I really should just make a build thread soon haha. I didnt start doing a ton of work on my own cars until I got the FD so im still learning. Anyways im hunting a exhaust leak, I dont get no tick tick tick noises but I do get exhaust smell in the engine bay, at least I think its exhaust smell.

Pulled off everything and am inspecting it. Heres the turbos area. Im assuming im looking for black soot?



Heres the precat and flange. Looks to be at the precat?




No evidence of a exhaust leak on the turbos heatshield. Im ordering a downpipe gasket tomorrow. 85 bucks through Ray, Ouch.

 

I'm about 95% sure you're missing the safety clip for your actuator arm shown in the first pic. Also , the nuts according to the FSM are not to be reused. They have a built in locking property to prevent them from backing off.

 

Didnt notice the clip missing haha. Oops. I know about the nuts, getting new ones, Just wondering if people agree with me that my leak was at the downpipe.

 

Do you have pictures of the gasket you took off? Was the gasket broken? IIRC it's a 3 later thick metal gasket. It's pretty robust.

 

Wasnt broken. Ill take a pic of it. It is splitting a lil since I can see the layers.

 

Looks quite obvious it was leaking, but doesnt look like a blown out gasket, Maybe wasnt tightened down enough? We recently got this car running and I did reuse these gaskets, Maybe these werent torqued.