Manifold and elbow fitting

[lewis]

Hi everyone, i'm hoping that some of you will be able to help me plan properly with fitting my manifold and turbo elbow. Basically I'm going to be fitting them when the elbow arrives, hopefully in the next few weeks and I want to make sure I can kind of do everything at once and make sure I have spares incase something goes wrong.
I have already ordered:
Braided turbo lines, banjo bolts and washers for that
Turbo to elbow gasket
Elbow, comes with gasket to front pipe and studs/nuts
Manifold comes with manifold to head gasket and studs to go to turbo, turbo to manifold gasket
Copper plated bolts for turbo elbow and locking ones for manifold. Cant seem to find the three bolts to go into turbo from elbow?
Spare studs for exhaust housing and manifold
Nuts for the studs from head to manifold.

I'm sure that's everything I've ordered, but can anyone think of anything that I have forgotten or should do whilst the turbo and manifold is off?

Other question is what do people think of wrapping the elbow/downpipe as well as possibly the front pipe just to help control some of the heat.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[sniffy]

use Nissan oem manifold to head gasket and turbo to manifold gasket usually the ones that come with them dont last pissing time. Everyone only use the Nissan gaskets as they are the best really.

if the gasket you have for the turbo to elbow isnt nissan id recommend using a nissan one there as well

 

[Saxon]

Sorry to hijack your thread, but sometime soon (hopefully) I’ll be changing out the turbo elbow - it’s still the OEM one on there and as far as I know it’s never been removed. Any advice or tips for getting it off, or things to watch out for?

 

[lewis]

use Nissan oem manifold to head gasket and turbo to manifold gasket usually the ones that come with them dont last pissing time. Everyone only use the Nissan gaskets as they are the best really.

if the gasket you have for the turbo to elbow isnt nissan id recommend using a nissan one there as well

Thankfully Tomei supply genuine Nissan gaskets for both mani to head and to turbo. Also the other one Ive ordered for the elbow is Nissan. Ive heard of people putting like a high temp gasket sealer or like permitted or something similar to help seal the gaskets can anyone confirm this is a bad or good idea?

 

[lewis]

Sorry to hijack your thread, but sometime soon (hopefully) I’ll be changing out the turbo elbow - it’s still the OEM one on there and as far as I know it’s never been removed. Any advice or tips for getting it off, or things to watch out for?

from what I've seen lots of penetrating oil and heat if necessary... oh and a big breaker bar

 

[Saxon]

from what I've seen lots of penetrating oil and heat if necessary... oh and a big breaker bar

Ah can’t wait... I want to do it without removing the turbo as well..

 

[lewis]

Ah can’t wait... I want to do it without removing the turbo as well..

Do you have a decent lift to use? If not honestly you'll struggle as you need room to fit sockets and extensions on to break those bolts and nuts loose, it can be done but with a lot of headache.

 

[Saxon]

Do you have a decent lift to use? If not honestly you'll struggle as you need room to fit sockets and extensions on to break those bolts and nuts loose, it can be done but with a lot of headache.

No I don’t.. I’m a driveway mechanic haha. Maybe I’ll just suck it and get Horsham Developments to stick it on for me. It’s an elbow and downpipe in one which will only make it harder. I think the cost for them to do it will be better than the aggro it will cause me trying to do it. They’re about 2 miles from me anyway and I’m booked in for an alignment next week so I’ll see what they say.

I don’t have an expansive tool set either to be honest. Anything that can’t be done with a basic socket set or some spanners and a can of WD-40 I’m kind of stuffed

 

[JDM_virgin]

If you’ve got a Halfords set and some axle stands then it can be done easy. I did mine with no ramp. Top 3 bolts can be got at from the top and the bottom two from underneath. Don’t need to remove the turbo can all be done in situ. As it goes I’m doing mine again soon as I want to heat wrap the elbow and downpipe.

Save your pennies and spanner it yourself

 

[Saxon]

If you’ve got a Halfords set and some axle stands then it can be done easy. I did mine with no ramp. Top 3 bolts can be got at from the top and the bottom two from underneath. Don’t need to remove the turbo can all be done in situ. As it goes I’m doing mine again soon as I want to heat wrap the elbow and downpipe.

Save your pennies and spanner it yourself

You need to take the manifold heat shield off right? I breathed on one and it snapped immediately.

 

[lewis]

Save your pennies and spanner it yourself

Got a good point there! That's what I usually do but if you don't have a secondary car or something and you mess up it can be a right pain.

 

[Shifty1303]

from what I've seen lots of penetrating oil and heat if necessary... oh and a big breaker bar

^this. can confirm this is a right pain to do having watched Dave @Garage21 change my elbow he also gently ground/polished the corrosion off the turbo flange face and used a thread tap the same size as the existing turbo-side threads to clean the corrosion out of them too. might be worth thinking about for getting a really good seal/interface as mine was pretty rusted up etc for a 60k mile car.

 

[Saxon]

Got a good point there! That's what I usually do but if you don't have a secondary car or something and you mess up it can be a right pain.

That’s the boat I’m in right now, no secondary car at the moment.

 

[lewis]

Ah yeah you finally got it on I wanna hear it message me when you’re free


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[Shifty1303]

Sure did she's off the road for a bit now tho as my bumper got worse hopefully getting it fixed once and for all next week tho so we shall meet up!

Ah yeah you finally got it on I wanna hear it message me when you’re free


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[DeanS15]

It's a good idea to use the nissan 2 bolt tabs too for the manifold to turbo if the design let's you use them, that way once done up the nuts shouldn't be able to work loose easily - and if enough thread is sticking through the back of the flange when you fit the studs, stick a nut on there. For the turbo elbow to downpipe (and any other gasket downstream of there) I always used a bead of regular clear general purpose silicone sealant on the gasket surfaces (a tip I got from a mechanic years ago), it doesn't burn off and stays elastic and I never had any blows in the exhaust..

 

[JDM_virgin]

That’s the boat I’m in right now, no secondary car at the moment.

If it’s gonna go wrong for you it’ll go wrong for a garage too. Don’t worry about the heat shield, I don’t run one and never had any issues. I will sort some heat management over the winter though.

the nuts are only m8 so plenty of WD40 or jays fluid they should come off no bother. Grab yourself a pocket blow torch to heat them if you wanna make doubly sure. Honestly though this is one of the simplest mods to do

 

[lewis]

Yeah I guess its fairly simple I was just checking if anyone had idea of anything else I could do whilst im there and make sure I dont screw it up with little ideas like adding rtv with the gaskets! Ive some Permatex ultra grey go might put a light coat on all the gaskets.

Thanks for all your input

 

[Auss15]

As been said the Nissan locking tab washers are to go for the manifold to turbo nuts...and if you are running a 3" exhaust system from turbo back look at some kind of brace from the elbow to what I have done the bellhousing to reduce the movement and strain on the turbo to elbow nuts...

 

[lewis]

As been said the Nissan locking tab washers are to go for the manifold to turbo nuts...and if you are running a 3" exhaust system from turbo back look at some kind of brace from the elbow to what I have done the bellhousing to reduce the movement and strain on the turbo to elbow nuts...

do you have an image of what you mean with regards the brace from the bell housing?