Fixing the 02 housing leak...

[McCoy]

During my first two track days last year (after adding the T28) I had 2 of the studs break off and all the bolts backed off. I added a 2nd stud and used a bolt but these kept backing off after every 20 minute session... I got pretty good at tightening these while the car was still hot .

This was what it looked like Friday night when I pulled everything off. The heat shielding on the water/oil lines did it's job, all the rubber lines are still soft and look the same as the day I put them on there.


The damage, two studs broken off. The two that aren't broken are so torn up that I can't rethread anything into them.


What the stud and bolt look like that where in there...


The dirty, dirty engine bay. If you look closely, you can see the melted plastic parts on the frame rail. This is what happens when you have a failing fuel pump and run it at the track


A trip to the machine shop yesterday yielded me this. One stud is still broken off, but now has a extractor bit broken off inside it. The rest have all been redrilled and threaded for 3/8" course thread.


All the new hardware, hardened studs, grade 8 nuts and some jam nuts.


I don't think things will fail this time. I double nutted what I could. Also, I am building a bracket for the DP to the tranny. I finished most of it up last night and will finish it later today once I get the DP back in and verify the last set of holes at the DP bracket.


Any thoughts on how I could do this better, let me know. I was wanting to pick up the hardware for drilling the nuts so I can wire tie this, but was to busy to do it. Maybe on the next setup .

[Def]

I'm not a big fan of jam nuts, because you're just relying on that jam nut to stay put now instead of the main nut - same situation really.

I use mechanically deformed lock nuts(triangular deformation - 3 punches on the top) on my turbo to mani and O2 outlet to turbo connections and they work great. I too was losing nuts on the track with normal stuff, but the locknuts solved it. It's annoying you can't find them in stainless though(for metric stuff, you can probably find yours in stainless). I think it's better to go with stainless steel stuff at the high temps you see on these fasteners vs. a stronger bolt that is relying on a sacrificial anode to not corrode. At the temps they run, it seems that things corrode rapidly, and you get pieces rusting together(which is what looks like happened to your other studs, grinds down the threads when you remove 'em). It's not that you need high strength in that area, it's that you're constantly fighting corrosion, and stainless fasteners seem to work OK.


My GReddy turbo outlet came with stainless studs which are still working great and remove from turbos much easier than any normal steel stuff. Just gotta get some nuts that'll hold on and you're set.

It shouldn't be hard to find stainless hardware for all of that, and you probably won't have to bother with it ever again.

[McCoy]

Def - good information. I should have stated that I was using the deformed nuts before... all of those studs backed out on track . When I was at the hardware store this morning, they did not have these nuts in the 3/8th, fine thread... or I would have gone with those instead.

You brought up a good point on the stainless, and again the little ace didn't have these, just the heat treated studs that you saw above. I'm going with a new setup (T3/T04E 50trim) within 2-3 months, so this is really just temperory, and I'll do a better job of sourcing the right hardware for this one.

The car is mostly back together right now and as soon as the son is down tonight will get the car running. I need to get some seat time before next Friday's track day.

[McCoy]

The car is back together and running again. It did suck, somehow I unitentionally loosened the clamp on the water line that runs around the back of the block to the turbo... it started leaking when I was topping off the radiator. Luckily, I was able to twist it to where the little adjuster nut was pointed up and I used my handy-dandy extra long 1/4" extension to reach down to it and tighten it back up .

I also added the DP with a flexpipe in it... got to love the $60 DP. A bracket was also added between the DP and tranny mount. I need to do one last mod to it tonight, but it's basically done.

[Your Mom]

yeah happens to me alot too. I've broken studs and backed out bolts. thanks def for the nut fix. I'll have to try that next time i have it all off. My idea for a fix was to some how attach the DP to the tranny too. to stop it from moving. that and a flex pipe. but this nut trick is defianly cheaper.

In case you missed it!!! Good job Monty!

I double nutted what I could.

[McCoy]

Thanks Brian... the nut trick I hope will hold up, I'll definetly be safety-wiring the next setup I do.

I did build a bracket to go between the DP and tranny, here is the last picture that I took of it, it is mostly done and on the car now. I'm not a good fabricator, but luckily had some scrape aluminum laying around work that closely matched my cardboard mock that I did

[Epstein]

Or just go buy the stock exhaust to tranny bracket?

[Your Mom]

mines hooked up and it still comes loose.
I had something a bit simplier in mind. just a piece of steel and use a bolt off where the O2 housing and DP meet then and over to a transmission bolt. connecting everything together, kinda.

[McCoy]

Or just go buy the stock exhaust to tranny bracket?

Maybe because I didn't know there was a stock DP bracket

This just shows how much knowledge I have about a stock 240...

[Def]

Trust downpipe doesn't properly use the US exhaust hanger according to my experiences, so I should probably fab one up myself. The rubber square has basically ripped itself apart being stressed.

So maybe he's like me and has a US/Japanese bastard setup.

[2Fass240us]

I made my own using the rubber part:

[Def]

Doesn't look thick enough - NEEDS MOAR!!!

Honestly looks good, I need to do that one of these days.

[2Fass240us]

Doesn't look thick enough - NEEDS MOAR!!!

Honestly looks good, I need to do that one of these days.

LAWL, this is what was laying around.

[veilside180sx]

Actually it looks really good Andy.=) Way to make use of scraps...lol

[McCoy]

I looked for Andy's pictures last week to try and duplicate it... once I saw it I went to plan 'B', what you see above