The Project Pad

Then the second thing is;

I was losing about a quart of oil every 2 months or so, I could smell it burning too.
I spotted I was losing the oil at the back of the valve cover, and it was running on to the exhaust manifold. Strange as I had replaced the gasket already when I fixed the distributor.
I thought this was the main source for the oil burning smell so I replaced the gasket again, this time using RTV sealant so it would not leak again.

However in the last week I have been smelling burning oil again, no sign of any leaks.
I checked the level today and it's a quart down from about 2 weeks ago.

I'm probably thinking it's the turbo seals and I'm smelling the oil being burned.
I don't know the history of car so this could well be the original turbo.

I was planning to upgrade the turbo and go VEMS some time in the future, but not right away.
What are my options?
Can I swap in a upgrade turbo and just run my current tune without any problems?
Then later add VEMS and start playing?

Replied to your PM... classic case of "while you're in there"

Thanks For the advice Chris!

I decided to just rebuild the K24 turbo for now and save up for VEMS and bigger turbo later.
I bought the rebuild kit from G Pop shop, and the gaskets from AutohausAZ.

Also bought a VDO boost gauge to baseline my boostages before I change the turbo.
So far I've plumbed it in by the ECU vac line, just need to decide where to mount it.
I want to have it looking really factory, hence the matching VDO gauge.
I'd like to mount in the center vent in the dash, I've seen others do the same and wondered how because there is a flap just behind the vent that's in the way. So others trim the flap too?

I googled Audi 200 dashboard to get some ideas, but the first picture was my actual car! Ha!

There is a little hole in the center vent (toward the left side of the car) that you can get electrical wires through, and presumably an air hose too. You just have to trim it a bit most likely. I'll see if I can get a picture of mine.

I have skinned the hell out of my knuckles but I fished the pressure line and wires through the vent above the glove box and routed up to the centre vent hole. I made this little aluminum box to hold the gauge. Next job is to paint it black. But really I want to 3d print a pod that would look much prettier.
But for now this will do.


I tried to get to the wires for the light at the back of ashtray, but my hands just won't fit. Is there another place nearby to get a driving light 'switched' 12v feed?

I got the dimmed light power from one of the switches for abs, seat heaters, etc.

Painted it anthracite grey.


Started to pull the turbo out, found a mouse inside the air box, scared the crap out of me at first!


Also I got stuck on the last downpipe nut, I can't seem to get anything on that gives any leverage! What do you chaps use?

Get in! I got that nut off, what a pain.
It was some deformed dwarf too, 15mm wrench vs 17mm for the other 3, think it's some sort of lock nut?


Also ended up taking off a couple heat shields, but managed to get turbo off with downpipe there.



Turbo is oily after the compressor, going in to the intercooler there's oil all over.
The turbine wheel looks like there's ash on it! Comes off like a powder, I know it takes 550 degC and above to burn soot to ash. Is this normal to see in our turbos?

It's fairly normal to have oil in the compressor since of the turbo and intercooler piping since the crank breather system goes through it. It can happen due to the seals though. Oil in the turbine housing would more likely be a sign of seal failure.

Most have success using a handgun to dislodge that last nut

Blue silicone on VC gasket? No ultra black?

88a5tq wrote:Most have success using a handgun to dislodge that last nut

Blue silicone on VC gasket? No ultra black?

Handgun? Like a 9mm, just shoot it off? For a moment I did think about it...
There's no way you can get a windy gun with socket on there, is there?
I need photographic proof! Hehe

Either way I persevered with a 15mm wrench and it came off.

Well RTV sealant, and yes blue is all I had haha
I don't want to take it off again any time soon so I'll live with the color, I'm not too concerned.

I am looking for a suitable material to remake the turbo heat shield, the one I took off was all rotten and one of the mounts came away.
At work we used to have some nice dimpled aluminum dual layer with fiberglass insulation in the middle.
I just need a sheet of that and I can remake it. But it looks like someone had a tidy up and it disappeared :-(

More strip down this evening, followed by lots of cleaning of parts in gasoline and carb cleaner.
Everything came apart nicely, no broken bolt or anything! Applied a little heat to the compressor wheel to expand it and remove from the shaft.
Pics are just from the strip down part, looking at the shaft near the piston rings looks pretty oily and sooty and there's a little collection of ash inside the heat shield.

Last night I rebuilt the k24 7000 using the instructions that same with the rebuild kit from G Pop shop. They were OK but didn't give torque specs or end float specs. But it went together nicely and I used my dial indicator torque wrench to get even torque (mostly 70-80 lbf.in) on most bolts/nuts.

Turbo spins really freely, got the new manifold and downpipe gaskets from AutohausAZ so I spent this evening throwing it back in.
I got stuck on the coolant return fitting though, it's right under the turbo and I couldn't seem to get it aligned so that the nut would thread on properly. At that point my back had had enough and I called it a night.
I saw that the other end of that coolant return line was hose clamped to the block so I'll unattached from there to maneuver the threaded end better.

While checking various things on the engine while it was running I noticed something strange about the bellows, there's a small hole developed or I'd not noticed before. I suppose it's not meant to be there as it's leaking quite a bit.

Anyone seen this before? Is there some explanation? Rest of bellow is mint!

Lol that's so weird. It almost looks like it was helped along seeing as those areas are somewhat thick.

Turbos sure are nifty on the inside. Rebuilding them is therapeutic hah. Good work!