My M813 gets a turbo!

[US6x4]

To change the direction of the tank's outlet pipe i sourced a 1 1/4" mandrel bent 90° stainless elbow with rolled beads from a fuel filler neck company and then shortened one leg to allow it to fit between the tank pipe and the engine block.




The TIG guy said that "walking the cup" was especially difficult on this because the polished stainless was so slippery.


Now I just need to find a heavy-duty yet flexible radiator hose to connect this elbow to the oil cooler? housing.

 

[US6x4]

This weekend was all about freshening up the paint on the RH side of the engine. Before I always thought my engine had OD Green and Cummins industrial tan parts added to a charcoal gray engine, but after degreasing and pressure washing it I'm convinced that the entire engine is still gray. There was a lot of 383 green overspray on the block just above the frame rail which made it hard to discern.

Degreased and pressure washed 3 times, then ground down rust with angle grinder & cupped wire brush, then again with dremel tool & tiny wire brush, then scuffed with maroon scotchbright, then blown off with air hose, then washed/scrubbed with sudsy car wash, rinsed, and blown off dry with air hose. Got it masked up and then gave it 2 coats of Cummins charcoal gray.

Maybe I had a flair up of CDO or something because I also ran a thread chaser down every tapped boss on the block to clean up the threads.






It's interesting to see what's gray and what's green; kinda gives you clues as to what Cummins supplied and what AM General supplied such as the dipstick tube, the road draft tube, and all of the little brackets bolted to the block which were green. I'm just going to maintain the colors that I find and if its just all rust I'll paint things that hang off the engine 383 green while the block will stay gray.

 

[Mullaney]

This weekend was all about freshening up the paint on the RH side of the engine. Before I always thought my engine had OD Green and Cummins industrial tan parts added to a charcoal gray engine, but after degreasing and pressure washing it I'm convinced that the entire engine is still gray. There was a lot of 383 green overspray on the block just above the frame rail which made it hard to discern.

Degreased and pressure washed 3 times, then ground down rust with angle grinder & cupped wire brush, then again with dremel tool & tiny wire brush, then scuffed with maroon scotchbright, then blown off with air hose, then washed/scrubbed with sudsy car wash, rinsed, and blown off dry with air hose. Got it masked up and then gave it 2 coats of Cummins charcoal gray.

Maybe I had a flair up of CDO or something because I also ran a thread chaser down every tapped boss on the block to clean up the threads.

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It's interesting to see what's gray and what's green; kinda gives you clues as to what Cummins supplied and what AM General supplied such as the dipstick tube, the road draft tube, and all of the little brackets bolted to the block which were green. I'm just going to maintain the colors that I find and if its just all rust I'll paint things that hang off the engine 383 green while the block will stay gray.

.
Clean and Sharp looking!
Very nice indeed.

Lots of work to bolt it all back together, but it will look brand new when you are finished.

 

[US6x4]

Well, I'm getting down to the nuts & bolts details and I've been painting parts as they're ready. For the high temp parts (manifolds to exhaust stack) I'm using Dura Heat 2.0 and I finally got far enough along to get a start on that. This paint is made for firearm suppressors and it can handle up to 1500° F so it will be good enough for my operating range. Their od green looks like a match for 383 green so that's a plus.

All the parts have been degreased, roughed up with scotchbright, washed clean, masked off with powder coating tape, and hung up.




Since the parts and paint are so spendy and I don't know this HVLP equipment, I had the paint applicator at work spray the first coat of this wet paint on and he nailed it! This first coat on these 4 pieces used about $80 worth of paint...yikes! It will get a second coat and then a 20 minute bake in the oven at 350°F after it air dries. The painter said this stuff flashed over to flat & rough as soon as it laid on (almost instantaneous).

I had to order more paint to have enough to finish the other parts so there will be more to follow on this subject.

 

[WillWagner]

You can trim up to an inch off of the rubber elbows to gain clearance if needed. I had to do that many times when putting new engines in old machines. Mark them, use silicone spray to lube the cut and a new razor knife. The cuts will look factory.

 

[US6x4]

You can trim up to an inch off of the rubber elbows to gain clearance if needed. I had to do that many times when putting new engines in old machines. Mark them, use silicone spray to lube the cut and a new razor knife. The cuts will look factory.

Good idea, Will - I'll take a closer look at that when I get to final assembly

 

[US6x4]

While I'm waiting for paint to dry i have time to catch up on household stuff and replenish the drained supply of brownie points I've cashed in working on this turbo. The only change I've done recently is to remove the pipe plug and replace it with the oil drain tube fitting.

 

[US6x4]

A lot of progress has been made on painting parts and getting them ready to install. I had to reorder paint twice now which is a 1 week delay each time but I've got about 97% of the parts finished

I drilled & tapped a bunch of holes in scrap angle iron to hold my manifold bolts and that worked out pretty well.


During the first coat. It takes 3 days to paint: first coat 1 day, second coat on day 2, bake on the third day.


This is after the bake



For a color comparison the suppressor paint matches the CARC on the heater inlet pretty close, but my 383 green i use is a little greener. The colors look more different in pictures than with the naked eye.


Here are all my parts except the 3 u-bolts saddle clamps, the 3 pressure pipes, and the stack heat shield.

 

[US6x4]

The reservoir tank needed a lot of attention internally as there were large amounts of rust scale that came out and continued to come out of it. I pounded the out side with hammers without denting it, then filled it with sharp gravel and shook the crap out of it and then filled it with sand to shake and roll around inside. This is what came out:



Eventually I picked up some Evapo-Rust to swish around inside it and get it clean. After a couple coats of paint I painted on a 'NO STEP' stencil like you would see under the hood of a hummer.

 

[US6x4]

@WillWagner was right about pulse manifolds having smaller ports for higher velocities. This mismatch seems a bit much, but the new metal gaskets are what came with the manifold so maybe they're compatible. I typically don't like things that impede airflow like that and it's a challenge to keep myself from trying to blend it in (port match).

 

[US6x4]

Manifold is on; torqued to 40 ft-lb w/copper based anti-sieze


Turbo with oil line is on; torqued to 32 ft-lb


Pressure piping is on; torqued to 65 in-lb (HPS t-bolt spring clamps are rated to 75 in-lb)

 

[WillWagner]

The gaskets are the same for both port sizes. Does it run yet I want to see a video!

 

[US6x4]

The gaskets are the same for both port sizes. Does it run yet I want to see a video!

Not running just yet. I still need to plumb the reservoir tank and build an oil return line before trying to start it.

 

[US6x4]

The work today involved all sorts of small stuff. To start with i plugged the old air horn bolt holes using some neoprene bonded rubber washers to seal out water & noise (ok, maybe just water...). Now I'm thinking one of these might get removed to run the filter-minder hose up to the turbo air intake pipe.




Then the reservoir tank bracket got mounted up. I'm able to use one of the lower bolts to hold the air horn wire loom clamp that was relocated. I like it when things can perform more than one function.



Next I bent the brake vent line over so the air vent manifold could be mounted to the side of the tank.


The vent manifold got scrubbed down with some napa aluminum brightener. There was not much room left to mount this and I even had to use some indented hex pipe plugs to clear the tank.


I mocked up the new air horn location finally and I think I should have done that before I painted the firewall...


Other things I did today was re-install the exhaust temp probe, hook up some wiring, install the dipstick tube, and test fit the road draft tube (will need to shorten it about 7").
I'm building my way out from the block to the fender layer by layer.


Right now I have more parts ready to go than I have time to work on and that's good but exhausting. This is where I left off:

 

[US6x4]

I finally tackled the turbo oil drain pipe which I wasn't looking forward to because of compound bends needed to go 10" down, 7.75" inward and 1.75" forward. I took many measurements with squares, plumb bobs, and tape measures. I made a 3d model as best I could and then grabbed a piece of 1" o.d. stainless hydraulic tubing and put it in the tube bender.



The first bend was bent up 50° and the second bend was 8.75" down stream and bent to the left at 15°. The extra tubing length needed to grab hold of the bender dies got trimmed off and the tube got inserted into a 1/2" thick stainless flange that the laser cut out after I copied the shape of the gasket that came with my turbo.


It took quite a few iterations of cutting and fitting to get things to line up & fit. Once aligned some lines were added to maintain the orientation so the TIG welder guy could seal it up.





First pass


After second pass to push slag to the outside of the weld and after a quick smoothing up of a few high spots.


All done and roughed up with a stainless wire wheel to be ready for the suppressor paint. Now its time for the final test fit.

Bingo!

 

[US6x4]

I had to mount up the exhaust to get a measurement for a bracket so I thought I'd throw up a sneak peek pic

 

[WillWagner]

Looks good!

 

[US6x4]

Looks good!

Thanks! One more round of painting in the booth and I'll have enough parts to bolt everything down for good.

 

[WillWagner]

Just be aware, you will most likely need to add some sort of flex between the hard engine mounted parts and the chassis/fender mounted stuff. It will break at some point in time just due to the acceleration twist. Your work is beautiful!

 

[US6x4]

Thanks Will and duly noted. So when the truck accelerates will the valve cover torque to the right or torque to the left (driver side)?

In your years of wrenching have you ever seen a flex pipe used in a 90° corner?