Somebody help me PLEASE!!!!

[NO 5 OH]

After owning a stock SVO for a year or so now, I decided it was time to start modifying it and make it run to it's true potential. I haven't gotten a lot for the car in terms of bolt ons yet, but one of the the things I bought was a log style header from Bob Lee. Today one of my friends and I started working on the car to get rid of the stock manifold, and put the header on. There were other things we were going to do to my car, but getting the header on was first on the agenda.

The problem we ran into was getting the old E4 casting and turbo still attached off the engine. We figured the easy way to get the turbo off was to bring the whole assembly off the engine at the same time. The EGR didn't want to come loose from 16 years of rust and weather, so we disconnected the lines for the EGR on the opposite side of the block. We've disconnected everything holding it down, but it still won't come free. We discovered the problem area lies with the flexible metal line that serves as the oil return for the turbo. It's been disconnected from the turbo, but we can't seem to get it through the brace on the underside of the turbo.

Does anybody know how to get the turbo and manifold off at one time, or will it have to be done seperately? Where does the oil return line run into the block at and is it feasable to seperate the oil return line from the block? Lastly, the header came with new grade 8 bolts... but the intercooler mounting brackets were mounted up to three special manifold bolts with studs on the end of them. The bolts are more or less too short for the new header, so is it safe to run the stock intercooler with no mounting brackets and just the hose clamps? Does the turbo coupe intercooler (which I have to go on my car) have any brackets to mount it, or is it a free floating intercooler held on with just heavy duty intercooler hoses? I'm sorry for such a long post and so many questions... but I need help!!!

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

[SVOeric]

that brace may be your problem.

Back when I replaced my manafold, with the engine still in the car, I pulled the manafold off the car, with the turbo attached...

the Y brace under the turbo has one (i think) bolt that bolts into the block.

the oil line attaches to the block directly in the center of that Y brace. It has a brass fitting that screws into the block to chang the angle, and then the flexible tube connects to that.

the only other things i can think of are
make sure the exhaust is disconnected
make sure the oil and coolant likes are disconnected (not all turbos have coolant lines)

on the intercooler, lots of people run them without the brackets. The brackets are known to rattle, & set off the knock sensor.
I run my intercooler without the brackets, and just a strong set of hoses, with good clamps on them. The Turbocoupe hoses are known to be stronger. I dont believe the turbocoupe had mounting brackets for the intercooler either, but I'm not positive on that.

[NO 5 OH]

Originally posted by SVOeric
the Y brace under the turbo has one (i think) bolt that bolts into the block.

the oil line attaches to the block directly in the center of that Y brace. It has a brass fitting that screws into the block to chang the angle, and then the flexible tube connects to that.

the only other things i can think of are
make sure the exhaust is disconnected
make sure the oil and coolant likes are disconnected (not all turbos have coolant lines)

We pulled all the bolts out of the Y brace (and all the bolts in everything else it seems like) I think... I'll double check just to make sure. The thing that 's holding us up mainly is the metal flexible oil return line to the turbo. We disconnected it from under the turbo, but we can't seem to get the turbo, manifold et all to slide off the return line. I was wondering if it's possible to take out the return line from the block as that would make things much easier.

We disconnected the exhaust at the elbow where the O2 sensor is... I figured this would be the best way to disconnect the exhaust. We've got all the lines off the turbo and practically everything else... so technically it should come out. Our main problem is with all the rust that's on the manifold and the EGR, as this doesn't want to turn loose of the stock E4 casting. We've disconnected the EGR from the other side of the block so all the lines should come out with it.

I appreciate your help Eric. I hope anybody else with some ideas will chime on it

[izzy]

ok, i replaced my E3 awhile back ago on my 85 (no coolant lines) to the newer E6 and i too ran into many problems. Just to let you know on what i did (that i can remember) was:

1.disconnect the down pipe from turbo held on by 2 long bolts.
2.disconnect upper oil inlet line
3.disconnect the EGR line using WD-40 or some type of penetrating oil to loosen and a really good wrench, IT HAS TO COME OFF SOMEHOW, maybe the other side of this line is causing you problem, might be hitting something.
4.disconnect lower oil return line (the big metal one, this one was really tricky because after those tiny bolts came out, the line did not want to unstick, just pull on it just a big and you'll have to fold that line towards the engine block to make room for the manifold/turbo to come out from above)
5.There are i believe 2 bolts that hold that brace to the engine and a third on the turbo, only the 2 on the engine are necessary to be removed. If i can remember correctly, i think i also had to disconnect the engine "shock absorber" thingy that is a little tricky to put back on, you have to have steady hands and lots of patience to find the hole and putting pressure on it when re-installing.

(ITS EASIER TO DO STEPS 4-5 FROM UNDERNEATH THE CAR)

One question though, does the whole unit seem like it wants to come out, i mean does it move and stuff and it seems like its still stuck to something or is it just stiff there? Dumb question but you did remove all the manifold bolts right? Sometimes rust will cause the manifold and dinky metal gasket to bond itself to the motor, again WD-40<---- not sure if thats ok with everybody else but it worked for me!

If all seems to be confusing, just get underneath the car with a flashlight and look at everything in that location, all the brackets and bolts. It took me a while before i figured out how to remove it.


I hope this helped out and hope i didn't write too much.

[izzy]

One thing i forgot to mention that Eric did, the metal oil return line goes through in between that "y brace" and since that line has that long metal spring around it, it likes to stick to the brace and get caught when trying to remove. That is why i say to push the line carefully towards the engine, through the brace as you are removing the unit out.

Trust me man, just stare at everything from underneath the car with a big light and trace all things floating around in there. Of course, use a jackstand please.

[SVOeric]

oh yea.. one other thing that just came to mind. There are 2 braces that run from the AC compressor. one on top, and one underneath. Make sure you have both of them off...the bottom one is kinda hard to see

[NO 5 OH]

Update!

Just to let all of you know how it's coming...

We FINALLY got the turbo and stock manifold off the car awhile ago... and after dinner we'll be taking the turbo off the stock E4 and bolting it up to the new header. We had to take quite a few lines loose to get the EGR tubing around the head, but hopefully everything will go back together faster than what it came apart

I do hope after all the trouble it's been to get this thing apart it will run somewhat better than what it did before. My friend that's helping me work on it said I should see a noticeable increase in power, even running stock boost levels through the stock BCS. My new boost controller won't be in until the middle of next week

I'll let you know again when we finish up... hopefully later this evening

[vrinner]

I'm really interested in how you get it all back together. I recently got mine taken apart and am still waiting for the turbo support bracket to come in before I start to put it all back together. It made it really easy to get the turbo and manifold off in one piece with the support bracket broken. I'm just not sure on how I get it all back together.

I did take lots of pictures before hand to make sure I get all the hoses and wires back in the right place.

If I start to put mine back together and run into problems or find any tricks, I'll be sure to post them.

Good luck!

[NO 5 OH]

All back together

We finally finished up early this morning... after working on it for the whole day. We started at 10 am yesterday morning, and finally at 1 am Saturday morning we had it all back together. Here's what we found out along the way.

Bob's header that he makes and sells is a quality piece. It bolts right up without having to modify anything at all to the car, whether it be wastegate shield, AC lines, EGR or anything else. It's port work and smoothness on the inside of the header make a huge difference in airflow over the stock casting. I can't say that about a ported E6, as I've never saw one off a car.

We had to take so many lines off the car in order to get the whole EGR assembly off, as it wouldn't come off the stock manifold due to years of heat and rust. We had problems getting the EGR to thread back up to the new header, as it didn't want to start threading Getting the oil return line to bolt back up isn't the easiest thing to do either as it has to go in between the turbo bracket on the bottom. We got it to bolt up to the brass fitting on the block rather easy, but getting it bent back into place and putting the bolts back in was a different story.

We got it started today and it makes a notable difference on a stock car. It runs better, and it now will actually bark 3rd gear, whereas it wouldn't do that before. To be honest, when I bought the car it barely would squawk second gear, and that was driving it like ya stole it I'll know how much better the header is when I get my boost controller for it next weekend, as well as a new intercooler

[vrinner]

So did you have the turbo bolted to the manifold before installing?

What about the support bracket? Did you first attach it to the block or the turbo or do it all after the turbo was in?

Thanks!

[NO 5 OH]

Originally posted by vrinner
So did you have the turbo bolted to the manifold before installing?

What about the support bracket? Did you first attach it to the block or the turbo or do it all after the turbo was in?

Thanks!

We bolted the turbo up to the header before putting everything back in to place, along with the support bracket. It goes on the two bottom mounting studs of the header/turbo. When you get it in place, be sure to hook up the oil return line to the block before you start bolting up the turbo/manifold into place. You'll need a 7/8" open end wrench to tighten it to the brass nipple on the block.