nope.i just gotta deal with the ricer crowd that dont know jack about diesels or older AMERICAN cars.
This a quote from your first assumptions of what I had done to my truck:
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"sorry but this has been buggin me a bit and i just cant leave it alone.sorry to be a buzz kill but i gotta speak my mind here.
exhaust manifold gaskets?PSDs dont have them nor are they made that i know of from ford or aftermarket.
they had to cut your downpipe to get the up pipes out?why not just remove the down pipe?there is no need to remove it to do upipe gaskets anyways.remove the turbo and drivers side uppipe and pull the splitter off the passengers side unless your up pipes had a nasty groove worn into them from the donuts.but still no need to mess with the downpipe.
not enough time to gut the EBPV?the turbo is off.it takes a whole 5 minutes to gut itand a whole 10 minutes to pull the actuator out cut it off,tap the hole for a pipe plug,stick the end of the actuator back in and put the cap and circlip back in.
never heard about or seen the valve chip a downpipe.sounds mor like they had the flange ainst the valve while try to cut the down pipe to get it for no reason.a quick blob job with the welder and a reshape with a grinder would have fixed that in about 5 minutes as well."
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Maybe you should re-think your buzz killing. My truck runs good, WITH THE AFTERMARKET EXHAUST MANIFOLD GASKETS, the downpipe HAD TO BE CUT because it wouldn't separate apart after being on the truck for 6 years. I felt better about welding in a new collector on the turbo end, because I am a pipeline weldor, and I know a little bit about hoop strength of pipe.
I was smart enough to get someone else to turn wrenches on the truck while I drank beer and watched them groan about how tight everything was