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First off, I want to apologize for my inability to document correctly. I took no pictures of the process. I tore my ACL the weekend prior, and a good friend of mine came over and basically did most of the work for me, so I was just trying to be as useful as possible.
Second, @Double R Diesel was great to deal with. I purchased the MM3 Lite and H&S S364SXE kit (turbo, steed speed cnc mani, *** delete kit) directly from him, and he was on top of every email I sent him (about a dozen) answering all of my questions, most within like 20 minutes. I actually joined this site because of his YouTube videos. I come from about a decade of spending more money than I can remember modifying import cars, from a FD3S RX-7, to 2 different Mitsubishi Evo 9's, a MazdaSpeed 3, VW Corrado, among others. This is my second diesel truck, first being a brief stint in a '01 F350 7.3 that I just rebuilt the front end on before selling. The qualifications being, I'm very accustomed to buying from the aftermarket, and that has taught me to deal with specialists as much as possible. He seems to do only Dodge Cummins, and I haven't read a poor review yet, so I was sold. Not disappointed in the slightest.
Now on to the story! Or the back button, if I've bored you already
About 2 months ago now, my very stock truck crapped its turbo actuator, which irritated me greatly because of course, my warranty had expired about 6 months prior. The truck was just about to tick over 130k, so I knew I was already on borrowed time, as I've read the actuator goes usually between 75k-150k miles, so at least I wasn't surprised LOL.
I did some research, and realized I only had one option.... Full swap.
I'll explain my thought process though, mostly because I haven't typed up a big forum post in probably 5 years, and I'm here waiting for dinner to finish (ribeye steak and baked potato). After my reading, I found that the actuator isn't purchasable as a stand alone unit, except from one site for 1k, so I was left with 3ish logical options, try to find a used turbo, new oem turbo (3k ish), or a full swap of some sort (6k ish). My years of working on cars taught me many things, but the most useful lesson was this: do it right do it once. I know thats not original, but I learned may times the hard way to just bite the bullet the first time. So that narrowed it to just the one option, full swap.
I ordered the kit and tuner from Ray Sunday night, the tuner arrived Monday afternoon, the turbo kit from H&S by Friday. It was ridiculous, in a good way. I opted to buy an exhaust locally due to Ray saying the Flo Pro was out 3 weeks, and I just didn't have time to wait. Ended up with a P1/MBRP 5" turbo back, which is one of two purchases I regret, more on that in a second.
My buddy came over, that Sunday to help me install everything. I did the tuner Saturday, to make sure everything was going to work, and it did. It did take quite a while, but other than a few hiccups, went smoothly. Everything fit, the Steed Speed manifold is gorgeous, and everything was great quality.
The Lessons Learned part: (my ADVICE, nothing more)
1) The EGR delete kit was a waste of money. I don't blame anyone, but I wish someone would have told me to get a new intake manifold instead. I literally only used 1 part of the whole 250 dollar kit, the intake block of plate. Everything else was useless. For another 50ish bucks, I could have just gotten a manifold, and had no wasted parts. **** like that bugs my OCD nature.
2) Do yourself a favor, and just order which ever coolant bypass kit you like, I opted for H&S. That big coolant pipe that is left over from the OEM kit looks like total *** floating in space. For 99 bucks, you can easily clean up the engine bay, and make everything more reliable at the same time (no odd plugs or plug bracket for the upper 5/8 line in the coolant tower).
3) If you get an H&S coolant bypass, don't use the 5/8 line they supply you with. It's not well thought out IMO. Theirs is supposed to be connected to the OEM heater feed line with a barbed coupler. I feel that this is not a smart option, as it puts the plastic barbed coupler piece under your coolant bottle, just waiting to break and dump your coolant. For a couple bucks more, they could have included a full new line, making it a more robust kit. Again, nit picks. Just go to the auto parts store and by a new hose, approximately 4' long.
4) This turbo kit did not come with a way to adapt to a 5" exhaust. No ones fault, I just assumed that as 5" was pretty common, it would have at least a reducer, or an option for a 5" downpipe. Not the case. Do yourself a favor, if you're looking for bolt in, and go with 4" exhaust. I had to fab up a reducer, not the end of the world, but again OCD doesn't approve. Mostly due to my P1/MBRP downpipe for the stock turbo actually looks to be pretty good quality, and it's just garbage now. So expensive kit, most expensive piece is a waste. As a side note, I opted for 5" because common opinion was that it was a deeper tone, and some said a bit quieter, all things being equal. Wish I had gone 4".
5) Get the muffler. GET IT. My buddy had a 3rd gen, 4" straight pipe, it wasn't too loud. This thing 5" straight pipe was more obnoxious than a straight piped Civic. It drones horribly, and only gets worse the higher the boost climbs. Lucky for me, the shop I got the exhaust from had a Flo Pro muffler in stock, and it was a direct fit even on the P1/MBRP kit. Much better now, though still loud so I may add another muffler in the future.
I'm sure for a lot of you, my nits are common sense, or maybe I just failed to read enough, but as I've said, I'm not new to this, just diesel trucks. My intent here is only to help someone in the future save some money and headache.
As for the good news, the truck drives amazing. Rays tunes seem to be really really well done. Throttle tip in response is SHARP, and that alone makes it feel like a whole new truck. Beyond that, it runs smooth and clean. Even full WOT getting on the freeway offers barely any smoke (running in 90 horse tune). I only get a black puff if I jab it from a stop. Boost builds quick, and the turbo sounds great! The MM3, according to Ray, wont register over about 36psi (I've seen 37 once), so It's time for a real boost gauge I suppose. Because of that, I have no idea how much actual boost it's developing, but damn its fast. Rolling on 35" MT's, it will get a bit squirrlley on dry pavement if I hit it just right. Traction control is a must in the wet
I wont be turning it up any further until I get head studs and enough money in the bank for a transmission. The wife was already upset at how much I had to spend on the turbo LOL As it is, and for my uses, it's perfect. Steaks on the bbq now, so I'm going to wrap this up. I'll attach some pics I did take a bit later, but it looks no different than any other 2nd kit out there. If you made it this far, hope it was helpful!
EDIT: Some pictures added!
Borg Warner S364SXE! Sized for response, not peak power.
I off-road/camp/occasionally tow. Don't race. NOT a street queen.
Steed Speed mani, in all its glory!
Necessary addition. The straight pipe was IMO obnoxious!
Here's the 4"-5" adapter I made, bare in mind, it was the scrap pipe I had from cutting the TBE "cut to fit" pipe, and a 4" adapter piece that came with the turbo kit.
I am not a welder. Ha. Just a amateur fabricator.
And here it is, all finished.
As mentioned before, not a street queen, it is dusty, used, and will never be anything else.
And the exterior shot.
I built the rack the tent sits on, a project from last summer.
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