Turbo clocking woes

[Glyn Harper]

Really having trouble clocking my Turbo in order to get the oil return pipe on. Got the bolts all undone (eventually) but I just can’t get the exhaust side to budge which means I can’t get the centre section to rotate. The inlet side is loose and rotating ok though.

Tried loads of wd40, tapping the exhaust housing with a hammer (not hard, just to try and shock it a bit) and tapping a bit on any part that sticks out that should cause it to move, but it won’t budge. I’m terrified if I hit it anywhere too hard I’m going to kill it.

Anyone got any tips? Failing that, can anyone recommend somewhere I could send it?

It’s a hybrid T3/4 that was built about 7 years ago but has probably only done a 1,000 miles or so, therefore I’m not wanting a complete rebuild.

Pants. If it’s not one thing it’s the other!

The other being, two of the four studs in the exhaust manifold are damaged and could do with swapping for two new ones I have.

Just looking at them though, it’s like they’re daring me to try and remove them just so they can snap on me.

I’ve got a stud extractor on the way (the roller type) but are these studs likely to come out or snap? These are likely the original ones from 1988 is suspect! Again, got loads of wd40 on them, but I can’t see that making much difference.

Cheers.

[Glyn Harper]

Thanks, got some of that ordered. I’ll see if that move the studs.

I’m leaning towards leaving them actually. They were a bit damaged already when I took the turbo off and it hadn’t dropped off by itself. I may just be making a load of extra work.

thinking I may send the turbo itself to Turbodynamics to get freed off, as they can check it over while it’s there. Guess it makes sense as it’s hardly a 5 minute job getting the damn thing off and back on.

[sailorbob]

Unlike the turbine housing the exhaust housing often sticks due to the rust and heat. You may need to separate it from the CHRA rather than trying to rotate it. Soaking the junction with a 50/50 mix of acetone and automatic transmission fluid will help.

Edited February 7, 2018 by sailorbob

[Glyn Harper]

I actually managed to separate the exhaust housing tonight! Yay!

I spoke to a chap at https://www.turborebuild.co.uk/ who gave me some really good advice on how to do the job. Only fair to give them a plug as he was really helpful and didn’t charge me a penny for the advice!

Basically I needed to get a copper hammer (bought one for the job) then gradually bang away on the side of the housing and any bits sticking out like flanges with the copper hammer until it came off. After just a couple of minutes with the copper hammer it came off. Superb. You don’t need to go mental, just gradually tapping away more than hard hits. The copper deadens the impact a bit and stops it damaging the actual turbo by being softer than the material it’s hitting. And it’s always nice buying new tools.

The soaking in ‘XCP one’ over the last couple of days no doubt helped. Not heard of the acetone and transmission fluid trick before. 

I’ve ordered some new bolts to hold the exhaust housing on as one of them started rounding when I was taking it off so I thought it was a good idea to replace them all.

Once they’re here (tomorrow I hope) I should be able to put the turbo back together with the centre section suitably rotated to take the oil return pipe.. just in time for me to got and collect my gearbox from Chris Cole next Saturday.

Talking of bolts, one of the bolts holding the compressor housing on had a slimmer head than the others, and when I nipped it up, it stripped the threads in the housing!! I took it out and saw it was only about 10mm long whereas the others were about 15mm long. Luckily I have my original turbo so I took one off that and the extra 5mm length was able to reach unstripped material and tighten up ok, with some loctite to make sure. That bolt was put in by the people who rebuilt my turbo. Bit surprised they missed that to be honest.