How to remove downpipe?????

[ccb056]

With the Piper 2.5, PCE, Everest chip, and Hi-Spec brakes on their way I've started taking apart the exhaust system on the car.

So far everything from the muffler to the downpipe has been removed.
Turbo, downpipe, and precat heatshields have also been removed.
I managed to torque out 1 stud, but 3 still remain in the turbo, however their nuts have all been removed.

Now.... when looking from above and moving the downpipe to the left, away from the turbo, I can go about an inch before the bottom end of the downpipe hits the AC compressor.... not far enough to clear the studs!


Whats the trick here? Do I have to also remove the AC compressor? Or can I only take out the turbo by taking the entire manifold out?

After I get the downpipe off I was planning on taking the turbo off the manifold and getting it ported.

[muley]

Or can I only take out the turbo by taking the entire manifold out?

When I removed the turbo on my a/c car, I did exactly that - I removed the manifold with the turbo and precat all in one, then split the lot on the bench (well, garage floor to be honest)


It was fairly straightforward, using the correct socket for the manifold studs.. I had to bend the dipstick tube out of the way and it's difficult to get at some of the connections underneath - but not impossible,


Jim

[dapinky]

Having done it a few times, I always take out the manifold/turbo/downpipe as a single assembly.......

.......but I have never had to do it on a car with A/C, so other bits may get in the way.

Here is my Wiki entry on re-building the turbo, the first few paragraphs detail the bits you have encountered / need to encounter, and the rest may or may not be of interest for porting the wastegate.

[ccb056]

Is there enough room to pull the manifold off without removing the studs?

Or do all the studs except the far left one near the PAS pump need to be removed, and the manifold can only come out by sliding to the gearbox?

[Jeemy]

I don't know how helpful it is but there are pics of the removal on my rebuild thread.

I had to remove the studs, and I think common consensus is that there is not enough room to slide the assembly back and off, they have to come out for easy removal.

[HJ2]

Here are some piccies
You'll need an E8 key for the studs (or was it 7?)
And yes, you can slide it out and leave the stud @ the belt-side in position

viewtopic.php?f=79&t=16507&start=40

[ccb056]

HJ:

This is the nut I am having all the trouble with:



Looking at your writeup, your car only had the stud... no nut.

This is the leftmost one, nearly hidden by the PAS pump. I've removed the PAS pump pivot bolt, but the assembly won't budge out of the way

[ccb056]

Jeemy:

I also found in your thread this section:
viewtopic.php?p=272854#p272854

This is exactly where I am now, trying to move this PAS pump

[HJ2]

After the first time I replaced the missing nut, but the manifold went off a couple of times after that, conforming the procedure (loosen the nut but the stud stays).

The pas pum can be sticky, but if you undo the tensioner bolt a couple of windings and remove the nut you can get it a couple of cm's out of the way, just enough to remove the nasty most left nut.
Don't give up now!

[Jeemy]

What I did (this is from memory!) was completely remove the top PAS bolt, I believe this is the tensioner bolt.

Then I loosened the lower bolt, from memory this also has a bit of movement i.e. fits in a slot not a hole, I could be wrong though. This had to be done from under the car.

The PAS pump then flopped forward, pivoting on the lower bolt to give me the access I needed. Its currently just flopped forward and loosely resting on the belt…..

Through all of this I had to invest quite heavily in sockets; I found most of the items needed the initial grip loosened with a 3 foot breaker bar. I also bought a little 15" or so breaker bar and plenty of 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" up- and down- adaptors and various size sockets.

You should be able to loosen the PAS pump lower bolt with a big breaker bar and then undo it a couple of turns with a ratchet spanner or smaller socket to give the pump some movement.

[ccb056]

The exhaust manifold is out!!

I ended up using a long screwdriver to first pry the PAS pump forward, and then to the side. After this I was able to get a socket on the final nut.





Now it's time to disassemble the turbo and get it ported to 20 mm.
Then sending the turbo,manifold, and downpipe to Swain Tech to get ceramic coated.

Thanks for the help guys!

[HJ2]

Hurray!

Do you use the stock downpipe or an aftermarket one?

[ccb056]

I'm going to continue using the OEM downpipe, but with a Piper PCE.
Right now I think the OEM downpipe offers more optimal flow than the Piper aftermarket.

[HJ2]

Good choice for now!
One small correction:

The Piper offers a bigger flow in total, the OEM offers a better intermix between Core and Bypass flow

[ccb056]

The saga continues:

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=21952