About to do the turbo in my car...
 

Noticed a few weeks ago I was going through coolant very very slowly, with no smoking or leaking to be found. Had to do a refill every 500 miles. I saw there was some really heavy pink crusting near the turbo coolant lines and there is a bolt on the turbo where the metal has literally swelled, the metal coating has peeled/flaked off, and it actually looks like it turned the metal pink. I will get a pic of this at some point here. (Turbo has over 100k on it)

Bought a new turbo, new gaskets, new crush washers, etc. form ECS. Got fresh Mobil1/Filter and 2 gallons of G12.

I am wondering if you guys have any recommendations on anything else I may need before I start this job? This is my only car at the moment so I cant have it down too long... Riding my motorcycle in the rain 60 miles in traffic to and from work = not fun.

Are you replacing with another K03?

As far as advice for doing the job, you can never use too much PB blaster. If you haven't had your manifold/turbo/cat/downpipe apart before, its a good bet all of the nuts and bolts/studs have gotten rather attached to one another. (bad pun intended :D)

If you're just replacing the turbo, you shouldn't need to completely remove the cat/DP, just back the nuts off and sorta shove it out of the way. I would also replace all the oil/coolant feed/return lines while you're at it.

Also, as long as you've already got more than enough G12, I would just take the whole core support off, it makes getting at the turbo waaaay easier, and doesn't take much time.

Thx for the followup!
 

Yeah going with another K03s. Wanted a genuine BW not a Chinese POS, and couldn't afford the k04 as I am currently moving and trying to float 2 houses during the move. It picked a bad time to throw a seal lol. Like $21 left in my bank account after I bought the parts.

"I would also replace all the oil/coolant feed/return lines while you're at it. " This is kinda what I was looking for, didn't really think about picking those up prior to doing the job, but its a smart tip =] (Damn the price on the coolant line, may have to put the job off another week...)

Thanks a lot man!

Just wait til next pay check and replace all those old hoses and do the job right. As long as you take the car easy, it should hold up for another week or two.

Keep us updated with the progress.