I'm in the process of doing the WW so I tought that I would shorten the wastegate rod at the same time. The rod end wouldn't move in either directions so I tought that instead of leaving it alone I decided to use my awesome strenght and force it. Well my peanut brain didn't relay the stop signal to my arms early enough and now the rod is in more pieces than Ford intended it to be.
My question is is the little valve that the actuator operates remain closed until the wastgate pushes open, or the other way around. the reason i'm asking is I tapped it shut until I get the new part i'm just wondering if it'll be good enough to keep it shut for a few days.
One more thing of the subject who in the world is the brainchild that came up with that collar thing on the back of the turbo that goes to the manifold the thing is impossible to take off, and now i'm having just as much problems putting it back on.

 

the wastegate actuator holds the waste closed so i dont think tapping it closed is going to work for more than about a 1/2 second or so. you could try wiring it closed but i bet it will still leak quite a bit.

 

You'll be shocked when you price a new waste gate actuator at your Ford dealer, they cost almost as much as a rebuilt turbo. At least that was the price I was quoted for my pre-99.5 turbo, which uses a different actuator than the 99.5 and later turbo.

Here's a temporary fix, that can even be made a permanent one with a little effort. Use a strong spring (in tension) to keep the waste gate closed. The permanent fix I used, was to hook one end of the spring to the waste gate rod, and the other end to the actuator housing using an adjustable turnbuckle. Then I made some WOT runs and adjusted the spring tension using the turnbuckle until I got the waste gate to begin opening at about 20 psi. The back pressure that drives the turbine is trying to push the waste gate open against the restraining force of the spring. When towing my 5th wheel up a long grade, the boost will build to about 22 psi, before the waste gate has been forced open enough to limit it.

 

That is a good idea Ernesteugene. Here is a picture of the wastegate deal, the flapper valve is held CLOSED by the actuator rod, until boost pressure pushes on a diaphragm inside and extends the rod. In the pic below imagine the linkage pivoting in an arc, and the wastegate rod goes down towards the table.

 

Yeah I don't think that the tape is working that good I only took a small drive but it seemed like i couldn't build boost very fast. As far as buying a wastegate i plan on buying the one on Dieselsite I think it's only $170 or so plus it's a different design than the stock one which is supposed to work better.

 

Afastone, since you did a WW, you might want to check out my two posts on the thread below to see if they apply to your situation.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/578105-turbo.html#post4409555

I assume you were trying to shorten your actuator rod to increase boost. I was trying to do the opposite when I broke the actuator on my new replacement turbo!

My chip disables all PCM control of the waste gate actuator, and my boost would build to 26-28 psi towing up grades before the back pressure would force the waste gate open enough to limit the boost. As a fulltime RVer about 80% of my miles are towing, and I wanted to get more than 50K miles from my second turbo.

I find that limiting boost to 20-22 psi lets the turbo run cooler, and it actually seems to pull better on long grades. On my pre-99.5 truck the entire path from the turbo outlet to the engine (including the intake manifold) is smaller diameter than the latter models. In my case I think the higher boost was mostly due to a higher air temp with little or no increase in mass air flow to the engine. The PCM starts defueling at about 20-22 psi anyway unless you fool it by not letting the MAP sensor see the higher boost.

 

PM me I have 2 complete stock waste gates.

 

OTTOMATIC, I appreciate your generous offer, and want to thank you for all to see. I'll also send a PM to thank you personally. I just took a picture of my new setup to show why I don't need to accept your offer after all. I recently came across a replacement actuator at a shop that did Banks "Big Head" installations, and he had a box of stock actuators left over and gave me one. I had been on the lookout for a replacement for years, because I was concerned that my homemade actuator was going to detract from resale or trade in value.

As you can see, I now adjust my maximum boost by using a second spring in compression that works against the stock spring to reduce its tension. I guessed on the initial amount of compression, and clamped one end in place on the actuator rod, and the other end butts against the actuator housing. Through trial and error, I kept inserting slotted washers to increase the compression until I got just the right amount of overall tension to limit my maximum boost to 20-22 psi when towing up a grade. I figure I can now go back to OEM stock in about 5 minutes by unbolting the clamp, cutting the spring with my Dermal tool, and unwinding the two halves from the actuator rod.

 

This is what I decided to go with. turbo master link

 

Afastone, I read your link, and saw "You could accomplish this simple task by shortening the wastegate rod. It delays the "set point", but doesn't overcome the issue of the wastegate's lack of staying shut until desired." I meant to mention this point regarding your trying to shorten yours to improve its performance. Even with a shorter rod, the PCM can open the wastegate before maximum boost is achieved.

I also noticed that "We took the 02 F350 out for a test run and WOW! Moderate pressure on the go-peddle resulted in instantaneous 30 psi boost and a check engine light...... 1 1/2 turns of the adjustment nut and round two. This time pressure jumped (and I mean in the blink-of-an-eye) to 25 psi and remained there thru the next 3 gears." According to this description and the picture on the site, it appears as if this device works just like my homemade spring except that I have to insert spacers to adjust the boost.

I guess the only downside I see with this unit is it possibly detracting from resale or trade in value. You could ask OTTOMATIC for the freebee that I no longer need and build your own. In my picture, you can see the hose clamped to the actuator nipple, but with my chip installed this has no effect, and the only thing controlling the wastegate is the spring.

BTW, why did you do the WW installation?

 

I did look at you're setup and found it very interesting, if I had seen it before I broke my actuator rod I would probably have tried it. But since I need this fixed pretty quick I ordered the part from Dieselsite this afternoon. By the time I get my truck back from the tranny shop I should have received the part from Bob.
The reason I did the WW was that I was having major surge issues. Every time I merged on the freeway I would start surging as soon as the tranny shifted into overdrive the only way to stop it was to let of the gas. I'm not talking about WOT either just past halfway was good enough for it to happen.

 

Afastone, did you check my posts on the link I gave to see if there were any similarities to your problem? Did you make any changes like new AIS, CHIP, etc... just before your problem started? All the reports of surging that I've read about seem to occur at moderate to heavy throttle while pulling a load at an approximately constant speed, but not when accelerating briskly through the gears, especially in an empty truck

You wrote "I would start surging as soon as the tranny shifted into overdrive the only way to stop it was to let of the gas." Did you notice changes in RPM, boost, etc...? Did you hear any unusual noises? Did the truck shutter or buffet? I've heard of some cases where in OD, the torque converter clutch cycles in and out of lockup. If that was happening, you would see a fluctuation of several hundred RPM.