choinga

Whew. We sorta finished the turbo replacement tonight...

Except the 32mm ginormous bolt that feeds from the turbo outlet back into the oil pan...

Literally, the last thing we needed to do (pop that off, crank the car with the DME out and see if oil is flowing through the turbo...) and we can't get that f'er off of there - of course, I do not own a 32mm socket.

So, off to Sears when they open in the morning to grab that thing...

Is there any other way to tell if the turbo is getting oil pressure besides basically opening the oil pan and dumping half your oil all over the place? Seems like when you open that banjo it's the same as draning the oil...

Anyway, thought I'd post a pic of my garage carnage. It's going to take me a week to clean the place up and get my tools back in their appropriate places.

Special thanks to OnSpeed for his knowledge and very skinny arms...for which none of this would have been possible. I'm beat now - we just finished...probably put a total of 15 hours into this thing over the last two days. I'll post more about our trials and tribulations tomorrow...unfortunately though, I didn't take any pictures - thought about bringing my flip video out there but didn't want all my cussing to archived for posterity.

Rogue_Ant

You could take the return off at the mount instead of the big banjo - two small bolts (10mm socket, IIRC)...
Any certain reason why you are worried about the turbo receiving oil?

choinga

no, it's just what John says to do in his directions...just one of those 'feel good' kinda things. Absolutely no reason to think I'm not going to get any oil in there - nothing changed on the inlet and my old turbo was getting plenty (and then leaked some of it...)...but just trying to make sure I follow directions...

I saw the return...it's a straight shot up there - looks like that would be so freggin messy though - and the horror and mess trying to get that back on with oil gushing out...nah, I'll stick with the banjo...

Rogue_Ant

Just throwing it out as an option

Jeremy Himsel

If you pull the large banjo @ the bottom of the pan, the oil will drain out of the pan and you won't be able to feed oil to the pick-up. Am I missing something or are you planning to plug the pan??

choinga

Thanks - yeah, that's exactly what I ended up doing - I bought a bolt to go along with it and closed it back up - still messy as hell, but it worked.

Car started right back up (after I got about 4 cranks and no turnover and started peeking around and realized I forgot to hook the MAF harness back up...) and runs like a top - I haven't laid on it yet - want to get a few hot/cold cycles to get everything to seal properly, but I did a couple pulls in 3rd to about 8PSI and holy damn I love this turbo. It's like driving a different car compared to stock.

choinga

OK, a few thoughts...

1) I am sore today in places where I didn't know I had places....my fingers are numb...and smooth...lots of Advil on tap for me today. Good thing I'm off for the rest of the week - I have feeling this will take a couple days to recover from...

2) I don't know how you guys that did this by yourself pulled it off. OnSpeed came over Friday and Saturday and helped me out (BIG TIME) but there were so many places where I don't think I could have done it by myself (let alone places where I couldn't get my arm/hands that would have been a nightmare for me). Getting the turbo bolts in from the bottom for one - lining that gasket up and getting those bolts lined up was a chore even with one of us on top and the other driving the bolts in. Then, the exhaust - getting all that to line up without someone on top and someone underneath seems impossible to me.

3) The MaxJax lift was worth it's weight in gold...so nice to be able to go up/down in a matter of a minute or two and get exactly as much clearance as you need. Love that thing. I left my car sitting off the ground for almost 3 days straight - that thing was rock solid.

4) The new turbo fitment was dead on - it's definitely a bigger housing and inlet, but I learned from a few others trials and tribulations to re-route the wires in the alternator shroud to the side (thank god for pneumatic tools on that one - that is some HARD *** plastic...) and ground down the top - definitely helped with the MAF pipe - it slid right in, clamped up with no issues. I actually like the pipe fitment better than with the stock turbo. I still need to work on my blow off valve which is just barely getting tapped when I close the hood.

5) I think the biggest PITA for us - and the thing that set us back a little time wise - was spending an hour or so trying to crank on the crossover to get that to fit properly. It's a ballet act trying to get the downpipe/turbo mounting bolts/crossover all worked out so that you end up with the least amount of pain. Although the turbo fitment was good (I bought it used out of a 87 like mine - so it was already indexed properly), it was just hell trying to figure out what do first. We started with loosely connecting the downpipe but quickly realized there was no way were were going to the turbo mount bolts lined up doing that so we locked the turbo mount bolts first, then moved on to the downpipe. We then very quickly realized that if we got that anywhere close there was no way in hell we were going to get the crossover bolts to line up and didn't have enough leverage anywhere to pull or push it so we could even get one bolt hole to line up. After jacking around for a couple hours with various methods that weren't working - we just loosened the 2-piece at the manifold and the splitter to the wastegate and then we had plenty of room and were able to get that lined up and bolted in pretty quick. After those bolts were set we loosened the hanging bracket on the exhaust for some leverage and the downpipe was pretty easy. I recall reading in Techo Ducks thread on swapping his turbo that he burned a lot time fiddling with this as well and finally pulled the bolts on the manifold and was able to get the crossover at the turbo to fit pretty easily. Of course then that presents issues getting the manifold at the 2-piece connected again. OnSpeed left one of the bolts attached but we had to crow bar the hell out of that to get other holes to line up. Eventually we got it - but that was a good couple hours on that alone.

7) Take pictures on your way out. Luckily on a few occasions we had OnSpeed's 86 there to pop the hood and take a peek at how something went back together. I did a really crappy job at labeling my screws and such too - luckily we didn't have leftovers - just a few too many washers...

8) Wrenches...lot's of different kinds of wrenches... We used a lot of extensions, wobble extensions and flex heads. I have those Gear Wrench ratchet wrenches that bend to a 90 degree angle on the closed ratchet end in several different sizes and those were invaluable.

9) The turbo mounting bolts for us were suprisingly easy - definitely not the hardest thing we did on this job. I doused them several times the day before with PB Blaster - mostly at the base of the turbo where you can see the top of the bolt and then let it sit overnight...I'm sure that helped. We ended up moving the steering rack out of the way - it wasn't the actual rack that's in the way - it's some contraption that sits on the rack and points up towards the turbo (there's a heat shield right there to protect it that has to come off to even get to the long bolt) that caused the problems and made us decided to just loosen the rack. We probably could have gotten the bolts out with it on - but it's 4 bolts and it's just not worth stripping those things out for an extra 10 minutes of work clearing a path. I bought a bolt from Lindsey that's just a regular bolt head that we used to re-assemble. Should make it a little safer the next time that has to come out (hopefully never).

10) You don't have to completely drain the coolant to do this job. I got a few of those coolant hose plier things and clamped down both of the lines coming out of the expansion tank. You'll get a little seepage, but it's worth not having to completely dump coolant if you don't want/need to. I just need to re-fill and bleed the system right now - but suprisngly after putting it all back together - the car runs great and doesn't get too hot - didn't go past mid-way on the temp gauge and the fans kicked in and brought it back down.

11) Thanks again to OnSpeed for his help. Always enjoy meeting new 944'ers - especially ones that can wrench.

I wish I would have taken more pictures - I intended to, but the camera I have is really nice and it's just a pain to get cleaned up just to snap a picture. I have a little handheld HD video camera I was going to use too but never remembered...

dillon410021

can't wait to see some boost videos

onspeed

Good to hear it started up fine and etc. Those swivel extensions were invaluable. Will buy a set when I'm home next.

86 951 Driver

Which turbo did you get? How do you like it?

choinga

I got a Vitesse Stage 2 to go with my Vitesse MAF. It rocks.

running_cold924

congrats on the swap, i know how fun they are.....did you have the vitesse system hooked up before the install of the turbo? its a nice feeling when you go from a stock turbo to an upgraded turbo with that system. plug+play=go!

choinga

yeah, i put the MAF in about a year ago - was itching for the turbo...just didn't want to spend the moola to buy one brand new...found someone selling one here with a few hundred miles on it and about half the price of a new one and pulled the trigger. Been waiting a couple months to find time to put it in...glad it's done...

And you're right - can't get any more PnP...my AFR's are stil rock solid and the car idles perfectly.

...of course now my power steering belt sounds like a cat being tortured when I slow turn...always something...

onspeed

probably got some coolant on it from bleeding and just having the lines disconnected. we didn't touch the tensioner...

let me know when i can come by to grab my flashlight.

Porsche16V944

I want your garage