So I got my neighbor to look as I cranked the motor. It turned out to be the turbo exhaust housing, I had forgotten to put the clamp and the bolts on, mainly because I had broken off a bolt when removing it. Gases were coming out the bolt holes.
I took off the turbo and tried to remove the housing to extract the broken bolt but it was beyond me. I decided to have the turbo rebuilt and let them do the extraction. Checking around I found a place in Hayward, CA about 60mi away. Vargas Turbo Technologies. I emailed them and they assured me they could rebuild it. So I took the 2 turbos I had up to them on May 6th. Both are Garrett T-2's for the 19J 2.5DT and fit my intake/exhaust set up.
After a week I called and found that I had been put on the back burner due to a local water company needing 4 turbos rebuilt. A week later it was they had a backlog and would get to mine soon. Last week it was we sent the exhaust housing to the machine shop and they can't get the bolt out, they will try the second housing which has 3 broken bolts. This week the machine shop is a flop on both. (WTF????)
Today I went up and was able to pick up the housing with the 1 broken bolt, figuring I can't hurt it and I work cheap and have all weekend to try to get it out. After all I have a drill press and a drill sharpener and time. I picked up some new drill bits at Home Depot, some black oxide split point and a couple of cobalt deep freeze all in 7/32"
Around 4pm I started working on it first by cutting a slot across the bolt and trying to get it out with my impact driver, that just bent the corners on my driver tip...
Then out came the center punch and the drills and it took a bit of finagling to lock the housing tight in the drill press but with a couple of clamps I got it. Slowly with light pressure and plenty of cutting oil I started drilling. It was hard going, at one point the drill bit caught and broke about 2 min into the drill. I only had a shiny depression maybe a 1/16" deep. Out came drill bit #2, more oil--lighter pressure, after a min or so I re-sharpened the bit and repeated this about 5 times until I finally got through the hardened part maybe 3/16's or so then the going was somewhat easier but not like unhardened steel. It took about 15 minutes to drill that first hole all the way through.
I jumped 3 sizes on bits and started over expecting to go right through,,,not so, I had to resharpen that bit 5 times to get to the bottom, but I got there! I tried my EZ-out, nothing.. wouldn't budge, tried some heat with same result.
So I went up 2 more bit sizes figuring this would be the max I could go since the hole was off center. Surprisingly this bit went right through, so did my EZ-out, dropped right through the hole. It was 5pm and I had to make a run to the hardware store and get larger EZ-outs.
I bought a set of 5 for $14 at ACE Hardware. I tried the correct one for the hole and nothing, Damn thing just wouldn't turn.
Moving the housing to my welding bench for better access, I clamped it down and was really able to put some torque on the EZ-out whilst taping it with a hammer hoping to break it free. Nada...
My only option was the dremel tool with a carbide cutter, I put it down in the hole and reamed it out centering the hole in the bolt better, being careful to not hit the threads. Then I drilled it out to 17/64" and ran my 8mm x 1.25 tap down the hole. Done! It was 6:15pm, roughly and hour 45 mins which included set ups and bit sharpenings.
I will contact the shop on Monday to get it back up to them but I have concerns over the cracks in the housing. Maybe the other one is in better shape.
Vargas says the cracks are nothing to worry about, but to me they look pretty serious. I dunno?
UPDATE; 6.12.2015
I did some more looking online but really haven't found any good exhaust housings even though I have contacted turbo places in Spain and the UK. So it looks like I will have to go with an exchange unit or a new one.
Based on this I went up Friday to pick up my 2 turbo parts. To my surprise there was no charge for the work done. Kudos to Tony at Vargas!
I came home and drilled out the 3 broken bolts in the second housing and need to get it media blasted to find if there are any cracks. I may be still able to make 1 good one out of the 2.
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