996 Turbo removal
Discussion
As a follow up to some questions I asked on here and to which I got some valuable advice, here goes my experience, maybe it helps someone.
Short story: Needed to remove/replace bumper side heatshields as damaged. Thought it to be a good idea to remove turbo heatshield first to gain better access to one nut. Stud snapped on turbo, that retains heatshield (and turbo to cat!) so that meant turbo out to sort out.
Anyway. Very bad corrosion on all nuts/studs. Warning. Take your time, and be prepared to put in a ridiculous amount of it to get the job done. NEVER go into this with the intention of being in and out in the half hour this job should take. Prepare to expend that much time on ONE nut!
The only removal method for the remaining nuts on the turbo to cat studs was using a nut splitter. Freeze spray, etc, etc, no use. IMHO as soon as you note that your nuts are highly corroded, get yourself a cheap splitter and use it.
The exhaust manifold to cylinder head bolts come off, they are tight, but they do come off conventionally. Thank the Lord/Buddha/Allah/Isis for small mercies. That part of the job was terrifying...
As per the manual, the turbo can only come off the vehicle with the manifold. Unless you also remove the exhaust system.
The oil FEED pipe that goes into the check valve (the device that seems to and does actually feed the oil to the turbo bearing) was corroded. I absolutely HAD to cut the pipe. Basically the pipe end fitting still needed replacement, something that is not generally worthwhile (pipe needs cutting anyway!) so the pipe was toast anyway.
More on this, once the turbo was out I removed the check valve with the cut-off pipe stub and pipe fitting still in place, and the only way that I could remove the pipe fitting from the check valve was by clamping the pipe fitting very tightly in a sturdy bench vice and applying a large (22mm) spanner to the check valve. And it took a lot of force (hammer blows to spanner) to do so. Absolutely no way that that pipe was coming out of the check valve with turbo in situ. So if it looks bad and does not come off after a reasonable amount of effort, give up on it and avoid doing any damage to other stuff, or to yourself.
Small note, but the turbo support bracket bolt and nut seemed to have melted in place. Only way to separate was using a grinder.
Turbo and manifold on bench - unfortunately they were very happily married, too. Splitter took care of the nuts, but that still was not enough to separate, despite dangerously enthusiastic tapping. With patience, I screwed on a new nut to the stud/s, and from all angles delivered side blows to the nut (and hence the stud/s) so the flexure would release the studs from the manifold. It eventually worked.
So in short expect the worst because that is what you are likely to get!
Now I will take the turbo to an engineering works to get the old studs out, will likely replace just the studs with s/s ones, the nuts I bought locally, copper coated self locking exhaust nuts.
Short story: Needed to remove/replace bumper side heatshields as damaged. Thought it to be a good idea to remove turbo heatshield first to gain better access to one nut. Stud snapped on turbo, that retains heatshield (and turbo to cat!) so that meant turbo out to sort out.
Anyway. Very bad corrosion on all nuts/studs. Warning. Take your time, and be prepared to put in a ridiculous amount of it to get the job done. NEVER go into this with the intention of being in and out in the half hour this job should take. Prepare to expend that much time on ONE nut!
The only removal method for the remaining nuts on the turbo to cat studs was using a nut splitter. Freeze spray, etc, etc, no use. IMHO as soon as you note that your nuts are highly corroded, get yourself a cheap splitter and use it.
The exhaust manifold to cylinder head bolts come off, they are tight, but they do come off conventionally. Thank the Lord/Buddha/Allah/Isis for small mercies. That part of the job was terrifying...
As per the manual, the turbo can only come off the vehicle with the manifold. Unless you also remove the exhaust system.
The oil FEED pipe that goes into the check valve (the device that seems to and does actually feed the oil to the turbo bearing) was corroded. I absolutely HAD to cut the pipe. Basically the pipe end fitting still needed replacement, something that is not generally worthwhile (pipe needs cutting anyway!) so the pipe was toast anyway.
More on this, once the turbo was out I removed the check valve with the cut-off pipe stub and pipe fitting still in place, and the only way that I could remove the pipe fitting from the check valve was by clamping the pipe fitting very tightly in a sturdy bench vice and applying a large (22mm) spanner to the check valve. And it took a lot of force (hammer blows to spanner) to do so. Absolutely no way that that pipe was coming out of the check valve with turbo in situ. So if it looks bad and does not come off after a reasonable amount of effort, give up on it and avoid doing any damage to other stuff, or to yourself.
Small note, but the turbo support bracket bolt and nut seemed to have melted in place. Only way to separate was using a grinder.
Turbo and manifold on bench - unfortunately they were very happily married, too. Splitter took care of the nuts, but that still was not enough to separate, despite dangerously enthusiastic tapping. With patience, I screwed on a new nut to the stud/s, and from all angles delivered side blows to the nut (and hence the stud/s) so the flexure would release the studs from the manifold. It eventually worked.
So in short expect the worst because that is what you are likely to get!
Now I will take the turbo to an engineering works to get the old studs out, will likely replace just the studs with s/s ones, the nuts I bought locally, copper coated self locking exhaust nuts.
Sounds like you had a royal pain in the arse with this one mate, makes my turbo swap back in the day sound relatively straightforward, thing is, once you start a job like that there's no going back. Easy bit next though, putting it all back together 
How about taking the other one off and sending them off to Ken to work his magic, he's building some pretty spectacular units these days.
How about taking the other one off and sending them off to Ken to work his magic, he's building some pretty spectacular units these days.
Yes to be honest with you putting it back together (fingers crossed) should be simple, exception being installing the new oil feed pipe, no idea what it will involve, at least not until I get the old one out. May involve removing some other bits, so in all likelyhood, some more non-dull moments...
Car is 1,200 miles away from London at the moment so will just put it back together again eventually.
The other side had some recent work done, I suspect the same sort of work as I am doing now, as the nuts and pipework are new. Would have liked to know what exactly was done as the invoice just lists "turbo - £450" amongst other stuff totalling £3.5k... I don't think a rebuild would be covered by that!
Incidentally got some oil in the intercooler pipework on this other side, reading up many say that this is nothing to worry about. I don't know really. Some seem to indicate that oil accumulation when the engine is off may be causing this. Perhaps a faulty check valve, allowing pipe oil to drain into the blower, but having opened one up there is not much to go wrong. All otherwise fine so a bit loath to start cracking things open, may live with this and take action in future if needed.
Car is 1,200 miles away from London at the moment so will just put it back together again eventually.
The other side had some recent work done, I suspect the same sort of work as I am doing now, as the nuts and pipework are new. Would have liked to know what exactly was done as the invoice just lists "turbo - £450" amongst other stuff totalling £3.5k... I don't think a rebuild would be covered by that!
Incidentally got some oil in the intercooler pipework on this other side, reading up many say that this is nothing to worry about. I don't know really. Some seem to indicate that oil accumulation when the engine is off may be causing this. Perhaps a faulty check valve, allowing pipe oil to drain into the blower, but having opened one up there is not much to go wrong. All otherwise fine so a bit loath to start cracking things open, may live with this and take action in future if needed.
RAWENG said:
An effective way of removing the corroded studs is to weld a nut on any remaining stud, have the correct spanner at hand to quickly turn the nut whilst the stud is hot. Works for me, good luck
Thanks. I have done that in the past a couple of times but because this Porsche s
t cost so much I'd rather let someone else do this! I'm also a very average welder!Incidentally, got the oil feed pipe out of the vehicle, since I have read a lot about this including some recycled nonsense I will start a new thread about it so that anyone googling (as I did previously) will have an idea.
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