Jay Wellwood

In case some of you may have a better mehtod, please allow me to share my pain <rant on>.

I've been in the process of removing my 968 turbo motor for some much needed enhancements. I'm down to the point of removing the cross over pipe, the hot side exhaust, and the turbo itself. Well, as my luck would have it, these three items appear to be held on by bolts that are impacted by bolts from each other. I have yet to find the correct angle for removal of the hot side exhaust mounting allen head which is right next to the balance shaft cover. This in turn covers the last bolt which holds on the cross over pipe to the turbo, which in turn covers the last bolt holding the Turbo the motor mount.

Apparently there must be a series of secret handshakes, side-ways head nods, or maybe possibly there is a requirement to recite the Porsche family motto/creed whilst drinking a full glass of deep brown lager...arrrggguuuggghhh!!!


<rant off> Okay, now I feel better. Thanks for listening.

David Floyd

If I knew the handshake I would tell you, best of luck...

tommo951

I don't know about allen headed boltd as they usually have 15mm heads.
The process must be awkward with allens. Its usually remove down pipe and cat pipe (or cat delete pipe) remove brake booster heatshield, then undo the hotside pipe bolts. There is one that has a cptive nut welded to the hotside pipe which does make life a bit easier. Beware if you are fitting a larger turbo it usually means leaving one of the turbine bolts out or grinding the hell out of the engine mount (Turbo centre section mount) to get enough clearance to get the turbo to mount squarely. Good luck it can be a real PITA but well worth it!!!

Cheers
Tom

PCinDC

When I did it, I followed the instructions at www.clarks-garage.com. I removed the catpipe first, since its a fairly easy shot at the bolts. I then removed the crossover pipe - removing the brake booster's heat shield is the only way you're going to get at the bolts holding the crossover to the turbo. One of them is a captive nut like Tommo said, I think its the one on the lower right looking at the motor from the driver's side. I had an easier time with racheting box wrenches than I did with sockets, they have a narrower profile that allows you to get some of those nuts you can't reach with a socket wrench. A set of offset box wrenches will help too.
As far as the allen head turbo mount bolts, those are a notorious pain in the *** (actually most of the crossover/downpipe/turbo setup is a pain in the ***). I got an allen headed bit socket, put it on a wobble joint and then used 12-18' of extenders to reach up to them from underneath the car. You will barely be able be able to reach them in the gap between the steering rack and the engine crossmember.
Also, removing the alternator gives you enough access to get an allen wrench on the shorter turbo bolt from the top of the motor.
You will also have to remove the bolt holding the downpipe to the engine block. Its right at the downpipe/catpipe flange and the angle makes it difficult. Take the turbo and the downpipe out as a unit, detach the downpipe once removed.
Big thing is to be sure you wake up the threads on all of the bolts by tapping them with a hammer before applying torque. The turbo mounts bolts are especially easy to strip.


Now how bout some pics of this 968 turbo motor?

Eyal 951

its a bitch ain't it. I've done it before, and imma do it again.
~Eyal

mwc951

Jay........
Don't fret, many guys who post here think setting the FQS switch is difficult.

David Floyd

I can help you out for the next time around, once you have the cross-over pipe off, send that thing to Lindsey Racing or Chris White and have them do the 2 piece conversion, saves a ton of time and pain.

One of the best mods I have done.

PCinDC

Yeah thats definitely one of the things on my "D'OH" list...

Ski

Jay, I would drive up and help you but I went to TWS this weekend and all "kitchen passes" are in the drawer at the moment. Have you soaked everything with PB Blaster?

Have you dropped the steering rack and removed the steering knuckle, the motor mount heat shield to get to turbo bolts? If you can get the turbo mounting bolts loose, you can raise and twist it enought to get some "funky" angle corrections.

Eyal 951

Hey, I've done the turbo job, I've pulled the head and put it back on, and I've done rod bearings, but I still thought the FQS was difficult... until i set it earlier today, so easy!
~Eyal

Mikeaagesen

WHATEVER! I can never adjust mine right. That whole golf tee thing never works for me. Am I suppose to just carve out the tee into that shape or what? Last time I stuck a knife in there to turn it. Btw, do they sell new FQS switches or a tool thats made for adjusting it? Maybe it's just me...

84black944

I just got my stock turbo out last weekend you can get the crossover pipe out without removing the brake booster heat shield it just makes life ALOT easier.

chris951

I think the stuff that sucked the most about a turbo removal was those damn exhaust bolts on the crossover pipe and most of all, getting those mount bolts off from underneath. I had to unbolt the steering rack and alternator duct to get to that.

z3bra

I've found that loosening up the steering rack or even taking it off the steering shaft and taking out the four bolts holding it to the crossmember pretty well fixes any problems getting to the allen bolts that mount the turbo itself.

Like the other guys said, the brake booster heat shield out of the way helps a lot.

Get yourself one of these type of ratchets http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/OBJECTS/42300/42272.JPG
for the crossover to turbo bolts. Doesn't have to be the Snap-on one, but just one of the bent handle flex head type ratchets. I picked upt the Husky equivalent at Home Depot. It's not as nice but it's also 18 bucks instead of 96 for the Snap-on version and it's not something you really need all that often otherwise. I got that advice for that ratchet from another Rennlister and it definitely worked great.

The turbo mount bolts are evil bastards too.
Odds are they're going to strip out in the heads when you try to take them out. Have an easy-out ready to shove in the socket on the head and that almost always gets them out if they start stripping too much for an allen wrench to get a good bite. (just soak em good with a penetrating oil beforehand). Plan on ordering the long one (M8x 125mm I believe) It's around 20 at the dealer for that or you can order them in 5 or 10 packs at places like McMaster-Carr for about 10 bucks. The short one is M8 x 35mm, much easier to find. If you don't go the dealer route, you'll probably end up replacing the metric 8.8 hardware with 12.9 stuff anyway which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

tommo951

When you have set up the valve and ignition timing on a V12 ferrari 250 SWB come and tell me about hard or difficult work. Come to think of it stripping and rebuilding a Ducatti engine can be a bitch. So yes a Turbo removal is not a major bitch, its awkward due to space and location but well within the realms of your average home mechanic.