Some of you may recall the two OBS trucks I bought a few months back. I kept the 96 SCLB F250 for my step daughter. She had the same truck only with the 460 prior and we really wanted her in a 7.3. It was an easy call since the 7.3 we bought had 375K miles on it. It runs and drives great but for a flip, that many miles is a hard sell.

The one complaint she had about the truck was that it was dog slow in the mornings till it warmed up. I figured out that the EBPV was sticking closed. I called and talked to Clay at Riffraff about a high flow outlet and things snowballed from there.

I've done about 10-15 sets of up-pipes on SD 7.3s so I knew what I was getting into there. Or so I thought anyway. All in all I went with a set of the new Riffraff OBS up-pipes (Riffraff Diesel Bellowed Up-pipe Kit 94-Early 99 - Riffraff Diesel Performance), a new collector (Ford Up-pipe Collector Manifold 94-97 - Riffraff Diesel Performance), a 1.0 quick spool housing (Garrett 1.0 A/R Quick Spool Turbine Housing - Riffraff Diesel Performance), a high flow outlet (Garrett TP38 High Flow Outlet 94.5-97 - Riffraff Diesel Performance), turbo rebuild kit (Garrett TP38 Journal Bearing Rebuild Kit 94.5-97 - Riffraff Diesel Performance), and Clay's 6/6 billet compressor wheel (Riffraff Diesel Billet Compressor Wheel 94-03 - Riffraff Diesel Performance). I have had great results with the Riffraff billet wheel in several SD trucks so I was anxious to see how it would preform in the OBS.

I didn't get any pics of the turbo rebuild. but I used this guide: Welcome to BDrummonds Van Turbo Rebuild Web Page It is written for a SD van turbo but they are close enough and the differences will be obvious and easy to solve. Since I went with the high flow outlet and I had spent enough money already, I elected to just gut and plug the stock pedestal. A 1/4 NPT tap and a 1/4 NPT pipe plug was all it took. One other note, the OBS turbo is a PITA to get out. I read on another thread about a socket a guy found that worked well. I went to my local Sears store and picked this up: Sears.com It saved me a lot of cussing. A 1/4" drive 10mm with a universal joint and an extension worked for the driver's side back pedestal bolt and a 10mm wrench worked for the back pass side bolt. The front pedestal bolts were easy.

On to the up-pipes.



Neither the IH kit nor the Riffraff kit come with the collector. This is unfortunate. I had to have Clay overnight me one after this happened:



Obviously, I am referencing the broken bolt, not the cut pipe. Every other set I have ever done, one or both of the pipes has slid right out of the collector. No such luck with this truck. I had to cut the pass side pipe. The clearance between the head and the firewall (especially on the driver's side) is really tight. I had to jockey the collar around just right to get the pipe out. Putting the new pipe in was the same story.

As far as install goes, I have found, and this time was no different, that bolting the driver's side pipe to the collector before dropping it in is the easiest way to go. Make sure to remember the stainless gasket that goes in between.



Then drop the passenger side pipe down into place followed by the assembled collector and driver's side pipe.



Once that is all in place, bolt the pass side pipe to the collector. Don't forget the gasket. From there, you want to put the bolts through the manifolds into the collars on the up-pipes. loosely thread the nuts onto the bolts but do NOT tighten. You could also do what I did and forget everything you know and go ahead and mount the up-pipes to the turbo and then mount the turbo and pedestal in the truck and then struggle to figure out why the up-pipes don't line up with the manifolds. I had to fight the up-pipes into position as a result. That made the job take about 2 hours longer than it should.

Some other notes. The new collector does not come with new bolts and studs to mount it to the turbo. These are dealer parts if you want the right ones. They are 10X1.5 on the collector side and 10X1.25 on the turbo side. As the dealer was closed on Saturday and my old studs wouldn't come out, I bought 10X1.5 studs at the local hardware store and new nuts. Additionally, I have been working on 7.3s and 6.0s for a while now. Not for a living but as a hobby and to help out friends and neighbors. Right before I started this project, I finally decided to buy a topside creeper. I don't know what I was waiting for. Best purchase I've ever made for any of my trucks. I got this one:

All said and done, the truck runs great. The 1.0 housing and having the EBPV all gone has made a big difference in the bottom end of this truck. Also, the billet wheel really wakes up the whole RPM range. Both myself and my daughter are really pleased with the results.

 

Nice job Peter! I forgot about the swivel 10mm.

 

Nice! Sub'd

Are you keeping it factory turbo? My trucks uppies don't leak yet (they've been replaced before), but my turbo pedestal leaks oil.
I am just trying to plan/time it out to do a turbo upgrade so I am not hassling with the turbo removal twice.

 

Its just my daughters truck so I'm not dumping a ton of money into it. The stock turbo will stay put for the most part. I have been slowly and cheaply gathering parts to intercool it. If I do anything, I'll put an E99 center section and an E99 pedestal in to make pulling it easier down the road.

 

Nice job. Tried to rep you but I'm in jail

 

Got him Mike.

No DP while you were in there? I've been wanting a topside creeper for a while now. I might just build one, but time always seems to be an issue around here.

 

Will it hold me?.........I've seen your welding

 

I'll make sure I frame it with a couple of 18" LVL's. That should hold your big azz belly! LOL

 

I should have known you'd make it out of wood.......sissy LOL!!!

 

I ordered the last remaining parts to finish my build including these up-pipes almost two months ago and was told they're still in production and on backorder.....mind me asking when you ordered yours and when you received them?

 

Bump...........?

 

I missed this post. Sorry.

I ordered mine when Clay first announced them. I got them the week before I posted this thread. Must have gotten one of the first sets. If you're not sure about your order, call Clay up. He's always given me a straight answer. I'm sure he'll do the same with you.

 

As luck would have it, he emailed me about 20 minutes ago. Must be working late these days lol. Perfect timing right? Thanks for getting back to me though!

 

Peter, you wrote this: I went to my local Sears store and picked this up: Sears.com It saved me a lot of cussing.

I couldnt find it in the link, could you give a better part number or something to figured out it? please.

 

Funny, the link works for me. Anyway, here is the item # and model #:


<small itemprop="productID">Item # 00943206000P</small> <small>Model # 43206</small>