Light bright blows their motor, prodigy turbo the culprit

[DaveNH]

Wonder if there's a way to monetize it that doesn't turn people off.

I doubt it. Some of the things for which they used to receive compliments, now draw criticism. The difference seems correlated to the monetization. Jmo.

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[AC_1960]

Brand new to Gladiator Forum. Planning to order a Gobi or Granite Crystal JT Rubicon in the next week or so. My 2 cents regarding the Prodigy Turbo, I installed the Stage 2 kit on my 2014 Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited in April this year, and haven't had any problems with it at all. Must run 91 Octane, boost on demand over about 2300 rpm. Tune supplied by Prodigy. Great acceleration getting up to speed on the highway or power to climb mountain passes out here in Colorado. Will miss it when I sell/trade-in for the JT, but looking forward to the versatility/tech/safety features in a 6 year newer vehicle while still very capable off-road.

 

[abcmemphis]

Is anything those two boneheads do intelligent? They were probably given the turbo for free (or were paid) to install it in exchange for free advertising.

Everything YouTubers do is for dramatic effect. It's all about amassing views on their channel in order to generate payments for their content...

They will probably make enough in views from blowing their engine to get a V8 engine swap and still pay the bills for a few months.

Boneheads? IMHO, These two have taken off and are wheeling around this great Country, Videos are entertaining, some even educational, making them money any financing their way. Don’t like them, don’t watch. Just don’t be a hater. Anyone who can enjoy their passion and get paid for it should be respected, even if they are a little goofy.

 

[MudderTruker]

That chick is annoying as hell...

Thats why I unsubscribed!

 

[DesertDog]

I find her ( and Kevin too ) totally pleasant.

If they were ever broken down around Salt Lake City, I would be more than happy to do whatever possible to help.

I really don’t get the hate.

 

[TURBOCHARGED JL_JT]

What’s everyone’s thoughts?

So the truth here is pretty evident.. if you look through some of their videos they had a couple where they were on an epic incline and white smoke started to bellow out of the exhaust. this was due to the oil going places it was not meant to, passed the piston rings,into the combustion chamber. now you have created an lower oil level, this will cause the bearings to heat up and expand coming in contact with the crank shaft. this is what you call a spun bearing, it will cause rod knock noise. if the turbo was the culprate of the "rod Knock" it would be more savage and they would have a hole on the side of the engine where the piston wanted a better view of the outside world LOL

 

[TURBOCHARGED JL_JT]

Yep. Need to use forged pistons if you're going to add boost. The 5.7L/6.4L Hemi's use Hypereutectic pistons. Not sure if the Pentastar does too but folks boosting them drop in forged pistons for a reason. Bottomline, if you're feeling lucky, add some boost to your ride and cross your fingers that you never throw a code.

I don't see that to be the case.. I know prodigy has been in business now for about 12 years and sell in like 26 countries. I don't think if they were selling snake oil they would be in business as long as they have and hold all the records they do.

the 3.6 weak point is the rods, but i know they will hold 13 ibs of boost stock, so Prodigy is sending the system out with only 7Ibs thats well beyond a safe point.

 

[TURBOCHARGED JL_JT]

Rod knock - spun bearing. Not surprising, after they first had this turbo installed they posted a video because they could not figure out what the BOV noise was.......

yea spun bearing is correct. check out what causes a spun bearing. nothing to do with the turbo system all to do with oiling.

 

[TURBOCHARGED JL_JT]

I tried to tell Prodigy on the JL forum that taking an aluminum, 3.6L, open deck block engine to 400 wheel horsepower was a bad idea. But of course they said "it'll be fine".

Um, no.

And of course once you do this there is no warranty so you're on your own.

Their only saving grace is that this video will get a lot of views and will earn them some money to help with a portion of the repair.

The turbo system did not cause this issue. they spun a bearing which is the actual term for Rod Knock.
Rod knock is caused by a severe failure of one or more crankshaft connecting rod bearings. Repairs require engine removal and complete disassembly at significant expense. The most common cause is lack of engine oil, this is usually the first part in an engine to fail when it runs out of oil

 

[TURBOCHARGED JL_JT]

Prodigy turbo is a hugely dishonest company. I had a three day argument with them on the JL side about the dyne charts they post and show in their videos. Look at every single dyne chart you have ever seen and the T and HP will cross at 5252 RPM. Because of the math there is no way to avoid that fact given the HP formula. HP=(T x RPM)/5252. Third grade math though us that at 5252 the RPM and constant would cancel leaving just HP=T. But not a single dyne chart that I have ever seen them publish demonstrates this.

what are your credentials?

 

[TURBOCHARGED JL_JT]

So just for shits, what did they do about the 11.3:1 compression ratio that comes stock with the 3.6? You don’t just slam Moar Air! and Moar Fuel! in to make Moar Powah! without accounting for the greatly increased volume. At least not by my manuals.

I wonder, could massive preignition have lead to bearing failures? Shocking

Smaller injector at first.. but with HPtuners and tuning capabilities of the new day you can throw boost at higher compression now.

 

[TURBOCHARGED JL_JT]

So...is the JL 3.6 and the JK 3.6 different motors with just the same displacement?

same engine, with changes. the JL JT now have VVL variable Valve lift (Vtech) and the piston height is taller giving it higher compression.

 

[TURBOCHARGED JL_JT]

Turbo didn't "blow up" their engine.
Driving it in a pre-ignition condition, driving it with low octane gas, driving it with an uncooperative ecu/tune "blew up" their engine.

Pro tip: if your tire is flat and you drive on it it will ruin it. Similarly if you drive /operate an engine with massive pre-ignition occurring you will ruin it.

Kinda not too sympathetic really.

I agree with all you say.. here is truth behind that. they had no pre det until they started using poor fuel.. but the failure was Rock Knock like they said..
Rod knock is caused by a severe failure of one or more crankshaft connecting rod bearings. Repairs require engine removal and complete disassembly at significant expense. The most common cause is lack of engine oil, this is usually the first part in an engine to fail when it runs out of oil


so nothing to do with the turbo system or the tune.. most likely due to their insane climbs where they have smoke bellowing out of the tailpipe. the oil that was being used to lubricate the bearings has now gone elsewhere for a brief time, or maybe longer than we think.. if they are shooting a video and getting pictures a sick shot would be the jeep almost doing a 12 o'clock on a rock.. crazy

 

[TURBOCHARGED JL_JT]

This is how I see it, Prodigy sells a turbo kit that has great hardware/fit and finish. According to the Lite Brite video, the tune is garbage and will pop your motor. They also couldn't get other tuners to get it to run right. Now whether or not the problem is because of the ECU causing issues or the kit being extremely hard to tune, I think the blame lies on Prodigy.

If they developed the kit with that aggressive of a tune/turbo, then its not reasonable for a high compression NA motor to last long. I've read through the prodigy thread on the JL site and prodigy claims the engine can stand up to 400whp but I don't think so. I think they were just chasing big numbers and tried to sell as many kits as they could before everything blew up in their face. I've seen a ton of smaller companies and tuners always claiming big numbers (higher than their competitors) and people love them at first but then a couple months or years down the line they end up having big issues.

I guess the lesson is, if you buy from a smaller company then there's a big risk you're taking. That's why I always end up waiting a couple of years to see how peoples builds last. If the smaller companies kit/tune holds up then great, if not theres always the big boys like Procharger, Magnusson, Edelbrock and others who pride themselves in selling OEM-like quality kits that will hold up to the test of time.

This is where the confusion comes from, Litebrite never received a tune from prodigy, it was attempted by a shop promoted by HPtuners. they went to 5 other "professionals" and they could not make it happen. this is because jeeps are not as easy to tune like a camaro or mustang.. this is why there are only so many companies out there with a forced induction system for Jeeps. as a matter of fact one of the last tunes they received was from a contracted HPtuners employee who has a prodigy system. He even locked them out so they could not adjust it.. they went out of their way paid for more credits so they can modify the tune.

even with all this the final blow to the lite brite clowns sid and poundcake is the engine failed due to Rod Knock his term was. Rod knock is just another name for a spun bearing..

Rod knock is caused by a severe failure of one or more crankshaft connecting rod bearings. Repairs require engine removal and complete disassembly at significant expense. The most common cause is lack of engine oil, this is usually the first part in an engine to fail when it runs out of oil.

so that has nothing to do with the tune or the turbo system! think about that

 

[bgenlvtex]

I agree with all you say.. here is truth behind that. they had no pre det until they started using poor fuel.. but the failure was Rock Knock like they said..
Rod knock is caused by a severe failure of one or more crankshaft connecting rod bearings. Repairs require engine removal and complete disassembly at significant expense. The most common cause is lack of engine oil, this is usually the first part in an engine to fail when it runs out of oil


so nothing to do with the turbo system or the tune.. most likely due to their insane climbs where they have smoke bellowing out of the tailpipe. the oil that was being used to lubricate the bearings has now gone elsewhere for a brief time, or maybe longer than we think.. if they are shooting a video and getting pictures a sick shot would be the jeep almost doing a 12 o'clock on a rock.. crazy

Pre-ignition if bad enough will beat the bottom end out of an engine.

Positive manifold pressure on an 11.5 :1 engine with low octane fuel and a bad tune, will definitely destroy a bottom end.

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