Since I have retired I find a lot of time on my hands. My GXP is 2 years and 8 months old with 20020 miles on it. Even though I clean under the hood every time I wash the car I noticed that time has started to take its toll.
I was a toolmaker for 46 years and have straight and angled air grinders and a micro air grinder, a 6” bench grinder with rough & finish buffing wheels the only thing I purchased was a container of Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish.
I started on the aluminum elbo. Use a 13mm socket to remove the two bolts holding it to the turbo. Be careful not to lose the plastic spacers on the bolts. Raise the elbo 90% to get an 11mm deep socket on the T-Bolt clamp and loosen it. Then remove the elbo.
The elbo is a fairly thin wall so I didn’t try to get all the pits out for fear of cutting through. I used a straight air grinder with a flapper wheel and a tootsi-roll to smooth it up only on the areas that can be seen. Then I used 320 and 400 grit wet/or dry to get it ready for buffing. I used white rouge buffing compound and the rough wheel to start. After I was satisfied I changed to the finish wheel and the Mothers polish to finish.
The picture below shows the bolts that have to be removed.
While I had the elbo off I used the 400 grit first and the the Mothers polish to do the turbo oil lines. And the white rouge and Mothers to do the Turbo Shield. The shield is held on with 3 10mm bolts.
After instaling the shield and elbo I remeoved the upper and lower support bracket and horn for the passenger intercooler pipe. Using a 10mm deep well socket. The horn appears to be cad plated and was starting to tarnish. I uesd 000 steel wool and Mothers polish to clean it up. Then I used the Mothers polish to shine the pipe and brackets with a rag only.
I then did the same to the drivers side pipe.
There is an aluminum tube which is part of the AC Unit on the drivers side which cleaned up nice using a rag and the Mothers polish.
This is the finished product and I only spent about four hours over a 2 day period.
