I hadn't been back to my project 244ti for a week and a half before today. When I last drove it, it ran great, though it poured some form of smoke or steam (night drive) at full throttle during my last hard acceleration run with it. It was running just fine when I brought it back to the shop and put it down for the night. I started it today, and ran it for a couple of seconds, then looked under the hood. I saw some coolant sitting on the junction between the turbo and the downpipe. Then I saw some on the exhaust manifold down low. Then I checked the oil and it was milky. Then I ran it some more and the coolant got foamy.

Uh oh. Looks like big trouble to me, and just days before the car would be daily driveable too. I immediately suspected a blown head gasket(am I right?), and absent of Lennart's guidance (he was out of town for a few hours) I started prepping the engine for head removal. 3 hours later, I'm completely done and the head is loose and ready to go, save one attached component.

I'm doing this the easy way, so I'm trying to remove the head with the turbo and exhaust manifold still attached. I'm doing this by removing the downpipe from the turbo, and then the intake and pressure hoses to it, as well as the oil feed and return lines. Only the oil lines remain. The feed line looks like it'll be a piece of cake, but the return looks like it'll be a nightmare.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to which tool and contortionist technique I'll use to get the return line disconnected, either at the turbo or on the engine? Also, I'm confident about being able to remove the head with the manifold and turbo still attached, but does anybody have some warnings about it? I'd hate to have to go through removing all of that turbo and exhaust garbage if it can be avoided, as I've already broken 2 of the 3 studs I've worked with on the downpipe, and would love to not have to go through the total hell of removing any more of them with the head still in the car.

Thank you all for any advice you've given me, or have to give me.

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Isaac Babcock - '83 245DL 'Borkie' and '83 244 turbo project