legacycentral bbs

Has anyone ever experienced an exhaust leak in the turbine housing of the turbo, where the rod of the wastegate flapper comes up? I think I have a leak there; when I Seafoamed the intake I could see the exhaust gas rising up apparently right around that rod.

Is it possible to replace whatever seals are on that rod?

You shouldn't have a leak there... All that goes through there is the bleeded boost pressure. If you have a leak, it'd just be easier and cheaper to replace the wastegate, or the turbo.

Are you sure it wasn't an up-pipe gasket leak? I know when I seafoamed my intake, I was smoking from there, and I could see how a small leak there could look like it was leaking from the wastegate can.

See if there is a way to disect the stock wastegate can. If yea, then you can probably replace something.

If you mess it up, you can borrow my VF11 until you decide which turbo you want to buy for when you do the uppipe, and turbo back.

Yes, I agree I should have a leak there.

You're right that it may be an uppipe leak and that the gas is just rising up there; maybe I'll do it again and take a closer look.

The leak appears to be around the rod of the wastegate flapper, not the actuator. Here's where it looked like it was coming from:



Thanks for the offer to lend me your stock turbo; I appreciate it. I think I'll probably just live with this leak until I pick out the turbo I really want, though, since I don't really think I want to go to the trouble of two turbo swaps.

ooohhh, around there? You shouldn't be leaking there. Might be a downpipe gasket leak or something. It'd be... hard... to leak there I think.

Swapping a stock turbo for a stock turbo wouldn't take more than an hour. Getting my turbo off took no time.

Yeah, I was thinking it could be a downpipe leak, but it really looked like it was coming from around the rod. And this was just at a high idle.

Really, just an hour? The bolts weren't all permanently welded together by oxidation? What's the swap process like?

It seems to me it'd be something like:

- Remove intake tubing.
- Remove chimney.
- Remove downpipe (or can you leave it attached to the midpipe?)
- Drain cooling system and disconnect coolant lines.
- Undo oil feed line and bend out of the way.
- Somehow get in there and undo the three nuts holding the turbo to the up-pipe and the two bolts holding the turbo to its mounting bracket.
- Reach in there and undo the clamp on the oil drain hose and lift the turbo out.
- Reverse the process.

Does that sound about right?

Hm, now that I type it all out it doesn't seem like as big a task as I thought.

Is it hard to reach the fasteners for the uppipe and bracket? And the oil drain line?

/me coughs

I have a turbo for ya!

Nah, everything is easy once you get the intake piping out of the way.

I unbolted my downpipe and test pipe and just dropped them. It was easier than trying to leave it.

We didn't drain my cooling system, we just pinched the line, pulled it off, and capped it with a bolt. But we DID accidentally, drop it and spilled about 3/4 of a gallon. We just filled it up when we were all done.

About everything else is right on. Getting in there to do the uppipe bolts is easy. I sheared a stud on my uppipe, but you don't have to worry about that (you've got a replacement if neccessary).

It took us like 30 minutes to pull the old turbo, and that included struggling with a shearing stud.

It's not difficult at all, with the right tools.

Yes, I don't have to worry about shearing up-pipe studs, but I'm a little concerned about shearing downpipe fasteners.

I wonder if I should put a TD04 on as a very mild upgrade to hold me over.

Meh, downpipe studs are OK. If you are swapping a turbo, and you shear a stud, no biggie. The studs are in the turbo, not the downpipe. Shear them, no biggie.

Hm, ok. I forgot that all the downpipe studs are in the turbo.

Woah, I missed your response this whole time, Dave -- You have a spare turbo?

a spare turbo wagon

Hehe...

Actually, now that I think about it, I remember Dave once saying he had some kind of multicolored turbo or something.

If nobody knows anything about whether these seals are replaceable, maybe I'll see about fitting in the TD04 that I have in my parents' garage.