You will have to undo the heat shield (wear gloves, it's sharp!). There are several pins and at least 1 bolt that need to be removed. Not a fun job and it's easy to tear it.

 

You can not pull the IP and lines together on a turbo motor.
No way to get the lines to tilt up without bending them enough to damage them.

I know you don't want to hear this, but it is actually faster to pull the engine to R&R the heads on a turbo motor than it is to try it in the truck.

Passenger side head bolts, the rear bolts will not come out of the head because of the heater box.

So much easier if you pull the engine.

Last time I did mine with my sons help, 15 hours to pull the engine, pull the turbo and heads, swap head gaskets, put it back together and back in the truck.

Standard shop rates book has the head gasket R&R at 22 hours in the truck on a 7.3 turbo motor.

 

I have pulled IPs with the turbo (factory set up and with a Banks unit) in place, no bending of lines needed.

And I agree with you on pulling the engine to replace head gaskets. It "can" be done, but it won't be any fun at all!

 

if its the ats turbo kit then you have to remove the turbo. it covers the 7 and 5 cylinders

 

I just pulled the IP and lines on a factory (ATS) turbo so that I could get to the bolts to pull the turbo. Not an issue, just have to be careful.

 

there are 2 bolts holding the turbo to the intake that you don't have to remove anything to get to, then the downpipe, exhaust cross over pipe and passenger side manifold. Just as easy as doing it your way but a lot faster imo. I've done it maybe 30 times in the last 6 months

 

ok you dont need to un bolt the up pipe from the turbo easyest way to get the turbo off is to pull the up pipe with the turbo unbolt the turbo from the engine un hook the oil feed line remove the clamp from the down pipe the from under the truck there is litle nub on the up pipe hit it with a punch and hammer. Down side to this method is some times when you re asemble it the up pipe wan'ts to leak. But I would leave the turbo alone pull the engine and take the heads off. And not to be the bearer of bad newsw but why do you think you need head gaskets? coolant in oil oil in coolant cylinder full of coolant cylinder presure in coolant? chances are there are tiny holes in the cylinder wall caused by cavitation, been there done that. Took about 6 hours to pull the engine yank the head and get realy realy realy pissed. Took about 2 week ends to put it back together 6 months later didn't mark any thing because I figured I would put it back in the next day not have to find a new engine, also swaped alot of parts from the 7.3 to the 6.9 and matched a set of injectors out off all my spares. Even with pulling the engine the A/c can be left in just be careful not to slam the engine into it.

 

wow that was a lot of info in one shot. ill mull it over but we have to take a break for a day or 2 (work sucks). id have gone with pulling the motor right from the start but we dont have the means to do so

 

I had a chery picker but had to deflate the tires and rock the engine around to get it over the core suport. Luckily I ended up putting it back in at work with a much better cherry picker.

 

As I look over all of the posts and first off thank you all for the great advice. like what my friend said earlier we will deffently sit a day at least to consider the next direction that we will take next