I've had my ZFR installed for about 2.5 months now and have been hearing what sounded like an exhaust leak. Took it to the shop today and they put it on the rack and immediately found the problem: the ZZP manifold on the turbo is cracked all the way around.

Has anyone else had this problem? I contacted ZZP to find out if this will be warrantied, hopefully it will be. Just curious if this has happened to anyone else. I have only daily driven the car and done some logging runs for the tune. Never even got around to running it at the road track yet.

At least I'm happy we found the problem, I've been having CEL issues ever since this noise popped up and I'm hopeful they are all related to this leak.

 

Damn that sucks man, I can't really tell by the pic but by manifold do you mean the turbine housing of the turbo? If so this could become a very big issue with ZFR owners

 

did the oem support get put back on?

 

Damn, Adrian you're having some nasty luck this year.

 

There is no provision in the casting for it to bolt up, so I would say most likely no..

 

right. but if you take a point off an upper stud, its possible to install one. I have zero experience with these turbos, but BID I had to put support brackets on my BMW Callaway conversion to stop cracking, caused mainly by the weight of the turbo on the manifold and race track use, and of course some less than perfect castings . Its not easy with conversions of this sort, and I expect that ZZP are aware of the issues and will assist Adrian... The stock car has a pretty robust brace. must be a good reason for it.

 

Yeah like 09CobaltSS1 said, there was no place to bolt to the casting. Great point though John, I think I'll definitely have my shop fabricate something to support it better. Once I go and track it again there will be much more forceon it than in these few months of daily driving...

 

Update:
ZZP has graciously requested me to return the complete assembly (turbo + manifold) for warranty replacement. Brought the car to the shop tonight to take it off. Unless ZZP has made a modification already or can do it for me at a reasonable cost, I am going to have my shop weld on a bung that will take the stock brace. With the g-forces my car is going to see once i return to the road track, I'm convinced it will crack again unless we somehow get that brace hooked up. I'll update with pictures in a week or two...

This is the "bung" or bolt I'm referring to on the stock turbo exhaust manifold, that's missing on the ZZP one:

 

talk to turbo tim at ZZP they are very qualified to do that mod. good people

 

Thanks John, I definitely will!

 

Woah, that is not normal. Good to see it working out with warranty!

 

anything can happen. the expansion and contraction is a killer of many things especially when you have a really heavy o2 housing hanging off the side along with everything else that attaches to it. the car sees roughly 1400+ degrees right there at idle let alone when your at wot. I find the support brace to be a must.

I recommend using a stainless or mild steel bung with with some good e70s tig rod and some good heat for ***********.

 

Update:

The turbo is off the car and as it turns out, What looked to be a crack on the housing is just part of the casting. The leak turns out to be in the gasket right beside it. I haven't seen it with my own eyes, but the shop said that it "disintegrated". Mind you, this is a metal gasket! Not sure what happened there, maybe I just got a bad one. Ordered all new gaskets for the re-install so it should be back together hopefully in a week or so. At least I don't have to return anything and wait for replacements. Will update when she's all back together.

 

Is it the gasket between the exhaust manifold and the turbo?

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Hey a stroke of luck

 

or whoever installed it did not have even torque across the board. it does matter

 

Who did the install and what all wasn't torqued properly?

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i didnt say it wasent installed properly but i said its a possibility. theres so uch heat there that a drastic amount of torque on one side might cause a looser side to warp or crack and so forth. im not saying anyone did it wrong ut its a possibility

the area it cracked in might not be affected by having a strap or not

 

Ah my bad. Taken a different way.

I'm still trying to figure out what metal gasket "disintegrated." Only one I can think of is the gasket between the turbo and exhaust manifold as in my case it broke in 3 pieces and shattered in half. The other one would be exhaust manifold gasket, but I don't see that doing anything.

 

It would have to have been this one:



And I would assume that the bolts were properly torqued as this is a reputable performance shop but I'll double check just the same ;-)

 

Ya that's the turbo gasket between the turbo and the exhaust manifold. Here was mine after 4k miles if that and is what caused my problems of a funky sound and a weird spool. It's suppose to be a one piece gasket, but here it is in 3 pieces and in half. I torqued the nuts to 10 ft lbs and before I tightened the nuts I re-torqued the studs to 15 ft lbs. From my understanding, what would actually cause it to happen, is too much heat for the gasket to withstand.

 

Wow, I wonder what mine looks like (in person)!
What caused it? Was it the torquing of the bolts?
Is it holding now with the torque specs you mentioned?

 

Finally received the new gasket, after an order fail with CED and then another one with ZZP and on overnight shipment...
Here's a picture of the gasket coming out. Pretty similar to the one wert842 posted above.
Everything is being put back together today, should have the car back by Saturday. Can't wait!...

 

Bad luck year for you Adrian

 

You can say that again. This year I've spun the bearings on the Cobalt, resulting in an engine rebuild of $5K.then blew this gasket. Had major electrical failure on the wife's car, fixed it for $1K, then replaced it in June with a 2013 Tiguan. Had major wheel and engine damage on daughter's car in May, had it fixed for $2K, then it broke again in September, replaced it with a 2014 Jetta.
And that's just car trouble.

In the past 12 months, we also replaced the water heater (after it flooded the basement)$2K to replace it, $1,500 deductible flood insurance; the entire HVAC system after the AC failed in August ($12K), the vacuum ($300) and just last week the fridge ($1,800)

I sure hope we're done now

Edit: Oh, almost forgot the two radiators I busted in a 3-week period on the Cobalt. Got wise and got the Mishimoto the second time...