legacycentral bbs

how nessary is the bottom clamp on the oil return line?

i just spend a few hours trying to get a spring clamp on and its too big so i tried a regular worm gear clamp and i cant get it on without droping it

I don't think the clamp does all that much... It's a low-pressure line anyway, right?

I know on my car I replaced that hose with some power steering hose. The new hose had a thicker and tougher wall than the stock hose, so the clamp doesn't really do anything. In fact, I put the clamp in place before I pushed the hose over the pipe coming up from the cylinder head. I haven't had any leakage as far as I can tell.

That said, I can't in good conscience recommend anyone omit a hose clamp that the factory installed...

i got the bottom one on and then couldnt get the top one back on.

so i just said screw it and left it be and started bolting it back together.

now the exhaust doesnt want to go on.

What part of the exhaust is fighting you?

the whole thing. when i took it off i unbolted the 2 trans mounts and the turbo and pulled it all off and left it hanging but suported by a jack. now it wont line up right. its hanging on the second trans mount tab thingie and the bolt hole for that mount is in the correct position but the dp is hittin the studs on the turbo and is sitting to the right when looking at it from the bottom. the trans mount nearest the cat is also about 2 inches to the right of where it should be.

So you have the downpipe, midpipe, and muffler all connected as one piece?

Maybe you should unbolt the downpipe from the midpipe first. Don't worry about the downpipe-to-transmission brackets just yet. Once you get the downpipe connected to the turbo you can figure out how to make them fit.

i was thinkin about that but the hardware that conects it all together is a pain in the ass. i figured that if i took it off like that i could put it back on just the same

right now i just lifted the dp onto the bracket and its a problem because i cant get it off now to pull the dp back and lign it up. that and the studs are scraching up the plate on the dp. not that it matters much.

i dont know what im gonna do. hopefully one of the locals will come over and help me out.

all i know for sure is that im done with major upgrade installs and doing them myself. other than that fact im completly lost

Yeah, that hardware typically has to be cut off. It's pretty easy to cut with an angle grinder or a hacksaw. Just get maybe 3/4 of the way through and then when you try to turn it with a wrench the whole thing will just shear apart (make sure you're wearing eye protection!).

The service manual actually says to always use new hardware at that joint.

I have a spare set of spring bolts, with stainless steel nuts that I got from a hardware store. Wanna buy them?

I don't think you should let this discourage you. Next time just expect more difficulties and plan accordingly.

thats why im giving myself until easter. i planed on having it done in a week at most but one thing lead to another..... and you can probaly guess how the rest goes

You are putting a stock exhaust on a 16G?

Don't run more than wastegate boost...

Seriously, pull the exhaust apart and put it back together from the front to the back. Then tighten it down from front to back.

To the first part. You should have connected the oil return to the turbo first and had the upper clamp already on. Then you put it down onto the nipple coming off the head and get the lower clamp from underneath the car. At least that's how I did it and yes it was a bitch. You have to reach up following the DP kinda. I seperated my thumb and middle finger finger nails from the quick when I did it. It took about 20 minutes of trying to finally get it. You know though, I had my DP out of the car when I did it and really, you should too. It'd make thing a lot easier.

The second part: Do you have the turbo tightened to the up-pipe already? If so, you shouldn't. Like Phil said, you need to have everything loose to fit it together and then tighten from the front (up-pipe) back (DP, cat, ect..).

Also, like Phil said, you should really have an after market DP at the very least if not an entire TBE (preferable) to be running a 16G. It's a good idea to do an exhaust upgrade before a turbo upgrade. The 16G pushes a lot more air then the VF11, even at low boost, and the oem exhaust isn't going to be able to flow enough.

its actualy a 39 and i wasnt planing on doing anymore than stock boost. yes the turbo is bolted to the uppipe because it has to be bolted down before you put the dp back on. the dp blocks the access for the one nut.

right now i need to talk to the fabricator who hasent called me back and see if he is willing to bend me an exhaust and intercooler pipes. if not im going to get some cutwelded by the guy i was orignaly having do it. also im thinkin of getting the back of the car off the ground and taking the exhaust off the hangers as one piece and gettin a stroumong (sp) divorced gate dp and gettin it bunged and get a custom bent exhaust.

The VF39 STILL flows more than the VF11.

but the restriction of the stock exhaust and the 90 degree inlet that i made would help combat the turbo pushing too much air

Why did you upgrade the turbo if you are just going to choke it?

i am going to set it free. i just didnt plan on doing it so soon.

um.... OK... then why didn't you wait until you were ready to set it free?

Sorry, I'm just kind of confused on the subject.

i didnt want to turn up the boost without an intercooler. nor did i want to do anything to the exhaust for similar reason. so this leaves the intercooler as the first major mod. but theres one problem. i would need to get a new piece of pipe made as soon as i got a new turbo. this to me is a waste so i just jumped ahead and got the turbo. the exhaust would have remidied in a few months. now i need to wait for a new dp and see if the one fabrictor in town with a mandrel will be willing to bend the pipes for me.

Oh ya, I forgot you were doing the VF39.

About the up-pipe bolts I suppose you may be right. I had my DP off and stuff and it wasn't an issue for me to realigne everything. I probably tightened down my turbo to the up-pipe first too because some of the bolts are kinda a bitch.

I have to ask though, why didn't you want to do an exhaust before the intercooler? The exhaust and intercooler are the two major mods that can be done without putting stress on the motor. Besides removing the snorkus and a K&N filter, my TBE was my first big mod. IMO a TBE is pretty much a must before a turbo upgrade, plus, then you wouldn't be having the issues that you are with the old oem exhaust not going back on.

But none of this is going to fix your current delima I guess, well a new exhaust would kinda fix the delima cause you could just put it on and tighten everything down (front to back of course). lol. The VF39 is larger then the VF11 so it's to be expected that the hot side probably wasn't going to match up the same, causing the issues that you're having with the alignment. I would suggest what Vikash was saying. I'd sawzall the old exhaust bolts and free up the DP, cat, midpipe. Then you can tweak everything to get it back together. If it's a real problem I'd just concentrate on getting one of the DP support bolts back on.

Then I'd get a DP at the very least but I'd go with a TBE asap.

i was thinking about it last night and im probaly gonna get a dp and get it bunged. msr hasent emailed me back after repated attempts to get a hold of them. so im gonna go with a strumong shortie and custom back at the same time the intercooler gets pipes