I hope you guys can help me out here,

I blew the oil seal on my secondary turbo and need ot replace or rebuild. Because this is a unexpected expence after an expensive christmas I am thinking about doing the work my self. I've worked on my hondas and my truck, but I have never had a car with a turbo before, so I'm kind of appriehensive about diving into it. After looking at the engine and seeing that its all direct bolt on, I think can do it. So my questions are:

A) Is this something that a normal nontrained, but mechanically inclined weekend wrencher can do?

B) Are there going to be any surprises that I would need to lookout for?

C) Is there any place i can go to get step by step instructions?

Thanks for any help

 

Here are some basic steps I wrote out before:

https://www.rx7club.com/showpost.php...&postcount=557

They aren't something like a Haynes manual step-by-step write up, but they hit the highlights. Expect to take 3-4 hours the first time you remove the turbos.

 

printed from Mitchell1 onDemand

 

A) This is something that a shade tree mechanic can definitely do. I just finished going full-non seq (which requires dropping the turbos) and I'm no expert mechanic. Just take your time, think about what you're doing, and you'll be fine.

B) You'll be surprised at how expensive some of the replacement gaskets are. Just talk to Ray Crowe at Malloy to pick up what you need.


Also consider what else you might want to do while you're in there. For example, if you're going to go midpipe in the near future, porting the wastegate might not be a half bad idea to avoid boost creep (This is just an example not a suggestion since I don't know your mods).

 

what is the difference between non-seq. and full non-sequential?. I've got the twins on a bench right now(porting wastegate), replaced a bad secondary. I'm non-sequential.

 

From what I've been told by other members, they say the difference lies in the extent of "things" (items removed, what gets ported, etc) done between "rich" vs "poor" which I guess is the same as full-non-seq and just standard non-seq. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can itemize a few things?

 

Swapping the turbos can be painless or extremely painful. It usually depends who has worked on the car before you bought it, or if has 50k plus miles on all the factory stuff that can suck also.

Its not a difficult task if no studs/nuts seize or break. Soak all the nuts and bolts in PB blaster and let them sit over night. Soak them again before you start to remove the turbos( i am only referring to the downpipe bolts and bolts that connect the turbos to the manifold) Depending on what type of downpipe you have can make all the difference in the world also. Try it yourself and if you have any problems post them on the forum and we will help. Your first time I would set asside a couple days to work on it.

 

I already have a down and mid-pipe with cat-back. I over came the boost creeping with a boost controler. what dose porting the wastegates do? Dose it help the car in any other way if i port them? and are you just porting the vacuum lines that go through them?

 

the wastegate is ported to prevent boost spikes, which occur when an FD is running a straight exhaust.

 

Strated to take out my twins. boy its a rats nest of hoses. I have 3 questions about what I'm looking at.
1. What is the red arrow pointing to? are thay vacuum lines to the waste gates?
2. Is the yellow arrow pointing to the oil line?
3. is the blue arrow pointing to the coolaint line?

Thanks Mahjik, your link has been help full all ready

 

1. red arrow is vacuum lines for emissions crank vent (1 i think) and sequential stuff (the other two)

2. yellow arrow is oil feed for the turbos

3. blue arrow is coolant feed for the turbos.

 

If you want to make your life a bit easier I would just rip out the engine (with gear box still attached) and put it on an engine stand and remove the turbo's from there. The first time I did the turbo's it took me 8 solid hours, cut my hands up, got cramps etc so I ended up pulling the engine out and re-installing the turbo's with it on a stand. It took me an hour or less to pull out the engine and maybe 2 to put it back in and get it all running again.

Just my 2 cents but it is a hell of a lot easier this way in my eyes.