[Def]

Originally Posted by ixfxi

well, thats my hunch. but again, i think this comes down to what particular turbo you are running and at what boost levels PLUS how hard you drive.

street car, occasional tom fooler = stock hardware OK
street car, lots of street racing = stock hardware OK

anything more than that, then you will need to take measures to prevent shit from falling apart.

ive been researching this to death and will continue to do so. my findings so far is that either you spend the money on inconel and fancy hardware -OR- you step up to larger fasteners. me personally, i am going to attempt the larger m10 hardware and see what happens.

with that said, ive been digging through many big companies install-guides and what not, and stumbled into this:
http://www.airpowersystems.com/gto/i...ts04_guide.htm

the well respected APS does not use ANY fucking gaskets between turbo and manifold. instead, they use permatex copper which has a rating of about 700f. sounds like bullshit, but people are saying that it works like tits so i am going to give it a rub. other old-schooler alternative is to smear the mating surfaces with some bearing grease, which burns off and leaves a tough carbon seal. again, it is critical that all mating surfaces be machined flat or as flat as possible.

keen eye will notice the lack of inconel ANYWHERE in the aps guides, they're using stainless with copper self locking nuts. no locking clips, no nordloc, no threadlocker, no safety wire. jeeeez.

M8 stuff and permatex didn't work for me. Same story of the face of the nuts deforming - I.e. High temp creep. There's no gasket to blow out, so it wasn't as bad as the stock gasket letting loose, but it still noticeably leaked and gave a 600-900 rpm later spool and generally down on power. Not to mention all the exhaust on that side boiled my clutch fluid in the line on the straights.

Have you thought about trying to fit M10 bolts, or 3/8-24 A286 socket cap screws? You can drill large safety wire holes and use that to torque the bolts with a screwdriver or something through the holes.

That said, you're making this too hard. Just weld the damn turbine housing to the manifold and never worry about it again. There's so much weld area, it will not crack.