Need local help removing hot side
 

I apologize but I need help. :(

Today, I finally decided to put on my Megan Racing O2 housing / turbo outlet. I have everything that's in the way off the car, but am currently stuck on removing the turbo's hot side housing. I've pretty much flooded the CHRA with PB Blaster for the past 2 hours, but the thing is stuck.

Any ideas are welcome. Moreso, if any of you in the West Plano / Frisco area have nothing better to do tonight. :)

Good luck... I attempted to install my turbo back exhaust, sf intake, turbo inlet, and ebc yesterday. We got everything taken care of less of the O2 housing in an hour or two. After that we spent about an hour attempting to remove the O2 bolts. I was apparently one of the lucky ones that -2- bolts broke off. We pretty much determined that the only way to get them removed was to have a shop wire EDM them out. So instead I just had a Map 2.5 turbo over nighted instead of jacking with those ridiculous bolts. I will add that we did everything properly with a lift and the proper tools.

The moral of this story is prepare for the worst in case it happens to you. Because if you do break some bolts it will take -much- longer to get the job done.

proper way to do an o2 housing install is to remove the o2housing still attached to the hotside from the car. then on a vise you can easily break all the bolts free.

for seperating the hotside from the CHRA i use a flat head screw driver and a BF hammer and hit the groove till they pop apart.

While I have some experience working on cars, I haven't done this specific task before. I had a general idea of what parts were in the way, which had to be removed. And from information on this site, the average completion time was about 2-3 hours for this "simple" bolt-on.

Alrighty, fine. I was off work for Good Friday anyway. A 3-hour task? Since it's me, add maybe an extra hour or two. Let's do this!

32 hours. :(

A lot of time used on trying to figure out how to get to certain bolts. And some things that could go wrong, did go wrong, such as snapping 3 bolts. 2 were the ones that fastened the lower heat shield, which I didn't really care about since the O2 housing is what will be replaced anyway, and I can try to extract them anytime, and take my time. The 3rd one however, was one of the 5 that bolted the O2 housing to the hot side. No amount of PB Blaster, drilling, extractor, vice-grip, sweat, or cussing, made the stubborn thing budge. Had to call it a night and wait till the muffler shop I know in East Plano opened in the morning.

Okay, in fairness, about 12 hours of that was nothing-could-be-done-until I got the snapped bolt removed from the hot side.

What was frustrating, but kind of cool to watch, was the tech who removed the bolt. Took him 10, maybe 15 minutes, to extract and re-tap. Granted, he used a torch.

All in all, I did learn a lot from this experience, which is great. As far as installing an O2 housing / turbo outlet on our cars, I feel that its benefit/gains aren't worth the overall effort for just this one component. Sure, it's a part that could/should be upgraded, but *only* if you're upgrading something else which directly correlates or attaches to it, such as if you're upgrading your turbo.

Yes, sir, I am in full agreement.

Among the 5 bolts fasten the O2 housing to the hotside, 3 can be accessed from above, albeit one of them is a little tough (closest to the radiator). And I have NO clue how to even loosen the 2 below. It took me about an hour laying under the car trying to figure out how to get my ratchet or open wrench to them. And even *if* I did, I didn't have any way to manipulate the tool to remove them. So, unless one is Plastic Man with super human strength that can undo the bolts with bare fingers, separating the turbo is the better way. Took me another half hour or so to bite the bullet and decide to separate the turbo. Since I was doing this alone, and have never done anything like that before, I was worried.

From what I've read, the V-Band clamp was the only thing holding the turbo together. So I couldn't understand why I still couldn't separate the turbo. 4 hours of PB Blaster, pulling, twisting, tapping it with a mallet. Nothing. I was alone so, if the hotside actually dislodged, I won't be able to catch it. Luckily, I got some help, and it took a hammer and a steel rod.

Also, the MR O2 housing has one bolt on the underside that I do not believe can be removed or fastened to the hotside without doing it off the car. It's ridiculous.

Anyway, after those 32 hours, the car runs under its own power again, and doesn't spontaneously combust. I think those are good things.

Edit: LOL @ "BF hammer."