So I was pulling my down pipe on the driver's side to replace the gasket due to having high EGT's and low boost pressure. I ended up breaking one of the studs at the top. I'm assuming my only choice now is to pull the turbo. Are there any other upgraded or things to check while I've got it out? There is oil in the valley so I think I'll put new o rings in at the very least. This is an early 99 F550 I'm working on.

Thanks

 

 

If you pull the turbo, replace the o rings. Even if you just pulled it a few weeks ago or it's never been done. Those can leak a lot of oil when bad and on an Early 99 I think it's the same as the OBS turbo, and to this day I've never done a worse job than pulling the turbo on the 97 f250 I used to have.

I've read basically a 50/50 mix on bellowed up pipes or stock. Me personally, if I have any reason to believe I need to pull the up pipes, I'm looking for the best deal on a set of bellowed up pipes and running those. But, new stock ones should last a long time. Mine are still good on my 2001 F350 so they last a long time sometimes.

I also would recommend a rebuild. Depending on how fat your wallet is, I'm sure I'm not the only one who can throw more suggestions at you to do since you're in there.

 

 

Turbo is out and the broken bolt is removed. I welded a nut to it and heated it. It worked great. On reassembly should I put the pedestal in then the turbo with the part the up pipes bolt to already connected then put the up pipes on accessing the pass side by removing the fender splash guard?

It's actually a good thing that bolt broke because I was just going to do the driver's side "for now". Well the pass side up pipe literally fell out when I lifted the turbo and had been leaking really bad.

Mike

 

 

Thanks for the advice!! That will keep me from having to pull the fender splash guard to get at the upper boots too.

 

I don't think you can lower the baby's butt into place with both up pipes installed in it. The typical procedure is to install the passenger's side pipe and lower the assembly into place then feed the driver's side up from below. The driver's side bolts can be accessed from below with long extensions, passenger's side cannot. With the bellowed up pipes the bellows stretch and bolting them to the manifolds isn't too bad. I don't know how you are going to get your length right on the passenger's side.

 

I installed the chevy donuts on friends truck by way of tightening both ds and os with turbo already installed. Gotta leave everything loose or it wont line up. Its tight especially the p/s but a few wobblys are your friend. This was accomplished from atop the motor