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I've been wrestling with getting all the v-bands lined up correctly for hours and hours across a couple of months so far now. It's been insanely frustrating. Laying on top of the motor and lifting a heavy turbo and trying to align the mating surfaces plus tightening down the clamps is no fun.
At first, I thought it was because of the custom turbo to block support mount I had made so I cut that out of the equation (literally), now everything is much closer to lining up but it seems like every time I get one lined up and clamp correctly, I can't get any others to and at least one is way off.
There are four v-bands:
1. Turbo to downpipe 2. Exhaust manifold to turbo 3. EWG in and out
Am I missing out on a secret that can make this much easier?
These V-band flanges have top be pretty spot on in order to work properly. Hopefully the jig they were welded on wasn't tweaked.
If you took all the V-band clamps off and tried to line up the V-band flanges by themselves on the floor, do they still conflict with each other or slide into each other smoothly? I would leave the exhaust mani to turbo one as is (unless it looks too short), but the waste gate pipe may have to be cut and converted to flex pipe to give you a little wiggle room. I would hate to have a leaky v band in there.
These V-band flanges have top be pretty spot on in order to work properly. Hopefully the jig they were welded on wasn't tweaked.
If you took all the V-band clamps off and tried to line up the V-band flanges by themselves on the floor, do they still conflict with each other or slide into each other smoothly? I would leave the exhaust mani to turbo one as is (unless it looks too short), but the waste gate pipe may have to be cut and converted to flex pipe to give you a little wiggle room. I would hate to have a leaky v band in there.
I know they are all capable of lining up as they have been on/off the car a couple times, just not by me. WG pipe has a flex section and is recirculating.
Can't comment on your exact scenario obviously but if it were me I'd start off by getting every vband sitting around the flanges but not tightened down. Your first pic shows your outlet is sitting too high and needs to rotate down but from the pic the vband that connects to the compressor housing outlet appears to be snugged down. Of course easier said than done but see if you can get everything loosely fitted prior to cranking down. Then it's just a matter of going around and tightening the clamps.
Also, are you using hand tools or impacts? Can understand it being cumbersome to tighten those suckers down while also holding the turbo up but power tools go a long way here. Quick zip of the trigger vs going at it with a ratchet cranking away.
Can't comment on your exact scenario obviously but if it were me I'd start off by getting every vband sitting around the flanges but not tightened down. Your first pic shows your outlet is sitting too high and needs to rotate down but from the pic the vband that connects to the compressor housing outlet appears to be snugged down. Of course easier said than done but see if you can get everything loosely fitted prior to cranking down. Then it's just a matter of going around and tightening the clamps.
Also, are you using hand tools or impacts? Can understand it being cumbersome to tighten those suckers down while also holding the turbo up but power tools go a long way here. Quick zip of the trigger vs going at it with a ratchet cranking away.
Yea, to be clearer on my current challenges...
It's really hard to hold up the heavy *** turbo, perfectly align the flanges, hold that still while compressing the V-band clamp to make sure it's mated with the flanges AND then tighten down the clamp without the clamp shifting up and down. Which means I have to hold the clamp in one hand and the turbo in the other and use my third hand for tightening. :P
I've tried your idea of tightening with my battery impact but I can't fit it in the space properly, even with wobble extensions. Actually I did once but the force of the impact plus the wobble ***** the v-band and makes it not align with the flanges.
As you can imagine, It's been utterly frustrating. I think my next step is figuring out how to convince my wife to help me out. We would basically both have to lay over the engine to do this. If anything I should setup a camera on time lapse to get some comedic footage from it. :P
Is it possible for you to get one started, line up the other started tighten up a little, go back to the first one, line it up and go back and forth keeping them in similar in tightness till they are tight?
Bryan,
Sounds like you need another EVO wrench-er to give you a helping hand. Maybe someone on here is nearby you! I would totally give you a hand, but I am in upstate NY....
Then I put all the washers and nuts on the exhaust manifold, which involved a retractable magnet pen, a lot of contorting, a lot of dropping washers and nuts and fishing them out and trying again and a lot of swearing. Got all the nuts on except for the two top outer nuts, then realized the way the manifold is cast, those nuts can only go first while the manifold is away from the studs. So I have to take all the nuts off again and start over.
So I threw a couple tools across the garage, almost set the car on fire because I was so pissed off, then packed it in for the day. Nothing about this car is enjoyable anymore to me, it's been sitting for two years and I am very very close to letting it go for a stupid crazy price to anyone that will get rid of it for me. Of course, nobody is buying anything right now so bleh.
Good to hear you got it back together B. My car sat for a few years before I got it back together ready for the shootout only to eat my clutch lol. Totally understand your frustration
Good to hear you got it back together B. My car sat for a few years before I got it back together ready for the shootout only to eat my clutch lol. Totally understand your frustration
Well, it's not back together yet. I solved one puzzle only to get screwed by the next. Who am I kidding, the car ain't going anywhere for months anyway because of Covid. If by some miracle I get it all back together 100%, it still has to get inspected and registered here in New Jersey and with everything closed, that ain't happening any time soon.
