Camshaft

[JohnZ]

The engine in my truck I believe is completely stock. The only thing that I can see that is upgraded is that the down pipe is not crushed, and it has a 3" straight piped exhaust. I cannot tell from under the truck if the down pipe is 2.5 or 3", but it looks to be the same as the rest of the exhaust. It has the factory turbo with Garrett and AR .70 cast into the compressor housing.

I have a timing meter and have the engine at 8.6 degrees pulse BTDC, and have been looking for an affordable dyno somewhere around the greater Salt Lake City area. Gillette Diesel Service has a dyno and charges $75 for two pulls as a service for Before / After testing to go along with their installing performance upgrades. Or you can rent the Dyno for $150 per hour to tune your truck on the dyno. There are several other shops in the area, including one I found that looks to be just down the street from where I work that has a mobile dyno.

I just purchased a used 7.3l IDI camshaft which should be here in a couple of days. I will be shipping that off to Russ to be re-ground, hopefully some time next week. Once I get that back, I will have the cam already in my truck plus the re-ground cam. The plan is to be able to do a before dyno run at several different timing settings, do an in the truck camshaft swap, then go do an after dyno run at the same timing settings as the before runs within a few days of the first. I also plan on doing compression tests both before and after with the new cam to see if there are any changes there. I want to get all of this information for my own use, and as a baseline for future upgrades I plan on doing to the truck. I am hoping to be able to complete this some time next month, and will post the results once I get it done.

However, before I do all of that, I REALLY need to get a boost gauge and a pyro installed, and I really feel that it is important to know those readings during the dyno runs. I am pretty sure that I can install the boost gauge, but I have no idea how I would install a pyro, and would hate to pay a fortune for a shop to do it. I guess I know what I need to get done this month.

John Z

 

[redneckaggie]

pyro is really easy to install just drill a hole in one of your manifolds and tap it for the probe. Make sure to use grease and the bit and tap to catch metal shavings. when i did a pyro install on a turbo truck i cranked it up bought halfway through the hole and used the grease so that the exhaust pushing out the hole would also help.

 

[JohnZ]

I suppose that makes sense. I had been thinking that I would have to put the probe right before the turbo where both sides were mixed together. But it would make sense that both sides should be about the same temparature.

So this may be a lot easier than I had thought. When I bought the used camshaft so I could minimize downtime on my truck and to allow me to do before / after dyno runs as close together as possible, the deal I got was the camshaft, lifters, and both exhaust manifolds off of a 94 7.3l Factory Turbo IDI truck for $45 plus shipping. So... I can drill and tap for the probe before swapping out the manifold.

UPS Shipping shows that my manifolds and camshaft core should show up tomorrow. I will plan on shipping the core off to Russ first thing next week. Now I just need to find an affordable Dyno to test the truck on.

Looks like things are on track. - John Z

 

[Dieselcrawler]

why are you swaping manifolds?

 

[redneckaggie]

I would imagine so he dont have to drill and tap manifold on truck but in reality it is not that hard to do on the truck and i have heard countless horror stories about the exhaust manifold bolts breaking of in the block dont know if any others have had experiance with this but i have removed mine twice with no problems. I soaked the bolts in penetrating oil for about a week before i removed it though. I would spray before i drove somewhere and spray when i returned to the house.

 

[JohnZ]

why are you swaping manifolds?

When I bought the truck, the previous owner said that it had an exhaust leak on the drivers side so he tightened the bolts on that side. Since then the manifold has cracked in three places, leaks really bad and is very loud on that side.

I will spray those bolts with penetrating oil, go for a drive and soak again prior to pulling the existing cracked manifold. Thanks for the tips. - John Z

 

[redneckaggie]

I have tried to drill exhaust manifold bolts out on a 350 with them in the truck and it was the worst mechanic experiance i had ever had. was trying to help my idiotic brother in law and he cant tell his head from his ass, he broke all of my ez outs before i got out there to realize that he was trying to drill a little bitty hole and hammer an ez out in. I told him to move and got to work drilling. I should have made him pull the motor before i ever touched that drill but i cant imagine even making a drill fit to drill out these bolts on an idi.

 

[65sixbanger]

The engine in my truck I believe is completely stock. The only thing that I can see that is upgraded is that the down pipe is not crushed, and it has a 3" straight piped exhaust. I cannot tell from under the truck if the down pipe is 2.5 or 3", but it looks to be the same as the rest of the exhaust. It has the factory turbo with Garrett and AR .70 cast into the compressor housing.

I have a timing meter and have the engine at 8.6 degrees pulse BTDC, and have been looking for an affordable dyno somewhere around the greater Salt Lake City area. Gillette Diesel Service has a dyno and charges $75 for two pulls as a service for Before / After testing to go along with their installing performance upgrades. Or you can rent the Dyno for $150 per hour to tune your truck on the dyno. There are several other shops in the area, including one I found that looks to be just down the street from where I work that has a mobile dyno.

I just purchased a used 7.3l IDI camshaft which should be here in a couple of days. I will be shipping that off to Russ to be re-ground, hopefully some time next week. Once I get that back, I will have the cam already in my truck plus the re-ground cam. The plan is to be able to do a before dyno run at several different timing settings, do an in the truck camshaft swap, then go do an after dyno run at the same timing settings as the before runs within a few days of the first. I also plan on doing compression tests both before and after with the new cam to see if there are any changes there. I want to get all of this information for my own use, and as a baseline for future upgrades I plan on doing to the truck. I am hoping to be able to complete this some time next month, and will post the results once I get it done.

However, before I do all of that, I REALLY need to get a boost gauge and a pyro installed, and I really feel that it is important to know those readings during the dyno runs. I am pretty sure that I can install the boost gauge, but I have no idea how I would install a pyro, and would hate to pay a fortune for a shop to do it. I guess I know what I need to get done this month.

John Z

Doing the cam is going to be a bit harder, or time consuming with the turbo. Its probably going to have to come off so you can get the intake off to pull the lifters out so they dont fall when you pull the old cam out. And when you pull the turbo off I would just put the probe on the Turbo like the Banks and ATS units. Just my two cents...

 

[JohnZ]

Doing the cam is going to be a bit harder, or time consuming with the turbo. Its probably going to have to come off so you can get the intake off to pull the lifters out so they dont fall when you pull the old cam out. And when you pull the turbo off I would just put the probe on the Turbo like the Banks and ATS units. Just my two cents...

So, with what you are recommending, what would be the best place to put the probe ...

1. Turbo inlet
2. Turbo Outlet
3. Up Pipe before the turbo

Or would the EGT response / accuracy be better with the probe right on the drivers side exhause manifold as previously mentioned. I am open for any and all input to do this right, but would want to get a probe installed before installing the cam so I can get EGT readings before and after installing the cam. I plan on doing the before and after dyno runs, plus there is a hill near my home that currently pulling our trailer I can barely go 45 mph up. The road goes something like this. Stop Light, 1-2% grade for 1 mile, 3-4% grade for 1 mile, 5-6% grade for 1 mile. Yes, my truck is a bit of a wimp right now, and is why I think that it is a good candidate for comparison because it is essentially stock and has a lot of room for improvement. Once I have the pyro installed, I plan on recording EGT and speed pulling the trailer up this hill. Then after installing the cam, I will repeat this exercise to report real world improvements with this cam. Currently pulling the trailer I get between 8.6 and 9.5 mpg depending on what roads I am on, so I will report the change in mileage with the new cam too.

In summary, what I plan on reporting before and after the camshaft install.

Dyno results at multiple timing settings (If the dyno shop will allow it without charging a fortune)
EGT's on the Dyno
Boost on the Dyno
Real world results pulling a load up a hill
EGT's pulling a load
Boost pulling a load
MPG

The camshaft core should arrive via UPS today. - John Z

 

[redneckaggie]

The closer to the cylinders exhaust path the more accurated your readings are theoretically. I have not seen a factory turbo setup so idk how hard it would be to put it in the up pipes for the turbo but the probe definately needs to be pre turbo because it is only a guess as to how much heat you are losing through the turbo. Really it is more a matter of preference and ease of access as to where pre turbo you put it.

 

[icanfixall]

The only true location for a pyro is just before the turbo where both cylinder banks join together. That way you have heat from both sides of the motor telling you what the combined temp is. Don't install the pyro probe after the turbo. The heat has been taken out of the exhaust by the hot side wheel.

 

[82F100SWB]

That's where the Banks non gated setup put the pyro probe, right in the pedestal that the exhaust housing bolts to.

 

[david85]

ATS 088 has it right before the exhaust turbine.

 

[JohnZ]

Should I start a new thread for the prepwork, installation, and testing of the Typ4 Camshaft. I did not intend to hijack this thread, but am feeling like it turned out that way. I plan on taking pictures of EVERYTHING and documenting all of the steps needed to swap out the camshaft and the results of doing so. I can put information in either location, just let me know what would be best for the forum and the OP. Thanks - John Z

 

[sle2115]

Should I start a new thread for the prepwork, installation, and testing of the Typ4 Camshaft. I did not intend to hijack this thread, but am feeling like it turned out that way. I plan on taking pictures of EVERYTHING and documenting all of the steps needed to swap out the camshaft and the results of doing so. I can put information in either location, just let me know what would be best for the forum and the OP. Thanks - John Z

I'd go ahead and start a new thread for your purposes.