Do you have loose Nuts !

[Bry]

Fitted my Blitz front pipe and de-cat last week,after fitting it I started it up and listened for any Blowing,all sounded good so drove round the block, got back and checked again only this time could hear blowing coming from the turbo area After a good nose around I could see it was coming from the turbo elbow/turbo flange and the reason it was blowing was, out of a total of 3 bolts and 2 nuts that should have been on the flange I had 2 bolts (one of which was finger tight) and no nuts . I can only assume that they were already missing and with me bashing and moving the elbow about whilst fitting the down pipe I must have dislodged the elbow so that it started to blow.The amazing thing is that it wasn't blowing with the stock downpipe and half the nuts/bolts missing,also I only drove the car 2 mins down the road with the Blitz pipe on before finding all the missing nuts/bolts so they must have already been missing!
I replaced the nuts and bolts only to find 50 miles later one bolt was literally hanging out and two others were loose . Not one to be beaten I've now fitted all new bolts with spring washers and replaced the nuts with special locking nuts and will be fitting my new uprated engine mounts on saturday as I noticed how much the engine moves when being revved which is why I suspect I have Loose Nuts So check your nuts ladies and gents
One other thing I'll be doing is dropping out the syn 5 gearbox oil I recently treated my gearbox to as it made my gear changes go from lovely and smooth to stiff and notchy,not best pleased with that :annoyed:

 

[gunner93]

I have a 3" custom down pipe and I fixed a flex-pipe to dampened the vibes as well as occational scrapping over the humps. Perhaps this may help...

 

[Nicely]

People have warned about Syn 5... Its crap.

Those nuts are absolute b@stards for coming lose, well as getting to them. The turbo to elbow nut closest the gearbox is a total biatch if you fit a full 3 inch elbow, as there is no room for a socket and no room for a spanner. And getting to the front pipe bolts after an SS one is fitted... If you take the turbo off, you need to make sure you use a locking plate on the turbo to mani nuts, as that the only thing which will keep them on. Check the mani to block nuts regularly too...

 

[kieran]

ive almost become an epert in removin the turbo lol, everytime the manifold nuts nearest the bulk head is loose, and generally, the turbo to maniflold gasket compresses causing it to feel loose, its not that the bolts come loose, the only real ways to stop it imo is to fit stronger engine mounts and or flexi joint, but as bry said the standard items have a lot of movement!

usually though you wont hear a blow fromthe turbo to mani gasket until its falling apart!

 

[Topper]

Just looked to see what gearbox oil went into my car -

I was recomended by castrol to use there syntrax universal for both the gearbox and the diff

Is that the same stuff you guys are on about?

 

[Bry]

Just looked to see what gearbox oil went into my car -



Is that the same stuff you guys are on about?

No,the crap I used was Silkolene syn 5,it's coming out tomorrow though thank god

 

[j@garagemac]

when fitting your down pipe did you refit the brace to the back of the down pipe to the back of the gear box ????

 

[Nicely]

That's not always possible. The standard bracket won't go over a 3 inch pipe, and if you got a replacement, these can often be out of alignment due to a slightly different sized turbo elbow. I had this happen after I fitted my recent replacement elbow. As you suggest, its a good idea to have one fitted.

 

[Bry]

The Bliz pipe I used comes with a bracket already attatched to the pipe, which bolted up to the gearbox perfectly.Decided against fitting the uprated engine mounts for now as the only way I can see to fit them is to either drop the subframe or remove the turbo and inlet manifold which I don't fancy doing just yet I'll go for plan B,fit an engine damper,now where can I get one of those ? Coincedently the spring washers and special locking nuts seem to be doing their job as the nuts/bolts have not come loose yet and that's after my 200 mile round trip to Silverstone,so fingers crossed with the help of the damper no more loose nuts

 

[j@garagemac]

cool i had a 14 and a 15 get terriable vibrations after fitting performance down pipes causing all sorts of bolts coming loose refitted the brace and it went away

STRESS!!!! i didnt fit them they came to me to sort it out .

kind regards j@wrc

 

[Nicely]

Thanks for the tip. Think I'll try the spring washers

 

[Bry]

Thanks for the tip. Think I'll try the spring washers

I have some of the special locking nuts left over aswell,so if you need a couple I'll post them to you if you like ?

 

[Nicely]

That would be great. Which of yours are bolts? All of the turbo to elbow connections should be double ended pins which bolt into the turbo, then the nuts go on the end when the elbow is in place...

 

[gunner93]

I had a bad experience with an unbranded SS elbow 2 weeks back. Not only have I wasted 3 man hours, the 5 hole elbow flange just couldnt sit flat against the turbo flange despite widening the bolt holes. To top it off, the elbow touched the gear box. :furious:

 

[Nicely]

The Trust style 3 inch elbow has to be 'tweaked' to fit. You have to cut about three threads off the bottom middle pin and...erm...reshape the elbow so that it clears the gearbox... And, yes, apparently its designed so that you need to do that. I say b0ll0cks. Maybe to cut the pin, but not to clear the gearbox...

 

[gunner93]

Yeah... problems such as hairline cracks, bolt holes incompatibility, irregular shape that gets in the way of the gear box... seems to me this part involves precision engineering and should undergo stress test to which I believe branded aftermarket elbows such as HKS, Apexi, Trust & Tomei should be recommended instead of the unbranded ones IMHO. :nod:

 

[Nicely]

I had absolutely no issues with my original unbranded elbow with regards to clearance, fitting (and pushing the front pipe bracket too far back). The fact that it cracked is just something you have to live with, and could have happened just as easily if it was one of the branded elbows.

 

[gunner93]

This time I got the Tomei Expreme elbow and planning to get it installed this Saturday.

http://gunner93.multiply.com/photos/photo/20/51

Oh well... I would have to keep the stock cast iron elbow "just in case" then... wish me luck!

 

[Nicely]

Its a shame you can't get cast iron performance replacements...

 

[Bry]

my stock elbow has two studs and three bolt holes so I used three bolts with spring washers and two special locking nuts