'97 Jetta AAZ wastegate problem

[pac11]

On my new to me '97 jetta aaz I was just taking off the downpipe in order to change the flex pipe. When I took a look inside I noticed the wastegate valve wasn't covering the whole port.

Can the valve arm slip sideways? bend? or could the hole have eroded egg shaped?  Hard to see in there.

Anyone know what turbo this is just by looking at it? Are there used exhaust housings around?

On a side note, how much too much boost would you get if this turbo was run with the wastegate plugged off? Too hard on the head gasket?

Lots of questions.


Thanks guys
Mike

[gldgti]

turbo is either k14 or ko3 from the looks of it.

does it make any boost? my aaz (k14 atm) will make 5psi of boost up a hill in 5th with the wastegate fully open, but thats not enough to have any fun. if the wastegate  is kept shut the turbo will grenade pretty darned fast, they are too small to run without a wastegate on a 1.9 and will overspeed (like 30+psi for a little while).

you need to fix it, basically.

[Vincent Waldon]

That's a K03 (rectangular manifold rather than square) and yeah, that wastegate config looks strange to me.  I don't have any in the shop at the moment for comparison though... perhaps someone else will chime in a with a reference picture or two.

How was the car behaving?

[pac11]

Bit low on power.  But like I said it's a new car to me, when I bought it a month ago I test drove a bunch of others and it seemed from a bit low on power to equal to a bunch and one '95 went like a rocket but had tonnes of blow by and peeling clear cote, too bad.

 I'm a diesel mechanic here in Powell River and this is by far the smallest turbo I've ever seen .... since I don't work on very many cars.

Anyways, I've just got to figure out if I can change or repair the arm if it's bent or find an outlet housing if they are prone to eroding.

Mike

[Rabbit on Roids]

i would look on google images for pictures of turbos just like yours to see if they are the same or if yours is something special/different from stock. looks like maybe the arm could be bent. can you bend the valve so as to where it closes the port? it already doesnt function properly, so if you mess it up, its not really any more broken, unless of course you brake the valve off.

[pac11]

it's hard to see the port even when I tug the valve open.  I am waiting for someone to say "those ports never erode and those arms are prone to bending"  or "they all do that, toss that housing and here is a used one for $50"      

[catlin_cava]

I'll try and make a run up tomorrow to my shop and snap a picture of a 97 AAZ with a K03 on it of the Exhaust side of the Turbo for you

[Rabbit on Roids]

it's hard to see the port even when I tug the valve open.  I am waiting for someone to say "those ports never erode and those arms are prone to bending"  or "they all do that, toss that housing and here is a used one for $50"      

go that route. ^ ^ ^