Hey guys, I finally got a turbo! Whoohoo!!

Preface: My 89 7.3L N/A was running VERY well power-wise. Fuel economy was low, 14's, but I live 17 miles from work, about 15 of which are at 70+mph. (New old-stock injectors, pop-matched from Russ only 5-10k ago, healthy engine overall. N/A pump is turned up to match my air-flow mods but it's not a lot.)

Turbo: Factory 093, stock everything. Unknown mileage. Zero end play that I could detect, side play lots but wasn't touching the housing. It spun freely to me, a turbo-virgin, and had zero binding or coarseness to it's rotation. Read a lot of posts especially from Russ(typ4) that side play even on a new rebuild is quite sloppy and if you push hard enough can contact the housing. So I wasn't too worried, and ran it!

Install went well, everything bolted into place properly. (Someone has to tell me the trick to get the intake hat to bolt on after the turbo is in place! Holy crap I messed with that for a long time... had to loosen all the exhaust stuff under the truck to get her on there, and the pedestal bolts.)
HOWEVER, for the life of me I could not get the base of the intake to bolt up. It hits the #2 injector line and ends up about 1 1\2" from actually bolting up. What am I missing?

So due to the intake being goofy, we taped the filter to the underside of the intake real good to get her running. That means it's pulling engine-bay air, not cold air like my other set-up.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4...EFnYnhleTFqLTQ
N/A setup notes: Intake had a 4" stiff dryer duct to the front of the grill, effective CAI. Exhaust was a home-made TRUE y-pipe, with 2.25" throughout into a narrow Y, collector was 3.25".
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4...E5uR2FBc1BiMlE

Note: The IP fuel screw, timing, and all other fuel-delivery parameters have NOT been changed from N/A to turbo.
Results: Max EGT's = Same. 1100-1150F.
Pulling/hill-climb with 3k in the bed = same or worse.
Empty pickup acceleration, throttle response, top end = worse.
Turbo lag = awful. 1-2psi until 2200rpms, and fizzles out at 3000.

Problem: I can't get past 5 lbs of boost.

Soooo, ideas? There are no obvious hot-side or cold-side leaks. I'm worried about the slip-joint up-pipe, doesn't seem like it would seal very well, being all loosey-goosey like it is.

Thanks guys!
-Joshua

 

Crank the fuel screw up.
When I first put my own turbo on, the results were... underwhelming. A little more power, but not much.
I cranked the fuel up a couple of flats, and, well, biiiig difference.

Problem is, your IP is tuned to not give you any extra fuel, NA. So you aren't going to have the extra fuel to burn with the extra air you just added... so no more power.

 

I'd love to! But I'm already maxing out my EGTs as it is, even with the turbo. 1100+, though it takes a 0-70 romp to do it.
Also, I have a very similar amount of smoke out the tailpipe when romping in it as when N/A. The exhaust is not clear.

 

Try playing with the timing slightly? I'm not sure what else would affect it.

 

Hmmm ok. Sounds about right on the timing but maybe too advanced, the turbos like it closer to 6* right?

Other than that all can think is hot side or cold side leaks. I've heard of spraying soapy water all over before a cold start and it would bubble up where leaks are.

 

It takes a pretty big leak to make a difference; there's a /lot/ of air going through a 7.3.
One way to check for leaks is to have someone snap test the throttle while you're looking; you should see the smoke come out wherever there is a leak.
You can also look around for sooty areas; any leaks will leave nice sooty streaks around them.

Speaking of leaks... Last September, my crossover pipe kinda broke on me; the flange on one side cracked and the crack just kept getting bigger.
When I finally got a replacement(from Justin), I could only boost 6-ish PSI instead of the normal 12; I found that one side had totally detached, and there was a good 1/4" gap between the two pieces. Now /that's/ an exhaust leak!
And I was still getting /some/ boost(along with massive chuffing noises).

 

Also I just realized that I forgor to say the compressor wheel had small knicks on the face of it, but I didn't open it up to see about anything deeper. They are pretty darn small knicks, but again, turbo virgin here.

I did open up the turbine side and that wheel is beautiful.

 

Good to know!
I'll have to double-check the exhaust side to eliminate that possibility. That's crazy that you had such a gap and still got 6lbs! Wow.

Let's pretend it's not exhaust but a boost leak(cold side), is soapy water the best way to check that? Or is it really loud and I would know? Course my engine is really loud too...

 

if you are getting 1000+ deg F EGT's with that turbo, I'd have to think your exhaust is blocking things up. I used to get 1100+ deg F EGT's with my stock exhaust once I put on my turbo. Then I bought some straight through dynamax walker exhaust, put 3 1/2" pipe out the back, and I've never seen anything over 800 deg F since.

 

Are you reading oil pressure at the turbo? Are you sure there's oil going to it? What's your timing set at? You said you had trouble with the intake hat, are you sure that's sealed up correctly? Up pipes can leak alot but I still made boost with horrible ones, and I before that the truck had bent compressor fins and it still made boost. Maybe it's fuel related. Did you install the factory bent down pipe too?

 

Yes to the factory downpipe, but after that it's open. I didn't have the connections to hook straight up, they are in the mail. so it's actually open after the downpipe, going "close enough" into my 3 1/4 ID exhaust tube. The only restriction would be the downpipe.
BUT, if that's the case, then it would have to be my pipe in particular, cause thousands of turbo converts can't be THAT wrong...

I'm don't have an oil gauge hooked up to the turbo. I have one in the oil galleys in the block, with very good and consistent pressure. 40+ psi under load, about 20 when hot at idle.
I plumbed the turbo at the stock sending unit port, which is how it's designed, and until turbo install that port told my dash switch everything was A-ok, and I'm not leaking oil either.
SOOOOOO, good idea, I'll have to get a gauge or something to verify. Course if it's not getting much oil I probably would have already toasted it...

 

I was just curious if you verified flow from that port before installation. Just disconnecting the line at the turbo and cranking with FSS disconnected will produce a good amount of oil. I always do this anytime i remove my turbo before starting it back up. A turbo bearing isnt very big so any debris getting into it from a line/port that was opened could restrict the flow. If it had been blocked off forever with a pressure sender there could have been debris in the port.

I'm not sure why you have high EGT unless the turbo is becoming more of a restriction because its not spinning like its supposed to. With the intake off you can see the compressor wheel spinning and it has a noticable whistle standing at the front of the engine right?

 

Dang that's a good idea, something to remember for the future. As for the wheel spinning/whistle test, is this just at idle or revving? I'll try to do that this morning.

 

Give me a few and i'll go pull the intake on my stock parts truck and give you a comparison video