Picture whoring below...







Update, its been awhile and as usual haven't had much time to work on it.

I was originally planning on making the mount for the turbo actuator (air cylinder) out of steel like everyone else as its easy and cheap. But my buddy talked me into making it out of aluminum.

So we bought a 30 pack of Coors and let the CLC'ing (Coors Light CAD) begin!

Started out as a 10 lb piece of solid 6061:






My buddy, or dare I say my machinist? haha



CLC Baby!



Some Aluminum Snow Drifts:




Me:




Before vs After:



I bought 2 identical pieces assuming we'd mess it up but somehow didn't...

Arm:



Actuator arm:



Stainless Studs:



We originally planned on drilling and tapping the arm on the turbo, but apparently it made out of some insanely strong stainless, so it broke a brand new kobalt bit like it was a 99 cent store special.

Final:



I'll have to play with those springs to get a good neutral starting position, but will leave it for now.

The dead soldiers that the CLC ate up, the cost of perfection :hehe:




Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out, Cant wait to get her up and running.

 

It's Alive!!!!!


My buddy came over today and helped me finish it up, or at least enough to start driving it.

Fabbed a new Downpipe, installed new gauges, IC piping and new boots, wired in a new fuse block, wired the Holley, fabbed an intake support, and a ton of small things.

I couldn't get her to fire off at first, but then though to check my shutoff solenoid, yup its toast. nothing Ol' Manuel cant fix, at least until i get a new one. Funny how things that did work before the project started now dont...

When it fired it sounded mean! Especially through the open DP. I currently have the turbo setup simple, DP to open and boost to close, with a spring return, I have lots and lots of tuning to do, both on the turbo and pump.

After I broke the cam in I chased down all the fuel leaks I had, seems anything not AN was leaking, lost about 0.5 gallons during the 20min break in. I fixed most of them, the holley still drips a little, and the return line tee drips once every 5 sec or so. I can live with that for today.

I thought my boost/dp gauge was broken as it wasnt moving at all, but all checked out, the turbo was just that far open.

I took her for a spin. It is much better, although she still needs a ton of tuning as its slow to respond now. I barely saw 35lbs, and it doesnt really light till 2200-2500, so lots more adjustments to make. But when it does its fun.

I also had pretty much zero smoke, which I like, but I think I need to play with the AFC more, I started with turning the preboost screw in 1.25 turns, see what that does, as it was barely touching.

My fuel pressure is good, solid 32 at idle, and 50-55 WOT.

Here's a few pics and videos:










Finally driving!



Videos:






I also have a new front suspension to put on as part of the build. Already put on new Monroe shocks, and have the following to still put on:

- 99 HD steering
- Spohn Trach Bar
- Poly control arm bushings
- Poly sway bar bushings
- New sway end links
- Heavy Metal Industries Steering box brace

I also ordered some recon smoked cab lights and ebay special replacement headlights with a clear lens and smoked background.

 

I got to tweak on it a little yesterday. I tightened up the housing some, added another 1/4 turn to the pre boost (now at a tad over 1.5 from touching) and I loosened the star wheel.

It spools faster now, full 40psi coming in at 2000 or so, solid 45-50 FP, dp 40, max egt 900. It only puffs a light ish haze now when mashed.

That turbo is so damn loud! It whistles like none I've heard. And the idle has a strange chop to it, assuming from the cam. It sounds good.

I need more fuel now! Gonna yank the fuel plate and go from there.


Misspelling courtesy of my fat fingers...

 

the VGT's sound ridiculous. glad she is finally back on the road.

 

yes they do, its prob also because I've been driving around with a 4" open DP for the last 100 miles...

and thanks, I'm so excited for it to be finally running again.

---AutoMerged DoublePost---

I think I'll end up running Will's 7x0.011 injectors.

I'm going to Vegas in July and I'll be spending the day on the dyno and will try out a few different DV/Injector combos from Will. He's going to help me tune it also. I think that will be very interesting to see how it sits now, and what it gains from each change.

I'm open to testing other injectors and/or DV's out if anyone has any loaners :banana-wrench:

I'd like to see how 5x0.016 and 5x0.018's do. and some 024 as well as 7mm comp cut's. I'm also going to be borrowing some DDP4's to test out.



Back to the truck as it sits. I've only driven it 2 days, about 100 miles, as I've been working way too much.

I had 2 major fuel leaks on initial start up. the FP gauge tee, the return line tee, and all the NPT fittings on my ghetto fuel pump lines.

The FP gauge tee just needed some more teflon and another turn, its fine now.

The return tee got better when I added more teflon, but still leaked. But I know why now, it seems when I was at napa fumbling through their fitting bins, the plug I got was for a flared fitting. I'm not certain it those use different threads but I'm sure it isn't helping, so I'm going to swap it out for an actual NPT plug and put new copper washers on the banjo.

The plug I'm talking about is the one that's tapped here:



The Fuel pump lines were fixed via a trip to Parker and $50. I bought all AN fittings and new push-lok hose to fix it, and now it is leak free.

Before:



Now:



That fixed it as it isn't leaking and now I can start it without the air-in-line sputter.

I also yanked my fuel plate. This gained me a bit of responsiveness, as its lit solidly at 2000 or slightly before. egt's still only 900, boost 40-45, Drive Pressure 45 (only 5 or less more than boost the entire range), and fuel pressure is up a couple psi now the leak is fixed.

Also it seems to be running out of steam around 3200 or so. This is either because the GSK needs to be tightened up a click, or maybe because I'm running out of fuel, or need more than my 21* of timing?

I need to tweak on it a bit more, but I think for my minimal fueling, it's going to be as good as it gets till that it handled.

Now I'll work on installing the exhaust as the open DP sounds good, but it getting old, and rebuilding the entire front end.


Overall I am very happy with it.

 

Very impressed with that turbo and the sound of it spool is great!

 

I've been busy working so haven't had much time to update. But I've been seeing around 45 psi, still Max of 900, dp has been steady at 1:1 maybe a cpl psi more max. It spools to 20 without even trying and Mac boost around 1800-1900. It's awesome.

I also got my turbo controls working. I have a 3-position switch that's off center (normal) highway down (low boost mode. 2-3psi highway, about 20 max) and up is exhaust brake.

The EB works well. It's a tad finicky as I have to get on it a bit till I get to 10-15 psi then I can switch into it. So it's really only good for long grades, etc. but isn't that really only time it's actually needed?

It gives me about 60psi dp depending on rpm. On about a 6% grade it'll slow me down in a hurry, I can't leave it on for more that 1/4 mile or less without it slowing me down 15-20mph.

I took some videos with a borrowed go pro today, see how they turned out, and edit them tomorrow. Ill post them up later.

I also have a set of heavily modified 7x.011's from will I'm dying to put in, but have a list of "bugs" I want to work out first.

I fixed my fuel tank sender today as it was giving me funky readings. Turned out to be the unit is two piece, and the screws were loose allowing the part the actual sender is bolted to to move up and down, this giving false readings. A bolt, nut and lock tite seemed to fix it.

I also installed my 5" exhaust from RSD today. Their kit is very nice and easy to install. It took me awhile however as the downpipe I made exited very close to the frame rails necessitating modifications to their kit. It sounds great and I have no drone I can tell, just a vibration from where it hits the transmission crossmember. But that is from my mods to it, not their fault.

Last week I also rebuilt my front end. All new:
- upper and lower napa premium ball joints
- 99 HD steering conversion
- Spohn track bar
- energy sway bar bushings
- Heavy metal Fab steering box brace

It drives much much better! But I still have some slop as the control arm bushings are in dire need of replacement. Energy poly bushings should be going in tomorrow.

I also installed new clear one piece headlights, and recon smoked cab market lights. Both update the trucks looks and look great.

Before:



After:





I also installed a heavy spring from Cody, and it's working well. Ill see how it does with the new injectors.

From left to right; my light, my medium, Cody's heavy, and stock 175 gov spring:



Wow, that's way more that I thought I was going to write.



Misspelling courtesy of my fat fingers...

 

Playing around with the controls I made for my new 66/67/vgt setup.

I have 3 settings:
1) Normal driving/spool up - turbo is self controlling, DP opens it up, Boost counteracts DP to slow it down and keep it around 1:1

2) Exhaust Brake - Vanes close down completely, makes 60-65 max psi drive pressure, and about 20 at idle. It works well, and is surprisingly quiet, but the turbo blanket, and wrapped downpipe probably help with that.

3) Highway Economy - boost is cut in half, will only make 20 max, and nornal cruising boost/DP goes from 5-7/7-10 down to 2-3/2. Should theoretically help with MPG.

 

Ive been working the bugs out still, finally tightened the GSK up another click, and wow, that was what I was missing! It pulls so hard from 2000-2200 all the way up to about 3600-3800, its incredible. Making steady 40-45 psi boost the whole way, and a solid 36+ fuel pressure WOT, EGT still cant get above 1000*. The timing slipped to 14.5 so I bumped it to 22.5 before I tightened the GSK up.

I also just got back from a road trip to Bonneville to help my friend on his bike. The truck drove great, a little soggy with the trailer below 2k, but now that the gsk is fixed that wasnt an issue as I can shift around it. I would guess my GCWR was around 12k, so not too much. The max EGT's I could pull were 1400 on WOT up a 6% grade, but soon as it touched that I let out and it cooled very rapidly to 1000, and I was able to maintain 70mph up the Cajon pass with 1000* egt the whole way, never creeped higher.





On my way home my boost pressure dropped to 15-20 psi, I took a look and a boot clamp slipped a bit. That's when I noticed my compressor wheel was damaged.


http://s114.photobucket.com/user/Thekid760/media/Cars/1995%20Dodge%20Ram%203500/KDP%20Carnage/Harder%20Better%20Faster%20Stronger/Turbo%20Play/AB10C40A-8C83-4650-9B4A-258B72242A59-5319-000002DB5D2ED9AB_zpsf2c7b0d1.mp4.html











http://s114.photobucket.com/user/Thekid760/media/Cars/1995%20Dodge%20Ram%203500/KDP%20Carnage/Harder%20Better%20Faster%20Stronger/Turbo%20Play/9E38D3B0-E099-4FDB-969D-7B5EE35A9F96-5319-000002DB9AEB87A8_zps81524548.mp4.html
I measured using feeler gauges so not 100% accurate, but side to side play is around 0.025-0.030", Holset calls for 0.010-0.014" maximum.

I just had it rebuilt and it only has 2780 miles on it. I've only ran a max of 40-45 psi, dp is normally 1:1, hitting 60 breifly in EB mode when at 3k+ rpms, but I've been using it in 5th which only makes 40, that has been plenty for me. Oil was changed at 750 miles, and both changes I've been running ZDDP. Turbo is oil lubricated and water cooled, and always cooled to 300-350* before shut off.

What would cause this damage? And I assume the Compressor wheel is toast?

Any input or help is appreciated.

 

Where did you get the flange for the downpipe? Im looking to put a 431 on my truck.