On my 97 powerstroke it has the stock air box with the black plastic bolts to hold the air box together. I understand these were recalled as well. Anyways the previous owner must have overtightened them and a piece broke off and got sucked into the turbo. Theimpeller has obvious fin damage and a mechanic basically said my Turbo is shot. It didn't gouge out the housing or anything and I thought maybe I can just replace the impeller myself. I found a wicked wheel online for pretty cheap and am probably going to put that in. Any advise against or for the wicked wheel?.should I try this before I drtop he money on a new Turbo?

 

Till I understand the wicked w. is the stock in our turbos and its an upgrade for the SDs. Some body correct me if Im wrong.

 

That is correct

If your turbo shaft dosen't have any In and out or side to side play then i would say just change the impeller And let it ride

 

Not a problem at all! In fact the so called "wicked wheel" is an exact replacement for the stock wheel on our turbos. It is an upgrade on the Super Duty truck, so they essentially upgrade to the wheel our trucks had as a stock wheel. The wicked wheel will go on there no problem. Look HERE at riffraff diesel for a replacement air filter assembly. Most of us are using a 6637 kit of some kind, but the one from Riffraff does make it really easy.

The wheel can be replaced with the turbo on the truck, or if you wish to rebuild it all together figure about $100 for the wheel and about $100 for the rebuild kit. This is pretty easy to do if you're mechanically inclined.

My suggestion is that you take the intake boot off and check the wheel for play. A general rule of thumb is that a little up and down play is fine as long as the wheel doesn't touch the housing. In and out play is bad. If there is no or minimal play, then you can pull the compressor housing and replace the wheel. If the play is bad or even marginal, I would pull the turbo and spend the extra $100 for the pace of mind of knowing it has been freshened up.

Post back and lee us know what you find, and we can make additional suggestions based upon your findings.

Good luck and Welcome to the site!

 

I'm under the impression that the turbo has to come off to get the compressior housing off

 

You are right, the OBS trucks have to have the turbo removed to take off the compressor housing. Good call.

 

Wrong. The stepped-blade compressor wheel that the OBS trucks use IS NOT an "upgrade" (I HATE that word....overused and overrated.). It is used to help reduce compressor surge. That's it....no more, no less. Do you know why it helps reduce compressor surge? Because is moves less air. Doesn't sound like an "upgrade" to me......

 

I stand corrected on this one. I'm not above admitting when I am wrong.

On this one I will stand by my previous post. If you're swapping from a wheel that is prone to surge to one that is not...I call that an upgrade. I will agree that the work is overused (blame Beyonce' for that not me) but Why would it be such a common swap if it were not a better setup? A properly set up stock OBS turbo will make enough boost with stage 1 or 2 injectors to burn itself up. Sounds to me like it moves plenty of air! I don't mean to mince words and (Cody) you certainly know more about this subject than I do, I just don't see the point in bickering over semantics.

Again to the OP, sorry for my incorrect understanding of the turbo wheel replacement process, but the point remains that the "Wicked Wheel" you saw is a direct replacement for the stock wheel on your turbo.

Again, I mean no disrespect to Cody. I have a lot of respect for the man (and his ability to tune and build these trucks), but whether you consider it an "upgrade" or improvement or whatever seems to me like a matter of opinion and how you intend to use the truck.

 

Wicked wheel is a bandaid for the gtp38
It's a downgrade to stop surging with bigger injectors or hot tunes in the SD's.
The proper way to fix an SD turbo is with a better intake housing.

It's just one of those things, give it a fancy name then tell everyone its an upgrade, and sometimes the mice eat the cheeze and follow the leader.

 

Thanks for all the input everyone. So why do you need to take the trubo completely off to replace the wheel? Looking at the engine it looks like easy enough access to take just the housing off. Plus there's no y pipe or intercooler tubing in the way either

 

You can get to all the bolts but the head is in the way and won't let the housing slide off

 

Damn. How lengthy and involved is taking the entire thing off?

 

Pain in the *** on a 95-97 truck.

 

That's what my mechanic said too. Hard to get at bolts because of the firewall.

 

I've gotten pretty good at it lol. A good 15mm wrench and pry bar are friends on this job. Also invest in a 15mm and 10mm swivel gear wrench. They save time for sure. The hard part is the back driver side pedestal bolt. You need a swivel and a hand full of short and medium extensions. A shallow 6 point 10 mm socket. If you get all the bolts loose your home free. I would spray everything well for a couple days with kano or pb blaster to help loosen up some miles of heat and rust.