[fsd350]

Originally Posted by iaknown

A little grease smeared on the back of the flapper will tell you where to remove material. Without it you're kind of guessing....

Now you tell me...

[BB_cuda]

fsd350, did you have any problem with the reamer not running straight with the existing port. When i got to the top of the bore, lip is way bigger on side and practically not existent on the other side. The reamer won't bust through the lip. So, i followed it with a 7/16" drill bit and that someone cleaned it up. I followed that with the 15/32" reamer again and still can't get through the last little bit. Long story short, don't run a drill bit up in there. there are severe consequences to consider. See the photo.

I really really lucked out getting this broken bit out of the port. It had broken even with the port's bottom. I was shitting bricks about how to pull the turbo. This was a 1/2" bit which was shear stupidity for me running up in there especially before the 1/2 reamer had even been run up in there.

After getting the broken bit out, I'm taking the rest of the day off like i should have in the first place since its July the 4th. I'm feeling super lucky today. Just got to get back to straight reaming tomorrow.

[fsd350]

Originally Posted by BB_cuda

fsd350, did you have any problem with the reamer not running straight with the existing port. When i got to the top of the bore, lip is way bigger on side and practically not existent on the other side. The reamer won't bust through the lip. So, i followed it with a 7/16" drill bit and that someone cleaned it up. I followed that with the 15/32" reamer again and still can't get through the last little bit. Long story short, don't run a drill bit up in there. there are severe consequences to consider. See the photo.

I really really lucked out getting this broken bit out of the port. It had broken even with the port's bottom. I was shitting bricks about how to pull the turbo. This was a 1/2" bit which was shear stupidity for me running up in there especially before the 1/2 reamer had even been run up in there.

After getting the broken bit out, I'm taking the rest of the day off like i should have in the first place since its July the 4th. I'm feeling super lucky today. Just got to get back to straight reaming tomorrow.

Yeah it was pretty tough to keep it straight and pretty time consuming. I ended up REALLY close to the flapper. I just used drill bits, which probably wasn't the best idea. I was $hitting myself too. Good idea to walk away and resume tomorrow. I finished the whole alphabet job yesterday (stage 2) and my d runs great. Guess I didn't mess it up. Keep us posted on your progress tomorrow.

[Yozh]

Yikes.

[BB_cuda]

Firstly, success on the reaming front. I ran all 4 sizes all the way up the port.

I learned why one might think you weren't running that straight. There is more meat on the outboard side as you go upward. The inboard metal doesn't continue. So, you only see a shoulder on the outboard side and think your off center due to no inboard shoulder. Hope you guys know what i mean by shoulder.

Here are the details of how i broke through that shoulder. I used a round file and worked on the edge of the shoulder in a few spots. I went back up in with the 15/32" reamer but this time i had cutting oil on it. I have done drilling before with motor oil and it doesn't hold a candle to the cutting oil. You get it on the plumbing isle at Home Depot. I wasn't super keen using oil up inside the exhaust end of the turbo but figure it will burn away in about 2 seconds.

I need a favor. I'm having trouble remembering how to adjust the threaded rod of the waste gate actuator onto that flap we've all been discussing. Any one have a pick or can talk me through this please. If i recall, it opens out about 45° but this is a guess on my part.

I have a mighty vac and could likely open the vacuum fitting and run it open and closed. I'd rather not open myself up for other problems if i can just adjust the linkage right the first time. I tried my hardest to leave the back nut alone. But fighting with the rod to get the flap's linkage arm past it proved to be a pain in the butt and the nut spun numerous times.

[BB_cuda]

I bolted the actuator back on to its bracket. I pushed the flap closed firmly and then ran the backside nut (closer to front of car). I then put the nut onto the threaded rod and ran it up to opposite of flapper arm. I used (2) 10 mm open end wrenches to lock down on both sides. I hope that's all there is to it. Please chime in if i messed this up. My down pipe is in NY getting "adjusted" so until then, I can redo the actuator rod adjustment differently. I think it will be fine.

[Yozh]

I definitely not looking forward to doing mine.

[iaknown]

Originally Posted by BB_cuda

Firstly, success on the reaming front. I ran all 4 sizes all the way up the port.

I learned why one might think you weren't running that straight. There is more meat on the outboard side as you go upward. The inboard metal doesn't continue. So, you only see a shoulder on the outboard side and think your off center due to no inboard shoulder. Hope you guys know what i mean by shoulder.

Here are the details of how i broke through that shoulder. I used a round file and worked on the edge of the shoulder in a few spots. I went back up in with the 15/32" reamer but this time i had cutting oil on it. I have done drilling before with motor oil and it doesn't hold a candle to the cutting oil. You get it on the plumbing isle at Home Depot. I wasn't super keen using oil up inside the exhaust end of the turbo but figure it will burn away in about 2 seconds.

I need a favor. I'm having trouble remembering how to adjust the threaded rod of the waste gate actuator onto that flap we've all been discussing. Any one have a pick or can talk me through this please. If i recall, it opens out about 45° but this is a guess on my part.

I have a mighty vac and could likely open the vacuum fitting and run it open and closed. I'd rather not open myself up for other problems if i can just adjust the linkage right the first time. I tried my hardest to leave the back nut alone. But fighting with the rod to get the flap's linkage arm past it proved to be a pain in the butt and the nut spun numerous times.

Not sure why you had so much trouble with this. It sounds like you didn't have the flapper out of the way enough possibly? If you are straight and centered, use the reamers in increments, and check your progress it should go without any issue. And although the inboard shoulder disappears, by that time you should already have most of the cutting edge on the reamer in the hole...and if it is straight it won't walk. But glad you got it resolved.

Regarding the wastegate rod, you want a little bit of preload on the flapper. If I remember there was about .400" of rod sticking out past the nut when everything is tightened up. Hope this helps.

[fsd350]

Originally Posted by iaknown

Not sure why you had so much trouble with this. It sounds like you didn't have the flapper out of the way enough possibly? If you are straight and centered, use the reamers in increments, and check your progress it should go without any issue. And although the inboard shoulder disappears, by that time you should already have most of the cutting edge on the reamer in the hole...and if it is straight it won't walk. But glad you got it resolved.

Regarding the wastegate rod, you want a little bit of preload on the flapper. If I remember there was about .400" of rod sticking out past the nut when everything is tightened up. Hope this helps.

I put a small amount of preload on the flapper also

[BB_cuda]

After the fact, I think I was inline after all but it was the not realizing the top of the port wasn't flat. This caused the meat to go away closer to center of turbo and made me think I was off line.

The moral of the story here is when you get something you don't expect. Stop, and go think about it or better yet come ask others who have already done the job. As you can see in my earlier post, I didn't take a well thought out follow on action. I had indeed got the flapper down below the lip of the turbo (if you know what I mean). I think my biggest detriment was working on jack stands and not being able to see from correct angle when I was first starting to run the 15/32" reamer. There is a fine line between on axis and off. You can feel it and it will quickly bind up on you and lock and twist your wrists. I would try to run slow when coming into bottom of port. I also found it helpful to sort of pulse the speed up and down after knowing I was on axis and halfway up.

On the flapper preload, iaknown this is what I chose to do as well to ensure it was clamped shut. I ran the backside nut (actuator side nut) a turn or so past initial contact and feeling some resistance. I then ran the rod end nut on and clamped the two together with a pair of open end 10 mm wrenches. I will check the ~0.400" length of rod. I get the feeling that once the flapper opens, the pressure bleeds down rapidly. It doesn't need to open more than 30-40° to relieve the exhaust pressure.

If anybody has more clean out hints, please let me know as the back of turbo will be open another couple days. Although access not quite as good as bracket and motor mount are now reinstalled.

I never nicked the flapper thanks to iaknown's guidance to grind the relief out of the way. Not sure how much vacuuming to do to clean out the back of the turbo. I used a wet vac for about 10 minutes. I put the hose on the port for a little while and then also close to the turbine vanes.

I lucked out on the bracket/motormount hardware. When I bought the bracket/engine screws last summer (one use screws i'm told), I went ahead and got 8 of them. I used 4 last summer for initial Ecotune pipe install and had 4 saved for times like this. The long motor mount screws were out of stock and on national back order so I ordered but used the originals over again. Those screws came about a week later so I just kept them with the 4 extra bracket screws. So, I used these 6 screws yesterday with antiseaze on the threads. I used TDI's suggestion with duct tape on the etorx socket to the one PITA screw for the bracket. I kept the bracket slightly gapped away from engine while sticking the screw into threads. I got screw to bite first time in this way.

[fsd350]

Sounds like it ended up going well for you BB. Glad to hear.

[BB_cuda]

Back for more. I told the story above about the porting to a fellow hot rod friend at work. He insisted that i borrow a boroscope and that i look up into the port for any crap that fell off into the other side of the turbine wheel. Bear in mind that the down pipe has still not been put back on for unrelated reasons. So, I repeat the drill of disconnecting the waste gate actuator to get flap all the way out of my way. I look down in there and don't see too much but a small filing here and there. I then start looking around periphery of the exhaust turbine wheel and see a whole bunch of shiny stuff on the other side. So, I get air compressor out and blow through the waste gate hole and a fair amount of shavings comes out through the turbine wheel. I'm glad i got this out of there.

So, I'm writing here for a different reason. When i looked through waste gate prior to using air hose, I saw what looked like another flapper of some sort and it was closed. After using the air hose, this internal flap was open.

Any concern with putting everything back together with this flap open. I actually tried to use the end of boroscope to push it back shut and i couldn't. I presume when i start and there is exhaust pressure, it will shut this flapper.

I'm all ears. The boroscope allows photos with varying light intensity and varying magnification. It is a high end Snap On brand retail cost > $1000. Glad i could borrow it. By the way, friend's dad has it for sale for $450.

The head on it is very small at 0.334" and the snake behind it even skinnier at .210". TDI and i had been wondering if a skinny one could be used on intake inspection for CBU but that's a different topic.

[Lexx.md]

It looks like the answer to all my problems will be tuning and removing all the shit from my car

[Jaynen]

As someone who really wants to buy one of these if I view the alphabet as necessary mods to the car can it make them a lot more reliable? Like are the injector failures etc also tied to all this emissions crap?

Would planning for these mods make buying a higher mileage (still under 100k probably) worth it? I know a lot of guys did not want to own one of these out of warranty because of the nightmares with CBU etc

[Yozh]

Injector "failures" are tied to BMW's inability to diagnose problems properly and tendency to throw parts at a problem until something magically works. Do the deletes and enjoy the ride.

[dumalei]

Anyone running jr stage 2 tune with dp and SCR gutted ? Is it gonna over boost ?

[Yozh]

Yes it will overboost.

[dumalei]

is there any way to fix it without modifying the wastegate?

[Whitbread]

Originally Posted by dumalei

is there any way to fix it without modifying the wastegate?

Less fuel = less drive pressure = less boost, but that's zero fun.

[dumalei]

i got no choice. My SCR was clogged and i have to gut it. But I would like to return to stock later when I sell my car that's why I dont want to mess with the wastegate.

[Whitbread]

Originally Posted by dumalei

i got no choice. My SCR was clogged and i have to gut it. But I would like to return to stock later when I sell my car that's why I dont want to mess with the wastegate.

Porting the wasegate won't hurt anything if/when returned to stock. The ecu will just adjust the duty cycle for the LP wastegate solenoid to control boost as needed.

[Yozh]

Originally Posted by dumalei

i got no choice. My SCR was clogged and i have to gut it. But I would like to return to stock later when I sell my car that's why I dont want to mess with the wastegate.

Yeah porting the wastegate should do no harm in a stock car either. But gutting the SCR will prevent one going back to stock when desired, unless you replace the gutted component. I'm sure you had thought about that.