Hey guys. So my turbo oil feed has rusted through and is leaking like crazy. It squirts under pressure and just drips when the engine is off. I can't drive the car; it's hemorrhaging oil. I'm look at replacing this and I can't see how to go about removing the bolt that connects it to the block. The turbo side looks straight forward, the bolt is directly on top but the lower one I can barely squeeze a 19mm wrench on it and when I get it on I can't possible move it. The coolant feed for the water pump is right there. I was thinking I could loosen the feed line that might afford me a little bit of space but I can't move it too much without it leaking. In reality, do I need to drain the coolant and remove this line entirely to get the oil feed bolt out?

 

I'm going from memory, but you have to remove the downpipe and o2 elbow then you rotate carefully the coolant crossover to get a wrench in there

 

That sounds like a pita. The downpipe isn't a problem, I just had it off the car not long ago but the o2 elbow. It's been on there for 12 years dealing with high temps and I can't even see how to reach all the bolts. I am due for a coolant change. Would draining the coolant and removing the coolant crossover work?

 

Removing the Coolant crossover requires removing the thermostat housing. Not impossible, but also, not fun while it's still in the car... I'm not sure which one I'd rather do. The Thermo housing is only 3 bolts though, iirc... should be "easier". PB Blaster the hell out of the studs/bolts/whatever on the O2 Housing if you go that route.

Obviously you should have new o-rings and gaskets on-hand for the crossover pipe and the thermo housing.

 

Yeah, the car has 133k miles on it and it's the original thermostat as well. That may not be a bad route to go.

 

So this weekend I went and replaced the oil feed line. I managed to do it without removing anything. Using a 19mm 6 point 1/2" drive socket, a 1" extension and a universal I managed to get on it from above and behind the coolant crossover pipe. It required a lot of patience but it came out. Getting it in was a bit trickier because I need to get the treads started. So I had to use one hand to guide the bolt where I needed two hands to handle the universal and ratchet. So I ended up adding a second universal and a long extension so I could keep on hand on the bolt guiding it and the other cranking the ratchet. Again, a lot of patience but I got it all in there. The whole thing took about 90 minutes to do. So not too bad.

 

Nice. Always good when things go well and you don't have to remove extra parts.