CT26 Removal on my 5SFTE

Wow, not something i would suggest doing if you .. well i wouldn't suggest it ever.

This was the first big thing I've ever really done to a car; I bought it with the turbo installed. I started by taking the pipes off that run from the compressor to the intercooler, one of them had the BOV on it. attatched to one of the pipes was a sensor that i've yet to idenfity.

After i had those out of the way i took off the heat shield that bolts to the exhaust manifold, after i did that i was overjoyed to see i COULD get the turbo out myself, no need to remove engine or get it on a lift. (i thought it would be easy.. hahah) soon after my dad arrived and we started looking for a way to get the downpipe off.. turns out (lucky for us) its in two pieces, one that bolts to the exhaust side of the turbo, and one that bolts right up next to the cat. removing the bottom piece i was suprised to see how fuggin wide that pipe is.. its like 3.5 inches wide!

We put a shirt over the bottom half of the downpipe so we didnt drop any bolts into it

After that was done it was time to remove the other side of the downpipe.. easy except for some reason i thought there were only five bolts and there were six.. took a whlie to find the last one. Not too big of a problem tho..

I'd like to point out that my dad and I were both very suprised at how easily these bolts were removed.. when you consider the temps they are routinely exposed to.. you'd think it'd be harder. According to the previous owner the engine had been installed 2000 miles ago from when i bought it. so all those bolts had about 2500 miles on em.. still.. i don't think they were even close to torque spec.

I'm removing this old ct26 to put in a T3/Ct26 in it's place, not so much for upgrade but because the ct26 blows oil like crazy. Looking at the turbo i bought i saw there was one oil feed line and one return.. simple! However... the damned ct26 has those.. plus a set of coolant lines! When we unhooked the coolent feed line we stuck a golf tee in the port to stop the coolant from leaking.. apparently you're supposed to drain the stuff before you start Hahahah!

So yeah.. The coolant and oil feed lines were both braided.. hence.. flexible. but they were also easy to remove so we took them off of the engine, and left them attatched to the car. HOWEVER.. the damned oil return line (which is right next to another flexible line, believed to be coolant return, i really have no idea what i'm talking about here) IS NOT FLEXIBLE
ITS 18 INCHES LONG AND FUCKIN CURVY AND RIGID

_AND_

we couldn't get it off .. atleast not without taking apart more shit. so we went under the car (alot of work was done under the car. not very fun considering we have no lift.. or jack stands.. just one jack and bricks!) anyways i just cut the oil return fitting type thing with my knife (it went from the end of the bastard evil oil return spear of death to the oil pan) and we ASSUMEd the turbo would be free..

we removed all the nuts from the turbine/manifold uh.. joiner.. thingy and tried to remove it! but.. no dice..
not only was one of the (uh i guess they arent bolts caus they have no heads..) things was offset and sticking out too much.. but the wastegate actuator bracket was hitting something too.. (some evil metal line .. dunno what it was) so after some vice grips and alot of patience and holding the turbo up.. we got the shaft out and the turbo was free..

BUT

YOU FORGOT THE OIL RETURN LINE
STICKING OUT 18 INCHES IN THE MOST ANNOYING DIRECTIONS EVER!!

i dunno if you've ever held 40 lbs at arms length while moving it around all over the place.. for 15 minutes... but its not fun!

needless to say we DID get it out and now i'm the proud owner of a car that can't do anything!

next: borrow snap ring pliers to remove ct26 compressor housing to i can see how bad the shaft play really is.. and.. decide if im going to rebuild the t3 before i install or.. or leave it to chance!.. see you next time