DJ_Jon

iTrader: (7)

I'm going to be changing my turbo & downpipe in the next week or so.. How hard is this going to be, I have access to a garage, but no ramp or air tools.

I'm planning to remove the TMIC & turbo heatshield the night before to soak the nuts & bolts with WD40.

Am I going to need new gaskets & should I do an oil change at the same time?

car is a UK 99 Turbo 2000

cheers in advance

PS, the downpipe is a decatted affair & I will be retaining the OEM centre section, will it still pass an MOT & will it be a lot louder with the decat (Magnex backbox currently fitted, but I could put the STi back box back on to keep the moise down - too old to be a noisy chav.. )

PPS - car is being remapped by JGM

andyxros

did same last week. bit of a pain if bolts are sized up my bottm bolt was striped and was a tw+t to get out and the studd had no threads left (changed it for vf35 instead). oil return pipe under turbo unit is a pain you need to lock it some how so wen u push unit onto it it dont drop down thurther wen you see it you will know wat i mean, i just went down pit and held it in place wi a screwdriver while a mate pushed turbo unit onto it and if its a wider mouth downpipe prob wont be able to tighten bottm nut up as room is reduced needs to be tightened from pit or mine did anyway

andy c

DJ_Jon

iTrader: (7)

up

The rookie

iTrader: (1)

Dead Easy, I did a turbo swap in a day (27th dec, so started at 8:30, finished about 3ish, tea and lunch breaks) with no previous experiance, take the intercooler off first, it has to come off anyway, so do it first for easier access! All the bolts came undone easily, I used a pair of £5 from a bootfair ramps at the front and stood on a pile of 3 breeze blocks to make reaching over the wing easier (Either tape an old towel over it or make sure your not wearing any metal to scratch the paint), hardest job was the myriad of small bolts on the heatshield (I left it off for a few days after the swap to check for leaks as its such a PITA to remove and refit!)

I did it single handed by just pushing the turbo drain hose in - no probs for me.

Simon

DJ_Jon

iTrader: (7)

cheers Simon, I'm going to give it a whirl this week

rigga

iTrader: (4)

Good luck........




Be very suprised if yours is as easy as simon's was..... mine was not too bad but there are lots of guys who experienced siezed boltsthat were a bitch to get off...... a good soaking of wd40 the night before is a very very good idea.

DJ_Jon

iTrader: (7)

yea, it usually happens to me, but i dont trust garages to work on my car so i'll have to do it myself

Ninja6

Just finished changing my turbo today (MY00). As has been said already the oil drain pipe on the underneath of the turbo can cause problems, luckily mine went on really easily, just left the rubber pipe on the turbo and pushed it down. I had to get underneath the car to remove the bottom DP bolt, you will need a long extension for your ratchet and also a universal joint as you wont get the reqd angle onto the bolt otherwise, just prey that the bolts haven't welded themselves onto the studs!!! I was hoping that once I had got the DP bolts undone I could move it back a bit to access the 3rd up-pipe bolt, no joy I'm afraid, I had to take it off completely, although it wasn't that bad with just 1 bolt securing DP to gearbox and 2 holding DP to exhaust mid section. I also replaced both the up-pipe and DP gaskets. Also did the STI8 TMIC install at the same time and also fitted an SX fuel pressure regulator, trying to get the screws off that hold the old FPR on was a complete nightmare, even with the turbo removed, but thats another story. Hope you get on OK, just make sure you have plenty of decent tools.

Cheers

Carl.

The rookie

iTrader: (1)

As Carl says removing the DP is a must.....easier to just get it out the way first!

Other point I forgot, you have to 'squash' the turbo past the intake pipe, so give it a wipe round the outside first as its a bit cruddy and you don't want any of it to fall inside and go through the turbo and engine if you can help it!

Simon

DJ_Jon

iTrader: (7)

my turbo should be turning up this week so I will hopefully be attempting it at the weekend eek!

will I definitly need new DP & UP gaskets?

andyxros

when i did mine i had no choice but to put old ones back as was not planing to change turbo at that point. down pipe gasket leaked now changed 15 quid from dearers 2 days wait, also got a up pipe gasket at same time but not fitted yet. think its just small leak but not that noticable. anyway i wish i had gaskets to hand befor job stared then its ok for sake of say 25 quid id get both of them re-newed.. now il have to take turbo all off again to fit it

DJ_Jon

iTrader: (7)

I'll get the gaskets in before I start attacking it

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Guys, do you leave the whole heatshield on after the DP change?
Looks like only the top one will fit to the bracket on the turbo.

andyxros

i could only get the top one on and still had to cut to fit as dp is alot wider than standard. so long as turbo is shielded from intercooler should be fine or use heat wrap..

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

i've used heat wrap on the DP, but without a heatshield on the turbo, a 5 minute drive gave it some seriously hot under bonnet temps.
Are you saying I should wrap the turbo exhaust housing?

andyxros

id say you need to keep heat away from top mount ether modify heat shield to fit as i did or invest in a turbo heat jacket

apalmer

iTrader: (8)

M8

Did my downpipe this weekend and cut the heatshield with a junior hacksaw (until i snapped it by accident) was fairly straight forward. It only needed two bolts going back on (back left and top right)

Also make sure if you have taken it off as i did that you replace the heatshield around the brake fluid container!

-A