I start off today with my newly decked/sanded/polished exhaust manifold. I bolt it up to the turbo/downpipe assembly with nice fresh stainless hardware and gaskets, everything is starting off great.
For anyone who doesn't know, this is supposed to be the tail end of my new intercooler piping project that required me to re-clock the turbo. After taking it all apart last week, I realized that I had an exhaust leak at the head, and the exhaust manifold flange had warped a little. Got that fixed, and got the new IC piping all mocked up, so that brings us back to today.
I loctite new studs onto the block, and had an arsenal of new 10.9 bolts/nuts/washers to hook the manifold up. With the manifold flat on the head, the WG bracket to block clearance was way too tight... where the block flares out to hook up to the tranny. Couldn't even fit a single feeler gauge in there. If I spin the turbo to gain clearance, the compressor outlet hits just below it. No bueno. So, I hand file the block with a rasp to gain the clearance that I need, now I have comfortable room for the wg bracket and comp outlet. All is well again.
Bolt the manifold down, and get to work on the piping. Get all the pipes routed perfect and tighten down all the clamps with no problems, o2 sensor gets put on the manifold and tightened down. I line the inside of the cut holes with a silicone hose sliced down it's length, all is good there.
Bolt the downpipe to the midpipe, and put the lower splash guard back on. The pipe doesn't stick down as much as I thought, and this makes me happy.
Oil drain and feed for turbo gets hooked back up, as well as the coolant lines. Radiator goes back in, filled up, overflow bottle back in. All hoses and clamps are re-checked, I think everything is ready to go.
At this point it has long ago gotten dark, it is cold, and the wind is going crazy (30+mph gusts tonight). My lighting setup is less than ideal. I am happy that it is ready to go, but also ready to be done with it all for the day. Fire it up, and there is a definite exhaust leak coming from the bottom right part of the manifold flange where it was leaking before. I was like F*$%!
I Immediately thought that the manifold wasn't sealing up where it was previously leaking. I say screw it for the night, throw all my tools into the garage, slam the door, and hit the shower.
Then comes a lot of cursing, pissed about the prospects of now having to waste my whole Saturday pulling it back apart to fix something. I talk to a few buddies on the phone for awhile venting about it all, and jump on the internet to blow off a little more steam before some people show up for billiards night.
Then it hits me, I DIDN'T HOOK UP THE DAMN EGR! Jesus, I felt like a tard at that point, but it explains everything. Between the wind, darkness, and me being a dumbass, I had totally forgot to tighten that up. Hello bottom right flange area exhaust leak.
So now all is well, the new pipe setup is sick, no more exhaust leaks, richman is a happy camper again. Here is how she looks now:
...
Cliffs: rich works for 6 hours on car, fires up car and there is exhaust leak, rich gets pissed and thinks that manifold still leaks, turns out EGR not hooked up, richman gets pwnt by dumbness.
For anyone who doesn't know, this is supposed to be the tail end of my new intercooler piping project that required me to re-clock the turbo. After taking it all apart last week, I realized that I had an exhaust leak at the head, and the exhaust manifold flange had warped a little. Got that fixed, and got the new IC piping all mocked up, so that brings us back to today.
I loctite new studs onto the block, and had an arsenal of new 10.9 bolts/nuts/washers to hook the manifold up. With the manifold flat on the head, the WG bracket to block clearance was way too tight... where the block flares out to hook up to the tranny. Couldn't even fit a single feeler gauge in there. If I spin the turbo to gain clearance, the compressor outlet hits just below it. No bueno. So, I hand file the block with a rasp to gain the clearance that I need, now I have comfortable room for the wg bracket and comp outlet. All is well again.
Bolt the manifold down, and get to work on the piping. Get all the pipes routed perfect and tighten down all the clamps with no problems, o2 sensor gets put on the manifold and tightened down. I line the inside of the cut holes with a silicone hose sliced down it's length, all is good there.
Bolt the downpipe to the midpipe, and put the lower splash guard back on. The pipe doesn't stick down as much as I thought, and this makes me happy.
Oil drain and feed for turbo gets hooked back up, as well as the coolant lines. Radiator goes back in, filled up, overflow bottle back in. All hoses and clamps are re-checked, I think everything is ready to go.
At this point it has long ago gotten dark, it is cold, and the wind is going crazy (30+mph gusts tonight). My lighting setup is less than ideal. I am happy that it is ready to go, but also ready to be done with it all for the day. Fire it up, and there is a definite exhaust leak coming from the bottom right part of the manifold flange where it was leaking before. I was like F*$%!
I Immediately thought that the manifold wasn't sealing up where it was previously leaking. I say screw it for the night, throw all my tools into the garage, slam the door, and hit the shower.
Then comes a lot of cursing, pissed about the prospects of now having to waste my whole Saturday pulling it back apart to fix something. I talk to a few buddies on the phone for awhile venting about it all, and jump on the internet to blow off a little more steam before some people show up for billiards night.
Then it hits me, I DIDN'T HOOK UP THE DAMN EGR! Jesus, I felt like a tard at that point, but it explains everything. Between the wind, darkness, and me being a dumbass, I had totally forgot to tighten that up. Hello bottom right flange area exhaust leak.
So now all is well, the new pipe setup is sick, no more exhaust leaks, richman is a happy camper again. Here is how she looks now:
...
Cliffs: rich works for 6 hours on car, fires up car and there is exhaust leak, rich gets pissed and thinks that manifold still leaks, turns out EGR not hooked up, richman gets pwnt by dumbness.
