Question for those that have done a turbo mod

So I just got a 6.5TD setup from a guy parting out his pickup. Looking a bit closer at my M1009 and it looks like it's going to be a tight fit between the manifolds and the frame on the passenger side.

So for those that have performed this before: would it be easier to pull the whole engine to get everything changed or to remove the passenger side inner fender, batteries etc just to fight frame clearance?

I'm planning to replace the harmonic balancer and timing chain in the near future too if that would make a difference in your decision. Just curious about which path would be the one of least resistance.

I have a pole barn on a slab so space isn't an issue for me.

Thanks for your $0.02

I am headed for the same headache as you, so I will listen to this carefully (from those who have done it).

hmm think this would be even easier?

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showpost.php?p=3954643&postcount=69

It can be done without a big headache with the engine in place. It would be easier to remove passenger side fender to do the conversion than to pull engine.

Taking off the inner and outer fender is a must!! Its still a pain in the ass. biggest problem I ran into was putting those exhaust manifold bolts in on the passenger side, the frame is in the way. I was not able to torque those bolts down properly no way to get a torque wench in there. Anyhow I only needed one exhaust gasket, some say two. So maybe try this IDK if it will work thought about it after I finished, try to put the exhaust manifold on the head before you put the head back on the block? might work.

I decided to pull the entire front as one piece since I am doing the harmonic balancer and timing chain at the same time. Looks like it's doable without removing the radiator but I pulled mine anyway to see what the rust situation on the radiator support looks like. Good thing too, it looks pretty rotten. It gives me an opportunity to checkout and clean the wiring harness front of the firewall as well as sand off the light rust and repaint the inside.

The entire front came loose with only a few bolts. My biggest hangup at this point is two of the bolts holding the brush guard on. PB Blaster and an O/A torch couldn't get them loose so I'm off to get an air chisel.

When I put it back together I'm going to see if there's a way to route the wiring to make it easier to prep the front body to lift off. It would have saved a lot of strange contorting in the past.


Also went with this for an EGT gauge:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DIGITAL-EGT...ies&hash=item2c4defeeb6&vxp=mtr#ht_1908wt_989

A bit uglier than a typical full-sweep round gauge but I like that it has a programmable alarm function and can be repurposed later.

For those that have turboed their 1009,I also have a ? Would it be worth it to run the short injectors and hard lines? Instead of stacking up exhaust man.gaskets.

I read somewhere that one must be careful when changing injectors: their pop-open pressure has to match the IP. I believe I also read that the 6.5 and 6.2 IPs are fairly close but the civy trucks had several IPs available and I don't know if they differ between the heavy duty and standard IPs for example.

So going to the short injectors may require using the IP from the same donor truck. Or they're close enough that it doesn't really make a difference.

manifold s

tequilaiam said:

I read somewhere that one must be careful when changing injectors: their pop-open pressure has to match the IP. I believe I also read that the 6.5 and 6.2 IPs are fairly close but the civy trucks had several IPs available and I don't know if they differ between the heavy duty and standard IPs for example.

So going to the short injectors may require using the IP from the same donor truck. Or they're close enough that it doesn't really make a difference.

Click to expand...

I had undo the passager side motor mounts to install exhaust manifold, ,, leave driver side alone 6.5 turbo manfold interferred with the frame reinforcement and will ne problematic installing crossover tube... cross pipe ... it is best to use a 2 piece type mount turdo side and hack away at driver side.. andr then hack on other.. I tucked mine or ended somewhere betwixt the trans and tranfer case

southdave said:

I had undo the passager side motor mounts to install exhaust manifold, ,, leave driver side alone 6.5 turbo manfold interferred with the frame reinforcement and will ne problematic installing crossover tube... cross pipe ... it is best to use a 2 piece type mount turdo side and hack away at driver side.. andr then hack on other.. I tucked mine or ended somewhere betwixt the trans and tranfer case

Click to expand...

Good to know. I'm still waiting on the exhaust studs and that will be the next part I tackle.

How did you feed your turbo oil? From pressure transducer port up high or that gallery plug down by the oil cooler lines? I've read people doing both but don't know if one way offers an advantage or not. I don't want to starve the drivers side head of oil. But my gallery plug is locked up tight and don't want to heat it with a torch either.

I messed up in my opinion the first time , hook up to the lower with 5/16 line. It ended up straving out cam of oil , wiped out the front two lobes.
I would tee off the oi pressure gauge, if you don't have a passage on the front passager side of block. I have read some have come off head in valley off the second cylinder tapping out the plug, buttt, I dont know if I do that , passager head is dodgey on the 6.2 6.5. Lot of heat on that side and add turbo???

Super, thanks!

I pulled the OP sensor and fitting out to test if the braided line from the 6.5 would work and it doesn't appear so. Threads are correct but not the angles of the bends in the OEM line. Bummer...going to see if I can source something locally.

The block and turbo inlet threads are 1/4" NPT with the factory adapters but the line looks like it's closer to 1/4 OD....so would a 1/8" NPT fitting in there be too restrictive? Lots of braided oil supply lines on fleabay with -AN to 1/8NPT adapters.

Don't want it too restrictive and starve the turbo but don't want it so wide open that the drivers side head starves either.

When I did mine, I recall it being a bear. But I didn't remove the inner fender at all. I just cut out for the downpipe and that was it. As memory serves, I double stacked gaskets on the passenger side. I also recall having to buy some bolts and grind the heads down a bit. I also believe I used some tape to hold the bolts "just right" while I finagled it into place, as I didn't have 6 hands needed to hold everything in place.

Wasn't fun at all. Won't kid about that. But I didn't have to touch the frame or cut up anything other than the inner fender for the downpipe.

Thanks patracy. I ended up removing the entire front (minus hood) as once piece because I decided to do all the consumables on the front at the same time and to get a look under the radiator, inner fenders, fender corners etc. and treat for rust. Once the whole thing was out it was much easier to blast off rust and epoxy-prime all those little hard to reach places.

It was also pretty easy to get the rusted out manifold bolts off. Mine had lost enough material that no sockets would bite and I had to hammer on and slowly twist out the header bolts with one of those bolt extractors and generous application of PB Blaster. That would have been difficult if not impossible with the fenders in place. I should have taken some pics of the process as it was really easy to remove the fender screws and radiator support nuts.

During lunch I picked up a steel hydraulic line and adapters to 1/4 NPT at NAPA so I'm ready to reassemble this thing if I ever get exhaust studs in. Ordered a few weeks back from Summit and after a week cancelled my order because they couldn't fill it. Still waiting on rock-auto but I'm expecting the same thing to happen as nothing has appeared yet.

Is there a good reason I can't use grade 8 metric bolts in place of studs/nuts?