I am looking at rebuilding the old lady's turbo, but with a .84 AR exhaust housing and a wicked wheel compressor, and it is recommended that I use an intercooler, but that is out of the budget, so to help out, I thought it might be a good Idea to put in some monster exhaust for now. Does anyone have any experience with a 4" down pipe? Is it something that I can do with just a little squeezing and squishing? I heard porta power somewhere... Any advice here would be much needed help. Thanks

 

A 3" DP should be fine IMO. A porta power will save alot of headache with putting a DP on a OBS.

 

Only way your getting a 4" downpipe in there is with some serious firewall work or a body lift. 3" is all you need. IMO I would get a 1.0 housing. What truck does she have? If its an OBS, we technically have a WW, that is a mod for SD guys. So it would be a waste of 100 bucks for ya.

 

her truck is in the sig, what is an obs?, and why would you have the 1.0 housing over the .84 housing when they are both the same cost($165)?. Her truck is still running fine, there is just a lot of oil in the y pipe when I changed the fuel pump the other night, (major PITA) and thought I ought to rebuild my spare so I could swap it out before there is a problem. I am of the opinion that whatever is worth doing is worth doing right, and most major repairs like that one just cry out for a nice upgrade while I am at it.
This truck has redeemed the powerstroke name in my eyes...

 

OBS = Old body style. 94-97. Which it looks like hers is a 97. I would do the 1.0 housing because the .84 housing will bring higher EGT's. And like i said before, 3" downpipe will be fine.

 

it's almost aPIA to get a 3" in. i had an ATS dp on my old 96. started off as 3". then the second half was 3 1/2" and was a 4" at the bottom. it rubbed on everything. a 3" all the way down will do just fine.

 

I just installed a 4" dp on my 96 and it was a major pain even with a porter power, and it still rubs, I would go 3" if I were u. Just my 2 cents

 

youll notice a huge improvement with the 3" and its a PITA as it is so i wouldnt attempt a 4" honestly. and a porta power is the only way to go

 

Yeah if it wasn't for the porta power there would have been no way I would of got it in,I actually ordered a 3" but the guy ordered the wrong one and I already had payed for it and they wouldn't let me return it so it was either pay for another one or make the 4" fit...I wont be going to the diesel performance shop here ne more after that

 

I finally settled on 3" into 4" downpipe turbo back system from MBRP for 388 shipped. Also am going with the .84 housing and the wicked wheel. Going to take the my exhaust housing down and have a bushing spray welded in it for my pyro, so I can keep an eye on it, and if nothing else, when I get done dumping money into my dodge turbo too, I might start looking for an intercooler for the old obs.. Will post a follow up after I get the shaft and wheel back from the balancer and get it all in.