Current Project: 93 Factory Turbo- pics

Well I've been working on this truck but I now need to lure Russ into Portland so maybe this will help. Now that a have a moment I'll post a few pics.

I picked up a 93 factory turbo 5 spd extra cab 4x4 with a supposed bad head gasket. Turned out it had a crack in the pass head on #5 in between the valves. By the way this is the third engine I've had with a problem at # 5, Russ actually pointed it out to me when the tally got to two.

Anyway, didn't appear any rods were bent and all the cylinders looked great with of course the exception of the cylinder that had some coolant in it, and it just appeared to have some pitting above the ring line so I gave it a dose of 1000 grit and I'm crossing my fingers.

With a blast of luck I found a head off a turbo block, which as far as I know didn't matter since I used all the valves and rockers off the cracked head since the engine is only 200k and actually looks better than the one in my truck when I had it apart, but I liked the fact it was also off a turbo block.

So both heads with ground seats and valves, lightely decked by a good machine shop. I painted them up.

Also, these pics show how to install heads on a truck, meaning in the truck using zip ties to suspend a few head bolts and pushrods.

I've got a pop tester on the way and the engine has an IP so freshly built you could eat off it. This engine should purr like a kitty. I'd give just about anything to have it in my red truck other than the work of doing the swap.

I'm gonna post this then load some pics.

nice. looks like a good build

By the way, the exhaust manifold in the pic isn't torqued, I just put them on snugged up and torque the head bolts first.

The valves in the turbo heads were much better material than the non turbo head valves. The exhaust valves are made from inconel material so they stand up to the higher temps from the turbo in that head. Sounds suspect to continue to crack heads in the same place... Just for future needs. The aftermarket heads are made better than the factory heads. They have about 10 lbs more metal in them.

Yeah, after a search here I called the place here in Portland that Russ and maybe you recommended and it amounted to about 1200-1300 dollars where as I am in the used head and the rebuilds for $350. I just couldn't do it. Especially not having any real proof the block is good other than hearing it idle good with no knocks, just some smoke no doubt from cylinder leaking compression.

This is the only engine I've had with a crack in the head, but the one other head a bent rod on #5 and the other turbo block I had had a bad rod bearing on #5.

We'll see, it may have even been a freeze crack. The guy said he thinks he put some water in it and it came from eastern oregon where it gets colder than here.

The good side of that is that it is dry over there and the truck is really well preserved. The interior is dirty but dosen't smell and isn't moldy like it would be if it sat a while here in the rain forest valley. The exhaust looks almost new and the heat shields for the turbo are just basically dusty but still have shine.

It's tough to let this block go with the truck, but I just can't fathom selling my CC to keep an x-cab.

Got my pop tester a couple days ago.

It's a 10,000 psi hydraulic hand pump version.

No welds or brazing, just fittings and a nice long handle. Works good.

Point is, I guess I was hoping I'd find that the hole with the cracked head would have a bad injector.

Although they were all low on pressure, around 1400-17000 for G codes, that # 5 injector wasn't particularly low or leaky.

Really neat how much you can tell about the injectors with the tester. I popped 35 injectors yesterday that I have, and that's not including the ones in my red truck. So I got to feel and see a range of codes and conditions of injectors.

I have a few Ds and Bs, 24 BBs, and 15 Gs unless I'm forgetting something.

Anyway, cross your fingers for me, still worries me the head crack was a freeze crack and the block could have an issue.

The guy just had a new IP put on and did excavating so maybe with the old injectors it just got the EGTs up real fast on a cold engine or something.

Well I guess I'm just procrastinating on balancing out these injectors. I think I may just balance the BBs in instead of trying to balance out the Gs that need to go up about 500psi.

Well after starting with at least 15 G codes I lucked out with just 8 that are popping good and right now I've got them all within 150 psi right around 2100.

The BBs I had were worse than I thought. After popping them and taking them apart you get to know which ones are good and not.

Wish I could afford to just buy a set from Russ really. I had fun with this, but kudos to Russ. I mean testing them isn't to bad. Buy balancing is something else.

I did manage to freak up 3 injectors, but Oh well, just ads to the shim pile.

Anxious to see how smoooooooth the idle is after my efforts.

I did find one injector with a cracked, ppppppthhh, I don't know the bottom cap thingy. Noticed it seemed funky when taking it apart. Then when I had it all cleaned and guessed at the shim, I was cranking it together and it split. Had it as # 6, and it was rusty which says #6, but by then I was no longer sure of the order I had them in so maybe it was the #5.

Whatever, gotta go with it and put it together and see what it does. I'll try and post a vid of it purring like a kitty,,,,,,knock on wood.

Can't wait to hear how she runs after you are finished. She's looking good for sure.

Yeah, a pop tester is a nice tool to have when you play with these old IDI's. Injectors are a big part of a good running, effiecent IDI and without a pop tester, you have to have someone else to do it for you, or you're in the dark as to what your injectors are doing.

Heath

I was just saying that to my Dad a few minutes ago.

Without the the pop tester you might as well just get new injectors if you buy a used truck and don't really know the condition.

I had alot of injectors I though were decent and figured out they were no good for various reasons.

Some had rust in the springs, and as Russ said in a post I read recently, you can see the damage it does to the pintle where it slides in it's cylinder.

One had a crack and a couple had compression that leaked through and subsequent heat damage. Some just wouldn't pop, or hold pressure or spray right.

Anyway, sort of like trying to work on the old v8s without a timing light of vacuum gauge.

I was able to set the pressure on all the injectors between about 2050 and 2125, so I'm pretty happy with that.

Got a return kit from Russ (type4) and installed it and and the turbo yesterday. Once I finally had the turbo on, I was so fatigued all I could do is stand there and stair at the truck so it was pretty much food and beer time. The biggest problem I had of all things was getting the intake hat on the turbo outlet. Never had that problem before, but I ended up having to file a nice chamfer all the way around the end of the outlet to allow the o-ring to slide on.

Anyway, should be firing it up soon. Gotta flush the cooling system real good and what not.

nice project truck

Nice build for sure!

Got her going yesterday.

Had a little bit of a hard time getting the injectors bled, maybe cause of the higher pop, but once she fired it just hummed.

I've never actually heard one run this good. Specially with old bad fuel and in need of a good hot workout to seat in the fresh grind on the valves and seats.

I did take some vids. I sent one to my Dad by phone and he had no audio. Same thing that happened last time I tried to upload a vid to youtube. If it dosen't work I'll take one with my daughters phone.

In any case. Idle quality is incredible. So far it looks like there is no breech between the coolant and oil. There was a fair amount of oily goo that had me concerned about the oil cooler, but I think it was just the diesel in the cylinder getting pushed through the crack in the head into the coolant passage. So far so good.

Gonna pick up a serp and tensioner and oil filter today. Did a flush with half a bottle of seafoam. Then I'll drain it and put in fresh oil and filter.

Hope the clutch and tranny is good after all this. If not I could have just pulled the whole package and not had all these rib pains from bending over the radiator torquing down the heads.

Well anyway. I'm gonna upload a vid to youtube and see if there is audio.

Wow, got one to work with sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O9po8KtQok Take a listen.