Removing manifold nuts?

[Shakkagts-t]

As some of you may know i was having a problem with a strange rattley sound on my R32 GTR, got worse on thursday last week and on friday night a gasket (either manifold or turbo to elbow gasket) let go with a rather frightening roar!
Now in the process of stripping the turbos, manifolds and anything else that gets in the road off.

Rather scary but theres only one way to learn......right?

Going to change all the gaskets (manifold, turbo to manifold, turbo to elbow gaskets) and replacing the downpipe with a HKS one and a decat.

Going ok till i reach the lower manifold nuts, OMG no room at all, no way i can get a rachet in, got a half turn on the first one with a spanner but cant get anyware near the next two, never mind the rear manifold!

Has anyone got any tips or hints on how to get the little feckers off? Have been using biggies guide (top work!) but have really hit a wall hear!

Please help!

[Shakkagts-t]

Progress so far











HELP!

[Mookistar]

AFAIK you need to cut a spanner in half to get it down there.

or, use universal jointed sockets

mook

[Smokey 1]

You can remove the turbo's inlet pipe, that will give some more room. The remove the turbo from the manifold and lower it down, then WD40 all the manifold nuts and crack them off with a ratchet and extension bar.


Have fun





Smokey

[EvolutionVI]

Originally Posted by Mookistar

AFAIK you need to cut a spanner in half to get it down there.

or, use universal jointed sockets

mook

As mook wrote,i did mine a few weeks ago and hear all the horrorstorys about it.....in the end i bought some expensive socket/joint combination from "Snap On",they are very short,so you can reach each nut very good,did take around 5 minutes to get one manifold out(after the turbos have been droped).........very easy job if you have good tools.

PS: one socket(14mm,1/4size with joint) is around 45GBP

[Shakkagts-t]

Will try dropping the turbos was trying to get in with them still on their braces! doh!
The Snap-on stuffs really tasty but the price is shocking!
Thanks for the help so far troops
Will keep u posted!

[hpt_simon]

as said.

lower the front turbo and fit extension with soket through the gap,
you can also moove the power steering pump to one side, but i prefer the ratchet idea, as thats the way i did it,

second turbo you dont need to lwer it, just fiddle with a spaner as there will be no turbo infront so will be ..."easier to access".

not a fun job
good luck

[miragev]

i bought some cheap spanners and just cut and ground them as required
once you get the spanners the right length it's not bad at all

[Shakkagts-t]

GOTCHA!



What a feckin nightmare! Finally got the front one off!
Didn't relise there was so much to disconnect to get these buggers to move.
Managed to get to the bottom manifold studs by getting the turbo as low as possible then getting in with a short ratchet. Longest job was taking off the rear oil return feed, almost impossible to get a spanner on and got about an eighth of a turn each time. Took an hour just for that!! Hope i havent bent the lines too much!
Anywho!
Hopefully get the back one off Sunday. Battered fingers crossed!

[SamuraiSam]

The following advice was invaluable when I did it:

April 22nd 2007 How many hours for a turbo swap? - FreshAlloy.com Forums

Originally Posted by tyndago

I'll give you some tips. If you have access to a rack, use it.

Remove the exhaust side cam cover for better access to the manifold nuts.

You need every assortment of 12 mm open end wrench you can lay your hands on. 12 mm gear wrench. Swivel end 12mm gearwrench, Stubby swivel end 12mm gear wrench. 12mm swivel sockets. Long and short 12mm wrenchs.

It takes a minute or two to get the bolts off the exhaust manifold. It can be attacked a few different ways.

Once the front turbo is off, the rear turbo comes off pretty easily. The hardline banjo fittings can be a pain. The exhaust manifold shields are bendable, its ok to bend them a bit to get them out. You will figure out how to get them off without bending them later.

The inlet on the rear turbo is very close to the outlet/exhaust housing on the front turbo. Plan accordingly.

I also used some closed ended 12s, offset box end 12s, and I have a set of 4-way angle head open end wrenches that are really nice when you can normally only get 1/16th or 1/8th of a turn, it will go 4 times quicker with a 4 way angle head wrench.

[Shakkagts-t]

Finally...there out!!






The source of all my woes!! Turbo to manifold gasket!

[hpt_simon]

cheque the rubber oil return hoses, mine looked fine when i took them off, but under the heat relfectant they were looking bad.


remooving turbos is always fun on a rb hahah