nico.tico

I'd like to take the turbine housing off of my Garrett GT35R to get it Swain coated. I've looked high and low on how to do this and haven't found anything specific for the GT35R. I say specific because there seems to be a few different ways to take turbine housings off of different turbos. Has anyone removed their GT35R turbine housings? This is what I'm finding so far: Once the turbo has been removed loosen the 6 bolts that hold the housing to the center cartridge. This is where I've seen different methods. Some say to remove all but two that won't come all the way out due to length of the bolts. They go on to say to put another bolt behind the two that weren't taken out and use those as kind of a puller to evenly pry the housing from the cartridge, 1/8 to 1/4 of a turn at a time. If this is correct does one risk stripping the center cartridge or the bolts for that matter?

I've also heard of the BFH method (big F#*kin hammer). Take out the bolts and spray something like PB Blaster or WD-40 and then tap around the housing with a hammer. I've read up on this method but it was on a turbo rebuild where the turbine was going to be replaced anyway so there didn't seem to be much care taken in preserving the turbine. I want to take the least amount of risk in damaging it.

What methods do you guys recommend and what tips do you have for marking the housing to realign it after it's been coated.