turbo replacement tips

[tford]

I just ordered got my GT6152E in the mail. How involved is replacing the turbo? What things need done before I put the new turbo on? ex. cleaning intercooler.
I think the seals in the old turbo were bad, so I probably have some oil in the piping. Any tips are appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Marc87GN]

I just ordered got my GT6152E in the mail. How involved is replacing the turbo? What things need done before I put the new turbo on? ex. cleaning intercooler.
I think the seals in the old turbo were bad, so I probably have some oil in the piping. Any tips are appreciated. Thanks.

Congrats on the new turbo. I hope you like as much as I do. The good thing is removing the turbo is too easy. I came home for lunch one day and had my stock turbo in my hands in 20 minutes.

Anyway, since I like to do things once and the right way the first time, I would thoroughly clean the intercooler, check tubing, get new feed & return lines if they are original and gaskets. If you have some additional dollars, Johns Performance has the braided feed & return lines that are excellent and www.SEturbo.com com has a graphite gasket for the turbo to header flange and downpipe to turbo. At the worse case, I would atleast clean out the old feed and return lines if they are original. I will put up the links. They are reusable and you don't have to fight with the mating surfaces being perfectly flat.

http://www.seturbo.com/cat-buick/catalog2.php?cate_id=71&main_cat=16
http://www.seturbo.com/cat-buick/catalog2.php?cate_id=29&main_cat=9
http://secure.johnsperformance.com/...ia3xB2005412.23529*yU3a6&product=Engine-Parts

Some people say not to use gaskets, but I use the graphite gaskets and Felpro 1400 header gaskets and have done the smoke test with transmission fluid a few times and have zero leaks.

 

[Matt Sando]

go to www.GNTTYPE.org they have a step by step procedure. its in the technical section.

 

[Steve V]

Do you have about 3000 stall convertor?That turbo needs a convertor,but it's good one.

 

[tford]

No converter yet. I'm looking at the Pat's 3200 lock up and B&M supercooler. I can live with the lag for now. I just want to have the feeling of being thrown back in the seat when the boost hits. I'm only going to run around 20 psi if I can without knock. When I get the front mount and/or alky kit, I'll crank it up the 25 psi. Right now I have the stock heads and cam, but that will also change eventually. Thanks for the repies.

 

[2QUIK6]

It's not too bad at all, in just a little over an hour you can have them swapped out if you have done it 3-4 times before A first timer will take you about 3-4 hours, not including IC removal and cleanout. Basically take off intake pipe, remove the cover, remove the J-bracket (it will take you longer to get the bottom bolt off of the J-bracket than to do anything else ) Remove the 2 bolts holding the oil drain, remove the oil feed, remove the IC hose, undo the DP, remove the 3 bolts to the header and your done.
When putting back together, the trouble areas will be getting the oil drain pipe reattached cause the PT61 housing is bigger than the stocker and the oil drain pipe has to twist around the compressor housing, so its a bit tighter, studs in the turbo will help lots for this.
Also, test fit the turbo to make sure the outlet matches up to the IC inlet, if not, loosen the compressor side bolts a little and "Clock" the compressor housing to match to IC inlet.
You may also have a bit of trouble getting the oil feed line back on, seems like on some turbos, the oil feed plate bolts are in the way in order to get a wrench on the nut to tighten the feed line. On a few turbos, I ended up removing the plate bolts and grinding the heads down some to give me enough clearence to get a wrench on the oil feed tube nut. Especially pay attention to how far you screw the 90 degree brass fitting down, because the further you tighten it down, the less clearence you will have.