Paul Waterloo

So when I bought the car four years ago or so, the 3" exhaust coming from the hot side of the turbo didn't hit the body of the car. I think I remember last year and again earlier this year where when turning right, I would get some horrible noise, it ended up the exhaust was hitting the body, at the aft end of the rear control arm mount. Then I did the timing belt job a few weeks ago and now it basically rubs all the time and vibrates horribly throughout the car and steering wheel.

This weekend I got under the car and jacked up the engine at the pan with a jack, and it really didn't change anything in terms of clearance. This was based on recent motor mount discussions. I looked at my motor mounts, it appears the right hand one is an OEM Porsche mount that is pretty old and the left hand one is a relatively new replacement, I don't think it's a Porsche one from what i can see. However, jacking up the engine didn't change the clearance, so I don't think changing them will cure my issue.

Any ideas what might of happened? Maybe the drive train shifted slightly to the left? I really don't know. I tried loosening the hangers on the exhaust at the cat and after the cat, used a prybar, could only move it 1/4" or so, then tightened everything back up, but no help, it still rubs.

Besides going to a local exhaust shop and have them heat it up and then maybe bend the pipe to reduce its diameter there, any other ideas?

Thanks.

Here is a picture showing the lay of the land and this is AFTER I pried it away from the sub-frame mount. The clearance is very small, and once you drive it and definitely when you turn to the right, it hits and vibrates the whole car.



A close up of where it hits. Once again, this is with it pried away from the body.

Humboldtgrin

Have you checked your motor mounts and trans mount?

Paul Waterloo

I am not certain how to check these, but as posted above, I jacked up the engine from the pan with a jack and the clearance basically didn't change. I might have to check this again and look at the transmission mounts, I have not looked at those.

gruhsy

Loosen off all attaching hardware from the downpipe to the tail pipe and adjust if you can then snug it up again. If it was not installed properly from the beginning it could just be a compounding pipe alignment issue.

I can swap around my exhaust on my car between my 5 inch and 3 inch exhaust and for demonstration purposes install things "out whack" and make the exhaust sit funny.

Is your downpipe a V-band clamp attaching to the turbo? If it is that can put a significant amount of change to the way the pipe lays.

Paul Waterloo

Thanks....I am not sure how my down pipe is attached to the Turbonetrics turbo. It was there when I installed it. Here are a few of the best pictures I have of the system when I had to go into the clutch. This what the original ad stated:

SFR Stage 1 header, ceramic coated
SFR 3 Inch downpipe, ceramic coated
SFR 3 Inch Cat bypass pipe (also have slip in cat) - Cat is presently installed in car
SFR 3 Inch Cat back exhaust

Here are some pictures:

black944 turbo

Is your turbo clocked incorrectly and are you using a stock down pipe?

BTW, why is your torque tube upside down?

Paul Waterloo

I don't know how the turbo is clocked.....but I also found this picture that I took when I got the car. I believe this is the downpipe which appears to be from the speed force racing.

If the torque tube is upside down.....I don't know why, I can tell you that that picture was when I took the bell housing down, so it could of just been clocked in that picture 180 degrees out....that was years ago.

I have learned SO MUCH about this car, eating the Elephant one bite at a time, but as I see, I still have a lot to figure out. I told my son that just the other day.

black944 turbo

The cross over wouldn't line up if the clocking was that far off, but either the down pipe or cat pipe is way off. It should be centered under the torque tube.

shortyboy

Are you positive that's a SFR test pipe? Looks like a Fabspeed where it goes from 2.5 - 3" right after the downpipe. Looks like a mismatch of vendor parts which might explain the misalignment.

Paul Waterloo

I didn't know it was supposed to be lined up under the torque tube.....that would make sense that it is hitting. I looked at some of the original pictures and you can see how close the exhaust is to the control arm mount, no more than 1/2", probably 1/4"......this explains a lot. Sounds like a lot of work to get this straightened out, I know at least one of the large allen head screws for the exhaust is stripped.....it happened when I pulled the clutch off, so it would be a major re-work. I might just see if the local exhaust shop can "dent" the exhaust at that location about 1/4".

I have spent so much time and money on this car this year (did it all myself along with my son) and basically never drive it, it is such a fun car and it sucks that I can't enjoy it.

gpr8er

[QUOTE=

BTW, why is your torque tube upside down?[/QUOTE]
WTH how is this possible?? How is the shift lever working?

gruhsy

It looks like the torque tube is disconnected from the back of the motor to me in the last pic hence flipped upside down. Definitely funny looking photo.

Tom M'Guinn

If those pictures were in the middle of a clutch job, it makes sense the tt was flipped over to pull it back to get the clutch out. As for the exhaust issue, you can either bang/bend/whack things until it stops hitting, or start unbolting all the way to the clocking bolts on the turbo until you find what's pushing it off to the side like that. If clocking the turbo a bit fixes it, then it may be a permanent solution, but if you just adjust the flange bolts until it's better, I'd worry it will end up hitting again after heat cycles and driving. If so, you might need to take a close look at the flanges and see if a slightly different angle would be a better solution. Those flanges are so thick, I'm guessing you could adjust the angle a bit as needed on a belt sander/surfacer…

Paul Waterloo

The torque tube picture was when I had the transmission out to do the clutch, I just rotated it to get some clearance as I recall. About 4 years ago. I worked hard that weekend.

Paul Waterloo

I am trying to figure out how to clock the turbo. I take that you unbolt it and rotate it? When I look at Lindsey Racing's website, I don't see how it can be clocked due to bolted flanges. I truly appreciate everyone's help.....obviously I need to learn some more.