can anyone tell me anything about a device advertised on ebay it is item no 4555809099 and claims that by adding a ball-bearing it will help eliminate black smoke and improve fuel consumption, seems to good to be true, is it just a scam to make people part with there money or is there realy something in what they claim,i am both curious and sceptical anyone know anything about it

- (#1885) jason, 17 Jun 05 15:19

This is well covered in Ace Answers, see Fuel system/EGR. Save your £7.99.

I did my TownAce diesel 3 months ago and the smoke disappeared. MOT emissions below 1. Better acceleration and fuel consumption. I wish I had done it 5 years ago when I first bought it.

I would assume the Estima types would benefit also. My brother in law has recently purchased one and is bugging me to show him the mod.

- (#1885) Brian Wearing, 17 Jun 05 15:49

i am at the moment in the middle of replacing my turbo and have already got 2 blankling plates made out of 10 mm thick metal, on placing these to the head and manifold are any gaskets needed as the old gaskets are damaged(cracked)and was thinking of just applying gasket sealant to the one on the head, but what about the one to the manifold? normal silicone gasket seal wont do so i was thinking of exhaust jointing paste or will this just crack and come away with vibration. also the oil pipe that goes from the turbo to the sump is damaged what is best for this as there is a lot of heat generated around the turbo. I have tried to source the gaskets from local toyota but it was late this afternoon when i took everything off and they where about to close so i left a picture of the turbo setup and the EGR that was got from this excelent site and circled the relevant gaskets and passed him the paper, he already had my details as i got a thermostat of him the other day and all my details are still on theire comp, he said he would order them tomorow but would be tues at the earliest that he could get them if there was no problems, so am i better to wait and hope all gaskets arrive and leave vehicle off road or fit everything with silicone and hope for the best. rather do job right first time and have no leaks etc rather than have to strip everything down again but if others have used silicone and is fine then no point in keeping vehicle off road longer than neccesary. as well as the 3 gaskets mentioned there is also a manifold to turbo gasket needed but was given one from local national tyes dept, not exact same but with a bit of modification to the outer 4 holes it would fit at a pinch,any comment would be appreciated

- (#1885) jason, 17 Jun 05 16:27

Jason - gaskets for the exhaust manifold to block and to turbo are of the multiple metal shim type. Last year when overhauling mine I replaced the manifold to block gasket for about £20 ex dealer. I reused the turbo one but added a gasket compound and all was fine. It's difficult to get the turbo tightened up well even with special tools so you need to be confident that this 'makeshift' gasket will do the job. I also used the same jointing compound on the exhaust manifold EGR blanking plate together with a home made gasket. Repeat exercise for the inlet manifold EGR blanking plate. Strangely enough, the only joint I had problems with was the inlet pipe to inlet manifold (the one with 3 bolts). Took some persuading to stop leaking oil in that area and of course it's a swine to get to. I would agree with your approach though. If you have the correct gaskets on order, better to wait a couple of days and do it right rather than bodge it and have to do the job twice.

As for the turbo oil pipe. I think this is of a flexi metal type and there isn't really an alternative other than to order from the dealer - sorry.

- (#1885) Ian Dunse (Derbs), 20 Jun 05 01:13