My home made turbo base gasket is still going strong and has not developed a leak yet. So any of you guys that need a gasked and there is so one local in your area and your warrantee is up. Drop your brain down into drive and check this out.
Materials Needed:
1: Turbo must be off car
2: smallest sheet of aluminum that is .025" thick from LOWE'S
3: Ball peen hammer
4: Sheet metal shears (Right, Left, and Straight)
5: about an hour of free time and a little patience
Gasket making 101:
Step 1. Seperate the turbo from the exhaust manifold. Thats the easy part.
Step 2. get a generall idea of how much aluminum you need, trim off a piece from the big sheet. If done right you should be able to get 4 gaskets from one piece of aluminum
Step 3. Lay your square of aluminum on the turbo/manifold flange and trace around it with a Sharpie, Trim off excess with shears. Make it look nice.
Step 4. Clamp one corner of your aluminum to the turbo some how, this is just to make life easier and is not completely necessary. I did mine without clamping it down you just can't let it move.
Step 5. This is the fun part where you beat stuff with the hammer. The ball end is good for the bolt holes and the corners, the normal end is good for the straight lines. The object is to tap/beat at the aluminum while it is on the manifold or on the turbo to allow the cast iorn to slowly cut its way through the aluminum start on the bolt holes first.
Step 6. You don't want to be beating away at this thing, just hitting it hard enough slowly cut through the aluminum. Start by gently tapping around the holes with the ball end untill you can start so see the shape of the hole in the aluminum. Slowly start tapping a little harder and harder itll the aluminum cuts itself on the cast. Now you have one hole down 3 more to go.
St3p 7: The center hole is a little more tricky because the aluminum is going to try to pull the corners in, work slow it is best to start in one of the corners and work towards the straights. Use the ball end in the corners and the flat in the straights. Don't hit in the aluminum in the middle of the big hole it will just push it down and pull the corners up then you have to flatten it back out. Just keep at it itll you have the center Hammer Trimmed out. Clean up the edges with a file or sand paper.
Your new home made gasket may have a slight warpage to it but it will flatten out and seal up nice. I forgot to do it on mine but i think you could trim the outside edge a little larger than what it needs to be and put a bunch of slits in it then bend these fins up and down. This in theory should allow the aluminum to dissapate some of the heat between the manifold and the turbo. Possibly reducing housing temps by a few degrees.
This same gasket making procedure could possibly be applied to the Downpipe Flange/Turbo mating surfaces. This gasket is of course going to take alot longer, but wil seal it up.
If you need some pratice before attempting the aluminum or your just not grasping the theory of how this is going to work. Grab you a Manilla file folder and head out to the garage/bed room floor and cut with scissors to get the rough shape and then follow the same instructions above except replace Aluminum with Manilla Folder. This manilla folder gasket WILL NOT WORK it must be the aluminum.
Following this guide you assume all responsibility for damages done to your car and your turbo. I did the same exact thing on my car because the stainless gaskets kept leaking. I was cautious and took my time and i have not had a single leak or any problems out of my car or turbo. The bolts are even staying tight in the manifold/Turbo. Good Ole Redneck Enginereering can sometimes be a good thing.
Oh If your base gasket has been leaking for a while then you might want to clean your filter and your MAF sensor. The filter catched alot of the black sooty stuff but alot of it makes it to the MAF. Mine was black and Nasty, quick squirt of CRC MAF sensor cleaner and power took a climb and so did fuel mileage.
DIY: Home made gasket
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