How to: Installing a BNR turbo

question and needed help:

I have a 2006 LGT with 106K miles. The seal in the turbo has gone bad and Subaru is telling me that I have to replace the entire unit for $1900-2300 However I have found the Tomioka Racing TD05-18G Turbo for $900 and know nothing about this. My car is all stock and I'm new to Subaru's. Any help is greatly appreciated, Is there a better turbo?

Link to turbo I'm looking at

http://www.subimods.com/tomioka-racing-td05-18g-turbo-for-subaru-legacy-gt-2005-wrx-gh8-2009-forester-sh5-9-2008.html

18g is a bit big for a stock car.

Welcome to the forum.

You have many options in the $1000 price range for OEM replacement turbos. All will give a jump in power over stock. All will boost slightly later than stock (200rpm). All will require at minimum a tune (you will need either a cable or an AccessPort and a custom tune to accomplish this). Unfortunately if wanting to go aftermarket you have a lot to learn fast. The forum is a great place to start.

question and needed help:

I have a 2006 LGT with 106K miles. The seal in the turbo has gone bad and Subaru is telling me that I have to replace the entire unit for $1900-2300. Any help is greatly appreciated, Is there a better turbo?

'Better' needs qualification by specific criteria of what you want to accomplish. I'm pretty much stock and have a BNR 16g ready to go in. The turbo itself is less expensive than the stock one and is better made and will give you a bump in performance. The amount of bump is up to you with the tune and supporting mods if desired. BNR's customer service is excellent as well.

U pipe/turbo gasket, turbo/down pipe gasket. Oil line kit(s) come with washers and hardware. Might want some half inch heater hose and some clamps. Just in case one of your coolant or oil return lines is cracked or your OEM clamps dont hold up after being taken off.

Too bad I didn't read this before installing last weekend. I was just coming on here to give a few tips after my install. I noticed right away that my coolant return was leaking badly so I had to put on a new hose clamp. Then this morning I noticed coolant on the floor again and the coolant supply line is slightly leaking. I haven't had a chance to check yet but I really hope the oil return is not leaking since that would be a *itch to redo.

I would also suggest buying an extra copper washer or two if using the FP oil line as I have 2 washers between the banjo bolt and turbo and it's still leaking oil. I've got a pack of 50 washers on the way so I can redo it and will sell the extras to anyone that wants them for a $1 each and will only charge $1 shipping unlike the outrageous prices forced performance charges for shipping (they wanted $62 for overnight shipping or $47 for 2day shipping for a banjo bolt and fitting).

Another tip with trying to get the turbo into the inlet is to take off the coolant reservoir. Then get a very large screwdriver or prybar and put it between the two legs of the intake manifold and underneath the intake to pry it upward. This was the only way I could get the turbo on as the trick with the zip ties did not pull up the inlet far enough. I spent 2 hours just trying to get the turbo on the oil return/studs/inlet before figuring this method out.

BNR does not make an oil line. BNR no longer sells or recommends the FP line. We make one. It addresses the issues you are experiencing. It is also filtered.

I meant forced performance, my mistake.

FP also has HORRIBLE customer service. They sent me a replacement banjo bolt that didn't even fit in their banjo fitting. I didn't notice until I already had my turbo installed so I had to use the old twisted banjo (hopefully it doesn't break off when I take it out) until the new one comes. Also, they made me pay for the new fitting and wouldn't give me a break on the shipping.

I was able to get under the car today and the oil return line from the turbo was leaking also. All three hoses connected to the turbo leaked after installing the 18g using the original clamps.

Too bad I didn't read this before installing last weekend. I was just coming on here to give a few tips after my install. I noticed right away that my coolant return was leaking badly so I had to put on a new hose clamp. Then this morning I noticed coolant on the floor again and the coolant supply line is slightly leaking. I haven't had a chance to check yet but I really hope the oil return is not leaking since that would be a *itch to redo.

 

I would also suggest buying an extra copper washer or two if using the FP oil line as I have 2 washers between the banjo bolt and turbo and it's still leaking oil. I've got a pack of 50 washers on the way so I can redo it and will sell the extras to anyone that wants them for a $1 each and will only charge $1 shipping unlike the outrageous prices forced performance charges for shipping (they wanted $62 for overnight shipping or $47 for 2day shipping for a banjo bolt and fitting).

 

Another tip with trying to get the turbo into the inlet is to take off the coolant reservoir. Then get a very large screwdriver or prybar and put it between the two legs of the intake manifold and underneath the intake to pry it upward. This was the only way I could get the turbo on as the trick with the zip ties did not pull up the inlet far enough. I spent 2 hours just trying to get the turbo on the oil return/studs/inlet before figuring this method out.

yeah i just went thru this^^ can't stress this enough replace/check all clamps and check all lines my dyno time was cut short cause my lines kept popping ...i didn't realize just how much more pressure all the lines would see....so now i'm on a waste gate pressure only tune but it still got me 50 more horseees over the stock vf4o...

another happy customer from bnr. and the oil lines from infamous were nice!!

I was able to get under the car today and the oil return line from the turbo was leaking also. All three hoses connected to the turbo leaked after installing the 18g using the original clamps.

I figured I should update. The oil return line wasn't leaking, it was the flange on the oil return pipe. The flange was bent. The turbo only had 500 miles on it yet the previous owner managed to bend the oil return pipe, twist the banjo bolt, and deform the banjo fitting. What a disaster!

Thanks for the write up. Very helpful. I'm halfway through this process. Pulled out the old turbo today. Toast...

Waiting on parts from BNR and Infamous now. As soon as they are here, we'll give it a whirl.

Oh, and the Turbo Inlet Hose has seen better days. Anyone out there have a used OEM that they would like to sell me?

No problem. Responded to your PM about clamp sizes.

Any chance we could get the number, type and size of all the necessary clamps for this job posted here? Glad I caught that you need to replace them all.

Thanks,

So uh, my old coolant hard lines don't fit. I cut the "bridge" to see if that was the problem, but to no avail.

I can get the banjo bolts in no problem, but the support/anchor bolt holes don't line up with the holes in the compressor housing at all.

I had a vf40.

Do I need to use the vf46 coolant hard lines, or what?

Any tips or insight would be very much appreciated as now I'm stuck in he middle of the install :-(

One thing after another, I swear.

I have not seen this mentioned before so I automatically assumed worse case scenario, lol.

Thanks Mike :-)