Old Banks Non-WG Turbo on 7.3?

[drivintrucks]

I have opportunity to pick an older Banks Turbo. It came off a 6.9L with a 4 spd manual and claims the truck only had 57K and believes that turbo has that or less. He blew a head gasket and didn't put it back on. It is a complete system. The turbo is actually a Roto-Master T04B35. It's got some play, but not bad by any means. He's asking $400. I use my rig mostly for towing, so from what I read, the non-wg suits my purposes better.

My questions are:

1. Will this fit the 7.3 with a 5 spd manual?
2. Can I get any rebuild kit for a T04B, or does it have to a specific kit made for a Roto-Master?
3. Is there anything I need to look out for? Are these good turbos, or should I stay away.

I'm not dead set on a turbo, but this seems like a good price.

Thanks for the help...

 

[Cincinnati Guy]

It will work on your truck. Is that just for the turbo, or the whole 9 yards? IMHO Banks seems to be the most popular and easiest to get parts for.

 

[TWeatherford]

I'm assuming you'd be buying everything to put it on your truck. It'll likely fit on your truck as is but not guaranteed. 6.9 and 7.3 are virtually the same as far as a turbo is concerned, but ZF5 vs T-19 may not fit without modification. I took the same turbo off an 85 with a C6 auto and had to modify the up pipe.

The air filter/intake assembly is junk. Its impossible to install properly, doesn't fit very well, and covers practically everything on the top of the engine. Also only a banks filter fits in it, and they're not made anymore, though you can easily run a cone filter off the airbox. I am in the process now of figuring out how to rig up an intake hat and filter setup to get rid of it.

 

[drivintrucks]

Yeah, $400 for the complete system. I have read a lot of complaints about the old Banks air intake. It does have a filter now, but I assumed that I'd be rigging up something to replace it as well. As i'm not very turbo savvy, I just wanted to make sure the turbo was something that was easy to get a rebuild kit for and if price seemed reasonable. As for the fit around the tranny, I pretty sure I've read that the systems were different between auto and manual, but wasn't sure about 4 vs 5 spd.

Appreciate the input guys...

 

[Diesel JD]

I'd grab it. Up-pipes and down pipes, there are ways to fabricate these things, the things you can't easily make are the cast iron parts, manifolds, casting collectors etc. $400 is cheap you could honestly outright sell it for that or more most likely. That turbo uses soe pretty generic non proprietary parts. Typ4 can get them and/or rebuild that turbo for you. These things can throw down some serious boost, not by PSD or Cummins standards but easily as much as an IDI can take in stock trim.

 

[Diesel JD]

If you want to keep the intake for some reason, you might get the folks at S&B filters to make one for you or find one of theirs that fits by dimension. They made some for icanfixall for the Sidewinder wastegated turbo a few years back if my memory serves me.

 

[drivintrucks]

I checked Banks website for a manual and looks like they have support the sidewinder. Can anyone send me a copy of the installation manual?

 

[OB_WAN]

I'll send you a copy of the installation instructions(just have to find them).

do a search for posts created by me and you'll find one on my pre-sidewinder banks install. Or perhaps it was a turbo build, or both, can't remember. The Y, up, and down pipes are pretty expensive to replace so hopefully you have the right parts and they're solid.

have typ4 do the rebuild for you(or the guy who provided my T04b rebuild kit). it's not all THAT difficult to rebuild but there are a few tricky parts where if you haven't been in a turbo like this before, it could cause some delays/broken parts. In addition, I had my compressor nut back out on its own and think it had something to do with the way I built it. wish I had typ4 build mine, would have saved me $400 worth of a new core.

with my original(100k miles) rebuilt IP and 100k injectors I was seeing maybe 10psi peak screaming up the moutain passes fully loaded. but I had advanced the IP fuel only as much as the manual said. not bad but probably could have provided more fuel. replaced it with Mels Moose pump and now I can hit 12-13psi unloaded with a good grade. haven't tried pulling the grades fully loaded yet. now I need an intercooler to get enough dense air in to keep up with the fuel

I have a cone filter in to the intake box, no filter in the box itself. make sure everything is plugged so no dirt slips in there.

One addition on the turbo install, I don't know if the instructions listed this but... where the existing CDR drops in to the valley pan in the back of the intake, you likely have to punch some holes in the "inner" valley pan, I used a big phillips screw driver and a hammer, put a bunch of holes in there. allows the oil to drain from the turbo. not enough holes means the oil will back up in to the valley pan and make a mess.

 

[vegas39]

I'm assuming you'd be buying everything to put it on your truck. It'll likely fit on your truck as is but not guaranteed. 6.9 and 7.3 are virtually the same as far as a turbo is concerned, but ZF5 vs T-19 may not fit without modification. I took the same turbo off an 85 with a C6 auto and had to modify the up pipe.

The air filter/intake assembly is junk. Its impossible to install properly, doesn't fit very well, and covers practically everything on the top of the engine. Also only a banks filter fits in it, and they're not made anymore, though you can easily run a cone filter off the airbox. I am in the process now of figuring out how to rig up an intake hat and filter setup to get rid of it.

Is your filter box and intake hat one piece?
I have the old box also with the discontinued filter but my intake hat is a seperate piece. They must have changed design somewhere along the way. Either way, the filter box sucks!

 

[TWeatherford]

Is your filter box and intake hat one piece?
I have the old box also with the discontinued filter but my intake hat is a seperate piece. They must have changed design somewhere along the way. Either way, the filter box sucks!

Yep, the real early ones have a separate intake hat and filter box setup. That is better certainly, but not great. To install the one piece deal like I have you have to somehow align the filter box to turbo inlet, turbo outlet to box, and box to intake connections all at the same time. And you have to do this any time you want to get to about anything on the IP or top of the engine.