Manifold installed!

[eclipsed at 3am]

Alright, I got the evo3 manifold thursday afternoon. Friday after work, i starting working on installing it. Simple enough job right? Remove manifold-to-turbo housing bolts,remove manifold-to-head nuts, replace manifold, then put all bolts back on. easy right?

the first thing that happened was i completely stripped the inside and outside of the threads of one of the bolts. i tried vice grips, hammers, everything, but i couldnt get that bolt off, and eventually broke a couple a sockets.

saturday i bought an impact socket, then found out that the nut was stripped out along with the bolt, and they were locked together. that means the nut was spinning, but not going anywhere. i took the whole turbo/manifold assembly out of the car, and eventually got the bolt off with a hacksaw. uhoh..now my wastegate is stuck open for some reason. i bend the rod a little bit, and now thats...~ok~ ....tried to put everything back together, and the new bolts i had were too small. replaced gasket and bolts that connect downpipe to rest of exhaust, and bought new j-pipe gaskets. then called it a night

sunday, i get new bolts and nuts from advanced. went to put everything together, and the j-pipe flange was mysteriously and horribly in the way. i couldnt hook the turbo assembly to the manifold, or bolt them together and hook them to the head. also a MAD oil leak develops. cant figure it out, go to bed.

monday, made some good progress. first, i ordered an oil return line and gaskets for both sides. the old line was horribly cracked, and leaking oil. drained oil then took a look at the turbo. i tried loosening the copper clamp around the turbo housing, and find that the turbo housing spins. spun it to the right directions, and found that this was the reason it didnt fit right. somehow the housing twisted while getting the bolt off. also explains why the wastegate was stuck open. accidently stuck a cotter pin halfway in my finger, so i finished for the night.

tuesday, put everything back on. everything bolted up fine. i went to put the new oil return line on, but the holes in the turbo dont line up. need to be cut away a little bit. i clean up and go in the house.

wednesday, today! while i was at work my dad drilled the holes, so im able to bolt it onto the car. poured in new oil, and then cranked it a couple times to try and prime the turbo. then i start her up, and shes purrs niiiiiice. exhaust sounds a lot better too. better throttle response too. i drove around the block and boosted a couple times, the wastegate/bov sound combo is EXOTIC!! the exhaust sounds more from the back now. before i replaced the gaskets and bolts for the downpipe, it was very loose. the bolts were tight, but still moving around A LOT. anyways, i didnt drive too much, because i wanted to make sure no oil was gonna be leaking anywhere. no leaks, nothing wrong. ill see what happens when i drive to work tomorrow.

[AbsoluteGTR]

Dang, what a pain in the ass.

POST SOME PICS

[eclipsed at 3am]

oh yeah, here are the specs for if you want to do your own manifold installation!

time: 5 days.

tools: what do ya got? get em all.

materials: gaskets, bolts, nuts, oil, more bolts, oil return line, bandaides. gojo would help too.

total cost including manifold: $250

note: beware of people that dont like it when you cuss.



advantage of install: you learn a whole new vocabulary all by yourself!

[eclipsed at 3am]

i should have taken some. ill take a pic of my engine with the manifold tomorrow.

[gthompson97]

Sounds like you got it all together right, hopefully it runs good now. Props man.

[blk_srt]

I still think its funny that your turbo isnt threaded. It used to take me ~10 minutes to pull the mani off and put it back on.

[ned032002]

I bet you learned from the mistakes you made and if you ever need to do it again then you know what your doing and that is what really counts.

[eclipsed at 3am]

i sure did, it wasnt brain surgery or anything and it was below medium difficulty, its just that certain things just kept going wrong, it was fighting me the whole way. i did learn to use all heat treated parts though.

its still leaking a few drops of oil. i dont think i drilled the holes of the oil return line enough, and last night i was just so excited to put it on i didnt care. so i dont think it seated very well. i drove to work today and there were a few drips from the line where itbolts into the turbo. im gonna let it cool off and work on it tomorrow night. also i think i need to get it tuned again.

heres some pics...
sorry it was a camera phone
the new manifold:


the old oil return line, super bad crack:



in the picture of the manifold you can kinda see the bent up wastegate rod.

[scottsee]

You need a Jfab heat sheild

[eclipsed at 3am]

where can i get that? and where can i get an oil return line that hooks up to an evo3 turbo? i looked all over ebay, google, sbr, but i cant find just the single return line. the only custom return lines i can find are ones that come with a full turbo kit.