from someone who knows very little about turbos.

 

Looking at my 84 t-coupe it would appear as if I need to pull motor just to remove exhaust, is this true? that or drop cross member?

and I have a leak on the up pipe(the one from head to turbo right?)does this affect performance of turbo, I also seem to have light vacume leak on heater controls, will this affect turbo in any way (boost ect...I don't know). I need some answers please.

Jacking the motor up out of the car is the easiest way to remove the crossover pipe. If the leak is at the uppipe/turbo gasket, it would probably be easier to just pull the turbo. A leak there will affect turbo performance

 

Vacuum leaks at the heater controls shouldn't affect turbo performance. THere is a check valve at the canister to stop the vacuum controls for the HVAC from going into positive pressure.

my leak is a cracked pipe, the skid bar is bent so I'm assuming the last owner abused it and pushed up the skid plate into the pipe forcing it to crack. Talking about that pipe, does the heat shield need to be there, the crack is behind heat shield right after it connects to otherside of head. I know how to weld so I thought I'd weld it up after removing heat shield but was wondering if I need to reinstall the shield?

Not sure exactly what heat shields an EA81 has... an EA82 has like 4 heat shields.. Can't honestly say I use any of them.

The heatshield on the cross over pipe helps protect the oil pump from high heat. Plus the oil line to the turbo is right there, not to mention the oil cooler not to far away either.

If you can remove enough to weld the pipe then replace it again, it will help keep the heat off. I've been thinking of a wrap for a while, but these hold heat in and can make the pipe crack again(this is where a ceramic coated pipe would be great). I also leave the skid plate off so air circulates in the engine compartement better.