Hey all. It's been a bit since I posted, but I've been lurking. I've been busy working tons of OT to pay for parts and getting the house all finished. Have to keep the other half happy with her "upgrades", too. Anyway I finally had the time and the money for the wish list of upgrades to my 96. They've been collecting in the shop for 6 months and it took me 2 months off and on (mostly off, LOL) to get the truck back together. It ran for the first time tonight. I've still got a coolant leak at the thermostat housing to deal with, then she's on the road. Sorry I don't have any pictures at the moment, but I'll take the camera out tomorrow night and snap a few truck shots once it's out of the shop. On a side note, I had no idea I could make such a mess in my shop.

I bought pretty much everything to save myself the headache of all the fabrication work. Maybe in the end that was a wash and I should have just made the intercooler plumbing since the Irate kit doesn't allow the IC to mount where I wanted it. The upside of doing it their way was that I didn't have to alter the hood latch...I guess that's something. All in all, the parts from Irate Diesel were off good quality, but I can't say the same for their instructions. I spent a lot of time outside the shop reading about how to install the various parts. I guess that's normal, and the few times I called them, I got answers pretty quickly. But it started up tonight and dropped into a smooth idle pretty easily. It only took one battery charge to get it going. From what I read, that's pretty good.

So I'm now rocking:
Upgraded 6.0 I/C
Irate E-Fuel and SX366 Turbo
3" Intake Plenums
Rosewood stage 1.5 injectors
Terminator T500 HPOP
99+ Gaskets and Injector Harnesses
4" Exhaust (got tired of the 5" noise)
Tunes by 1023 Diesel (Riff Raff had a good deal on it, and I talked to them before ordering).
CCV mod

Just a note, if I were doing this again, I swear it'd have been easier to pull the motor rather than lay on top of it for what seems like weeks getting the e-fuel, injectors, and turbo installed. Maybe that's not easier, but it sure feels like it would have been. Also, Irate wasn't kidding when they said that firewall mods were required even with a 3" DP on the stock turbo. Holy crap, I thought I was gonna be half way to China before it fit. I ended up buying a nice porta-power, which made that job very easy.

 

There's a thermostat reinforcement ring out there somewhere that does wonders. It adds another o-ring and solved my thermo leak at least.

Sounds like you've got yourself a beast of a truck now! Whose eFuel did you use?

 

https://www.strictlydiesel.com/p-267...sing-ring.aspx

Used them on every 7.3 I have owned. To me, it's a standard.

 

Agreed, that ring is badass. I have one on El Rojo with a fresh Alliant pump.

 

It's the Irate Non-Competition full kit. It's pretty good, but on regular cab trucks it's outside the frame rail. It made the plumbing a little tough, but it works just fine. If you were building a rock crawler or something like that, it wouldn't be my first choice because you end up with fuel lines under the frame rails.

Thanks for the compliments. I drove it empty for a few minutes tonight and it is freaking awesome. I never imagined such instant throttle response and boost in these old trucks. I'll have to drive it a bit this weekend before trying it with the 20K gooseneck, which I couldn't get out of the field with all the rain anyway.

FYI, it looked like I bent the t-stat housing removing the upper rad hose....although it had been leaking for a long time apparently. The one bolt seized and broke. It looked pretty rusty. The replaced housing from Rock Auto was thicker metal than the one it replaced...go figure.

Sorry no pictures, it was another late night. I should be able to get a few tomorrow.

 

 

Me too ^^^^^

 

I put the GM mirrors on a while back, very nice upgrade to these old trucks.


All stripped out.




Filthy, but finished.