stock turbo blew...need replacement.

[spawn87]

my stock t25 went out on my car and my buddy has another one his gana let me use for the time till i choose another set up...how much work am i looking for and is it a simple bolt on swap or am i looking at a headache.

 

[nfernotalon]

Depends what you want, the T28 is a direct bolt on.

 

[kenamond]

If your buddy is giving you a T25 or T28 turbo, that's the easiest to swap. If it's something else, post the type, and we can tell you what extra steps and parts would be required.

If you're just replacing the T25 with a non-blown one, you have to drain oil and coolant, remove the radiator fan, unbolt the downpipe from the O2 housing, disconnect the intake pipe, lower intercooler pipe, and WGA line from the compressor side, disconnect the turbo oil drain tube from the oil pan, disconnect the oil supply line, disconnect the two coolant hoses from the hard-lines that are bolted to the front and back of the turbo, then disconnect the turbo from the exhaust manifold (3 bolts and one nut).

That gets the turbo out of the car. You need to swap the oil supply line, oil drain tube, coolant hard lines and O2 housing to the new turbo. I'd recommend replacing: the exhaust manifold bolts and washers, coolant line banjo bolts and copper crush washers, O2 housing studs and nuts, turbo/manifold gasket, turbine/O2 housing gasket, and O2/DP gasket.

But that's if this is either a T25 or T28 that are *true* bolt-on turbos. Pretty much any other type of turbo will need other parts to "make them fit".

EDIT: There are other things you'll need to know about, but this gives you an idea of what's involved to replace a T25 with a T25 or T28 turbocharger.

 

[spawn87]

wow ive never done turbos soo its my first time ... but it is a direct t25...how much do u think it will cost me to just take it to a shop?...i though of gettin a t28 killer but what do i need for that swap?...

 

[kenamond]

If you're fairly handy under the hood, you can do this. If not, I have no clue how much a shop will rape you...err...charge you to swap it. I don't know a whole lot about a T28 killer, but it might be 100% as easy as a T25. I have a Forced Performance Big28, and it is 100% bolt on; everywhere the T25 connected to something, the FPB28 was exactly the same.

Usually, folks take this wonderful opportunity to upgrade, and if you plan on modding this car (as you should ), the turbo is the heart and soul of the matter.

You can do all of this with a socket and wrench set, a jack, and a single jack stand. Beer - in limited quantities - helps. You can borrow the O2 sensor socket you'll need from Autozone...or just buy one if you plan on working on this car in the future.

 

[spawn87]

mmmm beer...haha...ima give it a wak...do u think i can drive the car to a location i can work on it...car runs but turbo dont is done for...or should i just get it towed?...in worse case how much time am i looking at to do the swap.

 

[DougR]

DON'T DRIVE IT! Flatbed wrecker to where it needs to be!

Stay on your buddys replacement T-25. Do ALOT of reading here, to help you decide which way you want to go.

You're first step is geting that turbo swapped. which will cost, IF you shop arond here in the supporting vendors. I dont see it costing over 50$ for all gaskets, washers, nuts and bolts. As listed above, in replacement parts. To enshure a proper install.

Then Read, Read and Read some more, Finally start searching on specific aspects of what you "Think" you want to do...

Dont upgrade to a larger Turbo now. It will require more than you're probly wanting or willing to do, to make it "Right", aka Logged, Tuned and Boosting properly...


DougR

 

[nfernotalon]

I would tow it, no sense in breaking something else. Set a timeframe, then add a couple more hours after that.

 

[spawn87]

wow ok well ill try and get it towed to a shop and have them fix it cause its a daily driver and i need it for school and work...ither way i probly wont get this car running till the end of this week hopefully....i buy those parts menstion and take out the turbo out by my self that way it will be less for the install.

 

[kenamond]

Since this is your first time and shit happens, I'd expect it to take a day, but I'd start on it on a Friday so you have a couple of days extra if you have to run around and get tools and parts.

Someone who's done it before can do it in a couple of hours if nothing goes wrong.

I agree 110% with doing your research/homework. Be prepared, know what you have to do, and it'll go faster.

Bolts might break, and that might set you back 15 minutes to 2 days (if you need to have a machine shop extract the remnants. But there are ways to decrease the likelihood of that happening (PB Blaster, heating up the motor, etc.).

Is the motor belching thick clouds of blue-white smoke? If it's just a little bit of smoke but the turbo isn't boosting, you can warm up the motor, but if it's sending out a royal smoke screen, limit the time your motor is running to as few seconds as possible; a blown seal can dump a quart of oil out of the motor in no time.

For starters...since the car is pretty much dead, get it towed somewhere and start taking the basic parts off of the car (stuff that doesn't require a special tool or a breaker bar). That'll get you familiarized with all of the pieces you're dealing with. Read up on the rest.

 

[DougR]

I'll make another suggestion for ya. It's called PB BLaster, Berrymans B-12 and Anti-sieze!. Sold at Autozone and probly every other autoparts chain.

B-12 to remove the oily crap all over everything, get like 2-5 cans .

PB blaster for those nasty Rusted bolts. HOSE IT ALL! 2-3 times a day untill you can get to do the turbo swap.

TRUST me you will be so glad you did!
I didnt have a Single bolt or nut give me ANY problems! Not even that nasty top Bolt everyone hates on the Mitsu flanged housings.
Finnally Before you remove that Turbo. Loosen EVERY Banjo bolt and fitting on it! It's a thousand times simpler to break loose Tourqed bolts with a Solid mounted Turbo VS. one that is being held by a Buddy!

 

[kenamond]

And since you have a '99, that's a couple fewer years for things to rust. As was mentioned, PB Blaster works better if you apply it beforehand and frequently. But we're probably getting ahead of ourselves. Search and ask about things searching didn't answer, and you'll get through this just fine.

 

[spawn87]

EDIT: There are other things you'll need to know about, but this gives you an idea of what's involved to replace a T25 with a T25 or T28 turbocharger.

what did u mean by that Kenamond?

 

[spawn87]

oh and how DougR mention ill try to get my hands on the pb blaster and the anti-ziese...but whats this Barryman B-12? is that to clean my engine?...and how do i use it...sorry guys if it sounds like im a major rocky i just want to do things right

and thank you all for the help majorly appreciated.

 

[silver bullit]

If you where closer i would swap them off.
1-7 days at a shop and $500+
OR
less than 100 and a few hours and it could be driven same day.

 

[kenamond]

what did u mean by that Kenamond?

There are other details that someone swapping a turbo would have to know about. That's what I meant. If you search around for turbo swap threads, they'll go into a lot of the details.

Using PB Blaster to get bolts loose is one example.

Replacing the turbo/mani stud/nut with a bolt is another example (stock installation has 3 bolts and one stud+nut). Using 4 bolts instead makes installation and future removal easier. All four bolts are identical.

After the new turbo is in and the car is ready to go, prime the new turbo before starting the motor (pull the blue "ENGINE" fuse from the fuse box under the hood to disable fuel/spark, then crank the motor 10 seconds, wait 30 seconds to let the starter cool, repeat a couple more times, reinstall the fuse, start the motor but don't rev it until the oil pressure gauge reads oil pressure). That gets oil to the turbo journal bearings, as they will be dry after installation.

Then there are some of the places to find parts. ExtremePSI.com and MANY others will carry everything you'd need in the way of nuts, bolts, studs, washers, and gaskets.

Then there are torque specs for various nuts and bolts. Most of these are in the Haynes manual for our cars or can be found by searching.

Using an O2 sensor socket to remove the front O2 sensor from the O2 housing is required; buy one or borrow one from Autozone.

Use anti-seize on the threads of the O2 sensor, nuts and bolts when reinstalling after the turbo swap; that makes future removal easier.

In addition to the gaskets I already mentioned in a previous post, you also will need new gaskets for each end of the oil return tube: one on the turbo end and one on the oil pan end; they are different gaskets, too, and some kits give you two identical gaskets, so beware. I had to use an XActo knife to modify the gasket on the oil pan end so that it would work.

Don't overtorque the oil return tube bolts on the oil pan end; they strip easily resulting in oil leaks.

When removing the O2 housing heat shield (the lower one, not the one bolted to the exhaust manifold), it gets caught on the aluminum pipe running across the front of the block; just man-handle it out and bend it back into shape after you get it off. Some even use tin snips to cut off the part that hooks around the aluminum pipe. Note that the O2 sensor must be removed to get that heat shield all the way off.

When removing the turbo, don't unbolt the oil supply line from the top of the turbo. Rather, find where it joins another line down by the oil filter housing and disconnect it there.

Installation is mostly the reverse of removal.

Drain the antifreeze using the white petcock on the bottom of the radiator. Some people put a hose on the petcock and divert the coolant to a clean container to reuse it...if your coolant is new, that's an option.

That's about all I can think of.