Well, I finished installing my 160/80s about 430 this morning after work - once the truck warmed up the thing wants to RUN! I'm not use to being thrown in my seat by my truck. Pretty dern pleased - also makes boost pretty well, I just need a boost fooler as I set off an overboost code a bunch last night.

Now, on to the crummy side of things: While doing my injectors I found that my exhaust housing bolts have backed out, causing a decent exhaust leak and I'm sure not helping the turbo spool like it should. Had I not just spent $2500 on injectors, I'd be ordering a turbo right about now as it's a good excuse to do so.

Has anyone managed to get the bolts reinstalled without pulling the turbo and tearing the compressor housing off? I'd virtually be back at the rebuilding stage again if I had to take it down that far (also that Spyder was a pain in the rear last time I had to take it off, if I'm going through that again I'd prefer to be sticking something with a bit more oomph behind it).

 

Charlie, are you talking about the up-pipes? If so if you are going in that far I would get the bellowed uppies and be done with it for good. I went with the IH ceramic coated ones but that is a bit overkill. I understand that Dorman has resolved some of their issues and are a fair bit cheaper.

 

Unfortunately not, the bolts that backed out are what holds the exhaust housing of the turbo itself to the center section (part the two bolts that hold it to the pedestal go through).

 

Charlie, two of the four bolts in mine had backed out prior to me owning the truck. I bought the upgraded bolts from Ford that suppose to be the fix for them backing out. Basically they put a small intention on the first two threads to keep the bolt from backing out. After removing the turbo to install a billet compressor wheel I noticed the threads were stripped out of the cast iron turbine housing. I ended up threading the holes to a 3/8”-16 with a bottom tap and using grade 8 Allen head bolts. I did have to Dremel the side of the bolt just a little to let the two long mounting bolts to clear them. They have not backed out since I installed them. Hopefully you won’t have to go thru all that but if you have to remove the turbo it can be rebuilt and upgraded to a billet compressor wheel for $200.

Good luck!

 

Do you mean the ones that go into these holes around the perimeter?

 

Or these ones?

 

The last time I had to get stubborn exhaust bolts out, I shot them with penetrating oil 2 or three times a day for a week. You can use the transmission fluid and acetone mix, PB Blaster, or whatever formula works for you, but my bolts came right out. I'm not saying wait a whole week, but the added time gives the oil more time to do its thing - and gives you time to recover from injector work.

Yeah... installing those IH 160s with big nozzles are like buying a whole different truck. Congratulations!

 

Yep, those are the ones that backed out on me John. I managed to Jerry rig two M8-1.25x25 bolts (one washer on each) to where they clamped on the outer facing of the center section to mount it to the housing - I couldn't find the extra twelve point bolts from when I rebuilt my turbo

Thanks for the tip about the updated bolts Bill, I'll have to look into those! Had I not just rebuilt the turbo 25k ago (and it being 430 Saturday morning when I decided to tackle this), it'd be sitting in pieces on my toolbox right now. I've got a temporary solution at least.


Thanks Rich! I'm glad I followed your advice and went with a brand new set vs remans. While the Buck$zooka is cooling down, the truck purrs like a kitten at idle and runs like a scalded dog when I let it. Now I just gotta be careful not to kill my MAP sensor (I've thrown an over boost code quite a bit the past 48hrs...). I think what I'm happiest about is my phantom P1316 code is officially gone!

 

Before you do much else, you should find out WHY they backed out. Holes stripped? Bolt threads worn down? Something else?

If that puppy blows apart while the wheel is spinning at almost 100k RPMs...

I wouldn't use the turbo until I found out why and was confident the cause was remedied first

 

Simple thermal expansion and contraction is the cause. Ford knows/knew it and released an updated bolt that has a deformed thread/threads....which causes an interference fit on the mating thread.

 

Cool, I learned something new

Just so we can be complete, can you post a part number or something for future references?

Thanks!

 

Looks like it is Ford #1C3Z-9G486-AA or International #1833768C91

According to my search, here are the two bolts:

 

Thanks, Charlie. So should we be changing our current turbo bolts for these? Or only when we notice them being loose (hopefully nothing bad happens), or ???

 

Personally I'd wait until you notice yours back out, if you're turbo is anything like mine when I took it out you won't have to worry about the housing separating from the center section.

Flip side is that if you go ahead and do it, you shouldn't worry about it happening again. I don't think it's hurt too much to let it ride - lord knows how long mine were like they are. If anything the most I could see happening is a little extra load on your thrust bearing.

 

Thanks! Adding to my "inspect regularly" list