2011 F150 3.5 --- left side turbo not coming with lower mounting hole casting?

YukonTyler · April 19, 2014

Have this truck in for black smoke on aggressive takeoff, poor performance, p0299. I drive it and notice no wastegate operation. Called turbochargers on it. Ordered the two turbos, gaskets and hardware.

New turbos arrive. Right side bolts in great. Left side is missing the casting on the compressor which acts as the lower mounting hole. I ordered another turbo - same thing arrives.

Is there a change up on these that I'm not aware of? Is my parts department ordering it incorrectly? I can't see Ford doing away with this mounting provision, let alone only doing it on one side.

I'm going to the shop now - pictures to follow afterward.

Keith Browning · April 19, 2014

I would say a call to Ford is in order to get to the bottom of this one

Steve Mutter · April 20, 2014

The guy next to me just put a turbo in and it did not have that mount either. It fixed the turbo noise, the wheel was hitting the housing.

YukonTyler · April 22, 2014

Thanks for the feedback. I wound up slapping it in.

That's not a fun job. The coolant lines neither like to disengage or re-engage with their quick connect fittings. It seems you have to pop out the quick connect clip, work the line in with a suitable tool, and then fool around getting the clip back in its rightful spot. I spent way too long fooling with those two lines.

In happy news the wastegates now function. Sadly I also found the plugged cats and gasoline-grown engine oil level which caused the issue in the first place.

YukonTyler · June 8, 2014

Update - did another turbo on a different unit the other day. I went digging for torque specs and the WSM now notes that the lower mounting bracket is no longer needed.