Changing the Turbo on, er, a 944 Turbo

[tref]

Any advice for unbolting and bolting back together the turbo on an '86 turbo? Nothing wrong with it, just need to take it off to get to the balance shaft below it. It looks like a PITA, nastily rusted nuts and bolts in inaccessible places.

Kind of thing I'm looking for is which joints to break, and which to leave well alone, which anciliaries to remove to make the job easier, and which so removing will cause me even greater headaches...

Any ideas?

TIA,

Tref.

 

[barks944]

I snapped 2oo3 studs in the downpipe removing mine!

 

[robwright]

To remove the mounting bolts you will need a good 6mm allen head socket and an extension that is about 2 foot long. Easiest way I found to get at one of them. I couldn't remove my downpipe nuts and had to hack through the downpipe and crossover pipe with a junior hacksaw!!!

 

[Mike_Pollock]

... bit extreme Rob[]

 

[robwright]

Trust me I had no other choice. I would have still been trying to get them off now!!!!

 

[Mike_Pollock]

I try to cut through nuts with a Dremel disc, without damaging the threads hopefully!

 

[TTM]

Remove exhaust
Remove intake manifold
Remove cross pipe
Remove turbo with downpipe attached on it, comes easily when unbolting from below the two lower bolts that hold it onto the engine mount. Remove bolt holding downpipe on the block with a spanner with ends making it look like a smoking pipe (I don't know the name in English, sorry).

 

[Mike_Pollock]

Offset Ring - is the I think you're thinking of - I've been on here about 3 years and didn't realise English wasn't your first language!

 

[TTM]

This is the tool, not sure if it's called an offset ring in English?
We call it a "clé à pipe" in French...

You can actually take the downpipe bolt off with a mechanical offset ring if the socket is wide enough to get into the lip of the downpipe while still rotate the head of the bolt. We have these multsize units from Facom which work great :

If I remember correctly the size of the bolt is 13.
I don't think it's doable with the cross pipe in place, as some room is obviously required to reach the bolt.

 

[tref]

Thanks guys,

All very usefull stuff - is it the cross-over pipe which is one piece on early turbos and split on later turbos? Does that make any difference at all?

 

[chrisg]

Tref

having done a similar job on my Turbo about 5 years ago, IMHO, it's undoing the two x allen key bolts (one very long, one short) that hold the turbo onto the engine mount that are the problem. Whilst the various nuts & bolts (mostly 15mm IMSC) on the exhaust and down + cross pipes may well be wedged tight, access is fairly straightforward particularly with said dremel.

Top trick for the cheese head bolts - use the shocking technique as per Clarks Garage to wake them up before you start putting any torque into them. If you find them starting to 'melt', take the easy option and remove the engine mount with the turbo sitting on top of it. - You may find that you'll have to remove the N/S engine mount to get at the balance shaft anyhow - don't forget to remove the oil pressure feed.

Good luck,

Chris

 

[tref]

Thanks Chris...

I'm familiar with waking up bolts, and "feeling" when they about to cause a problem... I generally describe it as the bolts start to feel "like twisting cheese" meaning it's close to all over - most people look at me funny when I say that - melt is another good one - I guess unless you've twisted off enough bolts, you're just not going to get what we are talking about! I must admit those two I wouldn't have expected to be the problem.

The oil feed and heat shield, inlet manifold etc is all off - in fact the cover for the balance shaft is loose, it just won't lift off because the turbo is in the way - believe me, I have tried fiddling it all ways! So, it is really just moving the turbo...

I took two spanners under the car for an initial look - 17mm, and 13mm and guess what - it wasn't either of them! Was guessing 14mm actually, and typically, 15mm is the size I have least different shaped spanners and sockets in... I do have a dremel 15mm shiffer though!

 

[Frenchy]

It's all about "the feel" cannot help with the turbo as i have not done one and by the sound of this not looking forward to it.

 

[Mike_Pollock]

"clé à pipe"

First time I've seen one of those - could be very useful!

 

[944Turbo]

ORIGINAL: tref

Thanks Chris...

I'm familiar with waking up bolts, and "feeling" when they about to cause a problem... I generally describe it as the bolts start to feel "like twisting cheese" meaning it's close to all over - most people look at me funny when I say that - melt is another good one - I guess unless you've twisted off enough bolts, you're just not going to get what we are talking about! I must admit those two I wouldn't have expected to be the problem.

The oil feed and heat shield, inlet manifold etc is all off - in fact the cover for the balance shaft is loose, it just won't lift off because the turbo is in the way - believe me, I have tried fiddling it all ways! So, it is really just moving the turbo...

I took two spanners under the car for an initial look - 17mm, and 13mm and guess what - it wasn't either of them! Was guessing 14mm actually, and typically, 15mm is the size I have least different shaped spanners and sockets in... I do have a dremel 15mm shiffer though!

I have a 15mm spanner with a flexible socket type end that was very useful for the exhaust = like this http://www.thesitebox.com/bahco/flex-head-spanner-10-11mm-sbs501011.aspx only mine is an open ended spanner on the other end. I picked mine up out of the road in Malaysia, so was especially pleased it did the job!

 

[tref]

ORIGINAL: barks944

I snapped 2oo3 studs in the downpipe removing mine!

So far one has sheared, one has rounded, and one has come undone! I am assuming the sheared one is easy enough to deal with once the turbo is off?