Turbo removal

and bumper, lights, grille, radiator, intercooler, bonnet, hoses, etc. etc!

This Evo1 was performing poorly, back from a trip to Italy the car was down on power, and seemed to be smoking a bit.

I knew the motor was all good, so that left the turbo.

This turbo had been rebuilt not too long ago, but I suspected it had developed a problem, here's how it went.

Order some new exhaust system gaskets, a new oil filter would be good too, it'll be easy to access

To remove the front bumper first disconnect the winkers and spotlights, label them if you like, I've gone out with winking spotlights on my 16v before now.

Lever out the small grilles to access the bumper bolts, 16vs are behind the winker blanks. Undo these two big bolts, support the bumper as you remove the last bolt, then give the bumper a good pull towards you, it will pull off the slide on side mountings.

Bring the reinforcing frame off with the bumper, and catch the two rubber donuts.

Put all carefully aside.

Next remove the grille, there are three self tappers on top, so open the hood and undo them. The rubber draught excluder might be obstructing the screws, just push it out of the way, you can glue it back later if it comes off.

Close the hood again and gently pull the grille forwards at the bottom corners, be careful, the clips are on a plastic stalk which can easily break.

I had jacked the car up and removed the wheels for better access, this is helpful to reach under the bumper,

but not essential.

You can now see the bottom radiator hose, loosen the clip and drain the water into a clean washing up bowl.

Undo the two radiator top mounting bolts, the rad sits on rubber mountings down below. Undo the top hose clip and pull the rad forward to access the turbo cooling hose clip, slacken it, disconnect the rad fan wires, ease the pipes off and pull the radiator out.

Undo the accessible turbo oil and water feeds and remove them, then undo the exhaust pipe lower support bracket and undo the four bolts securing the exhaust pipe to the turbo body. Give these some WD40, they'll be tight.

Now remove the oil cooler from the radiator, 10mm bolts hold this on, there's a little bolted clip on the lower metal pipe which is easy to miss. Don't disconnect the pipes from the filter housing, just leave the cooler resting at the front of the car.

Then take the air hoses off the intercooler and remove the plastic air duct surround, undo the top bolt and squeeze the intercooler up and out, watch the little rubber mounting rings don't roll away.

You'll see the four bonnet hinge bolts on the car's front frame, undo these, you can slacken them from inside with the bonnet propped up, then undo them from the front with the bonnet down again. Removing these bolts means you can remove and replace the bonnet on your own, if you've got help, the inside bonnet fastening hinge bolts can be removed if you prefer.

Unlatch the closed hood, and lift away, place carefully on a padded surface to avoid paint damage.

Here I'm draining the radiator before removing the intercooler, it was just to save time!

Gently pull the rad from

under its fitting brackets

Remove the air feed hoses, and the tin can at the turbo inlet, this is also bolted to the gearbox. Undo the bolt in the turbo central support bracket, and slacken the clips on the two lower rubber oil return pipes. And anything else I've forgotten!

Now the turbo itself is not connected to the engine.

Next remove the exhaust manifold. This is tricky, the stud at the far right can't be completely removed until all the others are removed and the manifold pulled out a bit. Some studs may come out, some nuts might undo, some can be accessed with a 13mm socket from the front, some need a spanner from above, you'll see when you're in there.

When all is free, pull the turbo up and out, slide away from the lower rubber hose and place the turbo on the ground, be careful, that's a heavy assembly.

The turbo is now at your mercy, so you can put your foot on it and remove the manifold connecting bolts, these will be tight too.

Now have a cup of tea, put the turbo in your everyday car, and take it to a specialist for attention.

Or...take it to your bench!

I chose life, I chose bench!

Optimistically, I decide the turbo was now ok, so went ahead and refitted the item, and its many other parts

I stripped the turbo, but I could see no obvious defects. There was no slack in the shaft, and the shaft turned smoothly, there was no dirt on, or damage to the blades, and the wastegate was free moving with the linkage adjusted correctly. The bolts holding the turbo body to the exhaust duct were loose however, the threads turned out to be stripped in the iron casting. So I tapped the holes out a size bigger, and used six bigger bolts to suit. I did it all up again.

The turbo can be rotated against the exhaust duct at any angle, to suit different applications, I marked where mine lined up, but rubbed the chalk line off, so I had to assemble the unit then fit it to the car and rotate it to suit, then take it back to the bench for tightening up. Another lesson learned!

You probably will have to remove things again to fit other things behind them, that's ok. But it's most important to locate the turbo into the oil return hose before doing up the manifold, it won't fit afterwards.

Reassembly is of course the reverse of above, the sequence will be, fit exhaust manifold and top rear water pipe onto turbo on the bench, with the dump valve link adjusted tight. Take it over to the car, lower the turbo into the 90o rubber oil pipe already fitted to the engine. Then manifold to engine, put the right hand end nut or stud in place while the manifold is still loose. Fit downpipe to exhaust, fit exhaust support bracket, centre turbo support bracket, turbo oil feed pipe, turbo to rad water pipe, fit radiator and water pipes, fill with anti freeze mixture and check for leaks. Fit intercooler and pipework, fit oil cooler to radiator, fit bonnet, then grille, then fit the bumper.

On the turbo and exhaust pipe, don't tighten any bolt until all the bolts are in place, the tension between all the fittings can make it difficult to pick up a thread if it's a bit out of line. So get all the nuts and bolts started, then go around and tighten them all up.

This looks like poo, if you forget to fit it first, that's what you'll call it!

If you took the front bonnet hinge bolts out, refit them and the hood before replacing the radiator grille, the grille obscures these hinge bolts.

The bumper is last to refit, put the donuts on the mountings, get the fixing bolts and your socket wrench near at hand. Carefully lift the bumper and slide one end onto its side mounting, keep supporting the bumper and locate the other far end, lift the bumper into line and push towards the car, it should slide into place. With one hand holding the bumper up, insert a bolt and turn it in by hand, you can relax a bit now. Insert the second bolt, check the bumper alignment then tighten the bolts up, insert the little grilles or 16v winker blanks. Then reconnect the lights, and all is done.

This picture with the fender removed shows the location of the front bumper side mounting point, it's quite far back towards the front wheel. When fitting the bumper, you can see them both if you stretch a bit!

But a lot will be done by feel.

The bumper side mounts are a neat solution, a square slide on a round mount would seem unusual, but it works well. The round mount is adjustable with its central bolt, it can be loosened off to fit a tight bumper, then tightened from the wheelarch.

Just a few of points to mention, do order the required gaskets before you start this job, an exhaust manifold gasket, exhaust down pipe gasket, and turbo water and oil feed gaskets and o rings. A new turbo oil return rubber pipe is worth fitting too, also check all pipe clips.

I would change the oil filter while it's easy to access, and have a good look at the front of the engine bay, if there are any corrosion issues that need attention.

Make sure the engine earth, or grounding, strap is in good condition.

You'll probably have to clean the exhaust manifold gasket surface on the cylinder head, so do stuff a clean rag down the exhaust ports when you're doing this to avoid debris going in. If you leave it for a while, stick some duct tape over the holes

You've removed a lot of items to access the turbo, so make it worth your time and do some other jobs while your in there!

Jump in, let's go for a ride!

This Evo is a good solid car, and with the work done here it runs as good as it looks again. As lectured before, I use synthetic oil in our Deltas to preserve the turbo bearings.