Ya what is Inconel?

A "super alloy" of nickel, chromium and iron. I know it as being particularly resistant to corrosion, hence what I think is extensive use in the Navy (salt air is murder for corrosion). I guess it is also dimensionally stable and strong under high temps and if available publicly, I betcha dollar it requires special machine tools.

I'm old enough to sometimes forget there's an internet with all of this stuff on it. Looks like it's used in all kinds of commercial applications, including the turbine blades of turbocharges themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inconel

You could wrap the turbo in a heat shield and lower your under- hood temperatures. The rod that links the actuator to the waste- gate is where I would focus.
Actually, is this a known high failure rate item? Because if it isn't then I would worry about it.

You are correct. Inconel is very interesting metal. It is relatively soft at room temperature (~35RHC depending on heat treatment) but maintains that hardness at elevated temperatures (800°F and above). We use it at my work for tooling that wears out quickly when forging difficult geometries. We limit its use because it costs about $30 per pound versus traditional die steel at about $2 per pound. Also the machining is very expensive because it is such a tough metal. For our tooling, it has to be SLOWLY rough machined in an annealed state before it is solution hardened and finish machined. The finishing passes only remove a total of .060 and would be less ideally except that they have to allow for distortion during the heat treatment process. I wish I knew the material removal rates off the top of my head except I forge metal/design tooling, not machine it. We don't forge it too often but it is a bear to actually get that metal to upset: very high flow stresses. The industrial applications that I know of are all pretty much turbines like in turbos, jet engines ect. I don't know how much it is used in Navy applications. Supposedly the most common 'exotic' material (non ferrous) used in the Navy is titanium because it won't corrode in tough environments like in heat exchanges involving high temperatures, pressures and salt water.

There is a ton of Inconel used on steam plant navy ships. Not much titanium though. The Aviators use a lot of Ti. Inconel is very corrosion resistant and does well in high temps and pressures. We literally use tons of it all over. It's not a very new material either.

I'm still at the "no one has solved this problem".

So its the boost controller that's failing, not the wastegate actuator itself (thing with the rod on it)? If its the boost controller, maybe relocate it and heat shield it?

The waste gate is what controls the boost, and this is the actuator that actuates the waste gate.

It's not the waste gate itself (mechanical valve) if that's what you mean. It's external to the turbo.

New one showed up tonight. $540 less a $150 core. Eek. Better than a $4K dealer turbo I suppose.

Unobtainium.

Maybe try wrapping it with some heat wrap or something or move it to another spot.