Preparing for Major Surgery

[JCT]

Installing the passenger side manifold now. Passenger side turbo going in tonight.

 

[JCT]

Made good progress this weekend and got the passenger side turbo in. The coolant line in the back is definitely tricky. There is more stress on the slip fitting than I would like. Only time will tell if it will hold.

Hope to get the drivers side buttoned up next weekend.

More pictures coming.

 

[JCT]

Picture of the passenger side turbo below. You can somewhat see how the rear coolant line, while together, isn’t perfectly straight. This was after a lot of struggling but making sure that the gasket in the slip fitting was where it should be. I assume this is normal?

 

[JCT]

So I’m a President’s Day weekend away from having this job done. My only real problem is the coolant line slip fitting in the picture above (the one on the back of the block on the passenger side). I can see in a mirror that the gasket in the slip fitting is all distorted, it doesn’t look like it is all the way in there. I’ve ordered a new coolant line and try that. I think my sin here was not getting the coolant line slip fitting all the way together. I pushed as hard as I possibly could using coolant as lubricant. That said, it just wouldn’t go all the way together.

What have others used to lubricate the gasket in these slip fittings to get them all the way to the bottom of where they are supposed to go. The shop manual says to use coolant. Is that enough? Should I be using something else?

 

[350Industrial]

More balls than me tackling yourself- nice job

 

[Wfo]

Any updates?

 

[JCT]

I’ve gotten both turbos back on the truck and gotten past the heat shield debacle.

The passenger side stock turbo heat shield had to come off completely. I was able to keep the drivers side heat shield by grinding down the head on one of the heat shield bolts. Hopefully it won’t rattle. I’ve can get a piece of cardboard between the head shield and the manifold demonstrating that there is at least some clearance.

Goal is to do the plumbing and get it running this weekend. Can’t wait to see how it sounds.

 

[JCT]

As an update, I’ve gotten her running again. The first start up was nerve racking. I made my wife watch for oil, coolant, or fuel leaks. All good on that front.

I did struggle some with getting all of the plumbing secure again. The passenger side hot side pipe blew off twice before I took the Aquanet to it. I’ve now put ~20 miles of playful driving on it without blowing a coupler off.

My foot hasn’t made it to the floor yet, but I can already tell that there is a whole new level of power. It has been raining all day, and there have been a couple of occasions when all four tires broke loose under 1/2 - 3/4 throttle at 40 mph. She definitely didn’t do that with stock turbos / injections.

Goose’s trans tune is amazing. Must less jumpy and jittery than MPT. The shifting now feels a lot like the shifting in my GLS63. Firm, but not jittery like it is looking for another hit of ****.

I’ve got the wheel liners back in, but I haven’t yet had the confidence to put the fender flairs and all of the skid plates back on.

The exhaust note is deeper, and there is less resonance than with stock manifolds and turbos. I’ve got SPD downpipes, the trombone and a stock muffler. Sounds very similar to Goose’s. I’m expecting the SPD HX muffler with the Helmholtz resonator this week. Will update everyone.

Over all, very happy I decided to take apart a relatively new truck and rebuild it the way that I like it. Hoping it is dry tomorrow so that I can start the tuning process with Goose.

 

[Donovan]

good news friend.