Ok, So I am thinking that my exhaust leak is actually my turbo to manifold bolts coming loose!!! Almost every time I start the car now it's super loud and I can't build ANY boost up. After about 20 min of driving it will quite down and then I can build boost up. I am going to try and see if I can fix it tomorrow when I do my valve cover gasket (which is now leaking oil onto my cat and creating smoke and stuff. If it's not the turbo to manifold bolts does anyone else have any idea what it is?

josh

 

is it ticking until it warms up?

 

Yeah it does that to.

Josh

 

Stupid double post,

Josh

 

Hmm well my guess would be either turbo gasket or exhaust manifold gasket, on my previous car (2000 Toyota Celica GT-S) I had a ticking noise coming from the engine bay and it only did it for about 2-5 min while warming up, the once warmed up it went away. It turned out to be the exhaust manifold gasket. Hope this helps.

 

Ok, sounds good. I will check that all out when I start working on my valve cover gasket.

Josh

 

Since those are the only possible leaks before the turbo its not really hard to guess now is it?

The odds of it being the exhaust manifold gasket is very slim. The turbo gaskets blow easily. Just remove the gasket, clean the surface and reinstall w/o a gasket. I dont run any gaskets on the exhaust side and dont really intend to.

 

Ok do you use any thread lock on those bolts?

Josh

 

No, but these would help greatly http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3528556