Let me start off saying it was a brutal install!!! The adapters are pretty accessible, except for all the stuff you have to remove to get the downpipes out of the way!
Here she is all ready to be worked on
Got it jacked up and on stands, and removed the front tires for extra access.
Next, I unbolted the downpipes at the adapters, and loosened the rest of the downpipe connections.
At this point, I tried to wiggle the downpipe, back, around, up, down, etc, but I just couldnt get it out of the way sufficiently. I think it is possible to do without the next step, but I decided to fully drop the downpipes.
To do this, I had to support the tranny with a jack, and then unbolted a few heatshields, and dropped and removed the tranny crossmember.
At this point, now that the downpipe was free, and its a BITCH of a piece as both sides are welded together, I realized I only unplugged 3 of the 4 02 sensor wired, so I had to hold the pipes up one handed while I struggled with the last plug with the other hand.
After about 3 hours, I had access to the turbo adapters.
Now, I had tried to remove them before and they wouldn't budge, so this time I had torches ready. Quickly heating up the turbo housing to cherry red and the studs backed out fairly easily.
I used new gaskets and new studs, but the nuts were fine.
The way these new adapters line right up to the hot side exit of the turbo is very nice, as there was a hard lip before. I can't see how these could not help flow out of the turbos, with their 25% increase in area and better flange alignment.
I buttoned the truck back up and tested for leaks and found none.
Truck seems slightly louder, I couldn't comment on HP gains much, as 20 horse is tough to tell. All in all, I have about $225 in em, $120 for the adapters, $45 for studs, $30 for gaskets, and $20 for a stud puller different from the one I had.
The one I had was this one:
Stud puller I bought:
I ended up using the new one on 3 of 4, but the passenger side, closest to the block I used the kind I had originally due to fitment issues with the tightness to the block.
The SPD kit come with a "stud extractor" that fits the oval shaped top of the stud. This isn't really an extractor, as there's no way it would remove the studs without breaking them as tight as they are stuck, it is more just an installation took for the new ones.
I attempted this with 300 miles on the truck, hoping to reuse the studs and gaskets, as it was such low mileage, and they wouldnt move.
My second attempt was at 1200 miles and successful.
I dont believe it is very feasible to do this install without new studs and gaskets, no matter how new the truck is. I cant imagine trying to do it on a 50k mile truck.
I know the gains arent dyno proven yet, but I think it looks like a good mod to open up the exhaust, which will fit nicely with an intake to free up the cold side, in addition to a tune.
Here she is all ready to be worked on
Got it jacked up and on stands, and removed the front tires for extra access.
Next, I unbolted the downpipes at the adapters, and loosened the rest of the downpipe connections.
At this point, I tried to wiggle the downpipe, back, around, up, down, etc, but I just couldnt get it out of the way sufficiently. I think it is possible to do without the next step, but I decided to fully drop the downpipes.
To do this, I had to support the tranny with a jack, and then unbolted a few heatshields, and dropped and removed the tranny crossmember.
At this point, now that the downpipe was free, and its a BITCH of a piece as both sides are welded together, I realized I only unplugged 3 of the 4 02 sensor wired, so I had to hold the pipes up one handed while I struggled with the last plug with the other hand.
After about 3 hours, I had access to the turbo adapters.
Now, I had tried to remove them before and they wouldn't budge, so this time I had torches ready. Quickly heating up the turbo housing to cherry red and the studs backed out fairly easily.
I used new gaskets and new studs, but the nuts were fine.
The way these new adapters line right up to the hot side exit of the turbo is very nice, as there was a hard lip before. I can't see how these could not help flow out of the turbos, with their 25% increase in area and better flange alignment.
I buttoned the truck back up and tested for leaks and found none.
Truck seems slightly louder, I couldn't comment on HP gains much, as 20 horse is tough to tell. All in all, I have about $225 in em, $120 for the adapters, $45 for studs, $30 for gaskets, and $20 for a stud puller different from the one I had.
The one I had was this one:
Stud puller I bought:
I ended up using the new one on 3 of 4, but the passenger side, closest to the block I used the kind I had originally due to fitment issues with the tightness to the block.
The SPD kit come with a "stud extractor" that fits the oval shaped top of the stud. This isn't really an extractor, as there's no way it would remove the studs without breaking them as tight as they are stuck, it is more just an installation took for the new ones.
I attempted this with 300 miles on the truck, hoping to reuse the studs and gaskets, as it was such low mileage, and they wouldnt move.
My second attempt was at 1200 miles and successful.
I dont believe it is very feasible to do this install without new studs and gaskets, no matter how new the truck is. I cant imagine trying to do it on a 50k mile truck.
I know the gains arent dyno proven yet, but I think it looks like a good mod to open up the exhaust, which will fit nicely with an intake to free up the cold side, in addition to a tune.
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