo that had very high EGT's

 

[JiFaire]

Someone had a thread on a GMx type replacement turbo that had very high EGT's

That would be Fermanator ... same turbo.

 

[THEFERMANATOR]

That would be Fermanator ... same turbo.

Yep, that was me. It ran fairly high EGT's, but the IAT's were the killer. It would spike to 10 pounds of boost and immediately drop back to 4 as the intake air temps would break 300 in a hurry.

 

[Slim Shady]

Turbo sizing is an art not just a science, there are trade offs in every aspect of it.

 

[L98TPI]

What gets me is, you had to turn in a core for a "new" turbo? You never have to do that at a legit parts store.

I remember a scam a while back that had nothing to do with 6.5's where you got a iffy OEM clone alternator and had to turn in a "core". I heard tell they rebuilt the core through another company and sold that off as new too. Ebay eventually booted them.