Ford Turbocharger Rebuild - Bringing Back The Boost

With the O-ring properly seated, reinstall the four retaining bolts with a 10mm wrench. New bolts are recommended; the kit we bought online happened to have new ones in it.

With the turbine shield in place, insert the turbine shaft into the centersection, carefully seating the ring. It should slide in smoothly and bottom out.

Slide the compressor wheel back on and tighten the retaining nut to 5 lb-ft. Because we lacked precision tools, we used the backwoods torque wrench until it was "comfortably snug." To do this, put the turbine wheel into a nice, thick rag and drop it into a vise to carefully hold it in place.

With the centersection "clocked" to the proper position, it's time to tighten it down to the compressor housing. A 13mm wrench still handles this duty.

Before you put on the compressor housing, remember to lay down this paper gasket. It not only acts as a seal, but it also functions as a spacer to properly gap the compressor wheel with the inducer of the housing.

Tighten down the housing bolts in an opposing sequence to properly crush the gasket.

Last, install the wastegate actuator and pop on the circlip. When installing it, you'll probably have to tug on it a little bit as the wastegate should be preloaded to keep the flapper valve shut at all times. When not properly adjusted, the car will either have terrible turbo lag (not enough preload) or excessive boost (too much preload.) The wastegate spring preload can be adjusted by turning the threaded end of the actuator rod.

Our first turbo rebuild, and it worked. We discovered a noticeably tighter shaft that had very little endplay and, once back in the car, we were rewarded with quicker spool-up, less noise and, above all else, no more oil smoke.