I bought this old '88 F250 Lariat, been in storage for 7-9 years, had unknown C6 problem, got it cheap. C6 problem proved to be loose pan, retorqued, refilled and all OK Got new batteries and took it for a spin, immediate fountain of diesel leaks from old seals and O-rings. Fixed the fuel heater O-ring, bought the Napa kit to do the injector return lines.

Now, looking at the Banks turbo setup, how do I do this re-seal? Do I have to remove all the stuff from the top of the engine, including the Banks kit, to do this?

Is Banks still in business for gaskets and what not if it has to come off? Also, propose to replace C6 w/ZF, heard may need new downpipe to clear the ZF 5-speed?

New to Ford diesels, fairly impressed with idi engines,so far.

 

Yes Banks is still in business. The turbo only uses oil for lubrication if it not. Leaking leave it alone. If the bearing are good it should be fine. Spin it should spin free check for endplay.

I pulled mine off a junker and did nothing to it

 

And, be aware that you *will* see oil in the intake(compressor) side of your turbo, your intake manifold etc.
The CDR output runs into the intake, and that takes a lot of oil vapor and droplets with it. IDIs are very dirty, loose-tolerance engines especially when it comes to the ring gaps, so they make a lot of blowby.

 

Funny how we forget little stuff like that

 

This is good to know. I've had my eye open for a used turbo locally.



Early this morning I got to enjoy the smell of my IDI when I parked it right after startup to pull out the mirrors.

 

Banks does not sell turbo parts, but you can get rebuild parts for the early non-wastegate turbo as it's not as proprietary as the later wastegated units. Banks will not sell you any rebuild parts for the turbo though, but they'll be happy to charge you a grand or two for to rebuild yours. They will make you a set of up pipes though, for a reasonable price.

The non wastegated Banks has two different pedestals, one for auto and one for manual. The manual trans pedestal has a different angle to the inlet. I've seen one guy post that he used the Banks auto setup with a manual trans, there was probably some grinding and shimming involved and of course the long up pipes were custom, but still with a restriction or very tight bend at the pedestal.

When I went from a C6 to a ZF5 I picked up a different turbo that would work with it, a newer wastegated Banks as that's what came up within a few hour drive for a reasonable price and in what appeared to be reasonable condition. I rebuilt the turbo center section with cheap off the shelf parts, got a damaged turbo for the proprietary parts. I used that to replace the melted turbine wheel and cracked compressor wheel. The compressor wheels were a slightly different OD so I also had to use the compressor housing form the parts turbo.

In any event, it wasn't worth it for me to make the early Banks work with a ZF5, the up pipes alone would have been a nightmare and the airbox was a PITA anyway. I really like the wastegated Banks up pipes, I think it's the best setup of any of the "factory" turbos, so I'll stick with these when I upgrade the turbo and install and intercooler. I'm in the wastegated Banks around $1000 after buying new pipes from Banks, rebuild kit, and parts turbo. Woulda been $600-$700 that I paid for it if the turbo wasn't trashed. I sold my early non-wastegated Banks for $600, mighta got a few bucks more but I wanted it gone. The wastegated Banks is a breeze to install and remove transmissions and service anything top side, compared to the early Banks.