Stronginchrist

I still havent hooked any pipes up so Ill check em out tomorrow. Im pretty sure they are identical though.

Stronginchrist

I just double checked my turbo that I just pulled off the car and its definitely a T25. Ive looked at pics of both and compared blades on each.

Wheels are also within specs for T25 on that turbo sheet.

Stronginchrist

Mission accomplished! Everything is back together. Idled the car for about 10 minutes then gave it an easy cruize around the neighborhood. Idled it again in the driveway and still no smoke! Thats the time where the smoking was the worst. It would cloud up the side of the house lol.

Took it on the road for a few highway miles. It held boost at 20psi well into the 100s.

Ill post a vid later or tomorrow.

ZLover4Life

How much time invested?

Lanoi

nice, a write-up could be nice for a sticky ?

Stronginchrist

10-11 hours total but this was done over the span of a week. If I did it again it would probably take a few hours less. With a helper it would have been a few hours faster as well. There were a lot of things that could have used another hand from underneath the car to hold wrenches and such that you could only get one hand on from the top.

The moral of this story is: If you wanna attempt to swap a turbo without pulling the engine....prepare for hundreds of 1/4 turns and 1/8 turns of a wrench. Very little room to work (thats an understatement).

Easier than pulling the engine? No I dont think "easier". Faster and less disastrous for a noob like me? Yup

NOTE: If turbos were in any larger than the T25 housing they were in there would have been no way to squeeze them out. Do not try this with bigger turbos.

Ill make a step by step tomorrow when I upload a vid of the car to better explain what I did.

KasbeKZ

also, it's only viable for doing one turbo at a time. expect to at least double that time if you were doing both. i'm glad it worked out well for you to get your turbo swapped like that. when i was saying take the engine out, i guess i never really took into consideration the fact that you were only dealing with one.

ZLover4Life

I've done an engine pull, turbo replacement, and reinstall in less than 10 hours...

With help, I've done it in less than 6.

Engine pulls are not hard at all... remove exhaust, drop transmission, remove intake hoses, remove radiator, disconnect harness, unbolt mounts, remove AC compressor, begin to hoist out, disconnecting PS hose and any remaining wires/hoses along the way. The PS pump and alternator, as well as the entire top end of the engine, remain in-tact. Once the motor is elevated, you can swap out turbos and begin to lower back down immediately, if you really wanted to. I honestly think you could've had the engine back in the chassis in a day if you worked morning to night with the help of one friend, and had everything else connected and running the following day.

Impressive that you were able to do it - I don't think I ever could (but of course, every time I had to do a turbo replacement, I had larger turbos)... but I'm still an advocate that the engine pull is easier.

Stronginchrist

Well you have to keep in mind this experience was a first time novice experience with turbo replacement. Im sure if I were to do it several times I would very noticeably cut the time down. I dont think there would be a comparison as far as time is concerned. Ive never pulled an engine before so you can expect me to take at least 24 labor hours on that. (I can only imagine myself pulling it back out because I forgot to connect some God forsaken hose or something!!!)

BUT, I will admit that after peaking around at what an engine pull would entail I can honestly say that would be an easier task. Especially, as KasbekZ mentioned, if swapping two turbos or an upgraded turbo.