Well, I had hoped to be able to have the time to sit down and give a detailed description of the events that occupied my entire Saturay at RRE by now, but I have been quite busy since I got home. I don't want to let this go any longer, though, because without y'alls help I would've been stuck in Tennessee until God Knows When! There were so many people that had a hand in helping me get my turbo off, install the Wicked Wheel, FRx, and HPx, and repair the stripped threads on the FPR, that I'm certain there will be someone who is not included in this list and for that I sincerely apologize.

For those not in attendance, long story short, I started the day at about 9:30 with the intent of installing the WW by removing the turbo. Everything went fine until we got to the v-band clamp on the baby's butt. We spent about 3 hours trying to pry that thing off until Cory finally climbed on top of the motor and in about 45 minutes had it off.

Because of the amount of trouble we had removing the turbo, and since the rear plug for the FRx was so much more accessible, I decided to go ahead do that as well as the HPx. No problem, right? Well, we spent about 2 hours trying to get the plug off of the front of the fuel rail for the FRx. Taking a break from that, I decided to go ahead and install the part of the FRx that screws into the FPR. In the process, the threads in the fuel bowl were stripped - most likely by someone prior to me, but another setback nonetheless........ this was at about 5:00pm, I had skipped lunch during the turbo removal debacle, we had been rained on, and I was generally getting very frustrated. That's about the time that most of these guys told me to take a break and let them have a crack at it. Adam removed the fuel bowl with the intent of either replacing it or fixing it. We couldn't find a replacement quickly, so Cory went to work on re-tapping the holes. (By the way, talk about being prepared, he not only had the right sized tap, but two perfectly sized bolts for replacements as well). This is honestly the point where things become blurry for me as Adam went to town re-installing everything that we had removed in addition to the rest of the FRx and HPx.

When all was said and done, it was about 9:30 pm, truck was running great, no leaks, and I could finally eat something and tell my wife thank you for her patience throughout the day (she was taking care of my 2 children and her 12 yr old cousin throughout all this, while also nursing a hangover from the night before ).

So, gentlemen, thank you, and again I apologize if I accidentally forgot someone. Also, I am horrible with names, so if I got a screenname but not a real name or vice versa, I apologize:

Cory - Ziggy
Adam - Farmb0y
Clay - Riffraff
Peter - Duckfan
JD - JDecker88
Bob Taulbee
Robert - Shacks87
Bobbyjrw
Princess - Jkidd
Shawn - Bama29fan
Bob - Guzzle
Roland - Mueckster

Please rep these guys when you can!

 

I was just watching (with amazement) since I have the same mods lined up. My first RRE and I got to see some great help.

It was neat to see so many people working on your truck. All had an area of expertise that made things go much smoother.

Watching this convinced me that RRE is the place to be.

 

Bob once again I am sorry I didn't get to help you any. We did help your wife just a tad with the kids. I even went and sat with her for a moment and shared our hangovers. LOL. Misery loves company you know.

I am really glad that all worked out for you in the end. I really was relieved when I saw you driving it around that night.

Congrats!

 

Bob, it was my pleasure, you are a heck of a great guy, and a very nice truck, it was great to see you again this year and for you to allow me to work on your truck. I'm glad you are seeing an improvement in your trucks performance. Looking forward to more great times next year brother!!!

 

It was great to meet you as well Bob and I do apologize again for not getting to the brakes on the trailer for you. When you get ready to take a look at them let me know and I will walk you through the procedure for testing them. I am going to see if I have more than one meter that will read DC amps and i will send it out to you to use.

 

Correction- had one leak, I forgot to hook up the fuel line to the fuel bowl. But I was just testing the fuel pump... looked like it had good pressure...

Bob, like Cory said, it was a pleasure to work on your truck. I don't think I've had my turbo go back in as easily as your's did.
I was just re-paying you for your family watching my kid while I let my wife drag race my truck! One good turn deserves another!

 

i would have liked to help more...but i was a little worried about my truck at the same time.

i understand about the wife hangover deal....mine was absent most of the day on thursday

 

Neal, sorry for leaving you out and it's true - Carrie even mentioned that you guys helped her take care of the kids. THANK YOU!

Jim, I really appreciate your willingness to help with the trailer brakes and will let you know when I start working on them. I also should mention Huck here, he was also helping me throughout the day and was very willing to get to work on my trailer brakes. We just ran out of daylight. I can't say enough about everyone at the event. I am really very sad that it's over and unfortunately I won't be able to be there next year because I will be overseas hopefully killing bad guys and protecting the good guys. I will be there in spirit though and am honestly considering trying to organize something on a smaller scale that those close enough can attend. Nothing as fun as RRE, but I would love to see as many of y'all as possible again before I'm gone for the next year+. Thanks again everyone.

 

Glad to give you a hand! I wasn't much help but I hope my tools did some help! Glad to see you got running just fine. Thanks for the smoke you gave me when you pulled outta the KOA! It was a great sign that you were back and running!

 

It was great to see you again. I hate that we couldn't work on those brakes. I was looking forward to learning a thing or two from Jim. If you get a G2G lined up I'll do my best to get down there.

 

Bob, wish I could have done more. Reps to you for sticking with it.

Edit: have to spread them around

 

So can you tell what Adam is doing to Bob's Truck? If you look closely, you will notice that the sun is still shining. That means the turbo isn't off yet.

 

Oh no, it's going back in already! You can see the shiny new wicked wheel in there!

 

Yep. That's the reinstall process, the sun didn't set until like 8:00pm. Good pic though. Thanks for posting it. That was pretty much the position I was in from 6pm on thanks to Adam.

 

The first turbo pull sucks. Next time it will be cake! I can have mine out in about 45 minutes. Just wait for the uppipes.. That one is certainly a PITA. Reference this post for when you do it..

Pull the DP. Allows you to use a sawzall to cut the uppies out. Wobble sockets are your friend. Beer helps too. If I were to do it all over again I woulda bought a set of ceramic coated exhaust manifolds from Clay. I love ceramic coating.