Turbo help

[Growlerbearnz]

If the intake manifold's pressure release valve is working you probably wouldn't see much above 12psi anyway. Which is good. It sounds like your wastegate actuator is the problem here- for some reason it's not holding the wastegate closed hard enough. Broken internal spring? Actuator rod too long? Actuator from a different vehicle? They're pretty well sealed so you might end up having to buy a new one- or borrow one just for testing?

A brief puff of *black* smoke if you stomp your foot down is normal. A bit of black smoke at idle when cold is also normal- there should be an idle control knob on the dashboard so you can set your cold idle to 1100rpm or so, and the black smoke should go away pretty quickly.

[joebillhill]

Success! for now at least
I remembered when you showed photos of wastegate lever that it seemed lower than mine. With the gate closed mine sits around 9 o clock whereas yours was around 7. I don't know why its like that or how but I just decided to shape the actuator arm so it would fit mine with the proper tension.
After masterfully (ha!) cold forging the arm on the nearby curb i was able to have it bow out enough that it shortened the overall length and now fits on the wastegate lever.
The smoke is gone and my boost build up to around 9spi so I'm very content
Thanks for the help everyone!

[joebillhill]

Also for anyone who is looking to do this rebuild I mentioned Rattlenbang's post earlier.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14171&hilit=td04+rebuild
A friend also found me an incredible rebuild step by step by David Roberts https://dproberts.files.wordpress.com/2 ... manual.pdf
It wasn't the same turbo as mine but it was only minor differences and was very helpful.
One thing that I was able to do was get the turbo off at the exhaust manifold, not a having to take off the whole shebang

turbo.JPG (169.68 KiB) Viewed 3005 times

This required taking off the lower heat shield (23) to get at the back bolts and attaching a cheater wrench to a 14mm to very incrementally loosen the front nut. Oh and a decent amount of liquid wrench (the stuff smells terrible but it works small miracles)

Optimized-Cheater wrench.jpg (176.49 KiB) Viewed 3005 times

I also had a Superback turbo which was noted on my turbine housing but here's a picture of my compressor wheel with the non flat back ie. a superback.

Optimized-Superback.jpg (210.29 KiB) Viewed 3005 times

And this one. Just because I like this picture

Optimized-Turbo.jpg (550.25 KiB) Viewed 3005 times

[joebillhill]

Another conundrum...
On acceleration from a stop sometimes I cruise along just fine and other times I let loose a puff of blueish smoke. I'm not flooring it by any means, actually going pretty slow off the line.
Any thoughts?

[Growlerbearnz]

Blue smoke is engine oil being burnt. How many KMs on your engine?

On a worn engine combustion gases will sneak past the pistons (blow-by) and into the engine, flow up into the head, out the vent hose on the side of the rocker cover, and into the intake manifold. The more blow-by you have, the faster it'll flow, and the more oil mist it'll take with it. Blow-by happens more at idle when the pistons are moving slower.

If your engine has been running poorly for a while the piston rings might be gummed up with soot. With normal use I'd expect them to free up eventually. Or break. Either way, your engine probably needs a rebuild. I'd just live with the occasional bit of blue smoke.

It can also be caused by oil getting past worn valve guides, though that tends to cause a single big puff of blue smoke when you first start accelerating.