Hs anyone taken them off? I took mine off today to replace them with the new ones and im worried when i get them bolted down they are not going to realign with the turbo. Anyone taken them off know any tricks to get the manifold to align right the first time with the turbo.

 

Just don't tighten anything down (including the turbo) until you have all the exhaust connections back together, and you shouldn't have any problems.

 

Did you remove only the turbo to access the up pipe connections? I did mine without removing the down pipe, but found it would have been much easier if I had. I put the turbo on without the O rings to align the Y to the turbo and tightened the bolts on the flanges that I could get to. I removed the turbo and then tightened all the flange bolts. Then, I reinstalled the turbo with new O rings. If not aligned correctly the dowel pin will keep the Y from seating into the turbo. Hope it works out well for you.

 

I removed the turbo and losened the down pipe. Im having a heck of a time trying to get it alligned right. Up pipes are a pain to bether with.

 

I also replaced the up pipe (donuts only) gaskets and when i reinstalled the collector it wasnt aligned perfectly. the front of the turbo had a 3/16" or so gap at the front when the dowel pin and clamp were aligned. i pushed down on the turbo to see if that would pull the collector in alignment, but now i have a pretty substantial leak.

 

I used the handle of a screwdriver, wedged between the Y adaptor and the firewall, to hold the collector against the turbo while I tightened the up pipe bolts. I used a mirror to check that it was seated properly before tightening up the bolts. Alignment seems to be the biggest problem when doing the up pipes and limited access to r/h up pipe flange.

 

I would like to add that you need to get all the fixed (non-adjustable) hardware tightened down all the way first. The turbocharger and pedastal are on that list.
Leave the bolts for the up-pipes loosened so that you can easily adjust the position of the pipes. They are the final pieces that you are going to be tightening down.
Once you are satisified that all of the non movable stuff is torqued down and not going to move anymore, begin to tighten the bolts for the up-pipes. Little by little start tightening the bottom bolts for the manifold to up-pipe flanges. Move the pipes around on thier seats to make sure that you have them seated correctly against the manifolds. Continue to adjust position and tightening the bottom bolts until they are completly torqued down. At this point you should be able to tighten up the upper flanges to the turbo Y-pipe and the gaskets and flanges will simply tighten down with no binding and the gaskets will crush down and everything will seal up.
I used a lot of grease on the gaskets to allow them to slide easily into place as I was tightening them up.

I was struck with the thought that this job is going to have to be on a maintainance list as there is no way to permanantly fix this particular joint. The thermal expansion and contraction of the up-pipes will eventually wear them away underneath the gasket's and you will end up having to take them apart every other year and re-do the gaskets.
So use LOT'S of anti-sieze on all the hardware to make it easier to remove in the future.

 

All right thank you guys for the help. Cant wait to be done with this.