What's the worst part of replacing the turbo?

[anticon]

I got a Whoosh hybrid on the way and a tune ordered. I am thinking I can pull off the turbo swap myself, but the turbo to downpipe, and turbo to manifold bolts sound sketchy. I would prefer to not have to deal with broke studs or stripped bolts. What is the top three pain in the ass parts of a turbo swap, just so I can prepare. TIA.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

I got a Whoosh hybrid on the way and a tune ordered. I am thinking I can pull off the turbo swap myself, but the turbo to downpipe, and turbo to manifold bolts sound sketchy. I would prefer to not have to deal with broke studs or stripped bolts. What is the top three pain in the ass parts of a turbo swap, just so I can prepare. TIA.

Soak them as long as you can with penetrating oil of your choice. I usually make my own if I can. Are you doing the DP? If you are be wary of the o2 sensors being cross threaded by good old Fomoco.

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[anticon]

Soak them as long as you can with penetrating oil of your choice. I usually make my own if I can. Are you doing the DP? If you are be wary of the o2 sensors being cross threaded by good old Fomoco.

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I'm not going to replace the downpipe. But I assumed I would have to pull the top O2 sensor to get the downpipe heatshield off, so I could unbolt the downpipe from the turbo. I've been watching videos and it seems like the downpipe heatshield will have to come off to get the turbo out.

 

[dhminer]

Heat shield will be by far the biggest PITA of the whole job. The manifold to turbo and turbo to downpipe bolts aren't bad at all, just make sure you disconnect the downpipe from cat back and push it as far out of the way as you can so you have room to work. If you don't it'll be a pain to get a torque wrench in there to make sure you hit the right spec and don't strip anything. The rest is pretty straightforward. Won't go perfectly as these things never do, but it's really not hard to do.

Make sure you have a head to manifold gasket and a new fire ring. Easiest way is to pull the turbo and manifold still connected, swap the new turbo onto the manifold, then drop both back in together. Make sure head studs are torqued properly before dropping back in.

 

[kivnul]

I had a spare set of studs and nuts for all 3 connections just in case anything got mangled. Cheap insurance if your timeline is tight. As dhminer said, taking the manifold out with the turbo is an easy way to pull it all out from the top.

 

[anticon]

Heat shield will be by far the biggest PITA of the whole job. The manifold to turbo and turbo to downpipe bolts aren't bad at all, just make sure you disconnect the downpipe from cat back and push it as far out of the way as you can so you have room to work. If you don't it'll be a pain to get a torque wrench in there to make sure you hit the right spec and don't strip anything. The rest is pretty straightforward. Won't go perfectly as these things never do, but it's really not hard to do.

Make sure you have a head to manifold gasket and a new fire ring. Easiest way is to pull the turbo and manifold still connected, swap the new turbo onto the manifold, then drop both back in together. Make sure head studs are torqued properly before dropping back in.

Thank you for the advice. So does they down pipe have to come out? I was hoping I could leave it in place. Same with the manifold really. I guess I was assuming the three bolts on the turbo to manifold would be easier than the five on the manifold to block.

 

[dhminer]

Thank you for the advice. So does they down pipe have to come out? I was hoping I could leave it in place. Same with the manifold really. I guess I was assuming the three bolts on the turbo to manifold would be easier than the five on the manifold to block.

9 on manifold to block, 5 on top and 4 down below. I’m sure it can be done without taking the manifold off, just a super tight space to work with. Try it, there’s a good chance it’ll work. Worst case you take the manifold off anyways.

Downpipe can just be pushed out of the way, yes. You’ll have to undo both sides of it to get it to move far enough out of the way is all I meant.

 

[PhoenixM3]

I got a Whoosh hybrid on the way and a tune ordered. I am thinking I can pull off the turbo swap myself, but the turbo to downpipe, and turbo to manifold bolts sound sketchy. I would prefer to not have to deal with broke studs or stripped bolts. What is the top three pain in the ass parts of a turbo swap, just so I can prepare. TIA.

All fairly straight forward. Be patient with the heat shield. I replaced mine twice on car ramps, so that is a good height to be off the ground and still reach everything above and beneath the car.

 

[PhoenixM3]

I had a spare set of studs and nuts for all 3 connections just in case anything got mangled. Cheap insurance if your timeline is tight. As dhminer said, taking the manifold out with the turbo is an easy way to pull it all out from the top.

^^^ This ^^^

 

[jessemon1106]

1. Always that broken bolt. I managed to snap the lower bolt on the DP. Thankfully it didn't matter anyhow.

2. Back gets fatigued faster as I took just the turbo only out the top. It fit out with no problem and Id rather be in a funky position than remove more bolts that can possibly give issues.

3. Doubting myself since I've only changed out the one. You know when you do snap that one bolt or round the head off. But I tried to take my time and tell myself I do know what I'm doing.