just a little rant.. so annoying.

This past weekend I was going to have a look at my turbo to see if I could tell if it was my source of burning a quart of oil every 700-1000 miles or so. So first I proceeded to take off my intercooler to check the "easy" side for obvious signs of oil pukage. Took off the back bolt of the intercooler/turbo connection, no problem.. go to take off the front bolt.. Very little to no tension at all. And I notice the bolt is super long and almost touching the pipe that crosses right under there.

 

So anyway, I took off the other support bolt and noticed it was short, like the other (rear) intercooler/turbo bolt. Thought to myself.. oh ok, last time somebody worked on my car (I will use 3 different subaru shops in my area) they just swapped bolts by mistake. Took a look at the intercooler, looked clean.. looked inside the throttle body hose.. had some oil, more than I have ever seen in there before, but didn't seem alarming so decided to put it back together.

 

Tried to use the correct 'short' bolt in the front intercooler/turbo location.. spins and spins... LIGHTBULB... so the reason the long bolt was in there was because the turbo threads are shot and somebody decided to just throw a longer bolt in there in hopes of catching a few threads.

 

Didnt have a tap n die set on hand, nor any helicoil type things around so I tried to put the longer bolt in there in hopes of catching some threads and getting a good seal. FAIL.

 

So I gently got it as tight as I could till I could run to the hardware store and pick up a nut, washers, bolt and get it clamped down.

 

After getting it all buttoned up and driving for a few days, I cant believe I drove around for who knows how long with that leak. I thought the fluttering/psstthh sounds that were coming from my turbo was due to its age for who knows how long. Nope.. just a boost/vacuum leak. Never got any CEL's, car didn't seem to really perform any different this whole time, but did seem to run quite rich.. but the sound difference is certainly proof that ive been running around with a leak for quite a while.

 

Was hoping to get some MPG improvements, but havent seen that, but I didnt reset my ecu after fixing, just was letting it relearn. Gotta get my tactrix hooked up again and see what the fuel trims look like.

 

I am just really annoyed that the last shop to touch my intercooler.. even if they weren't the ones that did the strip/bolt swap trick didnt mention it to me as a heads up. I know they likely didnt want to get blamed for doing it but still.. a heads up and 2 dollars of hardware would have had me on my way.

 

Is there anyway a vacuum/boost leak could equal more oil being consumed? Create extra vacuum which causes more blowby?

 

Sorry for the post.. just hadda get it off my chest.

I understand your frustration. Seems that's it's hard to trust anyone working on your car....even a legitimate shop. The shop that swapped my heads to complete my rebuilt way overtightened one of the coolant hoses with a worm gear clamp.....coolant line blew before I got it home. Coolant everywhere and the motor almost overheated. They also overtightened the oil filter and I had a hell of a time getting it back out to change it.

My short and long term fuel trims currently. Are these normalish?

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160729/e35715fdf2458252770ab89f97011561.jpg

 

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Forgot this tidbit also... Along with the intercooler/turbo bolt thing, I found that when I had my radiator replaced, the shop failed to mention to me that the bolts for the radiator hold down brackets were in bad shape.. Instead they just put them in half way/as much as they could... And sent me on my way.

 

Using some wd40 stuff I was able to run one bolt in slowly and got it all the way down.. The other bolt/hole wasn't so wiling. Ended up just having to zip tie it in place.

 

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I just bought some longer bolts for the turbo/intercooler flange, and some hardware store nuts to go on the bottom. My threads are mostly there-ish, but I think next time I take off/reinstall the intercooler I'm just going to blow the threads out on purpose (i.e. use electric impact and let it spin), and use the nut for all clamping force. Once tightened, apply glob of JB weld to the nut to retain it in place and ease future installation.

 

Your fuel trims look similar/better than mine do, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. You might see the long term drop a bit more if you really did squash all of your vacuum/boost leaks, but some of that adjustment is compensating for the ethanol in your fuel.

Or, you could buy a helicoil kit for ~$20 and do it properly.

 

If you really wanted to go all out you could buy/make some studs too and never have to worry about them striping out again, or looking like a ghetto hackjob.

forget the helicoil, or any other method. Just install studs on the turbo- its much easier to do especially on the hole thats right above the intake tract.

forget the helicoil, or any other method. Just install studs on the turbo- its much easier to do especially on the hole thats right above the intake tract.

 

That would work if the threads were still good, but they are stripped out on his turbo.

I would pursue fixing this turbo but I'm currently in search of a vf52 so just has to hold together till then.

 

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I see your from central NJ how far are you from http://www.AZPinstalls.com ?

 

Call them and have them work on your car. You can tell them I sent you.

forget the helicoil, or any other method. Just install studs on the turbo- its much easier to do especially on the hole thats right above the intake tract.

 

Helicoil is the curse from hell whenever you want to take it apart again. Almost any alternative is better, even a nut on the backside if you can.

 

If you use studs, make sure they are of good quality steel.

I see your from central NJ how far are you from http://www.AZPinstalls.com ?

 

Call them and have them work on your car. You can tell them I sent you.

I've used them a few times. They are the furthest away from me so unless they are offering some sort of deal on something I tend to use some closer shops.

 

Maybe that's the problem...... .. . [emoji58]

 

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It's tough when you don't have a shop you can trust close to you.

 

Good Luck.

Helicoil is the curse from hell whenever you want to take it apart again. Almost any alternative is better, even a nut on the backside if you can.

 

If you use studs, make sure they are of good quality steel.

 

 

I've never had a helicoil back out on me or cause issues with disassembly.

 

I've used helicoils from 3mm to 14mm without issue.

 

For those running the perrion/ts/ipr/etc TMIC it has helicoils in the BOV mount from the factory. My FMIC kit had helicoils in the crash beam mounts too.