ATS 088 to 093 upgrade

I bought a used ATS 093 turbocharger kit on fleabay a while ago and have been slowly accumulating parts and making repairs to get it ready. Then the home made oil feed line for my current 088 setup cracked for a second time last weekend and put my truck out of commission. I could have simply put a new oil line on, but since I was never too happy with the 088 performance, and there were other problems with it from previous mods, I decided it was time to replace the whole system.

Shoutout to @typ4 for supplying the fuel return kit and turbocharger seal kit. I also had to order several other parts from various places for the new oil line and exhaust components. I debated putting the water cooled center section from my 088 setup into the 093 but decided against it until I do some more homework on how it should normally be set up. Previously, I just had it plumbed in series with the heater core and it wasn't the most robust setup. Since I'm taking longer offroad trips lately, reliability is my biggest concern. Limping home with a massive oil or coolant leak is not fun. I don't recommend it.

The used 093 Fleabay kit came with almost everything, including the downpipe and crossover pipe. They are pretty much toast however, since both are badly rusted and have already been patched by someone a very long time ago. Yes, they are repairable, but since I have stainless steel pipes that I made for my 088, it made more sense to use those. The old pipes are however a useful template to modify my existing stainless steel pipes.

The first major modification was for the downpipe. Although similar, they are NOT interchangeable between the 093 and 088. The 093 is a good 4 inches longer, and that extra length is bent slightly to the side. It's very subtle but the bend is required for the best possible clearance at the firewall/floor seam. I bought a short length of mandrel bent stainless pipe from Amazon to make up this difference. Although the bend is so slight, that anyone could simply notch and weld to get the same result (you won't notice a performance drop from such a mild corner). I also had to adjust the bend at the firewall corner slightly, but I don't know if a factory 088 downpipe would have had the same problem. The one I made often hit the firewall when reversing up a steep hill, so it may have been a build flaw from my end.

The other modification to the pipe was to add a V-Band Clamp to connect at the turbocharger. This is not strictly necessary since the slip coupling still works fine, but I just the idea of something that seals better than the slip coupling, while also being easier to remove. To weld the cast iron turbocharger outlet, I used 316L stainless rod in two passes. Then I heated up the welded area and let in cool for an hour inside some fire blanket. No cracks are visible so hopefully that's good to go. This is the same method I used for the Y-pipe slip coupling repair.

And then since all the header wrap got soaked in oil, it all had to be replaced with fresh wrap. Hoping to finish the install this weekend so stay tuned for more updates.

Here are the welds for the V-band clamp. There is a surprising amount of room at the firewall for this and I don't anticipate any interference there. I'll admit these aren't the prettiest welds I've done, but they will hold just fine.

More progress..

The turbocharger is now permanently installed with all new seals.

The crossover pipe had to be tweaked narrower by 0.25" to match the new Y-pipe. No biggie. I also used that deacon muck that @ocnorb tried to use recently on the slip coupling. The heavy wall stainless steel that I used to build this crossover pipe is so rigid that it doesn't like to conform to the manifold taper. I'm hoping this will help seal it but no big loss if it doesn't.

You can also see clearance to the firewall with the V-band clamp. Looks to be over half an inch so not bad. Still a mess under the hood with lots of organizing still to do. Looks like I will also have to build a heat shield around the turbine side.

The kit was in pretty rough shape but was about 90% complete, including the driver's side valve cover. I cleaned it up shot a coat of blue paint on it. A bit of good news is the appearance of the engine internals when I opened it up. Not hint of sludge, so it looks like I'm doing an okay job with maintenance. You can see the comparison between the old valve cover and the new one on the inside.

So far so good. Builds boost to 7 PSI rather easily, then hits a wall when the wastegate opens. Very happy with the early results. Photos here show some minor mods that were necessary to get the airbox to fit. The steel return line had to be messaged to fit as close to the intake manifold as possible. And the front driver's side fuel injector line had to be bent to follow a relief under the airbox.

I tried to install a stewart warner oil pressure sending unit but the gauge wouldn't respond so I had to revert back to the ford sensor. My plan is to modify the gauge to read dynamically, rather than [on = middle] and [off = zero] that it has right now. Have to do some more homework on that mod.

Engine noise seems a bit higher at idle for some reason. I can really hear the mechanical noises of the engine much more. Outside sounds no different, so I doubt it's due to any internal engine damage. What's also interesting is that the new valve cover is one layer of steel, while the old one is made of two layers. Not sure if this is the reason for the extra noise but I can see a future mod may include some additional firewall insulation. I may also decide to strip the whole airbox one day and leave it raw aluminum. The peeled paint looks like crap but it probably won't affect power output (maybe I'll compensate with some stickers...)

And yes, I'm very sore after all that work.

david85 said:

Engine noise seems a bit higher at idle for some reason. I can really hear the mechanical noises of the engine much more. Outside sounds no different, so I doubt it's due to any internal engine damage.

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Were you running the flexible intake hose before? That will make some of the noise come out the front of the truck and may make the rest of the noise seem louder. When I finally installed it on my Bronco, I didn't really notice any extra noise in the engine compartment, but I could sure tell the difference where it came out the front by the grille.

IDIBRONCO said:

Were you running the flexible intake hose before? That will make some of the noise come out the front of the truck and may make the rest of the noise seem louder. When I finally installed it on my Bronco, I didn't really notice any extra noise in the engine compartment, but I could sure tell the difference where it came out the front by the grille.

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Nope, I took it off years ago. So no flex duct either way, but I can see how it would reduce engine noise.

The ATS valve cover is only a single layer. When you get ready to modify that turbo keep me in mind . I've been toying with the idea of putting a v band on both trucks at the outlet now that I see you've done that it's going to happen plus I have a 1 inch body lift so I have more room.
Do yourself a favor and put a mechanical oil gauge on it instead of an electric one. Just my opinion and total hate for electric oil gauges.

My biggest item on the wish list is an intercooler but I don't know how I will shoe-horn that into a bullnose front end. I still have the water cooled center section from the old setup so that may go in eventually too.

The V-band mod was easier than I thought it would be, and like I mentioned earlier there is plenty of extra room around it even without a lift. I didn't even cut anything off the casting so if the weld fails for some reason, I can still revert to the slip coupling setup. I always try to play it safe with mods that can be rolled back if it doesn't work out.

Still happy with the results. I went for a longer drive today and hit a 5% grade at about 60 mph. The old setup needed 3rd gear and extra weight on the pedal to hold speed. Light smoke was a fact of life in 3rd, but clouds would fly if I left it in overdrive. Typically I would see 4PSI in 3rd (2250RPM) and 1.5PSI in overdrive (1600RPM).

This time I left it in cruise control on and let the transmission decide for itself.
Results: 5 PSI of boost in 4th (1600RPM) and no loss of speed.
And all that with no visible smoke. I had to tap the brakes when I caught up with a big rig, but by then I already saw the results on the steepest part.

Max boost is still 7 PSI due to the wastegate setting. I have no EGT gauge at the moment, so I'll leave the boost there for now. The wastegate will eventually get HEAVILY tampered with though. Only a matter of time before I want more. What do you guys think? Will it max out at 15 or 20?

I suspect this is similar performance to what others are getting with wastegated setups but I'm still impressed. The Smoke Puff Limiter is also finally doing it's job, now that turbo boost can respond so quickly. The real lesson for me is just how poorly the 088 setup was performing. There were several known issues with my particular setup though, so don't take my results as typical.

Those are all positive results and a big improvement over the 088 set up. I think that you should be able to get into your 15-20 PSI range. That will be the point where you want to start looking at an intercooler if you don't already have one.

I will say that your transmission and gear ratio is about the worst for an 088 setup. They do seem to be slower to spool than even the 085 kit, which to me is just barely acceptable. C6 with the non gated kits work pretty good, or with a 4spd manual and driving it like a gasser.

The wastegated kits actually make good boost where these engines make torque. My truck has had an 085 kit on it for 15+ years now. Was originally e40d with 4.10 gears (4x4 crew). Really didnt work to bad, and would make around 5psi just below 1900. This is with up pipes and turbine housing all wrapped and a somewhat slow timing setting. Now truck is 3.55 gears with a 4spd and us gear overdrive. Having the overdrive unit to split gears keeps the turbo spooled and actually pull pretty impressive. I have had an 093 kit in the shed for years now with plans to put it on this truck, and now with plans to put a wide ratio zf in it (with the us gear) I think it is time.

Yes, this gearing setup is not the greatest for all situations. Even with 3.08s, the RPM band seemed a bit more accessible since I could drop all the way to 2nd at those speeds if needed. But if I wanted 4wd, my only real option was to go with 3.55s, since I still wanted good highway performance.

One big thing I should mention is that I was running a 60-1 compressor on the ATS 088 at the time, which never quite performed as well as the original one that came with it (H-3 trim, I believe). I had actually put the original wheel back on but the intake O-ring slipped loose while pulling a hill and got sucked into the blades, forcing me to use the 60-1 again. But I was still unable to get much more than 7 to 8 PSI, and that was with lots of smoke. Others have used the 60-1 on other setups and reported good results but I don't know if anyone else had one on an 088.

An intercooler will be the next major upgrade. I just don't know how I'm going to shoe-horn it behind the stock grill on this truck. The brick nose and OBS body styles both seem to have much more room up front. The only examples I've seen of 1980-86 trucks having intercoolers is either with a modified grill, or a hacked rad support that shifts the radiator toward the engine.

Never had trouble making 12+psi with any of the non wastegated kits, just sluggish.

I have never had an intercooler with the 093 set up, but have had a 6.0 intercooler in my truck (with 085) for 12? years. The power difference was well worth the effort, and something I never expected was how much it improved low speed power (well before boost would come in). I didnt notice any "lag" added because of the huge intercooler or 3 inch tubing. Boost gauge did show just a little more lag, but the power was better there than before, so?

What kinda of cruising speed and rpm do you run?

70MPH = 1855 RPM in overdrive and 2620 RPM in 3rd gear. All calculated numbers.

I had similar experience with intercooler improvement when I put one on our old diesel ranger years ago. The stock mitsubishi 2.3L TD has a pop off valve on the intake that supposedly opens at 14 PSI. Performance across the board was improved but long hill climbing on the highway was where you really saw the difference.