DieselFanatic
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I am just wanting the sound from the turbo. I do not care about added power, just want that whistle when taking it out in the summer. What turbo do you guys think I should go with?
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Turbo Options 6.2
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I don't know which turbocharger for the 6.2 whistles, but I can tell you which does not: The GM8.
If you only want the sound then i'd suggest one of these. You will save yourself alot of work.
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Barrman
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You have two basic options for adding a turbo to a square body Chevy with a 6.2 or 6.5 engine. Banks or GM. here is a video about it and what is good about each:
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The GM4 to GM8 series turbos don't really whistle that much. While they certainly add some power, they can also become a restriction for the gear bound trucks like the M1008/1028/1031. I've got a HX40 that I'm going to swap onto mine eventually. But that'll come after the 4l80 swap. I probably will add in a intercooler I have as well.
nyoffroad
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If you want a real loud blower type sound just replace the stock fan and clutch with a direct bolt on flex fan and put it on backwards. Don't ask, but it did sound like a blower!
Barrman
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True, neither the Banks or the GM turbo units will whistle like a M35A2 C model turbo as for what can be heard from the drivers seat. However, they both do make turbo sounds at the tail pipe for people next to the vehicle.
Barrman
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Rear mounted turbo’s have been done before. My problem with them is the oil supply and return.
I was going to set it up with a remote oil tank with inline filter and an electric pump.
Ilikemtb999
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My hx35 whistles quite a bit.
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Coming from someone who has been fighting a turbo swap in a 1009 for the last month, it's not worth it. Especially if you don't care about the performance gains. The banks kits are too hard to find and the 6.5 swap is just not worth doing. I got all the 6.5 parts from Craigslist for $500, and I'll easily be over $3000 and over 150 hours of labor into the swap by the time it's done. I haven't driven my truck in over a month, and every Saturday and Sunday for the last 5 weeks has been a miserable 12+ hour suffer fest working on the truck in the dirt.
I'm just a hobby mechanic so maybe a professional with a full shop would have a better time. But I've been building and daily driving nothing but 70s/80s Chevys for over a decade and this is by far the most miserable project I've ever done. Multiple auto to manual trans swaps with various random transmissions, a DIY engine rebuild, multiple engine swaps, several transmissions and a transfer case rebuilds, re-geared/rebuilt several axles, custom fabricated bumpers/tire swingouts/rock sliders/etc, entire floor and rocker replacements to fix rust, 2 entire interiors from scratch, custom compressed air systems, solar charging, pressurized water system for at camp, fridge/camp stove installed on custom sliding tracks, suspension and steering work... None of that remotely compares to how frustrating this turbo swap was/is. Honestly, if you really want turbo noises buy a duramax or get a big speaker for the CUCV... cucvsrus is right on this one, just drive the truck and enjoy it as it is.
To give you an idea of what is involved:
You need to move both batteries to the front tray location to clear the turbo. Even group 31 batteries don't fit (there's absolutely no chance with the 6TLs), and it is very expensive to get anything smaller with comparable performance. I'm nearly $700 into a set of new group 49 AGM batteries that have worse CCA and reserve capacity than my old group 31, are 2-3x the cost of group 31s, and barely fit. Then you have to remake all the high current wiring to accommodate the new battery location, and I spent a full day fabricating a custom tray that ties into the core support and several places on the front fender. The stock trays break the fenders with just one battery, and there's no chance they'll survive with 2 batts relocated into the front tray
Oil cooler lines dont fit. There are write ups on how to bend them to clear and thats what I did temporarily, but its a hack solution. Without strain relief from the stock support bracket the metal sections of the lines will fatigue and crack over time. So plan on fully custom oil lines, which I still need to make.
Injectors dont fit. Plan on buying short injectors, and even then everything is still tight. The right way to do it would be 6.5 heads along with the 6.5 injectors. Also With the passenger side manifold on, it becomes impossible to service the middle injectors. So be prepared for that and make sure you get the lines on tight and square the first time or you'll be spending hours tearing everything apart to try again. You probably want to buy 6.5 hard lines so they fit the injectors without bending.
Dip stick/dip stick tube doesn't fit. It interferes with the driver side exhaust. I haven't figured this out yet, but its going to be another custom part I have to fabricate.
Exhaust crossover interferes with the stock style clutch slave cylinder if you have a manual transmission. I had to convert to a $100 pull-type slave cylinder ordered online from Wilwood instead of the stock one that is $20 at any parts store, and then I had to make all custom brackets and plumbing for it. A mechanical/Z bar clutch linkage would be totally impossible with where the 6.5 manifolds place the crossover.
The crossover also interferes with the driveshaft. Be prepared to get creative, and hope you have a ton of lift. I got it to clear with 4" of suspension lift, but less would be harder
Downpipe hits the frame, and has to be routed outside the frame rail unless you have 2" or more body lift. I have a hacked together homemade exhaust to at least test run the engine, but I need to do a full custom exhaust system and am expecting to spend $700-1000 at the exhaust shop for that. I had to make custom heat shields for my relocated slave cylinder and for the 24V wiring where it goes back to the rear panel in the cab (M1009 only I think). The passenger front brake hose is also dangerously close to the exhaust, and I have a bunch of ghetto heat shielding on that right now and am hoping for the best. If it doesn't work I have no idea what I am going to do about fixing it, since the brake line cant be easily rerouted and there is nowhere else for the exhaust to go
The exhaust manifolds technically fit, but to get them on you need to lift the motor at least 2" off the mounts and fish all the bolts in with the manifold. Doing it alone is possible, but incredibly tedious and frustrating. Getting the old manifolds off is as annoying as you would expect. Have an oxy acetylene torch, candle wax, lots of penetrating oil and patience, and make sure you have a welder on hand for when a couple of the bolts inevitably break. Also might as well replace the motor mounts while you have them disconnected...
Fuel pump needs to go to fit the turbo oil return, unless you make a complicated adapter plate or pull the oil pan to weld a fitting into it. So plan on doing an electric fuel pump swap.
I still haven't figured out how to get the CDR plumbed into the intake pre-turbo. There's no space to fit a U bend between the turbo and batteries, so it seems like you need something like the S&B cold air intake ($350) which has a special low-profile 180 degree tube with a port for the CDR line
That's most of the big stuff, but there were tons of other little annoyances along the way. Overall I don't think I would ever do this again even if the truck made 400 hp and got 25 mpg. Realistically i might get 200 hp and 15-17 mpg, if I am lucky... For the amount of cost and time required there are sooo many other things I would rather do to this truck or any of my other projects.
I'm just a hobby mechanic so maybe a professional with a full shop would have a better time. But I've been building and daily driving nothing but 70s/80s Chevys for over a decade and this is by far the most miserable project I've ever done. Multiple auto to manual trans swaps with various random transmissions, a DIY engine rebuild, multiple engine swaps, several transmissions and a transfer case rebuilds, re-geared/rebuilt several axles, custom fabricated bumpers/tire swingouts/rock sliders/etc, entire floor and rocker replacements to fix rust, 2 entire interiors from scratch, custom compressed air systems, solar charging, pressurized water system for at camp, fridge/camp stove installed on custom sliding tracks, suspension and steering work... None of that remotely compares to how frustrating this turbo swap was/is. Honestly, if you really want turbo noises buy a duramax or get a big speaker for the CUCV... cucvsrus is right on this one, just drive the truck and enjoy it as it is.
To give you an idea of what is involved:
You need to move both batteries to the front tray location to clear the turbo. Even group 31 batteries don't fit (there's absolutely no chance with the 6TLs), and it is very expensive to get anything smaller with comparable performance. I'm nearly $700 into a set of new group 49 AGM batteries that have worse CCA and reserve capacity than my old group 31, are 2-3x the cost of group 31s, and barely fit. Then you have to remake all the high current wiring to accommodate the new battery location, and I spent a full day fabricating a custom tray that ties into the core support and several places on the front fender. The stock trays break the fenders with just one battery, and there's no chance they'll survive with 2 batts relocated into the front tray
Oil cooler lines dont fit. There are write ups on how to bend them to clear and thats what I did temporarily, but its a hack solution. Without strain relief from the stock support bracket the metal sections of the lines will fatigue and crack over time. So plan on fully custom oil lines, which I still need to make.
Injectors dont fit. Plan on buying short injectors, and even then everything is still tight. The right way to do it would be 6.5 heads along with the 6.5 injectors. Also With the passenger side manifold on, it becomes impossible to service the middle injectors. So be prepared for that and make sure you get the lines on tight and square the first time or you'll be spending hours tearing everything apart to try again. You probably want to buy 6.5 hard lines so they fit the injectors without bending.
Dip stick/dip stick tube doesn't fit. It interferes with the driver side exhaust. I haven't figured this out yet, but its going to be another custom part I have to fabricate.
Exhaust crossover interferes with the stock style clutch slave cylinder if you have a manual transmission. I had to convert to a $100 pull-type slave cylinder ordered online from Wilwood instead of the stock one that is $20 at any parts store, and then I had to make all custom brackets and plumbing for it. A mechanical/Z bar clutch linkage would be totally impossible with where the 6.5 manifolds place the crossover.
The crossover also interferes with the driveshaft. Be prepared to get creative, and hope you have a ton of lift. I got it to clear with 4" of suspension lift, but less would be harder
Downpipe hits the frame, and has to be routed outside the frame rail unless you have 2" or more body lift. I have a hacked together homemade exhaust to at least test run the engine, but I need to do a full custom exhaust system and am expecting to spend $700-1000 at the exhaust shop for that. I had to make custom heat shields for my relocated slave cylinder and for the 24V wiring where it goes back to the rear panel in the cab (M1009 only I think). The passenger front brake hose is also dangerously close to the exhaust, and I have a bunch of ghetto heat shielding on that right now and am hoping for the best. If it doesn't work I have no idea what I am going to do about fixing it, since the brake line cant be easily rerouted and there is nowhere else for the exhaust to go
The exhaust manifolds technically fit, but to get them on you need to lift the motor at least 2" off the mounts and fish all the bolts in with the manifold. Doing it alone is possible, but incredibly tedious and frustrating. Getting the old manifolds off is as annoying as you would expect. Have an oxy acetylene torch, candle wax, lots of penetrating oil and patience, and make sure you have a welder on hand for when a couple of the bolts inevitably break. Also might as well replace the motor mounts while you have them disconnected...
Fuel pump needs to go to fit the turbo oil return, unless you make a complicated adapter plate or pull the oil pan to weld a fitting into it. So plan on doing an electric fuel pump swap.
I still haven't figured out how to get the CDR plumbed into the intake pre-turbo. There's no space to fit a U bend between the turbo and batteries, so it seems like you need something like the S&B cold air intake ($350) which has a special low-profile 180 degree tube with a port for the CDR line
That's most of the big stuff, but there were tons of other little annoyances along the way. Overall I don't think I would ever do this again even if the truck made 400 hp and got 25 mpg. Realistically i might get 200 hp and 15-17 mpg, if I am lucky... For the amount of cost and time required there are sooo many other things I would rather do to this truck or any of my other projects.
Last edited:
Ilikemtb999
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I can say this was not my experience in any way. I maybe have $1000 in my setup and that’s with changing things over time and ultimately buying an hx35 adapter kit and aftermarket intake manifold a few years ago. There are plenty of write ups on here to guide people. I also built mine in a single space apartment garage with a $100 harbor freight welder.
