Blown Head Gasket repair w/pics

IHateHacks · 04-11-2007, 01:56 PM

Little update: I was washing my car the other day, vacuumed the whole interior, and detailed the exterior (inside of the doors, under the hatch, etc) and when I was done I just, for no particular reason, looked under the car to make sure nothing was leaking. And sure enough, my downpipe is completely covered in oil. At first I thought it was water since I just washed it, but nope it was engine oil. At first I started flipping out, panicking, trying to think where it was coming from while I dug out my hydraulic jack. So I climb under there and its getting on the downpipe via the downpipe brace. So I further climb under there and I pinpoint it to the turbo oil return pipe, where it bolts to the block. Now I distinctly remember torqueing those 2 nuts to 108in/lbs, just like the TSRM and the Haynes manual said. It was a bitch to fit a torque wrench down there, but I did, and I remember doing it. So I proceed to take the turbo heat shield and dipstick back out so I can try and tighten them a little more. And those motherf*ckers turned another 1/4 to 1/2 of a turn!! TSRM is a lying piece of crap. I was so pissed. The TSRM says in bold letters on page EM-37 "Install oil pipe, 9ft/lbs" Now that is for the oil pipe to turbo nuts, which I did and that wasn't leaking at all. Then on page EM-38 for the oil pipe to block: "torque the oil pipe union bolt and flange nuts" Bolt 25ft/lbs (I did that and it was fine no leaks on the feed line) Nut 9ft/lbs which is WRONG. It should be: torque "as tight as you can get it". Because actually I tightened them once, drove it and it was still leaking so I had to get in there again and I just gorilla'd those f*ckers as tight as I could. Needless to say its fine now. I think I'm going to write my own TSRM with torque values for those nuts, the water outlet housing, EGR bolts and nuts, ECT sensor and a real life solution to how to get the crank pulley off. It just pisses me off that I spent $125 on a manual for this car and it 1. doesn't give you all the torque specs and 2. on the ones it does, half of them are wrong. A little side note, the O2 housing to turbo nuts, the TSRM says 38 ft/lbs and the Haynes says 32ft/lbs. Then, it gives you the torque spec on the turbo to exhaust manifold nuts, 33ft/lbs, Yeah I'd like to see anyone get a torque wrench on those nuts. Its impossible. Maybe if you had one of those torque wrench adaptor wrenches (like you use on dirtbike engines) and then you would have to do all kinds of calculations to find out what to set the torque wrench to, to get 33ft/lbs. So they give you torque values where you can't use them, but where it matters they just leave you hanging. I can go on and on with pointing out the TSRM's flaws but I'm sure you are all sick of my bitching so I'll stop now.

On a lighter note, it was a beautiful morning and I just loved how the light hit my car so I just had to take a pic and post it. Makes me thankful for what I have.

04-11-2007, 01:56 PM	#156
IHateHacks 20psi boost Join Date: May 2006 Location: New Haven/Hamden Posts: 793	Little update: I was washing my car the other day, vacuumed the whole interior, and detailed the exterior (inside of the doors, under the hatch, etc) and when I was done I just, for no particular reason, looked under the car to make sure nothing was leaking. And sure enough, my downpipe is completely covered in oil. At first I thought it was water since I just washed it, but nope it was engine oil. At first I started flipping out, panicking, trying to think where it was coming from while I dug out my hydraulic jack. So I climb under there and its getting on the downpipe via the downpipe brace. So I further climb under there and I pinpoint it to the turbo oil return pipe, where it bolts to the block. Now I distinctly remember torqueing those 2 nuts to 108in/lbs, just like the TSRM and the Haynes manual said. It was a bitch to fit a torque wrench down there, but I did, and I remember doing it. So I proceed to take the turbo heat shield and dipstick back out so I can try and tighten them a little more. And those motherfckers turned another 1/4 to 1/2 of a turn!! TSRM is a lying piece of crap. I was so pissed. The TSRM says in bold letters on page EM-37 "Install oil pipe, 9ft/lbs" Now that is for the oil pipe to turbo nuts, which I did and that wasn't leaking at all. Then on page EM-38 for the oil pipe to block: "torque the oil pipe union bolt and flange nuts" Bolt 25ft/lbs (I did that and it was fine no leaks on the feed line) Nut 9ft/lbs which is WRONG. It should be: torque "as tight as you can get it". Because actually I tightened them once, drove it and it was still leaking so I had to get in there again and I just gorilla'd those fckers as tight as I could. Needless to say its fine now. I think I'm going to write my own TSRM with torque values for those nuts, the water outlet housing, EGR bolts and nuts, ECT sensor and a real life solution to how to get the crank pulley off. It just pisses me off that I spent $125 on a manual for this car and it 1. doesn't give you all the torque specs and 2. on the ones it does, half of them are wrong. A little side note, the O2 housing to turbo nuts, the TSRM says 38 ft/lbs and the Haynes says 32ft/lbs. Then, it gives you the torque spec on the turbo to exhaust manifold nuts, 33ft/lbs, Yeah I'd like to see anyone get a torque wrench on those nuts. Its impossible. Maybe if you had one of those torque wrench adaptor wrenches (like you use on dirtbike engines) and then you would have to do all kinds of calculations to find out what to set the torque wrench to, to get 33ft/lbs. So they give you torque values where you can't use them, but where it matters they just leave you hanging. I can go on and on with pointing out the TSRM's flaws but I'm sure you are all sick of my bitching so I'll stop now. On a lighter note, it was a beautiful morning and I just loved how the light hit my car so I just had to take a pic and post it. Makes me thankful for what I have.