hi guys,

in the next few weeks i will be changing my tdo4 to a vf35 and fitting a Harvey up-pipe and ported headers at the same time. I had a look on Saturday to see roughly what was involved and noticed that when the current up-pipe was fitted, it was slightly bodged. There is only 3 bolts holding the downpipe to the turbo and only one stud fitted (with nut) connecting the up-pipe to turbo. The other 4 fixings are currently bolts, which have corroded quite a bit.

I attempted to undo one of the bolts, the one shown in the picture (sorry i borrowed the pic but has snapped the same) and it snapped.

Now, i can see this will happen with the rest but would i just be able to remove the turbo and up-pipe in one go especially as i dont intend on re-using the up-pipe? Is there enough room to get all of the pipes off the turbo without any problems?

Also, has anyone got any tips on fitting sti pink injectors as these will be going on at the same time? I'm also replacing the drivers side rocker cover gasket too but i have 3 days to fit all of this as on the fourth day, Duncan from Racedynamix will be coming to do a map tweak.

How will i get all of this done? Any help guys?

Thanks

 

you can see in that picture there is a bracket stopping you from being able to pull the turbo and uppipe out together and there is another on the other side. You will have to loosen the headers to allow you to drop the upipe down.

 

I did a similar swap to you mate, a vf24 and decat uppipe. the turbo has to come off first then the uppipe as the bolts are in awful positions. You will shear a couple of the studs off too from both the downpipe and possibly the uppipe. The lower downpipe nuts are the pinnacle of awkward engineering too, you cant get at them from below and from above they are frustrating at the least.
One sheared (on the right) and one stud came out completely. if you want to reuse the turbo or sell it, you can use new turbo studs m10x1.25 (plenty on ebay) and simply put a nut on each side, makes for easy tightening too.



Refitting the turbo, I can give you one tip (actually more but this is a doozer), when refitting the waterpipe back to the engine, it is easier taking the short length of rubber pipe and fit it to the turbo THEN offer it down onto the engine as the butterfly clip is easier to squeeze from the bottom as there is a little more room for your fingers (attack it from the side).

Sti pinks are a pain in the ****, the covers have an insane amount of unnecessary bolts considering how rigid they are and I ended up only replacing one as the other made no difference whatsoever. Driverside has a hardpipe welded to it so needs to go back on. Be prepared for a lot of petrol leakage from the fuel rails too.
When refitting fuel rail and injector back onto the head, make sure you use plenty of pressure and align the injectors home well, otherwise when you turn the ignition half on to prime, you will get a petrol fountain (I found out). I got a mate to stand with the rubber butt of a hammer leaning all his weight onto the fuel rail when I tightened the bolts back onto the head and all was fine. These are the sort of jobs you only want to do once though.

 

Thanks for the reply guys.

If i were ti undo the 2 brackets that hold onto the uppipe where it connects to the engine would it not just pull out from the top?

There's only 3 bolts holding the downpipe on as the previous owner changed the downpipe already and forgot to use all of the nuts.

I'll have to be methodical I think when changing the injectors and as there turbo and other bits will be out of the way then it shouldn't be too difficult, I hope.

Any other suggestions on the uppipe. Would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

Removing the downpipe doesnt solve all of the puzzle though. The uppipe has studs coming up into the bottom of the hot side of the turbo, as Donnedly said, you would then need to drop the headers just to give the uppipe room to come away from underneath and even then, there is a mounting bracket in between which would need to be removed too. If you removed the turbo first, this wouldnt be required.

 

Yeah the headers are being removed and I'm fitting some of harvey's ported headers.

The turbo is being replaced so was thinking that I would get away with removing the turbo and uppipe in one go?

 

I asked this back when about to start mine and was told no also matey,
https://www.scoobynet.com/showpost.p...3&postcount=29.

 

Yeah cheers mate. Just cant seem to think why it wouldn't work? The uppipe is already most of the way through into the engine bay and with a bit of twisting it should come out? Just trying to think out loud really as although I won't be reusing the uppipe and turbo I just thought it might save me some time?

I need to have a good look at it really.

Oh and while I'm talking about the turbo, I have a turbo blanket to go on also, can this be fitted before fitting the turbo or is it best afterwards?

Thanks guys.

 

I didnt bother matey, I got shot of all heatshields and didnt want anything else cluttering up the engine bay neither.

 

I bought it just to keep the under bonnet temperatures down and like the way it looks when fitted.

Anyone else have any suggestions on the turbo and blanket?

Cheers

 

i thought the same thing about pulling the turbo and upipe out together but it is impossible due to the brackets in between them. You cannot get those brackets off without removing the turbo and upipe first. The upipe needs to drop down a bit to clear the bracket and then you can pull it out the top once the turbo is removed.
This will all become apparant as you take it out.
I managed to do all this without sheering.rounding/snapping any bolts but i soaked everything overnight in penetrating oil and dowsed it all again the next day.

 

This shows you what the brackets look like:
There is no way you could remove the one on the right with everything still in place:

 

Thanks donNedly for the input. Shame really as that looks the easier route but looks like the bolts will have be snapped off then. They are so rusty as they are just bolts and not stud and nut that one has snapped already.

Oh well