Ok guys and gals, I recently installed a 5" turbo back with no muffler and no cat. I am just gonna go over a little of the installation (mainly problems I ran into) and what I am noticing with it installed.
1) I started to remove the stock hanger from the rubber bushings. They tended to be stuck on there pretty good. I would stick a flat head screwdriver in between the rod and the rubber then spray some pb blaster or wd-40 on them and they would come off right away. The main hanger above the muffler which has 2 rubber bushings on it was hard to get to so I just took it off (which might have even been harder). That was not a good idea. I found out that the studs were worn in places and the nuts would not tighten down good (needs a few washers or a new hanger). Anyway not a big deal.
2) You really need a good set of deepwell sockets and I do mean deepwell not a sparkplug socket or the cheap sockets that they call deepwell that really about 1/2" shorter than a true deepwell socket. This will help in more ways than one.
3) A sawsall will save your life. Some of those old joints will be so stuck together that you will have no other choice but to cut them. This will save you alot of time and effort. Also you will need it to cut the pipe just in front of the transmission cross member. It will be the only way you can get the stock down pipe out. I really had a hard time getting the cat to break away for the pipe towards the front of the truck and finally just cut it just behind the flange. The reason I didn't have any problems with cutting it there is because Diamond Eye sends you 2 adaptors so that if for any reason you need to put the cat back in you can. To make these adaptors work you will need to cut the flange off the cat anyway.
4) After I got all of the piping out from under it and I had made the cut in front of the crossmember I went to take the clamp off the backside of the turbo. What I didn't do was make sure to put a piece of tape on the back side of the bolt so it wouldn't come flying out. I took the nut completely off and ping the clamp sprung back and the bolt went flying back and down into the unknown. I never did even see it again. Not smart. I had to jerry rig it, to get it to work. I am getting a new clamp this week. You have to reuse the stock clamp so keep this in mind.
5) Installing the new down pipe? How in the heck does this thing go in? From the bottom? It gets stuck. From the top? Only if you tear half the motor off. Ok, so back to the underside. It get stuck about halfway up. So after about an hour of looking on the net and trying to get ahold of Diamond Eye (this was on a Sunday and Diamond Eye is closed) I finally decide that the firewall need a little reworking. Well its covered in heat sheet and I really don't want to tear it up. So I finally decide to get a short piece of wood 4x4, stick it up to the bottom of the new down pipe and start tapping it with a hammer. This worked really well. I never really had to hit it to hard, just a little tapping with a hammer on the wood and nothing bent or tore. No negitive effects at all. Now I have a 6" lifted truck and am back on the step stool trying to hold the down pipe up and fit the stock turbo clamp on both of the flanges. I am 5' 10", and have wide, thick hands and I am a fat man! This is not a good combo while trying to do this. My arms are too short and hands to big, so I finally had to send out an SOS and a buddy came and helped me out. He held up the down pipe with the wood 4x4 while I put on the clamp. Now that was easy money.
5) The rest of this thing fits well, except for some reason I couldn't get one of the joints to line up with a hanger and I had used the other 5" clamps, so I needed an extra. Now my truck is a regular bed and this kit comes standard for long bed trucks, so you will have to cut one piece of pipe. Luckly the SOS I sent out was to a guy that also works in a machine shop just down the road and so we ran over there and cut a piece of pipe down by about 2ft and came back and installed it. O, and by the way I used some high temp never sieze (temps to 1600). This made it easier to slide the pipes in and out of one another and hopefully, if I ever need to put the cat in, it will be easier to remove the pipe I need too.
Result: The first thing I noticed is the sound. This thing sounds like a mini jet setting on the runway! Man I love that sound. I got in it and just idled down to the stop sign and it felt and sounded like I was taxying a jet down the runway. I took off, not hard but just gaining speed, letting the truck shift at about 2000rpm. Sounds good, but not as loud as I thought it would be. I drove about 3 or 4 blocks, slowing down and speeding up slowly.
Now, this time I stomp on it from a dead stop. I can really tell that I have lost some low end torque. It is a little slower taking off that what it was before, but when it hits about 1500rpm, this thing takes off. From about 2300 to 3100 rpm this thing sounds like a beast, but the best thing that I noticed is I am now getting about 3-4 more lbs of boost than I was before. And O man, it really has helped with the throttle response. It is lot quicker on the pickup (after the rpms are up). Passing gear is great now. It has a GREAT sound to it when you jump on it and a quick response. I will be checking the mpg's over the next few weeks and will get back on here and post those as well.
Remember, this is on a none tuned or chipped truck w/a afe stage 2. You can look at my sig. for a few specs.
Any questions or comments are welcome - as long as they pertain to the subject and are asked in a respectable manner. Please no harassing comments or bad mouthing products. I am posting this for others that have not been around these trucks (like myself) and are just getting started on some much needed mods. This is conducted as an independant review and has nothing to do with promotions either way (good or bad). I personally have no affilation with Diamond Eye Performance or any other companies products.
Thanks,
Shae Pettigrew
10-21-2009, 07:57 AM
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