stripped turbo bolt holes!

[1fast97gsx]

I managed to totally fubar up my 4 bolt holes where the turbo bolts to the exhaust manifold. The easiest fix I see would be to just get new bolts that are about 1/2" longer or so and put a nut on the other side. ( yes there is room to fit a nut ) The only concern I had was the heat loosening the bolts and me loosing mr. turbo. :thumbdown ... however the nice thing is I would never have to worry about this again. If it happens again just replace the nut and bolt for $4 but not have to worry about drilling or tapping anything. Thoughts / opinions would be highly appreciated.

 

[blcknspo0ln]

i dont think that's a good idea, something about that whole idea kinda makes me go

IMO just go to a local machinist with the turbine housing [ i'm sure you know that it's only held on by that 10mm clamp ] and get it drilled/retapped. shouldn't cost more than 40 bucks and for that amount of money it's well worth the peace of mind

look on the bright side, at least you didn't break 3 bolts into the housing itself.

 

[gsxboostin]

I had that problem once, I broke off 3 of them flush in the turbine housing. Costed $30 for drilling them out and getting tapped. Easy fix for the machinist. haha -Matt

 

[sweet97]

Samr here. Machiist, drill-tap same size bolt thread. I use a little anti sieze now. Mark

 

[gsxboostin]

thats exactly what I started doing.

 

[blcknspo0ln]

I use a little anti sieze now.

a little?! try alot.

 

[psychlow]

I don't see any problems with using bolts and nuts, personally. I would make sure you use at least grade 8 hardware.

Also, you need to make sure that the bolts are flush with the bottom of the turbine housing flange. If they hit it at an angle, don't do it and get the bolt holes fixed and retapped. If they hit at an angle, you'll be putting an uneven load on the bolt and stressing the turbine flange.

 

[Agent11br]

you are going to need more than grade 8, have you ever seen the stock mani/turbo bolts? those badboys made by whoever mitsu outsourced for are WAY harder then grade 8's. I would think 8's would almost come close to melting / heatwelding themselves in there. But maybe I'm wrong.

I would personally get it drilled out and retapped and go buy 4 new mani bolts so you can also skip the stud.

 

[blcknspo0ln]

I would personally get it drilled out and retapped and go buy 4 new mani bolts so you can also skip the stud.

agreed. besides, grade 8 is the sh*t you buy at home depot.. i believe our turbo bolts are 10+

 

[EVIL X]

go buy the new manifold to turbo bolts that ffwd has VERY nice piece

 

[Jehu]

Grade 8 are structural bolts and not normally available at home depot. You are however talking about the METRIC designation, i.e. grade 8.8 and 10.9 which is equivalent to a grade 5 and grade 8 bolt, respectively.

About using a nut...it's not a big deal, IF IT FITS. The last time I checked the are there wasn't exactly flat. I wouldn't use a nut there if there isn't a flat load surface. As for trying to retap the housing...if it's an EVO16G housing, I should warn you that you'll probably have a VERY hard time with it. The housing material tends to work harden and break taps, even at a machine shop. It also tends to gall turbo bolts, even with anti seize! I managed to clean up my threads enough to remount the turbo...I'm not touching it again!

 

[psychlow]

agreed. besides, grade 8 is the sh*t you buy at home depot.. i believe our turbo bolts are 10+

Hence why I said at least. With the way he wanted to do it, though, he would never have to worry about it breaking and the turbo being stuck. If it broke, you could still get the turbo off.

 

[blcknspo0ln]

well either way, using a nut/bolt is just going to be a temp fix. and i just thought about it and you and jehu are right. if you try the nut/bolt on the turbine housing [ having the bolt face up OR down ] it's not going to be a flat load onto the turbine housing.. which wouldn't be too smart

 

[MNGSX]

It's called helicoil.. Get the full kit for the thread size with the drill and tip inclufed. If you follow the directions it will work fine... Do a few and it's fn easy.

 

[gsxboostin]

yeah the machinist did helicoils on my stuff, they work great, and I watched him do them, easy as hell.

 

[yugotdonkey]

I used easy out for other smaller bolts before, and I also have one of the mani to turbo studs broken off in my turbo. Will an easy out work for these?

 

[gsxboostin]

most of the time it will work for them, but somtimes they get binded up so bad that they need to be drilled out (like mine were).

 

[gsxtacy]

4 New bolts, Machine 4 broken/stripped bolt holes, turbo to manifold gasket.

Use lots of Anti-seize from now on.

Cost me $40 to get 2 broken bolts "milled" out. I tried for 4 hours to drill out the bolts. After (3) Cryo-treated bits shattered, I gave up. $15 a bit is a stupid waste on these bolts.
Had the holes heli-coiled, never had another problem.

good luck man.

gsxtacy

 

[12sec92Tsi]

I had the same thing happen when i put on my 2g manifold, the bolt would not come out so i used wd40 and slowly got it out then realized the hole into the turbine housing was stripped to hell. my friend who works at a gas station had access to a tap and die set so we just got that and i had it retapped in like 15 min.

 

[1fast97gsx]

I had the same thing happen when i put on my 2g manifold, the bolt would not come out so i used wd40 and slowly got it out then realized the hole into the turbine housing was stripped to hell. my friend who works at a gas station had access to a tap and die set so we just got that and i had it retapped in like 15 min.

I probably should have mentioned this when I started the post ... I had this problem before with 2 of the bolts. ( don't ask my car is apart all the time ) Well I drilled those out and retapped the turbine housing to a larger size and went to ace and got some grade 8 bolts. IT worked fine but now the problem is I stripped those out as well. If I drill them out and retap them to a larger size the the size the bolt will need to be will be larger than the 4 holes in the exhaust manifold and I don't really want to mess with drilling those out. That's why I just wanted to do the nut/ bolt idea. I noticed a lot of the real T3 or T4 style setups use nuts and bolts so I figured it'd be ok for me to do just that ... and I think things would come apart easier in the future that way. I guess I'm really asking if mr. turbo will fall off or if I can get away with doing it like this as long as locking washers are used?

 

[blcknspo0ln]

I guess we can all agree that it can work. but if i were you i'd check the bolts often.

 

[eclipsefwd]

Just a word of advice on FP 30 series turbos. They are stainless and apparently normal anti seize doesn't work too well. I had 3 of my bolts get stuck and actually break off. I called up FP and they told me to use 4 brand new OEM bolts and two 2g conical crush washers per bolt along with COPPER based anti seize. So to avoid problems just do what FP recomends on all turbos.

 

[boostcreep]

I've broken off 1 of the 4 bolts, and the other 3 are not looking to great. I have a couple of question and need some help to get back on track:

1. Some of you mentioned WD40, but I've been hearing about PB Blaster (never heard of it). Is it better than WD-40?

2. I pretty sure the bolts is in the turbo not the manifold. I've never removed the housing, and frankly it scares the F n daylights out of me to remove the damn thing from the turbo. little help there please....

3. Does anyone sell an upgraded version of the 4 bolts on the aftermarket? If I can avoid the situation again I really want to avoid this problem in the future.

Thanks for reading and your input....

 

[sweet97]

I've broken off 1 of the 4 bolts, and the other 3 are not looking to great. I have a couple of question and need some help to get back on track:

1. Some of you mentioned WD40, but I've been hearing about PB Blaster (never heard of it). Is it better than WD-40?

2. I pretty sure the bolts is in the turbo not the manifold. I've never removed the housing, and frankly it scares the F n daylights out of me to remove the damn thing from the turbo. little help there please....

3. Does anyone sell an upgraded version of the 4 bolts on the aftermarket? If I can avoid the situation again I really want to avoid this problem in the future.

Thanks for reading and your input....

PB Blaster is god but how could it be tested against WD-40? If you can't find PB then use the WD. The bolt has to break i the turbo as the manifold is not threaded. I replaced my bolts with bolts from a local fastener store. Use some anti sieze and lock washers so you will no have to crank down so hard on them. Even if you break all 4 just take it to a machine sho and have them remove what's broken and retap the threads for you.
I had 1 break on me, no biggie. Mark

 

[psychlow]

PB blaster is infinitely superior to WD-40.

If a bolt is stuck, spray it with PB blaster about 5 or 6 times in hour intervals. Even better - if the car still runs, run the car until the exhaust manifold gets hot in between spraying - then let it cool off and respray.

I haven't ever had a problem with stripped threads or broken bolts on two seperate 1G's with the above method as of yet.