Twin turbo swap out.....difficult for a newbie?
 

I blew the oil seals on one of the turbos on my fd3s, have bought a second pair and they've just arrived back freshly rebuilt. The problem i have is time and money, ie lack of both. So i would like to have a go at swapping the turbo units myself. All information and/or advice welcome as i'm a newbie to turbos really! I have a mate that rebuilt his nissan 200sx from ground up, he's willing to lend me a hand and the tools, but he freely admits to not having a clue about rotarys! Should i pay stump up the cash and have it done by a pro, or is it fairly easy to do once the tools are sorted?

Also, if anyone can tell me the part no#s i need for the correct replacement gasket, i'd appreciate it muchly!

UK FD3S owner

It's pretty straight forward, not special tools are needed. Remove the intake/IC piping, remove the DP, coolant and oil feed and return lines, vac. hoses to the PC and WG actuators, 6-7 bolts that hold the turbo assembly on the exhaust manifold, then you just need to swap the acuators from one set of turbos to the other unless it came with some and reassemble.

Probably won't need new gaskets either, they are thick metal, I always just resuse mine and I've never had a problem.

Any guess on how long it takes? Is it a day job or like a weekend job?

I'd say if you've never done it a day max. Probably more like 3-4hrs. You can have almost everything off in about 30min.

Its a pain in the ass, it was the first thing I had to do on my FD. I hope you don't have fat fingers/hands.

Definitely a pain the first time... I'm still sporting a few scars from the heat shields.

It is a tight fit!! That's really the only thing that makes it a pain, besides the rusted nuts and bolts.

Luckily I have girly fingers. People don't ask me to help them lift heavy stuff. But I'm the first person they ask to reach something hard or crawl into small spaces :<

I think it would be wisest to take your time and photo document everything. I think 2 hours to remove everything while taking pictures, and then about 5 hours to put everything back. The vacuum hoses will probably be your biggest obstacle, and if you haven't I would suggest installing silicon vacuum hoses.

Eh its not that difficult, but it is tight as some have said. There arent that many vacuum lines that really need to be removed and when you do they arent going anywhere so you just plug them right back up when the turbo goes back on. To me the rusty bolts and getting to them was the biggest pain in the ass to me.

nice one guys! got them off and on last sunday, just gotta reconnect the rear oil drain and bolt the rest together again tonight and i should be making boost again!

Have not changed the twins in my FD yet, but have twice replaced the single turbo on my other car. In general, it's not a bad idea to pull the EGI fuse and crank the motor over for a while after everything's back together. Not only will this get oil pressure into the turbos so they won't chew itself up when you first start the car, but it may also help you detect any leaks before you start the motor for the first time.

thanks for the input everyone! i'm lucky to have a mate that has monkey hands so we were able to do it no troubles! Car is going fast again, you should see my smile!