wastgate porting question (taking apart the turbo, who did and who didn't)
 

I'm about to port my wastegate, but I want to know how many people here took apart there turbo and how many didn't and just clean the turbo with an air compressor after they were done porting. I know is recommend to take it apart but I just don't want to strip and break any of the screws.
thanks

It shouldn't be real hard to pull the exhaust housing off, but I think I ended up finishing the job with the turbo assembled anyway. I rinsed it with water as best I could then blew it out well with a compressor. It's running really well right now, 95k miles and about 5k miles after porting it.

The bolts shoultn't wanna strip if you use a good 10mm closed end wrench. Mine came out fairly easy, but my exhaust housing is stuck i guess i need to hit it harder

how many psi of boost are you guys running to have to port the wastegate. I am thinking of doing a downpipe and air pump removal but don't want boost creep.

^ anything over stock boost and its a good idea to port it. just with a 3 in DP, exhaust and fcd i was creeping past 10 on the freeway...

well crap looks like i might be taking the turbo off next weekend =(

should I go with aaron cakes extreme port just so I never have to take it off again?

Take it apart. Porting is important, especially if it's an S4 turbo.

I'll throw out the idea of using an s5 turbo. You can combine your coldside s4 to a hotside s5 and then port that wastegate. Find a blown s5 turbo and use the parts for you s4. If you plan on uping the boost the s5 turbo manifold is a better design and you don't have to deal with the twinscrool. You will also need an s5 turbo manifold. This mod is cheap!!!~

I've got a ported S4 turbine housing sitting on the shelf if you want it. I just bought an S5 turbo, since my S4 unit was shot.

take it apart. you will get a ton of debris.

you dont want the shavings to fall in the turbo, so take it apart and to it up good