Update! Been a whirlwind couple days...Monday morning I picked up a stock turbo from USPS...a guy shipped it to me via Media Mail...anyways it was minty fresh, 30k miles on it and it looked nice and shiny clean, no shaft play.
On my way to a customer site, the car made a 'ker-plink!...kerplonk!' as something obviously fell out of the engine bay and out the back of teh car. Afterwards the car sounded like it had a big exhaust leak and wouldn't build any boost, like none. Car ran great otherwise...I feared the worst....
I tear into it later that night and before I know it the TME turbo is out of the car...o2 housing was fine but missing a single bolt (didn't think it would cause the noise I was hearing) and still no boost at all. I thought I'd discover the wastegate flew off or something but it was perfect, held in place with tension from the WGA arm...I honestly have no idea what happened.
Onward! I decided...assembled the stock IX turbo and started to put it on. It's been a while since I've done one of these and before I knew it between the late late start (probably 8pm?) and the head scratching it was 1am and I had to be up for work at 6am....I just about fell asleep while putting the LICP on...called it.
Tonight, I buttoned it up, took it around the block and while the exhaust leak noise was gone, still no boost! WTF! So I'm fearing the worst until I notice I forgot to hook the WGA up on the new turbo. Oops! A few cut fingers later it's on and the car boosts great! No major leaks....went for a long drive, turn up the boost a bit and we are good....a bit bewildered, but good.
I'm attending a lapping event at DCTC Friday night and there's a small pile of thigns I wanted to get done beforehand but I just don't have the time or want to add another possible monkeywrench into the situation so this is it for a few days:
I left Ron's O2 housing on it b/c of issues with the stocker and bolts I had available so I'll rock it like this for now...all buttoned up (finally):
Car needs an alignment pretty bad and the brakes are decent for the street but aren't going to cut it long-term on the track...these are my next priorities I think....and selling off extra parts to stop bleeding money on this thing
