Hey everyone -

Sorry I've been a bit quiet as of late - the holiday season was absolutely INSANE. Things are starting to get back in the groove, and I have a ton of car projects on my plate.

First up was my turbos - they was a'smokin'. What's interesting is they started smoking just after the upper turbo coolant hose blew - I wonder if the temps in the turbo spiked and damaged the bearing or something.

Anyhow, I spent the whole weekend on the project. I had another good set of turbos handy, which sure helps. Pulling the turbos went very well - took about 2 hours or so to pull. One big trick I found is removing the EGR valve - getting that out of the way gives you quite a bit more room to work with, and made physically getting the turbos out of the car much easier. I also unbolted the heater return line, which let me move that pipe a bit to get a bit more room to clear the wastegate/precontrol actuators.

Once they were out, I disassembled them for a post mortem. The secondary turbo had a chewed up turbine wheel, probably from the original motor on the car going (I bought it just after a Mazda reman was installed). The primary definitely smelled of oil, so both had to go. Spent all Saturday evening building the turbos back up - I swapped turbine housings, as the set I had were pretty badly cracked.

Reinstalling the turbos sucked. The primary turbo's oil drain line got bent or something, and WOULD NOT line up. I swapped it out with the line from the spare turbos, and that was a HUGE chore - 1/4" drive tools and plenty of extensions of various sizes saved the day. Also, you have to remove the turbo control door actuator to get access.

All done, when I fired it up it was peeing oil - the gasket on the front turbo's drain line had cocked when I replaced the line. Damn! Had to re-do that, 2 seconds with a flashlight verifying the gasket's position would have saved a lot of work. Then, the hose clamp for the primary turbo's intake rubbed the air pump/alternator belt and broke it. Damn! Took 3 auto parts stores to find the right belt.

Anyhow, all seems happy now. I took tons of pics and will be documenting the whole project - pulling turbos is a pretty time-consuming job and can be tricky!

Dale

 

Congrats on your first Turbo assembly pull. Hope you never have to do it again, but if you do, it'll become easier and the tast will probably be accomplished much quicker.

BTW, ...You should go to Church next Sunday and give thanks to The All Mighty for not allowing any studs to break!! A miracle indeed!!

 

yeah the first time I did it took me a wile but the second time and after it took me about 20-30 mins tops to do, of couse I had brand new studs and locking nuts.

 

I love how when you read a writeup like this you can visualize every little event as though it was YOU doing it ( simply cos you probably have).

 

I love how when you own a car long enough you can basically rebuild the thing ground up in a weekend.

 

You got off lucky. I stripped a DP stud and broke a turbo stud. I had to call about 15 different shops until I could find one that could get it out and when I did it was a 30min drive to get it there. (anyone near lancaster that needs metal work Adams Metalizing is awesome Then my oil line wouldnt line up like yours took me about an hour just to get that on. Finally when everything was back together it leaked coolant. I dont know how I messed that up but I have to go back and check everything. And that brings me to now...im off to pull them again

 

i got the turbos in wayyyy faster than i got them out. it took about 4 hours to get them in and about an hour to get them back in...

hopefully i wont have to do it again, but if i do, it'll be a 2-3 hour job.

 

I had a blast when I did mine. I sheared at least 3 studs despite using every trick in the book. One of them short enough to require removing the manifold. I don't remember the specifics, but it seems the gaskets and fasteners cost me almost half what I paid for the good used twins I bought.

 

mine was fun... while doing the fuel system and pulling the diffusers out, the old bastards cracked and fell into the intake... had to take apart the whole passenger side of the car, turbos, intake manifold, all the goodies, fun times....

 

Yeah I remember when I had to do that job. I stripped about 3 DP studs and I think 4 bolts for the turbos. and now just for some icing on the cake my turbos are screwed and I have to do it again (Ugh....). hopefully this time it wont suck as bad....

 

My ***! Are you some freak from Chernoybl with 6 arms and fingers the size of pencils? You must be talking about the oil return lines only.

 

I pulled mine off this weekend with the motor out of the car. Needless to say my manafold was in bad condition and the turbos were pretty wasted. Mine are being replaced with a single because im over all the brittle rubbish under my hood. I could only imagine how much it sucked to pull them off while the motor is in the car especially if you dont have access to a lift.

 

Congrats Dale! hope to read about this on your site. Maybe someday I'll get up enough courage to attempt this jod.
Jeff

 

That would have to be with the motor OUT of the car.

 

Haha, what a great image.

 

We all know how it goes Dale... usually with a million hang ups and roadblocks - because nothing ever goes by the book...

It's one other great thing about going single turbo too.. 75% less crap. While more complex systems allow you to do crazier stuff.. They also take a lot of complex maintenance to repair or refurbish. Simplicity is underrated.

On the other hand, you've got your stuff back up and going, so thumbs up.

 

lookin forward to your write up dude....gald everything worked out for you, and those check valves work awsome dude cant thank you enough...

 

You are now a man Those of us who have been there never wish to return Replacing the OMP is almost as bad.

The only trick I found was to loosen the drain line at the block to give you some slop and make it easier to get all the bolts started.

At least you didn't have problems with the studs in the exhaust manifold. When I swapped turbos I spent an entire afternoon removing/repairing/replacing studs.

I bought all my parts from Mazda Motorsports (cheaply!) and seems like I had about $75 just in studs, nuts and gaskets. I replaced every fastener and gasket there.

 

Hah! Seems like my story has been experienced by many .

Good thing is the motor was installed about 20,000 miles ago so all the fasteners hadn't really rusted in place. Many of the manifold to turbo studs pulled out, but I just re-installed them like goofy bolts . I had spare studs for the downpipe connection.

Speaking of -

http://www.atpturbo.com/Merchant2/me...egory_Code=FST

ATP Turbo has some VERY nice studs and locking nuts. I've never been a fan of Mazda's locking nuts - they're FAR too agressive and almost always pull the stud out if you're lucky, or break the stud if not. Those brass-looking lock nuts are VERY nice - I've used them on many TurboII's back in the day. They lock on enough to not vibrate loose, but are easily removable and don't damage the stud. They're also good for many reinstallations. My downpipe is now installed with their studs and locknuts, and in the future I'll do the same for the turbo manifold. BTW, the majority of the studs/nuts are the 10mm/1.5 pitch studs, with that one smaller nut on the turbo manifold being a 8mm/1.25 stud.

Damon, good point. I was just thinking about it, and it would probably be easiest to loosely install the bolts for the turbo drain line so the line is floppy, then attach it to the engine side then tighten the bolts. That would insure everything is lined up, and just tightening the bolts with the assembly in the car isn't too bad.

Oh, the drain line gaskets - do they really need RTV? I put a light coat of grey RTV on mine, but the way that metal gasket is designed it doesn't seem to need it. Would be WAY cool if Mazda would make a metal oil pan gasket .

Dale

 

I have no RTV anywhere in my drain lines. Stock Mazda gaskets with no sealant. Keep the surfaces clean during assembly and don't re-use the gaskets if taking things apart. No problems.

The drains aren't under any real oil pressure. As long as they're clean and tight you're good to go.

 

Cool - thanks! Good tip to know.

Dale

 

I used a light rub of high-temp rtv gasket maker to hold my return line gaskets in place, plus used the tie-wrap method for the front upper gasket - still was a pita. But, after two weeks the thing is not leaking! I just want to note that at this point in time, my car has NO OIL LEAKS!

 

What's the tie-wrap method? For holding the front lower gasket in place?

Dale

 

Thanks for sharing the link to the fasteners - the only thing about those studs/nuts I'm unsure about is their strength. If you tighten them to Mazda's torque spec, I'll bet they will stretch.

The Mazda hardware is strong as all get-out, so they can handle the load. I guess the question is why, and if running the ATP hardware at, say, 20ft-lb is just as functional. In any case, I hope I don't have to replace any of that in the near future.

Dave

 

When I replaced my turbos the first time, we removed the manifold too (went non-sequential).. except one of the manifold studs sheered off flush with the housing!!!1!!one1!!!
Had to drill it out and re-tap.. a real nightmare!

Glad the engine was pulled when we removed them to go single!