Wits End Turbo Owners (3 Viewers)

[Heckraiser]

Completely doable. Now that I have done it I could probably pull it all off in a couple of hours. I would suggest buying a set of manifolds, with downpipe and cat as that's the only part that's hard.

That said, this thing is supposed to be CARB compliant soon. I don't see any reason it wouldn't pass smog then. Thus, you could pass smog now stock and then bolt on the kit - you'd have 2 years for Joey to get the certificate.

I have turbo'd and un-turbo'd my truck a couple times. Not to hard to put it back together. The main difference is that you'll want to keep you stock y-pipe and 1st cat in one piece rather than sawing it in half to weld to the downpipe. You'll just have to get an exhaust shop to fabricate the first cat section (or buy a spare 50-state magnaflow y-pipe to saw in half).

Hopefully you'll just get the CARB cert and not have to worry about it.

 

[thebfg]

Got my Turbo today!!!

View attachment 2560048

I think I could have gotten it way back in 2019, as I pre-ordered on day 1 of public sales, but I kept pushing my shipping date back because I wasn't ready to install, and I would have happily waited longer. Just got my smog renewal notice though, so this seems like good timing! After the smog, I'll have 2 years for the CARB cert to get sorted out.

Only small hiccup was the shipping address, which I had as my work, but the office has been closed due to the pandemic, so I wanted it shipped to my home, but I think Joey forgot that part between our call and making the shipping labels. I was able to get UPS to hold the shipment for pick-up at the local depot, or so I thought. Turns out there were three separate tracking numbers, as opposed to 1 master tracking number (I had only received 1 tracking number in my shipping email for some reason), so UPS attempted delivery at the closed office with the other 2 boxes and left an info notice. Luckily, a co-worker had stopped by the office that day and sent me a photo of the info notice. But of course, the UPS driver didn't bother to scan in the info notice, so the info notice was rather useless (other than giving me a head's up that there might be separate tracking numbers).

Got to UPS this morning and they only had the one box ready for me, and they claimed there were no packages on the truck going to my office, either today or yesterday! But Joey came through with the other 2 tracking numbers while I was still at UPS, and after a bit of searching, UPS found the other 2 packages (on the truck they claimed had no packages going to my office...).

Hopefully, there will be more turbos shipping soon, but more importantly, hoping Joey's wife gets better!

 

[White Sheep]

@NLXTACY some of the old timers and social media haters like myself don't know your 2021 status. How's the wife? How's business? And last, turbo news?

 

[PDXDave67]

Bit the bullet and ordered mine today...
s*** just got real.

 

[alia176]

Just an update on my turbo install. A quick refresher: my setup has been reliable but for some weird reason that I have yet to figure out, she wasn't going to 7psi and she didn't have the oomph I was seeking. Climbing Vail pass was ridiculously embarrassing last fall.

After checking everything that I can think of, and not finding anything, I bought a Tial blue spring for the wastegate that bumps up the psi to 11 or some such thing. With a lot of trepidation, I swapped out the spring combo in my wastegate then ran it. Thankfully, she doesn't go past 5-ish no matter how hard I push her but still, I'm not going to go stupid with it. I bet I'll see 7psi now if I flog her but don't have the mountain grade around me to see what'd happen. The end result being the engine is way more responsive and pulls way harder than before while staying under 5psi, usually. She does go to 5psi rather quickly and w/o much flogging which I'm ecstatic about.

The only thing that hasn't been addressed is the Bosal muffler which I'd guess to be around seven years old by now. Everything in the fuel system that is consumable, has been replaced, including the FPR. The injectors were balanced/cleaned around 12 years ago when the HG was done.

She's is still reliable, predictable and fun as hell

 

[Heckraiser]

So weird that you're stuck at 5psi regardless of what spring you're running. Weirder still that the 11psi spring would yield better overall performance without changing psi. Maybe you've got a bum wastegate? I assume you've hunted high and low for vacuum leaks and exhaust leaks? When I did my homemade turbo the WG worked itself a little loose and the resulting exhaust leak hampered my performance for a while.

 

[thatcabledude]

I’d think your exhaust is restricting it.

 

[TYM4FUN]

@alia176 Have you pulled the muffler and ran it for comparison?

 

[OutlawMike]

Just an update on my turbo install. A quick refresher: my setup has been reliable but for some weird reason that I have yet to figure out, she wasn't going to 7psi and she didn't have the oomph I was seeking. Climbing Vail pass was ridiculously embarrassing last fall.

After checking everything that I can think of, and not finding anything, I bought a Tial blue spring for the wastegate that bumps up the psi to 11 or some such thing. With a lot of trepidation, I swapped out the spring combo in my wastegate then ran it. Thankfully, she doesn't go past 5-ish no matter how hard I push her but still, I'm not going to go stupid with it. I bet I'll see 7psi now if I flog her but don't have the mountain grade around me to see what'd happen. The end result being the engine is way more responsive and pulls way harder than before while staying under 5psi, usually. She does go to 5psi rather quickly and w/o much flogging which I'm ecstatic about.

The only thing that hasn't been addressed is the Bosal muffler which I'd guess to be around seven years old by now. Everything in the fuel system that is consumable, has been replaced, including the FPR. The injectors were balanced/cleaned around 12 years ago when the HG was done.

She's is still reliable, predictable and fun as hell

Another guy mentioned it being a defective wastegate. I wonder if the valve in the wastegate is partially stuck open by some debris or is not seating properly. It would then be passing exhaust gas when it is supposed to be closed. Have you pulled it and inspected the function of the valve and to verify that it is able to seat fully?

 

[Corbet]

How old are the cat/s. Sounds like she’s constipated.

 

[scottryana]

Yeah there is an issue somewhere in the system if it is only boosting to 5psi with an 11psi spring. There is a reason the 11psi spring will feel more lively even only boosting to 5psi. It holds the wastegate "more closed" even at lower boost pressures. The wastegate is not an on/off switch it is partially open even at low boost.

 

[alia176]

@alia176 Have you pulled the muffler and ran it for comparison?

No, i hadn't thought of it, should I yank it? Should be easy enough to do vs drilling two holes, before and after, then install a temp slack tube for checking the differential pressure.

 

[alia176]

Here's a reply from me from an earlier posting, that'll answer some questions. This is from few months back and some of the info is outdated.
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I'm not getting 5psi and the only thing that's restrictive in my exh system could be the Bosal muffler, which is less than ten years old. Other than that, the single high flow magnaflow cat is the same age, mandrel bend 2.5" piping up and over frame rail and all that.

I checked my springs and they're in fact the correct color combo green+red.

Boost leak could be possible but not in the elbow feeding the TBI and I'm not sure where else to check.

Clue:
I did get a P0171 System too Lean (Bank 1). I'm running the OEM MAF and removed the LT MAF GEN1 few weeks ago when I got the same code.

I'll try another gauge to make sure I can rule out the analog gauge using teflon tubing.

As of now, I'm not pulling hills in the higher elevations in a satisfactory matter but I do scoot along nicely otherwise. Acceleration from a red light is good as she comes close to red line if I keep my foot in it. Coming out of Moab last week, I was hitting maybe 3.5 psi climbing the hill.

The filter minder gauge on the OEM filter canister is pegged so I know she's sucking like a mofo . Before the turbo, the filter minder worked normally.

 

[alia176]

Yeah there is an issue somewhere in the system if it is only boosting to 5psi with an 11psi spring. There is a reason the 11psi spring will feel more lively even only boosting to 5psi. It holds the wastegate "more closed" even at lower boost pressures. The wastegate is not an on/off switch it is partially open even at low boost.

That makes total sense, thanks Ryan.

 

[alia176]

Another guy mentioned it being a defective wastegate. I wonder if the valve in the wastegate is partially stuck open by some debris or is not seating properly. It would then be passing exhaust gas when it is supposed to be closed. Have you pulled it and inspected the function of the valve and to verify that it is able to seat fully?

I hadn't done this and Tial has a nice writeup on how to test the opening of the gate using air comp and a pressure gauge. This hasn't been a serious enough of an issue for me to get unlazy until spring weather when it's warmer outside. I got a trip to the Maze coming up in May so I have few months of playing with this sytem.

 

[Wompom]

I had the p0171 pop up on mine once on a long pull and haven't seen it since. Going to swap o2s to see if that helps.

Getting full boost though, so wonder if they're related?

 

[Jeff Elliott]

For those who are running the 14 in 1 gauge, where did you tap in for the egt sensor? I would use the bung in the down pipe but I want to add a wide band sensor there.
Thanks!

@jjdeneen918

 

[scottryana]

Skip the EGT and run the AFR, EGT's on a gas turbo engine are pretty unreliable.

 

[OutlawMike]

I am not running EGT.

 

[White Sheep]

With all the sensors the 14in1 provides, I think most people with this build are only running 3-4. Boost, water, oil, and AFR. @jjdeneen918 is running one or two more I believe.