Noticed when doing my oil change yesteday that there was a nut missing from the lower n/s stud on turbo/downpipe..! Although there didn't appear to be any gap around gasket (or any obvious blowing onto my hand) it looked like it had been as the heat sheild and tranny dipstick had evidence of black soot..!

So today I've had IC off and put a nut on and it has closed up a very slight gap, so sorted.. Having not started it yet I'll be interested to see if this is what's been causing a slight fume smell on startup that I thought was my VTA mod..!

My question is, would this have been having any effect on performance (hadn't noticed any difference but this could have been off for months..!) IMO as it's after turbo it probably hasn't.

 

unlike to have a noticable difference on performance and most likely once the turbo is hot the gap would have sealed up.. also past the turbo so wouldn't effect spool whcih would be more noticable.

Simon

 

I noticed something like this on mine while swapping turbos for fun

I ended up with spare bits and found on 1 turbo there was a stud in this position with nut on down pipe side. On another there was a bolt that went from the D/P side into the turbo flange.

I thought and put a nut on the bolt, but then the turbo side is tapped anyway, so no problem.

 

cheers guys as I thought, although it does seem to have been the cause of the 'fume' smell I was getting on cold start up (confirms it sealed up when hot too..!). I was convinced it was my VTA even though they exit past rear arb.

J