If money is tight some shops will pull and clean your turbo for free just a bone to get more work, although new turbo1thou + a wheel and labor, I would clean and see if you can upgrade the wheel on the old turbo, just my 2cs

 

Well it was a busy day. First I called a dealer where there was supposed to be a good tech. Quoted me 6 hours at $750 so $125 hour. From what I've read the R&R of the turbo shouldn't take that long but I've never done it. That prompted me to try to find a good local diesel shop. After a tip and a few calls I was referred to a guy in my area. I called him and sure enough he does almost exclusively diesel pickup work. Sounds like he's been doing it since the 70's. He talked with me on the phone for about 45 minutes! I was completely impressed with what he said. I have never talked to a mechanic that sounded like he REALLY knew what he was talking about. He has a dyno and has kept records of different turbos etc. Anyway, he said if I was looking for the cheapest he wasn't the guy but said he was thorough. I said I wasn't looking for cheap but competent. He said he always tests the vehicles and makes sure there is nothing else going on and that it wouldn't have to come back. Shop rate only $70 hr. I think I may have found a winner, we'll see.

After I did that I tried to get tracking on Turbo, it will be here tomorrow. Ordered a new feed tube so the drain and feed will be coming early next week along with the blue spring. I tried to contact Mad Turbo Werks with a bit of trouble, one guy on vacation but finally got in touch with owner but he was on his way home so only had a short conversation. Said he would call back but didn't. I'm debating on the billet wheel but may go ahead if he can get it to me by mid week.

I also got a wild hair and ordered a PHP FICM tuner. Wanted one for awhile and while I'm going broke, I thought WTF. I still need to get the Gearhead tunes to load so I will likely only tune FICM to 40 unless I remove the tune and go hotter on the FICM. Might be fun to experiment and maybe I can get some good dyno info!

Everything is coming together, hopefully my trip the week after next will be fun! Now I know I could probably get by with a cleaning, but I'm the type that takes an opportunity to replace with new. When I was talking with the mechanic, he spoke about testing a stock turbo then an upgrade... turns out the stock turbo performed better. Could be because it needed to be running a tune with an upgraded turbo. Anyway, he said most just have them cleaned but they may still have issues then went into why the turbos have issues. Stuff I knew but good to hear him talk about it.

I've talked to dealer techs who have no clue. The local shop I was using didn't even know the primary fuel filter was on the rail and only replaced the secondary on top. I have a BPD remote oil filter etc and when they opened the oil filter housing they thought it was a fuel filter delete. I also had them throw on my coolant filter while it was there. He asked my why and didn't really understand... really? I lost all confidence, especially when the previous rate of $50 hr went to $89 and charged 2 hours to do very little and didn't even get the fuel filter right! Oh yeah, the same shop that said a noise was a bad turbo, I went home and listened and found it was a screaming exhaust leak. New gasket and tightened the down pipe/turbo connection and fixed!

Well I'm excited to find a guy with some knowledge. I'm also excited to have a nice turbo whistle again! I will likely sell old turbo to recoup some of the investment. Maybe I can pay for the billet wheel?

 

Hink10,
Looks like over a month now.
Any updates on your fix?

 

Yep, had the Powermax installed with a gen II Wicked Wheel although the wheel may have been a mistake. The dyno shows high EGTs and turbo not as efficient as stock but didn't get a chance to dyno with stock wheel. Will figure that out later. Need to watch real world EGT numbers. The thing runs like a rocket with Matt's SRL+ tune. I think I was making about 420 HP with the tune, about a 120HP gain. Anyway, if anyone has experience with the WW in the Powermax please share. I know I could have just had the turbo cleaned but figured I'd upgrade while out. Will probably sell old turbo and recover a few bucks.

Just before I was taking to the shop for install an intermittent no start left me stranded. Long story short, I have a new wiring harness. With the turbo, harness and dyno testing it cost a fortune. The guy does very meticulous work and laid the harness in as it should be and thoroughly tested with all tunes. I did get some great data from the dyno. I think I posted most of this in another thread so. I won't go on too much. At least I found a good mechanic to work on my EX. Not many SuperFlow dyno shops around!

I still have a sick feeling every time I start thinking the harness was not the issue but sure it was. I saw areas of the harness that definitely could have been an issue. Everything else checked out and while on the dyno moving the harness caused some anomalies. Anyway everything good except wallet and need to figure out the EGT issue.

Steve