ugh.... I made a HUGE mistake... when you guys hear this you're all going to be like "you n00b!!!!!!!"... seriously it's THAT bad. Like I couldn't sleep all last night because I was so disappointed in my own stupidity.
Basically. I was having fitment issues with the DDP. At first, when I tried to bolt it on, I noticed once I had tightened to a certain point, the flange of the DDP was not moving any closer to the surface of the turbo. The gap was at least 1/16th of an inch. At that point I tried to use washers under the nuts because I thought I had run out of threads. When that failed, I assumed the dividing tab was contacting the inner surface of the turbo prematurely, preventing the DDP from sealing. In the end this was correct, however the path I took to fix it was totally epically wrong. Instead of using some form of putty to determine where the point of early contact was, I assumed it was the long edge of the tab (where it makes contact with the face of the turbo) and summarily filed off about 1/16th of an inch off the tab (yes, that is your cue to *facepalm*). Once again, this failed to allow the DDP to seal... and upon examination of the turbo itself, I realized there was a build up of carbon that I assumed was just in the right spot to block the tab. After a couple hours of picking and chiseling at the protrusion, I finally got if off (albeit there was still some left over, the base of the build-up so to speak), and again the DDP refused to seal. I must now point out that by "not sealing" I mean, I had the nuts tightened all the way and I could still see into the gap between flange and turbo (yes the gasket was there). So after searching my house high and low, I found some eraser putty (malleable eraser), and used that to see what was up. The protrusion did not in fact affect the tab at all, and I discovered that the premature points of contact were the driver side of the tab, specifically where it flares out to meet the flange. So, back to the file. I finally got the DDP to start moving closer to the turbo, so I knew I was on the right track. Finally I had filed enough off the get the DDP just BARELY from sealing (or so I thought). I had forgotten to keep in mind that the gasket has an inner edge of its own (it has 3 thin layers of metal that are kept together by another layer that is folded over, this fold is very narrow). I mistook this inner edge as me being able to still see into the gap (I was using a green laser to determine if I had closed the gap). SO, with this in mind, that means I had 2 filing sessions too much.
Result: Exhaust leak even after warming up. FML. I just took her out for a drive too. I am having a hard time determining if what I'm hearing is Tanabe or the drone of exhaust leak. and when the wastegate opens, it sounds VERY raspy, not sure if that is an effect of an unsealed divider tab.
The good news, she spools FREAKING FAST. and of course the lovely fuel cut is ever there to smash my hopes and dreams
words cannot describe how awful I feel right now... And the fact that the tanabe exhaust is rubbing on the subframe is not helping at all... so much fail.
;'(
)
