as above, i had a gasket inbetween the manifold and turbo up untill the weekend. and the top corner of it had a blow out, from factory there is no gasket there..

took out the turbo, with manifold and dump still connected (i found this the easiest way)

cleaned up the turbo and starting nutting it out, i found two tiny cracks in the corners of the flange where the manifold bolts on. how nasty could these be down the track! ha.

anyway split the manifold from the turbo and did the old file and stright edge to try and get the pairing surfaces dead flat, i found 4 high points about 2x2mm each so once they where off by eye and feel they where as flat as i could get them. so with the help of some expencesive studs nuts washers and a few other bits from ford i started putting it all back together.

the motor was basicly in limp mode while the flange was leaking, since being fixed the ecu has alowed full boost to be run again.

the main lesson i learnd from this is perservere! i couldnt get my head around there not being a gasket untill i had it all back together and running great.

They don't have gaskets because the are not needed.

Technically, hotter air moves faster. Putting a gasket in between can reduce the temp of the turbo and therefore the air, to the detriment of performance.

But obviously means the flange faces must be 110% flat.

id bet my d**k that a .8mm stainless gasket would not change the temp of the turbo.

you can also use high temp copper based silicon instead of the gasket just to ensure sealing...

Ford fitted a gasket on the Turbo to Exhaust manifold from the factory but has never serviced a replacement. The ONLY gasket is the one from the Turbo to the Dump pipe.

The studs are W 708457 S300 $6.50 each and the nuts W 708915 S403 $2.95 each, the ones from the Dump to the turbo W 708546 S300 $10.45 each and the nuts N 620481 S437 $2.70 each

ahh so when i did it at 170thou it still had the orginal gasket. almost a week later and my home honing of the faces seems to be holding up well. full boost ahead!