Rusted turbo assembly...can it be saved

[RustyCaddy]

i picked up a turbo assembly...it turned out that there was a lot of rust scale on the wastegate fins and the body near the union with the housing body.  i poked at a big flaky looking spot and a chuck of scale broke off the base of the wastegate exposing a hole right along the seam of the housing and the bottom of the wastegate.  The metal is really thin at the seam and you can see that the metal around the bolt holding the wastegate plate to the housing has rusted part way through  

The exhaust manifold that came with it has had a lot of rusty scale on the outside too but the inner passages look good

http://s764.photobucket.com/albums/xx284/rustycaddy9/turbo/

Having nothing to lose it took out the dremel and gave it a work through and didn't find anything else so bad.
Is it worth trying to plug the hole with high temp epoxy or welding?  Being right on the seam it looks to be bad
Is this waste gate junk?  
Maybe just salvage the K14 and junk the rest

Kinda messed up  

[UAofE]

Looks like its been in a salt bath.

[smutts]

That's a suprise, that nickel steel should be proof against anything short of nuclear attack.

[RustyCaddy]

i was pretty surprised to find that much corrosion. The seller was from the southern US but the vehicle must have been around alot of salt...maybe saltwater...maybe underwater   Why just part of the exhaust and turbo assembly was so much worse than the other part is really strange...and the inside looks just fine

[VW Smokr]

Katrina? Only part of the exhaust was underwater? Your sandblaster may be your best friend on that part.

J.R.
SoCal

[RustyCaddy]

i might ask the seller about the Katrina thing...i see he posted recently (very recently) today to another topic.

i think i will take it to a local turbo shop to get a estimate ...or post mortem