04/04 F350 with 39k miles. The dealer replaced the turbo at 20k, now it is acting up again with same symptoms , I suspect sticky vanes. Can someone list the actual steps in removing the turbo from the engine? It doesn't look that difficult, just want to make sure I'm not missing something. The truck has the original flash and runs perfect except for this, it has an updated ICP sender and I clean the EGR valve every 5000 or so. I don't want a new flash installed so I want to clean the turbo myself. I got 19.4 real mpg on a 500 mi trip over the w/e, don't want a new flash that screws it up. I'm ordering a shop manual but I got another trip this w/e and want to get this taken care of before then. Thanks.

 

The turbo has 3-10mm head bolts, two exhaust clamps (11mm deep socket), air intake, inter cooler (blue hose--11mm deep), oil supply line, oil drain underneath comes out when you lift out turbo. You need to move the degas bottle, but not unhook it, and the wiring harness retainers that run along the top firewall/hood edge and fold it back. The turbo will twist and come out, just remember how it came out and go back the same way. I usually rotate it 90 degrees so that the air inlet is on top or bottom. It is a lot easier than it looks. Just remember not to over tighten the y-pipe exhaust tube clamp on the back drivers side of the turbo. You'll have to take something and pop the clamp sections loose as just unscrewing the bolt most likely won't free the clamp--the same thing with the exhaust down pipe. The clamps are in 3 "V" sections wrapped by a flat band to hold them all together. Get the exhaust downpipe off first and you'll see what I mean before you tackle the turbine inlet pipe.

 

i know on a 7.3 i took one off it was a ROYAL Pain bolts just didnt want to come out and some rounded....just dont use 12pt.

 

The best wrench to get the turbo bolts off with is a 10mm flex head gear wrench--IMHO. PBblaster works miracles on those stubborn bolts especially in high heat exhaust applications.

 

Great, thanks. Couple questions, should I get a new turbo base gasket before hand and any critical torque values or just snug em up? Never-seize on all bolts going back in.

 

There is a turbo install kit you can get for the oil supply and drain tubes, but if you're careful you can reuse them. I wouldn't put never seize on the bolts since they have a spot of loctite on them from the factory. The turbo bolts have a tendancy to get loose occassionally anyway--at least for me. There are no gaskets for the turbo air pipes (intake or exhaust). I don't know the torque values, but I do know the clamps aren't that hard to strip, so be careful. Be sure and clean the blue hose at the turbo and use hairspray on the pipes when you reattach them--helps them stick and stay stuck.

 

only thing i would change is the part about the never sieze, i would still use it. and if you're worried about them backing off, get lock washers or safety wire them.

 

They come from the factory with loctite on them for a reason. Why would you neverseize a loctited bolt???

 

Started taking the turbo off tonight. You say there are three 10mm bolts that hold the turbo to the pedestal? I got everything disconnected and got two 10 mm bolts off that hold it to the pedestal, I can't find the 3rd one but it has to be there as the turbo won't budge. I got the one on the passenger side , one below the up-pipe clamp, where is the other one? Thanks. Worst part so far was getting the exhaust clamps broken loose.

 

neversieze is not the opposite of locktite. lock tite is a thread locker to keep the bolt from backing out.

never sieze actually keeps the bolt from "gaulding' in the hole. (not sure if i spelled that right) this is where the heat/vibration actually "fuse" the bolt into the hole, the two different metals combine and become a mess. it is common when using different metals between fasteners and fastenees..() and also common on exhaust bolts.

it is not to make the bolts come out easier (it does that too) but to keep them from corroding into the surrounding material. does this help ?

 

never mind, found it hiding in the back, got the turbo off.

 

wrench52,now that you have removed the turbo,how would you explain the process.I just purchased a new hybrid turbo and plan on making the swap soon.I just want the swap to go as smoothly as possible,it being a daily driver an all.

 

I know exactly what neversieze is and how it works. I just don't see the two chemicals being compatible. The turbo bolts are hard enough to keep from vibrating out as it is. I suppose if you get the factory bolts that have the "plastic" loctite already on the threads you could neversieze them, but the loctite in the bottle......no.

 

Let me say this upfront, this is a real PITA job, not technically difficult, just bull work type difficult. The whole job took me about 7 hrs including the turbo cleaning. Here's how I did it.

- Make sure truck is cold, remove cooling system cap to make sure of no pressure.

- remove the two small hoses going into the degas bottle, I stuck 3/8 bolts in the hoses to prevent any leakage.

- pull the filter minder out of the intake tube

- disconnect the wiring harness from the mass flow sensor downstream of the air filter

- loosen the hose clamp that connects the rubber intake hose to the black plastic turbo intake tube

- remove the secondary air intake hose from the intake tube upstream of the filter

- now remove the whole air filter assembly and tubes by disconnecting the rubber hose from the turbo intake tube, pull it up and out of the vehicle. You do not have to separate the air filter element from the tubes, the whole thing comes out with the tubes.

- remove the two nuts that secure the turbo intake tube bracket to the top of the PCM on the driver side valve cover.

- loosen the hose clamp that holds the intake tube to the turbo. You can now twist the intake tube up and back out of the way with the CCV hose still connected

- remove the two small bolts that attach the degas bottle to the firewall, pull degas bottle back to give more working room

- loosen the compressor discharge boot clamp and remove the boot from the compressor, wire the IC tube back out of the way. If you have dual alts, watch out you don't lift the rubber boot covering the battery connection to the alt and touch it with the IC tube and cause an arc like I did, put some duct tape over it.

- disconnect the exhaust downpipe from the turbine discharge. The clamp will most likely be seized to the flanges requiring some creative leverage with a screwdriver/hammer, etc to get it loose from the flanges.

- disconnect the Y pipe from the turbine inlet. Ditto for removing the clamp from the flanges.

- remove the two plastic nails that secure the plastic wire harness support directly above the turbo. The third nail does not have to be removed. Slide the support out from under the 3rd nail and wire it to the wiper up out of the way. To remove the nails, slide the tips of a needle nose under the head and pry up.

- disconnect the wiring harness from the turbo vane actuator.

- remove the bolts that secure the oil supply line to the top of the turbo, wire the line back out of the way. Cover the oil port in the turbo with tape to prevent contamination.

- remove the three 10 mm bolts that secure the turbo to the pedestal. Two of the bolt shanks are in a horizontal position and are located on the bearing side of the scroll. The 3rd bolt is in a vertical position and is on the outlet side of the scroll and can be accessed with a 10 mm socket and short extension over the top of the Y pipe to turbo connection. A 10 mm box wrench works on the other two, a gearwrench makes it easier as one of the other posters said. The passenger side horizontal bolt on mine was almost finger loose, the other horizontal bolt was a little tighter and the vertical bolt on the back was tightest. I sprayed all three with PB a few hours before. As one of the other posters said, use 6 pts only to break them loose.

- my turbo was somewhat stuck to the pedestal so I took a crow bar and carefully wedged up between the pedestal and the bottom of the bearing center section around the oil drain tube to break it loose.

- now comes the fun part. You'll need to position yourself on top of the passenger side battery, radiator, etc to work that mother out from its perch on the passenger side.

- once I had it on the bench I followed the cleaning procedure. Lowes has a similar tool to the 3M kit used in the article. I chucked it up in my 3/8 air drill. I chose to do the center section around the turbine mostly by hand with Scotchbrite and 320 wet or dry paper with WD40 so I wouldn't risk hitting the turbine with the drill chuck. The unison plate cleaned up pretty easily. For the vanes I just used the scotchbite pads and WD. The scroll was the hardest and took the longest. it took a combination of the surfacing tool. wet-or-dry, Scotchbrite, WD, brake cleaner to get it cleaned and polished. Getting around the pins and between the pins and the scroll is the hardest. I made sure I kept each vane in its original postion just in case it had some wear, not sure this is necessary but it doesn't hurt.

- when I assembled mine I rubbed a light coat of anti-seize on the bearing surfaces between the unison plate and the center section, the surface of the scroll that the vanes ride against and the surface of the unison plate that the vanes ride against. I can't see how it can hurt anything. I also put it on the mating surfaces between the scroll and the center section in case I have to do this job again sometime. I also rubbed it on the inlet and outlet flanges and the inside of the flange clamps to also make it easier to get them off again if necessary.

- I replaced the oil drain tube O-ring, theres no way I want to go thru this again due to a bad 50 cent O-ring.

- look at everything that is underneath the turbo on the engine. I found the wiring harness rubbing on top of the driver side valve cover where it goes under the compresser intake so took care of that

- wrestle that mother back on to its perch. I had a hell of a time getting it into position and the bolts started but finally it gave up and everything lined up. Watch the drain tube and o-ring. I put anti-seize on the mating surfaces between the turbo and the pedestal and on the turbo bolts. I also put lock washers on the turbo bolts. As you can tell I'm a major fan of anti-seize. I think I read somewhere the turbo bolt torque is like 25 ft-lb but I just tightened em up pretty good.

- hook up the Y-pipe, downpipe, oil supply ( I used a new gasket because I had one). Clean the IC tube and boot with solvent, torque boot clamp to 96 in-lb.

- assembly of the rest is the "reverse of the above", as they like to say in the manuals.

Would I do it again? Well, if I had a truck that had been flashed to the latest and greatest, hell no. I'd let FoMoCo do it on their nickel. But since I have the original flash and wanted no chance of losing that I chose to do it myself. Once this things off warranty, the engine's coming out, studs and gaskets going in and EGR valve and cooler are coming out and SCT going it.
The truck is definitley more responsive, no more studdering and dead pedal like when the vanes were sticking. I got about 20k miles before they started sticking last time, lets see what happens this time with the anti-seize.

I'm sure the pro's who do this for a living have their tricks to do this job faster. I'm wondering what the flat rate is for this job?

 

wrench52 Check this site out.

http://www.forddoctorsdts.com/articl...icle-06-05.php