[ScottyS]

Alright, I am tearing into this sooner than expected. It started raining oil yesterday, so I said screw it and slapped it on stands and started taking things apart.

I have the up-pipe, the turbo, and the downpipe off. The starter is off and I am clearing the decks for transaxle action.

The oil was coming from the turbo outlet hose, easy fix after taking it all apart.

The turbo itself was actually loose, with the exhaust housing rotating on the compressor side. There was enough play to almost touch the blade tips on the inner housing wall once I got it off the car. So, that turbo is not going back on. That means operation TD04+TMIC is a go.

Some questions:

1) On the hydraulic clutch (same as WRX), I was told there is some procedure for fixing the fork in place prior to pulling the tranny, otherwise PITA results upon reassembly. Anybody done this before? I might have to talk to Cory about this.

2) The WRX up-pipe has a cat in it, plus a sensor - is this an EGT sensor or something, and would I want to use it?

3) Will the catted WRX up-pipe provide less airflow and generate more heat than the open stock up-pipe? If so, I may just pull the trashed heat-shields on the stock one, wrap it in that heat-tape, and put it back on. Comments?

4) There seems to be a lot of oil blow-by in the various vacuum/crankcase hoses coming back to the intake side, is that bad?