I did my Intank Mods with brake line from Autozone many many years ago....and recently dropped my tank to replace a faulty fuel gauge sender. There is no need to splurge on Stainless steel tubing here either. My tubing looks just as new as when i put it in.... No rust, No nothing........!!!

 

Granted I was doing a bunch of other work at the time, but I didn't find the up-pipes to be that difficult at all. I did remove the downpipe though, and while getting it out was a breeze, getting it lined back up required a couple attempts, punctuated by periods of swearing and resting. That was actually the worst part of the job for me.

Mating the collector to the turbo was a breeze. My "helper" was a ratchet strap that held the collector up in place so I could wiggle it onto the pin. I also didn't have a problem getting the clamp on. Getting it off, on the other hand, was quite an effort. I could not get a decent angle on the clamp to knock it off the mating. I don't remember what I finally did but that was also memorably difficult.

I also found that I had enough room with the downpipe out to completely assemble the up-pipes to the collector out of the truck and drop them in as one unit. I think wrestling with the downpipe was well worth not having to put together 4 ratchet extensions and try to get the right angle and the right torque on the collector bolts. If I did have to do the job over again, I would certainly pull the downpipe. It just made it so much easier. I have a 4" exhaust too, so it's not like there is a ton of room in there.

 

The biggest challenge for me was reaching that far back, climbing across the engine, and then getting the turbo in and out.

I am setup to use our topside creeper now, which GREATLY simplifies the reach and access and getting (me) in and out of position to get tools and such.

I also have a much better understanding of the parts and fitment of the components than before. It was my first major teardown on my own. Everything seemed foreign to me.

Look at people's pics, ask questions, and if you let us know when you're working on it, many times our brotherhood will be "on standby" for your question and messages.

I know they've been there for me

 

The biggest part of the entire problem for me was the bolts at the manifolds...they were all rusted, frozen solid and I had to bring out all the stops to get them out. Dremel drill, acetylene torch, combination of the two. Pull passenger's side fender liner to improve access and pull starter to avoid burning it with the torch and giving me more access. The bolts in the collector on the driver's side came out and went in without a hitch. Then getting the clamp off between the turbo and the collector gave me a run for the money. Got mad, got an 18" piece of brass drift and beat on the clamp with the poor angle that everything provides and it jumped right off. Getting the collector back in place was no fun either. I couldn't figure out how to bungie it or anything else. I wedged a piece of 2/4 between the up pipe and the firewall to hold it still and it popped in. A helping hand on the floor pushing up on that would have helped.