I think these turbos are original, 60k. Can these be weld repaired?
The bottom crack just barely ends inside the sealing edge of the gasket.

Is the white/tan stuff all over the insides an indication of bad coolant seals?

Unfortunately, I don't have any money now, so I pretty much have to reinstall them. Unless someone has brand new turbos for cheap

Also, is not using new metal gaskets a bad idea? (I'm tempted to save the new gaskets for the next set of turbos).

Dave

 

I think that is just oil...

 

On the inside of the downpipe it looked whiter. I've been using Mobil 1.

The coolant seals have me a little worried, since on cold mornings it smokes like this:

http://web.newsguy.com/geesaman/DSCF0073.AVI (1.7MB)

 

You can reuse metal gaskets. I would just reinstall them and use a bunch of exhaust liquid gasket, especially out around where that crack is. How cold of a morning was that? Mine smokes a bunch in the winter at start up. Its just the condensation in the exhaust...I remember my smoke being white though.

 

Yeah, it was less than 50F outside that day. It doesn't do it if the car was driven within the last 12 hours. I think coolant seal problems tend to push coolant when the engine is warm and the coolant system is still pressurized, so that most smoking happens after even a 10min. break.

But the turbos - Liquid exhaust gasket will not work - it's about 1200F short of the required temperature rating.

Everyone: if these were your turbos, and you didn't have money to buy new ones, what would you do with them? (just 12k more miles is 2 years for me)

Dave

 

If you reuse the gasket they will leak even if you use exhaust liquid gasket. it will not last long.

 

how does the gasket look? it does not look like it is leaking yet. that longer crack is working it's way past the gasket seal though..

 

wow thats a lot of smoke....mines smokes too, but not that much....

 

That crack you have there is insanely common on our twins. I had a crack at least as bad as that on my twins when I pulled them and I was having no problem at all with them. Concidering you have no money I don't think you have a choice here. I would 100% throw them back on....what can it hurt? The stuff I use may not actually be called liquid gasket but that is basically what it is....I just didn't feel like running out to the garage to check...its not silicone.

 

I just pulled my twins and they had a crack like that. I it welded and Ive yet to put them back on, but when I pulled them there were absolutly no problems, if you want to weld them shut, it will work, but its not a huge problem.

 

That is alot of smoke. Its not good engineering practice to reuse any gaskets unless its a dire emergency. Gaskets for turbo manifolds arent very expensive. Would be a good idea to replace it and the white stuuf is probably just condensation. The pits caused are from water hammer. If the residue was black or like carbon deposits it would be from your oil. Dosent hurt to check your oil lines for leaks though.

 

That crack can be rapaired with some brazing but remember anytime you heat and cool metal components they become more succeptible to embrittlement.

 

damn thats alot of smoke...an holy ***** thats a crack, mayb some JB weld...nah nah jus jokes...what you should do is get a propane torch, some welding rod and see what you can do...

 

What pits? Everything looked like normal cast iron surface.

And I beg to differ on the exhaust gaskets - if you want to picky, here would be the list:
(1) downpipe/turbo gasket ($95)
(1) downpipe/cat gasket ($7)
(2) turbo/exh manifold gasket ($100)
(2) exh manifold/block gasket ($150)

Plus, you *should* use new studs and nuts:
downpipe: $50
turbo: $50.

And I think the gasket set runs close to $200 as well. That's a hell of a lot of money to pull them for inspection.

Dave

 

Put them back on and forget about them.

As for the gaskets - talk to Ray at Malloy and ask for a "rebuild gasket kit". It includes all the gaskets you mentioned (except near the cat) plus the intake manifold gaskets for $120.

 

You're right - it's just under $120.

Regarding the next two pictures:

1) is a gasket leak like this significant?

2) are these cracks around the wastegate door acceptably small?

Dave

 

Hey Dave, I might have been wrong about the pitting but as for the gasket sets it all depends on where you buy them. But keep in mind you get what you pay for. We both know that buying anything for an RX-7 is usually pretty expensive. As for the significance of the gasket leak, its really not that bad but if it were me i would buy a new set of gaskets. As for the cracks around the wastegate door, it takes alot to crack cast iron but im no professional. Have you taken it to anyone or shopped around for new exhaust manifolds. You know just in case.

 

There are two sets of 30k mile turbo kits on ebay right now. Check it out!