Very true about needing the carb sticker, and documentation. They really suck with that stuff.
There are a few guys on this forum who we may be able to convince to let us use their truck as a Guinea pig... Hopefully.
And with luck someone has the carb sticker we could duplicate. And the vortech guys may be able to help out. We have documentation and picture proof that its legal, just need to make it just like the pics.

 

how picky are they about turbos

 

You need to pass a visual test as well.
They have pics or some sort of database telling them what items a car had, and if you have more or less, they want a reason for it, and certification it has no effect on emissions output.
Unless its CARB approved, its illegal. So even if you add something that actually improves output (other than a cat) they will will fail you without even running an actual emissions test. They suck.
They don't want any modification to the vehicle. I have a friend in Santa Mateo and they nit-pick about his cars and trucks always.
If you have modifications, make sure you have you're paperwork saying its carb or 50 state legal. Even if its an air filter.

 

cali sounds like a great place ha ha

 

The small block Vortech brackets are Easy to make. The big block, not so much

 

I have a complete cnc machine shop at my disposal, and a cmm to measure it exactly...
Easy/Difficult is relative to the tools you have available.
Even at my garage I have manual machine shop and plenty of tools.

 

Just need a bracket to mimic

 

The question is, Can I borrow yours....

If I had more time right now I'd be very interested in taking on this project. Because once I had the brackets, I think I could duplicate it in a week (50+ hours at job doesn't help) I'd like to do it right and draw the pieces in AutoCad or solidworks, then mastercam maybe if its tricky.
From what I can see in pics its needing two plates offset with spacers, then add braces/boxing from one plate to another. Everything is Parallel so no funny compound angles or anything.
Once one is made, then tweaked, you make a simple jig, and using precut pieces it should weld together pretty decent.

This is the kind of stuff I want to do at my garage. It won't pay the bills by itself but it sure is fun.

 

Don't forget, there is an auxiliary fuel pump and an ignition retard module that you will need. I also think there is an extra injector to add fuel under boost that has to be placed per directions that the smog **** will want to see.

You have to remember, our Kalifornistan smog inspectors are a lot stricken with 'Detail Disease'. They almost need to see your grandmother's birth certificate to smog something that doesn't look right.

Case in point; A co-worker tricked out his 5.0 so he replaced 99% of the rubber/plastic hoses with polished stainless tubing. Even though no smog item had been deleted, just the 'non-stock' appearance found my friend looking at a trip to the referee station. At said referee station, he had to trace out each line for the referee, per the Ford manual, just to prove nothing had been monkeyed with.

If I had access to a kit, it would be on my truck in a heartbeat. As it is, with no sticker and no ancillary parts available, I can only hope to find a truck for sale with a kit, so I can mine it for the needed goodies.

 

Not a chance in hell. That will never leave my site

 

Technically it doesn't have to leave your sight.... Just needs to leave your truck for a little while.

Next time I'm up your way it would be cool to at least look at it and try to measure it on the truck. Take detailed pics and document certain things.
I really just need to see what it mounts to and the offset. It will eliminate a lot of the guesswork.

 

Don't know about Ca. inspections, but I put a set of L&L headers on my 97' F-350 460 with a true dual exhaust with crossover pipe and it was a HUGE performance gain. Rough estimate, 50+ h.p., and I mean a big "+" !! It comes with fittings in the headers to hook up emissions plumbing.

Biggest performance/H.P. gain on any vehicle I have upgraded, EVER.



L&L Products

 

p.s., I also have installed 4.56 gears, the air horn mod, free flow intake, and 4 degree timing chain mod.

Chip/reprogram is coming soon, I had a JET chip on a new 97 460 years ago and it made a 1.0 second faster time change in 0-60 times. But now they want $350 for the same chip I paid $75 for in 1997.

 

How tough was the install of these headers ???

 

Don't waste your money on a jet chip, or anything for a chip, unless you specifically have your touch Dyno tuned for it.

Especially with this ethanol fuel, a custom chip will do wonders once you get your mods done.