Okay, so a buddy of mine has a 93 IDI turbo-diesel. He told me that he hasn't been hearing any turbo whine in his truck lately. I checked and made sure that the waste-gate wasn't stuck open, opened the intake side and inspected the blades and housing. All were good. We hooked up a boost gauge and did a driveway test. At full throttle, we got about 2 lbs of boost. Obviously, in this condition the engine was unloaded and wasn't pushing full boost. We just wanted to make sure that turbo was providing pressure on the inlet side. Anyway, we haven't done a full load check with the boost gauge yet to see max boost, but there is ZERO turbo noise. I pulled the connector off the oil pressure sensor on the turbo and cleaned it to make sure that was good to go. The only thing I can think of is either a bad bearing in the turbo, or a problem with the oil pressure sensor. Anybody had anything similar??? Thanks in advance!

 

turbo whine neans nothing. it can still be functioning perfectly fine, and make no noise.

 

I never heard my turbo much except pulling a hill or getting on the throttle fairly quick. My dads truck is the same way. Turbo noise is very subtle.

Both trucks never really made much boost unless loaded and pulling a hill or empty and pulling a 5-6% grade and heavy throttle. My truck had an ATS kit and dads is a Banks. Both had IP's built and recalibrated, 3" exhaust, free flow muffler. The ATS did have a bit more boost than the Banks. Both systems installed around 1989 so very early systems.

 

maybe your up pipes for the the exhuast side might be leaking so its not building as much boost? i would assume if this was so your gas milage would also be affected.

 

I don't get too much turbo whistle myself, unless I'm really on the throttle. Even then, you only really hear it downspooling during upshifts from inside the truck. Others have said it's audible from outside the truck.

 

Straight pipe it with big exaust here listen to this

YouTube - 1985 Ford F-250 6.9 IDI diesel ATS wastegated turbo

YouTube - New 5" exhaust stright pipe 7.3 idi

Listen closley to this one, its a hypermax non wastegated the other 2 are ats wastegated turbos: YouTube - 7.3 IDI Turbo

 

Have the ANT team throw a one of there sinkers in the bed and take a couple of runs up the hills in Astoria... Man those are some steep hills. but here is how i run.

Running empty, I can get just about 10psi but that is with my foot through the floor, and the RPM's are 2600 to 3000 and climbing. This I can get up to rather quickly from a dead stop.

Running while pulling 10K trailer I can cruise with about 6-7 psi at highway speeds and maintaining about 1800 to 2200 RPM's depending on how many rolling hills i am pulling over.

Normal around town driving I only see around 5psi max and while in park if I rev the engine, I can get about 3-4psi out of it.

I am will probably adjust my waste gate here in the next couple of weeks to go just over 10psi. I'm sure you have read about how to adjust the waste gate on here, if not just search and you will find what you need. I find it easier to pull the whole waste gate assemble to make the adjustments so there is no chance of damaging the internal diaphragm.

I also have my crossover pipe wrapped in heat wrap to keep the heat in which in turn helps with Boost Pressures as well. My turbo wine sounds identical to the first video on the above post. I have a ATS downpipe to straight 3" pipe that comes out right before my Passenger Rear Tire.

 

1st video- ats wategated turbo, 3 inch downpipe 4inch exaust no muffler

2nd video- ats watsgated turbo. 3inch downpipe 5 inch exaust no muffler

3rd video- hypermax non wastegated turbo, not sure about the exaust on this one,

And another thought, is the turbo on that truck a factory ford turbo? Does it say for on the air box? if it is then it has the small outlet housings and a crushed downpipe, you can get the upgrades from ats to replace that out a good free flowing exaust then put gauges in it and crank the wastegate up and and crank the fuel up, and it will be a different truck

 

thanks for all the advice guys. We'll do all this soon and post our results soon!

 

i straight piped mine with a 5" stack and built an intake with a cone filter and i can hear mine at idle.its not real loud but its there.with the cone filter on i even hear the wastegate open.now when im on the throttle i can really hear it spool.after i did the exhaust i noticed a small increase of mileage and a little more power