What a day!

[Dangerous Dave]

So after taking my turbo off last night for a rebuild, and a lie-in this morning (ooops) i started to refurb it. After a few hours of cleaning all the parts were sparkly and ready to put back together. One of the new seals in the rebuild kit was too small and would have meant the compressor wheel would have been touching the backplate, so I had to reuse the old one, which I think is worn but there's nothing I can do about that for the time being. Once all back together it was time to fit to the car. Thats when the fun started (by this time it was 3pm).

I fitted the exhaust manifold no problem, apart from a missing stud and then trying to torque the nuts up was a nightmare with the brake servo in the way, then I tried to put the turbo in. I couldn't get it to fit down the back of the engine (the oil return pipe was still attached as my AWD unit makes it impossible to access anything underneath the turbo), then I lost the return pipe seal down the back of the engine. Then it wouldn't go in its hole, so I had to loosen the bolts. So after many attempts I finally got it in.

Next I had to fit the nuts to the manifold/turbo joint, the top ones were easy, but the bottom ones (AWD unit remember) took the best part of an hour with just a spanner!

Then whilst under the car with my spanner, I noticed something that dropped my already tested patience to rage level. I have had a clunk/whine for the last few weeks since I changed my cv joint, and tonight I found out why, the bearing cap on the O/S driveshaft bearing has gone, completely. Just two empty bolt holes left. The driveshaft has been moving about, and destroyed the seal on the AWD unit. Thinking about it, I remember last week hearing a 'thunk' under the car and wondered what had dropped off, but forgot about it.

Anyway that aside, I carried on. Again I lost one of the copper washers down the back of the engine, then spent ages trying to attach the oil and water pipes. Once all those were back on I attached all the vacuum hoses using cable ties, and whilst cutting the tail off a cable tie (with a stanley knife) I sliced through one of the rubber water pipes. Then I noticed the clip had come off the wastegate arm, so had to go and fabricate one.

Eventually I finished about 11pm tonight after firing her up and testing everything was ok and not leaking, which it isn't thank god.

All in all a crappy day, so now tomorrow I need to find a manifold stud and a bearing cap and bolts. Dunno what I'm gonna do about the destroyed seal. Why on earth did Volvo make such an awkward car to work on?

Had to let some rage out, resuming normal service now.:B_rant:

[PaulZX]

I had probs with my FWD, so I'm feelin yer pain on the access-to-bolts issue.....

Hope it all turns out good for ya....

[JelT5]

Why on earth did Volvo make such an awkward car to work on?

Because they're utter b@st@rds and would rather all their cars went to their main dealers to be worked on I suspect ;)


Feel for you mate, that bit between firewall and block is a total nightmare to work on. Access is so restricted; just getting the heatshield off is a biatch.
Glad you got it all done finally! Well done! :beer:

[shaun850]

I can send you some studs if you're stuck mate

[cameron]

Not having an AWD i found it fairly easy to take my turbo off :D

Ratchet spanners, good ones are your best friend in these situations, especially the bolts under the dp/turbo joint ;)

Im glad i dont have an awd after reading this and truly feel for you mate, hope you get sorted out soon.

[dooby]

Hiya,

sorry to hear it was a pain of a job, I've been there and even on an FWD it's "interesting" access to the turbo and manifold!

Great fun working on these cars, eh ;-)

Cheers, Pete

[Dangerous Dave]

All sorted now, I'm back to being happy (that and I was driving my dads NA Volvo 940 with nooo power whatsoever). Heat shield took the longest as usual, but not as long as it has in the past (I must be getting used to it).

Thanks for the offer Shaun mate.

Big thumbs up to Nads for supplying the replacement bearing cap and manifold stud (he's only 5 mins down the road).

Only driven it down to the local supermarket so far, so gonna check her over and go for a long drive tonight :biggrin:

Just one problem now is the seal on the awd unit, gonna see Rufe about a new one. And theres a slight clicking noise when going from reversing to forward motion, think the loss of the bearing cap has knackered something, but it'll have to do for now, I've had my fill for this month.

The best way I found to do anything on the AWD car is to remove the engine and work on it outside the car. Much better access LOL.

Some piccys...

Nice clean parts, no crud around the turbine shaft, no crap on the compressor wheel.
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s101/bomb192uk/turbo/24062009080.jpg

Problem with new erm thing (dunno what its called). The new one was too short meaning the comnpressor wheel would be touching the backplate (not good) so had to use the old cruddy one, which will probably leak now i've done it.
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s101/bomb192uk/turbo/24062009083.jpg

Assembled CHRA
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s101/bomb192uk/turbo/24062009084.jpg

Slightly ported turbo exhaust housing to match exhaust manifold
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s101/bomb192uk/turbo/24062009086.jpg

Ported exhaust manifold
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s101/bomb192uk/volvopics/13052009048.jpg

Thanks for reading

Bomb

[Tomcat]

Nice write up, where did you get your parts to refurb your turbo from?.

[Dangerous Dave]

Bought the kit from here

http://www.store2go.net/shop/radesigns/p/product/0806303407-TD04+service+repair+rebuild+kit/

But like I found out, the compressor seal is too short.

[Alan M]

Ther are two kits available for TD04 Volvo turbos. Superback and flatback kits. The kits are different due to the shape of the compressor wheel. It looks like you got the wrong kit. Good write up though.

[Dangerous Dave]

Well, I've just had an eventful evening to add to my crappy week so far.

I decided to go to my cousins house in Cannock, as this involves some motorway driving, and a good chance to test the turbo out. Everything was fine until I was leaving the motorway, when going up the slip road I noticed a plume of smoke behind the car. My heart sank, my immediate thoughts were that the old seal I had put in was too worn and was haemorrhaging oil. So onto the dual carriageway I booted it a little and just a whiff of smoke came out, then when I lifted off a huge plume came out again. I really did think it was knackered. And the turbo wasn't boosting properly as well.

So I pulled up on my cousins driveway and as I got out the car, there was smoke coming from under the bonnet. I grabbed my torch and lifted the bonnet to find smoke coming from down the back of the engine. I checked the turbo water an oil pipes (the ones I could see) and they weren't leaking. So I grabbed my toolkit out the boot, and took the over engine boost pipe off and checked for oil. It was clean, and the compressor output was bone dry.

So I borrowed a jack and axle stand from my cousins garage, pulled on some overalls (had my best jeans on LOL) and crawled underneath to see what was wrong. There was oil everywhere, loads on the exhaust and all the way down the underside of the car. So I suspected the oil return pipe, and after some fiddling with all my extension bars and uj attachment, working around the AWD unit, and suffering the heat from the engine, I managed to remove the pipe.

I was right, the upper gasket was fine, but the lower seal had been broken/cut in half, most likely when I tried to fit the turbo in on wednesday. This lack of sealing was allowing oil to spray everywhere (especially when booting it) and all over the exhaust causing the huge plumes of smoke I had seen (at one point it was coming in through the air vent in the car, and that was with the recirculation on!).

So it was off to my uncle's shed to search through his plumbing drawer (not much in there), which yielded a pack of rubber washers, and after trimming about 1.5mm off one, I pushed it onto the end of the pipe, and then back under the car to fit it. I couldn't believe it, I managed to fit the pipe first time and locate and screw in the two bolts without any bother (all this with the AWD unit in the way and a hot engine). A quick trip across Cannock chase to test it revealed little to no oil leaking.

Bodged good and proper!

Oh and I worked out why the turbo wasn't boosting properly. A quick look at the MBC revealed I had installed it the wrong way around (I wasn't on the ball at 11pm on Wednesday night). So a quick fiddle sorted that.

So now I've got to get a new seal and go through the trouble of trying to fit it again.

P.S. Big Thank You to Lazarus for letting me borrow his overalls, jack and axle stands.

[Rob S]

Lifes never dull for you is it mate!!

[Dangerous Dave]

Nope, last Sunday, my girlfriend fell down some steps and sprained her ankle (at 3am) so I spent 4 hours at A&E for the doctors to pull their fingers out their arse and see to her.

Am in urgent need of that seal, as my car was smoking again (only a little though) when I got back from work just. Might pop to my local Volvo dealer and pick one up on Monday.