I'm currently assessing some of the awful rust that's happening around my exhaust manifold and the front part of my exhaust. As I was doing this I made a pretty unpleasant discovery: there's some pretty severe corrosion on the turbo itself and the hardlines for the coolant. Mitsubishi calls this part the "Turbocharger Cartridge" and it is basically the core part of the turbo itself.

Question for you all is: how concerning would you say this is? It looks pretty bad to me but would you say this is "replace the turbo immediately" bad?

Sucks because this is a TME and one of the special titanium turbos. An OEM replacement is like $3500-$4k. Please feel free to recommend me a turbo (street DD w/ exhaust/intake as only mods) if you think this is as bad as I do.

 

Literally zero of that is a concern or cause for replacement. That's super common for those, especially ones that are daily driven and is in no way shape or form indicative of the turbos life expectancy

You could spray an anti corrosion fluid or lubricant on it, let sit and then it'll all burn off as soon as you drive it. Dont worry about it, that's perfectly normal

 

It's cast iron that's subjected to extremely intense heat, nothing you do is going to keep it from oxidizing. This goes for the manifold and downpipe, as well. I have never seen rust on a CHRA ever be an issue - and yours looks like the average used Mitsubishi. It will never pose a problem. That coolant line might corrode enough in a few years to pose a problem, though.

 

I dunno, the rust on the turbo is way worse than anything on the manifold or downpipe. I could pretty easily scrape off chunks of it with my finger. I'm much more concerned about oil or coolant leaking than I am about the turbo failing.

 

It's entirely a non issue, just cosmetic. It's worst on the turbo because it's a lower grade cast iron than the other exhaust components. The areas where the crush washers sit for the oil and coolant are not going to rust, if you remove those lines you'll see fresh metal under them.

If it bothers you a lot then you can take the turbo off the car, remove the rust and paint it with some exhaust temp rated paint, but that's a lot of work for something nobody is ever going to see.

 

maybe put some wd40, let it cook then powerwash. this heatshield extension helps a lot

 

That's a clean engine bay! You would faint at some of the rust in this area on my car All the WD40 in the world wouldn't get it off. I had to use half a can of freeze lube oil just to get the heat shield off to take pics of the chunks of rusted out hardware currently holding my manifold to my turbo housing. I'm terrified to spray them with anything as I think it would dissolve the rust holding my exhaust together. Only one bolt is holding on my turbo protector as the thing has rusted out around the other 3.

But this is all fair, I guess I'll see what my tuner has to say about it. I can always go over to an Evo 9 turbo.

 

That just means you car kept running, and mine gets a "tear down" regularly lol. this car was parked under a tree for 10years. I regularly blowout the oil seals on turbos so they dont stay in the car long enough.

 

If anyone is interested can you all give me some opinions about how bad the rest of this rust is before I go to my tuner and just have him replace all of it? I am thinking the turbo housing looks alright but the outlet and downpipe are both basically trash, they are welded together by rust. The exhaust manifold itself is probably fine (though the hardware and probably the gasket are all toast), but I am considering getting an aftermarket manifold anyway. Is there any benefit to replacing the stock manifold at lower power levels (no more than 350 whp)?

Exhaust manifold:

Manifold/hardware detail. Honestly these are ready to crumble into dust.


Turbo housing to outlet:

Outlet detail:

Outlet/downpipe connection:

 

you can get it port-matched. or you can get the artec manifold. I had a tubular one and it cracked at the weld

 

What brand? Unfortunately I have heard that is pretty common with the tubular manifolds

 

I dont remember who did the port-matching service a while back in the US. my tubular one was a very nice looking Kinugawa (or a copy) but it didnt look good after actual racing lol. I have the artec unit now and I do see gains from it

https://artecperformance.com/product...haust-manifold

 

You're going to need all new hardware (studs, nuts, bolts). If you're concerned about future corrosion being parked outdoors, you should really go with titanium exhaust manifold, turbo and o2 housing hardware.

 

I have heard nothing but good things about the Artec manifolds. Unfortunately I'm not sure they ship here or how much it would cost. Even if it were a few hundred dollars to ship it would still be competitive with most of the tubular manifolds sold here.

Ya don't say?!

Most of this rust predates me thankfully. It is the worst corrosion on the car by far. The car had signs of neglect when I first bought it a few years ago but I did not realize how bad the rust on the front parts of the exhaust was until after I took the heat shield off for the first time last year. I suspect at some point it was parked for an extended period somewhere where water pooled underneath the front part of the engine bay, or where water would drip through the heat extractors and slide onto the manifold/exhaust in the front (or both). Titanium hardware is a good idea though, I'll look into it, though I don't think anyone makes a kit for the 4-6.

 

Most of this rust predates me thankfully. It is the worst corrosion on the car by far. The car had signs of neglect when I first bought it a few years ago but I did not realize how bad the rust on the front parts of the exhaust was until after I took the heat shield off for the first time last year. I suspect at some point it was parked for an extended period somewhere where water pooled underneath the front part of the engine bay, or where water would drip through the heat extractors and slide onto the manifold/exhaust in the front (or both). Titanium hardware is a good idea though, I'll look into it, though I don't think anyone makes a kit for the 4-6.[/QUOTE]

STM Titanium Exhaust Manifold Stud Set for 7-Bolt DSM & Evo 1-9

These will work for your application