So I finally decided to fix the oil leak that's existed since I finished the rebuild about a month ago on my stock TII. It's been leaking from the oil line that goes into the bottom of the turbo between the compressor wheel and the hotside (or whatever). I originally intended to remove the turbo completely to tighten the bolts, but after removing a bunch of stuff I decided that it would be possible to tighten them with the turbo still attached (although difficult).

What I removed:
battery
fan & shroud
airbox assembly
radiator (for room)
intercooler
alternator
airpump
waterpump
(all the belts & main hub pulleys)
turbo inlet duct and the couple other vaccum lines attached to it (BOV etc.)
there's a couple other little things around the ACV and BAC that I disconnected (plugs, coolant hose etc.)

If anyone thinks this is 'removal overkill', I find that for some reason I work SO much better in a clean, uncluttered environment...? It's psycological or something, lol.

After tightening the bolts as much as I could with the tools I had, I put it all back together. One thing to note is that the TID has a 1" crack in it right where it connects to the turbo. I've seen cars with NOTHING there, so I figured that a small crack wouldn't really do anything.

Anyways, I put it back together, nothing is left over and to the best of my knowledge everything looks ok... Only problem is my car can't hold an idle...? I've started it a total of 5x now and it will shoot up to 2k+, but as soon as it's on it's way back down it will just stumble out and die... Anyone care to help a brother out?

 

woo hoo! So I fixed it... There were two little things I was going to check after posting this thread. One was to make sure the 8mm nut on my alternator was fully tightened and I was also going to replace one of the racheting style clamps on my rear (driver's side) intercooler hose because it refused to tighten. So after removing the intercooler I realized that the lower clamp on my pass. side intercooler hose was UNTIGHTENED. I kind of laughed knowing that this was more than likely my problem. Anyways I got the intercooler back on there snugly and WA LAH!!! I can hear my car warming up as I'm typing this. Oh, and to top off the story I FIXED MY OIL LEAK!!!! ye3ah!!!

 

You can fix the crack on your TID with some black RTV. I've done it before.

 

^ nevermind, when I went outside to go on a celebratory drive, my car was smoking... badly.

So I thought "maybe it's just oil pooled up under the turbo and burning off"?...
Nope, it's obvious, the leak is definitely alive and well... Where else could the oil be leaking from? It's definitely oily right under the two halves of the turbo right where the oil line connects. It's like I didn't even tighten anything (but I did). Could my turbo be potentially damaged and leaking from somewhere else? It worked just fine before the rebuild...

 

Thanks, I'll do that.

 

I forget but I'm pretty sure there is a gasket for the oil return line.