Yes, I tried the search button...didn't help....

Want to swap my Turbos in Jan and love to work on my car myself. Got the shop manual, would would like to get feedback from the 'real world'
Thanks in advance for your help.

I am also in the same boat, but don't have a shop manual and don't have specific date on when to do this. Best of luck

You have the work shop manual, correct?. The DIY is in the manual, under "Turbocharger Removal and Installation"

I say dive right in!
If you have the manual, and you love to work on the car, you should be fine.
Turbo swaps are fairly easy, since they hang right below the car.
Granted, I've never done one on a TT (I have done a 911 exhaust swap) but I'd just go for it.
Just use a bit of penetrant on the studs/nuts to make disassembly a bit easier.
Trial by fire!

When you dive into it... here is some info that can help. This is just taking off the turbos. Hope these pics help. I pulled them from our Turbo Kit install here - http://www.vividracing.com/catalog/p...?cID=10&pID=60

Step 2 - Lift the car up in the air. Remove the drank plug from each oil sump and from your main oil drain and drain the oil. Now is the best time for an oil change. While the oil is draining, if you do not have an aftermarket exhaust yet, remove the stock one for install. If you have an aftermarket exhaust, leave it hanging and unbolt the exhaust from the factory turbo.

Step 3 - Time to pull off the factory turbo and headers. First, loosen the worm clamp that holds the intercooler hose to the inlet side of the turbo. Next loosen the worm clamp that holds the boost hose on to the compressor inlet of the turbo. From there you will want disconnect the oil return line that goes into the oil sump. You will also need to disconnect the top oil line on the turbo to block and remove. Unbolt the header from the block and the turbo and then you can remove the factory header off the car. There is a long green bracket that is bolted to the turbo, unbolt the bracket and then cut it off as high up as you can. This bracket is not needed.

Dan - thanks. It was especially the 'adding back the fluids' topic I was interested in.

Your only going to drain oil. Just like doing a full oil chance. I run 5W30 Motul Synthetic in mine. Ideally, you can just add a quart or less if you only drain what is in the dry sumps.

ROFL...what a smartass plug

Thanks. I did my 15K maintenance about 2 months ago, so I guess I won't have to go for a full oil change.

subscribed. Good thread. Anyone have a link to the shop manual?

I have the shop manuals. PM me for the link.

Yves..... it is straightforward job. Myself and many others have done it at home in our garages. The trickiest part of my job [and again many others], are the oil lines.

The driver side took a while to get them loose from the cans, and on the passenger side one of the hard lines would not come out, no matter how much heat, solvent, et al I used. actually ended up leaving the line on the can and just fitting the can onto the new turbo.

Pay close attention to that part of it unless you want to replace them!

Do yourself a huge favor, remove the rear bumper, it makes removing/installing the turbos MUCH easier. I have seen several accounts of mis-threaded and/or stripped studs on the cat side, be very careful installing these, they are a serious ***** fixing. If your'e swapping turbos, definitely get new turbo check valves as well as a fresh oil change (purge old oil out of lines by pulling fuel fuse and turning engine over until fresh oil comes out of oil lines). If you have any other mods to do such as headers, engine mounts, 02 sensors, plugs, exhaust etc.

Take your time. have fun.

THANKS. Solid advice.
I will also be doing following things :
- Europipe
- spark plugs
- 5 bar FPR

Anybody know whether there's already a Techart rear spoiler available for the 996 ?

Yves,

No real tricks with the FPR, just make damn sure the keys are not in the ignition, helps if the car sat for a while to depressurize the fuel system. I don't think the 04's had the air pump for the emissions on the right side, I had to remove that to get to the FPR when I swapped that and the injectors, not impossible, just a pain.

When you remove the FPR retaining spring, be careful not to lose that, you will be reusing it. Might take a bit to pop out the FPR, a small flat tip will help, but the new one pops right in.

Something that might help with the fpr and the spark plus is lowering the engine- it's really a no brainer as long as go slow and pay attention. Not sure how many miles you have, but swapping the fuel filter (left side) might be a good idea if you have 40-50k miles.

I have more detailed guidance in another thread, but basically remove the air intake and intake hose, get a piece of wood or hocky puck to go between the block and the jack, take the weight of the engine on the jack, loosen the motor mounts and sloooowly let the motor down, have someone on top watching hoses, wires etc. Some have had issues with the coolant hose on the bottom left, mine was soft and plaible so no issue. You only need 2-3 inches. You should have full access to remove coils and the plugs. Careful removing/replacing the coil connections and coils as they have been susceptible to heat and could be not as plaible as other wires and probably on the brittle side. I swapped motor mounts as well since I was there, do one at a time, take 5 minutes once youre at this point. I bought my Porsche RS mounts from UMW, they are about half the weight and allot stiffer than OEM.

Seems like it's more work removing bumper and lowering motor, but it will save you significant time in the long run, especially removing turbos, I removed them with the bumper on and it royally sucked, I installed with bumper/intecoolers off and it was a breeze.
PM me if you need help and I will give you my number.