So I finally got around to finishing my turbo back 4"exhaust. Well actually it's a 3 1/2" out of the turbo and down until it gets under the van. Then it transitions up to 4".
I have been planning this for some time now and have tried to find someone that could do what I wanted but had no luck.
As anyone that has looked into buying an after market exhaust kit for a E350 6.0 Diesel will know, nobody makes one. So I bought this Diamondeye kit for a F350
http://www.diamondeyeperformance.com/im ... K4334S.pdf from TVDiesel.com. I also ordered an extra 3 1/2" 90 degree elbow, a 3 1/2" 45 degree elbow and an extra 4" X 24" piece. I also bought the Torca Band Clamps because the U-bolt clamps can crush the pipe and make it impossible to get them apart later.
Of course I was going to have to do some modification to get this under the van. The first thing I discovered was that the house battery mounting bracket was in the way. I was going to have to move it or rebuild the bracket. I opted for the latter because I didn't want to move the weight of the battery farther to the back of the vehicle, even though that would have been much easier then changing the bracket. Here are some pics of the mod on that.
This is a view from the back looking forward with the house battery on the left.
The next hurdle was to get a 3 1/2" down pipe into the space where a 3" down pipe was. I started by making a template that followed the stock pipe. By doing this I would have a line to follow and know for sure that the doghouse would not come into contact with the new pipe. This is what that looked like with the stock pipe.
And this is the new pipe.
I used the 3 1/2" 90 degree elbow to come out of the turbo. Cutting the flange off the F350 down pipe and welding it to the 90 degree elbow. Then I attached a straight pipe and then 2, 45 degree elbows to create a sweeping curve heading down the underside of the van. On the straight pipe I had to compress the section that squeezed by the pipe between the exhaust manifold and the turbo .
I ended up using an insulating exhaust wrap on this section because the heat shield no longer had room with the larger pipe. This turned out to work quite well, the passenger side of the doghouse is now much cooler then the drivers side.
I didn't like the hangers that came with the kit so I cut the hangers off the stock exhaust and modified them to work on the new system.
I was short one hanger so I made one from scratch.
Everything else was straight forward. I had planned on using a Mig wire feed welder but in order to weld S.S. you need a trimix gas that is 90% helium. It turns out that there is a nation wide helium shortage and I couldn't get that mix. (But somehow I still see helium balloons all over the place, I guess a child's joy take priority over industrial manufacturing).
I was lucky enough to have a friend with a Tig welder and he was kind enough to let me use it. My welds turned out to be not to bad for an amateur, (this was my first attempt at welding S.S. and exhaust tubing.
The end results;
It is a little louder but less then I expected. I really don't hear any difference while driving.
My EGTs are way down, an easy 200 degrees, particularly on the hills.
I haven't seen any better MPGs but I've only done one trip so far with head winds and the AC running the whole drive.
The biggest down side is the diesel exhaust smell without the Catalytic Converter. This is self explanatory and I should have been expecting it but there was no talk about it on any of the forums that I read. All the talk was about the droning and the whistle of the turbo, (all things that most guys like), nothing about the smell so it just caught my off guard.
Regarding the biennial inspection, my plan is this. I kept the stock down pipe and the Cat. and bought a piece that will tie it into the new 4" system after the Cat. So every two years I will install this and have a legal 4" Cat. back system. It takes about 45 min. to convert it.
There are more pic on my gallery.
Cheers,
John
with Herb,
Linear Mode
