You guys are an awesome resource. Thought I had things pretty well covered but somehow this one was not on my radar for PM work…

 

Lots of great advice above!

I'll second replacing the HPOP hoses. Yours look OEM and they have a rep for failing with age. And when one pops you're on the side of the road lickety split.

There is a neato updated design from Riff Raff.

@Kwikkordead did you actually luck out and break down in Ely? There's hundreds of beautiful but empty square miles around Ely.

 

Yes, what happened is wife and I were just returning from a visit to the Great Basin National Park. We spent a couple of extra nights in Ely, NV to be able to check it out and the hose failed as I was parking in front of the 5th wheel in the Ely, KOA. I'm very grateful it was there, and not 200 miles into the middle of nowhere with no cell service. BTW, the town of Baker, NV, which is located at the intersection where you turn up the hill to go to the road into the park has a great little restaurant called the Sugar, Salt, and Malt. Really good food. I do not hesitate to recommend eating there. I've also found that to be true in just about every small town I've ever pulled over in to find a place to eat. The people who live in small towns are more interested in your business than big city people and they go the extra mile to prove it.
Both my wife and I were born, raised, spent our whole lives in the Seattle, WA. area. Ran an auto repair business for 38 years until I retired in June, 2020. Moved to an area an hour's drive south of Tucson right after that. But before we did retire we made many trips between WA and AZ. The shortest route between the two states is Seattle, Ellensburg, Yakima, then cross the Columbia at Hermiston, OR area and follow 84 to Twin Falls, ID. We actually get off 84 at Bliss, ID and cut over from there to catch 93 south all the way to Las Vegas. From there, we go and get off of 40 just past Kingman and follow the highway through Wickenburg, then Phoenix, then Tucson, the follow 19 to home. So yes, we've been through there many times and I love the remoteness of it all. I've made the drive now so many times, I don't need my Garmin any more for that particular trip, LOL.

 

David ( @aawlberninf350 ), you are right about the empty square miles around Ely...

There is a DoD test range just south of Ely headed toward Tonopah on Hwy 6 (just north of 375) that we used to fly to twice a year and "test" things. That spot/area was selected due to the proximity to other test ranges in the area and it being the "least populated portion of the United States in the lower 48". It is just before you hit the hot springs pool on the right if you are headed south.

Coincidentally, my wife and I had been by the range a couple of times on our way to or from the SW and ID before. I still need to take her to see Devils Chair (hill that looks like a chair), the huge crater by the dry lake and the atomic test site out there.

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As for the high pressure power steering line. I bought a new Motorcraft from Clay at Riffraff a couple of years ago when I was in the engine bay knocking out some other maintenance items. I made sure to use some reinforced hose to guard the power steering line where it crosses near the shock tower too. I also put a rubber boot over the sharp fitting so as to not damage the CAC tube on the driver side. If/when I need to replace the Motorcraft line, I will go with the custom built design mentioned and linked above. This came out after I had replaced my OEM line with another Motorcraft.

 

I did that drive a year ago, from Boise. Went south outta twin falls. However, at some point, towing a 30ft enclosed, empty..i somehow went "left" and hit the Dinner pass..lol..from there, I was soo far East of the 93, I went thru some mining town then had to go west, just to get me back on track..haha
only downfall for the entire trip was I had no signal for 3hrs on the stretch south of the Donner

 

I'm not near as knowledgeable as lots of these guys but I just did pretty much the same thing you are doing. I decided to pull and reseal the fuel bowl and replace the seals in the fuel line fitting too. Not expensive and much easier to do with the turbo and pipes out. Having the fuel lines and bowl out of the way also made the plenum replacement easier.

 

Well my shipment has arrived and I had time today to make some progress. Finished disassembly, cleaned everything really good. Found the remnants of a rats nest in the valley under the turbo pedestal so that was a nice surprise. Put new plenum covers in, and spent most of the day cleaning various components before reassembly. Going to try to get the turbo in tomorrow along with the intake spider and the fuel bowl.

on a side note I purchased a topside creeper last year when I did glow plugs…my knees absolutely love it, if you are still debating its a great purchase and almost a must have for working on pickups’ and SUVs’.

I also noticed some difference in the plenums vs. the instructions on riffraff’s website. These ones (my truck is an e99) do NOT require the bolt by the HPOP to be cut, and are slotted like the OEM design where as the instructions say that the bolt is omitted. I also noticed the studs that hold the bracket for the starter relay do not get re-used as the instructions state. My studs were not long enough the fit with the spacers provided; instead there were two longer allen head bolts in the kit from Riffraff that were used with the spacer against the plenum, the bracket for the relay, and then the bolt went through the whole thing. No complaints as the set up is great, just a few difference between the later model design vs the e99 set up.

Now for the pictures



Old vs new plenums. Really impressed with the fit and design improvements of these vs the OEM design

After cleaning out the rats nest. After snapping this photo I degreased and scrubbed the top of the motor.

New plenums installed (note that the batteries are disconnected to avoid any issues with the lose wire by the relay)

Cleaned the turbo pedestal best I could with a wire brush and got that re-installed along with the O-rings from the turbo re-install kit.

 

Looking good! Those plenums are a piece of art. Too bad they get so covered up down in there.

You might want to put a glove or something over the plenum holes to prevent anything from dropping in.

Edit: just noticed the last photo. Looks like you already have it taken care of with towels.
Scared me seeing the GPR work with the open holes.

 

Yea I was a little nervous, but I refrained from attaching the wires or moving the nuts on the relay, but the design of the new bolts/studs required the relay bracket be put in place to attach the plenums. Basically there are two spacers that go between the bracket and the plenum, then the bolt goes through everything all at once…the factory studs do no get reused as they were to short to attach to the heads with the spacers and did not fit without them.

 

As long as you are all the way in there, might put IPR cleaning and o ring refresh on the list? a lot harder to get to later.

 

Good call, ended up waiting for UPS to deliver some HPOP lines and the O-ring rebuild from riffraff yesterday before re-assembling everything.

Shes all back together now, and running. No oil or fuel leaks, making more boost as well.

So far with this repair blitz:

-All intercooler boots and clamps
-Plenum boots and clamps
-Billet aluminum plenums
-HPOP lines
-Rebuild IPR
-Reseal fuel bowl (wasnt leaking but figured it was out on the bench may as well)
-Replace the driver side A-pillar gauge mounts with cleaner design supplied by Riffraff (previous owners gauges work great but the mount was cheap looking)

Whats left for this repair blitz:

-Passenger side window regulator
-Repaint the dash bezel with the right shade of dark brown (when I rebuilt the radio previously the color I picked didnt match the way I wanted it to)
-Oil Pan Gasket
-Oil Change
-Transmission flush (drain and fill)
-Coolant flush (Drain and fill)
-Check other fluids and change as necessary
-Clean and detail the interior and exterior

Decided to save the power steering line for the next time, at some point I needed to quit spending $$ and swapping parts that are not broken yet. I did make some temporary fixes with heater hose wrapped around the rub points and electrical tape to protect some exposed wire harness.

Now for the pictures:



Resealed the fuel bowl with new O-rings.

Turbo back in, that clamp to the up-pipe collector sucks…

Intake “spider” back in.

New plenum boots.

All back together and driving.


Ill update in a few days when I start the next phase of this saga…

 

You don’t really need that extra hose clamp on the upper rad hose. I used to have a big zip-tie on mine but that hose has no intention of making contact with the belt. I’ve had nothing on mine for literally years now.