Did some wrenchin on the truck this weekend. I wanted to upgrade to the ww2. But with consensus being that it is a bad idea to remove the wheel with impact while the turbo remains in the truck, i decided that if im gonna have to pull it out, may as well do a rebuild since the 300k number is fast approaching. Also put on a TM wastegate controller, pulled valve covers for the first time ever to tighten injectors and finally do the 50 cent mod, and then i topped it off by reinstalling my DP chip after sending off for a reburn after bts trans install. What i thought would take me a full day of work ended up being about 2.5 days and many bad words said. Murphy ruled.

First off i had to clear out my garage to make room for the work station, parts, and tools needed.





I started by pulling the battery box to gain some working room and take a look at how much the ic pipes and everything had gotten so dirty after all these miles.



Dang, thats filthty. I can only imagine most of this came from the leaky up-pipes i ran for so long.



Then it was time to assume the position, i layed on top of this ole gal so much this weekend i feel we should have had some sort of ceremony or something. Anyway, what worked for me was putting some cardboard down, then using one of my dog's beds for cushioning, and then an old sheet on top of that to keep from getting covered in dog hair.



Got the intake off to take a gander at the turbo inlet, not too bad...






Then it was time to pull the turbo off, exposing more dirt and grime.





Then the housing came off exposing the factory wheel.





All in all, it was still in good shape, had zero play it, neither side to side nor in/out. But then once i started disassembling the turbine side of the turbo is when things went south. I had started soaking with penetrating oil on thursday evening, truck sat on friday but soaked again in morning and evening. Soaked some more before taking apart. Didnt want to budge (using cordless electric impact). Soaked some more, took about an hour lunch break, came back. Pulled the first set of bolts on cover with some convincing, but they came loose. Then it was one to the bolts that hold the center piece onto the turbine housing. Son of a biscuit eater those things didnt wanna come out. I soaked,and soaked, and soaked, and nothing. Upgraded to a half in drive impact, finally got one to come out, but no go on the others. Then i decided to use a larger drive ratchet and maybe i could put some weight behind it, well that finally broke one loose, broke being the operative word. The bolt didnt break, but the bottom two threads of the bolts broke off in the hole. Digging those threads out later proved to be just as difficult. Then onto the last two bolts on the inside of the center piece, the ones that are recessed into the housing, after repeated soaking, and shocking with a punch and hammer i decided that i needed some heat. So i got a torch and heated, nothing, soaked again. Cooled, heated again, soaked, and nothing. And this cycle of soaking, heating, and cooling went on for about 6-7 cycles and finally got one of the two out. That last bolt went thru 3 more cycles of heat before i decided to drill the flange on the bolt to help the oil get down in the threads. Didnt like how that was going and then decided to just drill the hole bolt out. Started with a 1/16 bit, then a 1/8, and ended up with a 3/16, all the while being super careful to hold straight and not mess anything up without using a drill press. Well my hole was slightly off kilter, but in a good way, i just barely skimming the "inside" of the threads on the bolt. The threads were still there so i didnt mess up the threaded hole, but oil was able to finally penetrate and then it came right on out. I kid you not, these bolts took me from lunch time until 8pm to get them all out and those last two took about 4 hrs. Lots of foul words were uttered in this time frame.





At this point i decided to call it a day and regroup. But during heat and oil soaks i was able to do some cleaning and clean up some of the other parts and break out the ole paint can and give some things a fresh coat.







The next day i managed to rebuild the turbo with the kit i got from Clay and installed the wastergate controller. Man that wheel does look wicked looking down the hole.







Once that was built up i turned my attention to the valve covers. And yes, you read that right earlier, this was the first time ive pulled the valve covers, ever. But i think i would have had to do in the near future as the uvch looked a lil loose and likely would have bit me sooner rather than later. But no mind now as i was able to the do the 50 cent mod. Then i torqued all injector bolts to 120 in-lbs, and they were all loose. At least a quarter to a half a turn loose. I had suspected this for time, especially after reading from Tugly and listening to his vids and his diagnosis, i had the same sounds. So i got all that tightened up and back in order and cleaned the valve covers. Which i can actually see again, there was enough dirt and grime that it covered the decal labels. And my word, what a pain the you know what that passenger side valve cover is.

Finally it was time to put everything together and i got started on that but then had to make preperations for a t-storm about to hit. It just drizzled but the cooling off was a relief. Stabbing the turbo back into place is no picnic either. While trying to wrestle the back v-clamp onto the baby butt, i had backed the nut off a lil too far when removing and felt the dang thing fall off into the abyss never to be found again in the grass beneath me.
Well, i robbed a nut off one of the other clamps so i could continue. Managed to get everything back together and was waiting on that last nut for the clamp. I had to go to town to get it, but it was raining in town and i had to wait it out cuz my only other transportation was a jeep without a top on it. Made the 10 mile trek to Lowes right as they were closing to make a $1.00 purchase, then come back home. Put it together and try to crank the ole gal up finally. I turned it over and it cranked, but sounded like hammered dog crap. I thought the pistons were trying to swap cylinders. Thought, WTH!!! Cranked again and got the hammered dog crap again and all dash lights on with the CEL. Dag nabbit and other words were said again. Thought i had air in the lines at first but then i realized that i didnt crack any lines for air to get into anything. So i started crawling over it looking and looking. Finally found the passenger side injector harness had come loose. Its dark by now mind you, working under lights. Plugged it back, fired it up and purred like a kitten. No more knock knock knock of the loose injectors. SWEET!!! But no victory yet....

Went for a test drive. It ran fine, but i couldnt get more than about 5-7 lbs of boost and my egts were sky high. Changed tunes from stock, and same thing. Came back to house, thought that if low boost and high temps, must be a boost leak. I checked and retightened all boots and connections. Went for another test drive, same thing, no change. At this point its 10:30 pm and i am thoroughly frustrtated because ive got to go to work on Monday and my truck still aint right and its a late and ive got to call or contact someone to help diagnose. But i decided to clean up and put tools away. Then as im in the shower about 11pm, it dawned on me, you big dummy, you didnt reconnect the ebpv under the turbo. Thats go to be the issue. Well, its late, its dark, i aint messing with it now. But sent my boss a text saying that i was gonna be late and that i had unfinished business. Well i get back to taking things off again this morning at first light and sure enough i had not connected the ebpv. That was another PITA trying to connect that thing. But i got it done. Then reassmble everything. Then when putting the spider back in the hole i pulled on a wire to move out of the way get into the boot and that when i realized how i unplugged the passenger side injector harness, but i caught myself and reconnected it then and there. Finally went for another test drive and EUREKA!!!

This thing comes alive now. Before in stock i could get about 15-17psi, now in stock i can get 22-24psi. In my daily driver tune , before i was getting 25-27psi, but now i can peg the gauge at 30psi. I was wanting to adjust the wastegate but it looks like i need a new gauge to account for the higher pressures now. And when it starts building boost now, it comes on in a flash. Used to it took it a while to build to the 25 or so, not anymore, its almost instantaneous. After driving in pure stock form while my chip was being reburned, and now with the upgraded wheel and wastegate, my PERMAGRIN is back with a vengence. All told, lots of bad words were said and i cant count high enough to know how many times i lost that gosh blaming 10mm socket. UGH!!!!! Well, i finished it about 7:30am on monday morning after getting things together on friday evening. Way more time wrenching than i wanted, but its done and its better for me having done it. Thanks to all who have come before me and laid the ground work as i read may a thread in preparation for this. Here are some parting shots. Until next time the buckszooka rears its ugly head....

 

Nice work!.....painful though by the sound of it.

 

Congratulations.... I can relate to the turbo rebuild, glad it was a success.

 

Amazing what a little time and some blue paint will do, looks great. I got a 99 350 i was going to replace the turbo with some goodies like you, I was going with the Banks quick spool housing, turbine, big head wastegate, and the power elbow. I like the way you system came out, who makes and how do you like the adjustable wastegate? THANKS

 

Nicely done! Just a reminder, but check the fuel lines especially where the metal hold down clamps are , at 230K the hold down clamp on the passenger side had dug a groove into my fuel line more than 1/2 way through ......

 

Nice work and well documented.........

 

Nice job, looks good.

 

I havent really adjusted anything yet, i need to order a gauge that will read higher than 30 psi as i can peg this gauge. I set the adjustment according to the instructions and I am assuming that am around the recommended 32 psi, but i really dont know. But it definitely made a difference in how fast it spools up. I mean it once it starts building, its builds quick. So far i like it after only 2 days. Also, that whooshing sound is gone from the factory turbo back thru the 6637. Not sure as to why that is, but before when it would up shift i would get a big whoosh, but not anymore, it just goes............ Gonna haul a load about 200 miles this weekend and ill know a lil more of how it performs under a load. I got the the waste gate from Bob over at Diesel site. http://www.dieselsite.com/pdffiles/TM73Install.pdf

Edit: I caught myself talking about two different mods. The ww2 instructions say that the recommended psi is around 32, no relation to the wastegate controller. The wastegate controller says to set the "gap" at 2inches and adjust from there, no relation to the ww2. I have it set at 2 inches and its above 30 for sure, but really dont know, i guess i need to back it on down so that i do know what it is until i can get the higher read out gauge.

 

Is this Bob's wheel or Clay's? Glad you got it done.

 

This is Bob's wheel.

 

Great write-up and pics! Reps for documenting it for the next guy(s). And well done on those stubborn turbo bolts, that woulda drove me nuts. I have Clay's wheel on the bench and you're giving me some solid motivation...

 

great write-up, Damon. thinking of going an almost identical route myself (as you've seen on my other thread), so subscribing here. Keep the updates coming if you don't mind!

i have a few questions here if you don't mind, though - how was it that the EBPV valve was your issue on your first test run? unless the SD EBPV is different than the OBS one, doesn't it just always stay open if unplugged? mines been unplugged and wired open for years and i have no plans otherwise :-)

also, I'm having trouble picturing where exactly the second set of bolts are that you had so much trouble with. once you had the compressor wheel free and clear exposed like that, i thought it would just spin off if you hold the exhaust wheel still with a big fork (or, ahem, screwdriver) or something. oh, wait, you were doing a rebuild at the same time! you needed to get deeper for that, not just the wheel swap, right?

anyway, great writeup and thanks for pointing me to it on my thread. reps to be attempted!

 

Great job and great write-up! Well-place round, and the BDA (Buck$Zooka Damage Assessment) was very concise. Reps!

 

I don't believe it was the plug in. It sounded like he missed the actuator rod.

 

Oh yea, by the way, small world. So I'm at a new job location and I'm staring at this F-550 crew with an awesome looking western hauler bed on it. Finally the super on the job rolls up to see how we are doing. All was well and curious I asked, is that your truck. Yep, he replied. Said I just had the tranny done about a month ago, matter a fact my son and I both had trannys put in. Before I could even ask he said he had gone to see Brian. I said believe it or not I have a bts as well. He then pulled his safety glasses down to show me his cap! I didn't get no cap! By this time we were talking up the 7.3 pretty good. I finally asked, you get on the forums? He said yep. I said which one? Fordtrucks. I said I'll bet you know who I am without even knowing my name. He said he wasn't to familiar with the names but thought I would know his boys. I said who's that? He replied yours truly, kjndiver!
Anyhow, small world. And congrats on a successful job.