hosrom_951

Adam: Hell of a sting too just look at those impeller blades

Porsche-O-Phile

PET system? What's that - "Pretend Everything's Together"?


I'll check the t-belt covers later on along with the shaft play. I suppose it could have been either. Other than that I'm at a total loss as to what could have / did cause this.

hosrom_951

You got PM Porsche-o-Phile..........

UK952

I read somewhere that even a small piece of paper would wreck a turbo if it hit the blades when it was at high rpm. Also once it starts going you will get metal chips coming back through the blow off valve which will then smack into the blades again. Once this starts you will lose balance and it will wear the bearings and start to touch the edges.
Whats the inside of the tube from the crankcase breather like? Mine was full of carbon and scale if a good size bit escaped it would smack into the turbo.
Tony

hosrom_951

UK952: Why don't you search for previous posts from Porsche-o-phile, look at the pics he posted (nasty).

UK952

Yes, nasty, but repeated impacts at high rpm would do that, bet the BOV is full of metal chips and the there will be a gritty paste in the intercooler. I cant see any pics that show the crankcase breather tube, the metal one that runs under the manifold I bet it is nasty inside and it exits just in front of the intake.
Tony

Porsche-O-Phile

It really wasn't too bad. . . Some oil film but that's about it. Suffice to say all the pipes, J-boot, etc. will be taken down to the local carwash and sprayed generously with degreaser / cleaner and pressure washed before they go back on the car. I'm actually kind of suprised nobody has developed a high-strength mesh (like kevlar or something) filter that sits immediately before the turbo. Maybe it's just one more thing that could potentially go through it, but I've been told that some other turbocharged cars (Japanese) employ such filtration mechanisms.

In other news, I expect to resume work on the car after work tonight. Yesterday was too long of a day and I was just too wiped out (didn't get home until 10pm). I've got everything disassembled in the area that should be according to the Clark's Garage write-up of the procedure with the exception of draining the coolant system entirely - this is not actually necessary. I instead removed the coolant reservoir and disconnected the hoses from it. I probably lost less than a half-pint of coolant from that and the electric (turbo) water pump disconnect. The radiator is still full and I see no reason to bother draining it.

The brake booster heat shield is off (PITA that was), the intake, the AFM & air box, all induction-related plumbing and hoses, etc. The turbo has two sets of four bolts that I can see - four on the back coming straight out the "hot" side - the top two were easy to remove, I still need to do the bottom two which look a little tricky because the pipe is in the way somewhat. There are also four bolts coming into the hot section from the side with four 15mm bolts that need to be removed. I see no allen head bolts, nor a "banjo" bolt that are mentioned in the write-ups. Maybe it'll become more apparent what's up with that when I get under the car. Anyway, I suspect I'm only an hour or so worth of labor from having the dead turbo out, then some cleaning needs to happen and re-assembly can begin. I also need to get a few parts, like intake gaskets. I'll check the dealership today, I don't imagine they're that expensive.

Any tips / tricks on how to proceed moving forward from here (besides "never ever kill another turbo again")? I may eventually upgrade the turbo, but that's a long way off - I've got enough other stuff to do with this and my other car.

Claus Groth

The turbo outlet pipe behind the turbo has to come off with the turbo. You can't get to the last bolt at the turbo flange. Remove the cat pipe/bypass pipe at the flange and remove the bolt into the block at the bottom of the 12" outlet pipe.

Remove the steering shaft heat shield below the turbo to have more room to loosen the lower socket head cap screw. There are two socket head cap screws that screw upward to hold the turbo to the engine support.

Danno

"Anyway, I suspect I'm only an hour or so worth of labor from having the dead turbo out,"

Having the right tools will save you a lot of time, like not having to remove the brake-booster heat-shield. To remove the two turbo-mount bolts cleanly, you need the following:

1/4" drive allen-socket 6mm (it HAS TO BE 1/4" drive)
1/4" drive universal wobble
(2) 6" 1/4" drive extensions (1) 3" 1/4" drive extension
12" long 3/8" drive ratchet with 1/4"-drive step-down adaptor

Now the way to get to the turbo-mount bolts is from underneath with the 1/4" 6mm allen, then wobble, then as many extensions as you need to be below the steering-rack. You want as straight a shot at the bolts as possible, as little wobble in the wobble as possible. Set up your long tool first with all the extensions and wobbles assembled, except for the ratchet. Insert the 6mm allen into the turbo-mount bolts, then pound it in with a hammer to be sure it's seated. Attach ratchet and push up with one hand to keep 6mm allen in bolt above and loosen with the other hand.

to get a straight shot on the front bolt, you have to turn your steering such that the allen-socket and wobble fits into the opening between the open corners of teh U-joint.To get as straight a shot as possible on the rear boot, you'll need to have the extensions go from the back of the steering-rack; ask our little friend who didn't heed this advice and ended up stripping that bolt. That required removing the alternator to get access with a drill to drill out that stripped bolt-head.

hosrom_951

Guys, how long does is take for a pro to replace the turbocharger?

it takes 20~30 mins to take the manifold off (so foughly 1 hour to remove and install it)

What about the turbocharger itself? another hour?

Jeremy Himsel

The first time I did one it took me a while, I can complete the job in 3 hours now without killing myself. Tools....... Echo Danno on this one. I also find that a 22 degree offset flex head 3/8" wratchet makes the removal of the x-over bolts pretty easy. The biggest pain in the *** for me is always the down-pipe to block allen bolt. Replace this one with a appropriate length stud if you can.

Porsche-O-Phile

Excellent summary. Thanks. I'm happy to announce that at least I have all the necessary tools except for the 1/4" drive 6mm allen. I'll pick that up tonight. The rest completely makes sense; I looked at the situation this morning and see the problem with removing the pipe off the rear of the turbo from it - the pipe is clearly in the way. Good news is the bolts and pipes in that area are very new looking and aren't rusted on. This ain't going to be that bad.

Danno

Last resort, you can make a 6mm 1/4" allen by cutting a 1/2" section off the end of one of those L-shaped keys, and gluing it into a 6mm socket.

Count on about 4-6 hours for a turbo-swap, about 6-8 hours your 1st time.

Also to get to that darn 13mm bolt that holds the downpipe to the block, use about 25" of extensions and go from the top. If you get a 13mm socket with built-in universal wobble (not 13mm socket + separate wobble), it will reach in there on the inside-bend of the downpipe just fine.

With the right tools, you'll save tonnes of time in a turbo swap, most of it in not having to take off too many parts unnecssarily. Also if you look closely at the heat-shield, you'll see a little curved Nike swoosh. That's where I hammered on the heat-shield to give a little 1/4" groove. This allows you to remove the elbow for the water pump on the turbo. Removing the elbow lets you reach in with open-end wrenches to hold the nuts on the backside:

Mikeaagesen

I saw in another post, a lister who even bypassed the turbo mounting bolts when he reinstalled a turbo. I think this is a great idea. I think most aftermarket turbo kits on any na car doesn't even have any block to turbo mounting bolts. Does someone know a benefit to having it mounted to the block?

Porsche-O-Phile

Good stuff. . . I only wonder about the above post regarding the oil flow. I don't suspect the failure was due to oil starvation because the shaft is rock-solid stable on the dead turbo - no play at all, spins freely, etc. just looks like my cat chewed on it.

Anyway, if there isn't an easy way to check, I can live without doing so, but it would be nice as a "while you're in there" kind of thing. I'm pretty sure I have all the contaminants (metallic dust / shavings) out of the induction system now, and still no sign of whatever did this. That's a little unnerving. I did fish around in the intake chambers with a magnet, but nothing of significance came out and they look fine. The #1 intake was partially open so I tried to get the magnet wand into the cylinder, but again, nothing came out. I might pull the spark plugs and try it that way to be sure - in fact now that I'm thinking about it I'm definitely going to do that - I want to be as sure as possible this isn't going to be a repeat event.

What else could cause this? I'm just baffled that the turbo could seemingly just self-destruct so badly with no sign of a foreign object. Anyway, I hope to post details of the victorious extraction and replacement tonight. I'll drop the alternator and swap out that pesky voltage regulator at the same time as well - I must say the n/a car is WAY easier in terms of being able to get at the back of the alternator without that darned plastic air chute / thingy in the way! Were this my n/a I could probably do it without dropping the alternator out of the car, unlikely in this case (I'll see once the turbo is out if I can get at all the alt. shroud bolts).