A friend of mine was driving up a hill with a trailer loaded, and part way up he heard a sound like a Semi truck letting off its air and he had no power, plus he was all the sudden fogging for mosquitoes. Took the exhaust off and looked like the blades were in the shape they were supposed to be on the turbo, sprayed soapy water on everything, still not making boost.

 

What year/type of truck and what color smoke?

 

If a turbo boot has not come off then Check the intercooler tank ends. Some year trucks had plastic tanks and they were prone to blowing out.

 

Sheared turbo shaft is also a possible issue. Check for play between the compressor and turbine.

 

I am guessing it is probably an '05? Does it have plastic end caps on the intercooler If so, like it was said above, Check the intercooler end caps. They are known to pop the ends off. You can do a quick roadside fix on them usually by using a two part epoxy. I will try to find a link to the post about that!

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...ht=intercooler

 

It's an 05 blowing black. I was wondering if the plastic intercooler might have been a cause, but I sprayed it with soapy water and couldn't find a spot that leaked.

 

Check it again along the seams where the plastic meets the metal, maybe on the backside. What you are explaining is exactly what happened to me when mine went.

 

I'll probably get to check the truck out tomorrow. And to add insult to injury the blow-by on the truck was rediculus by the time we decided to say enough messing with it on Saturday.

 

If it not the intercooler then the turbo is fried.

 

On the subject of the turbo, it still spins, but it just doesn't go past the normal rpm for idle that I can tell. We had the exhaust off so we could look in the back (didn't think about playing with the wheels to see if the shaft had play), all of the blades looked in good condition.

 

Do a system pressure test with a air compressor. You can make your own for about $20.00 from Home Depot. There was a picture of one somewhere on here.

 

Would 4" PVC cap plugs fit on the ends of the tubes tight enough to test?

 

Just use a 4" palstic cap inserted into a rubber union and clamp it to the turbo inlet. Drill a hole for a 1/4 NPT fitting so you can insert a quick connect air fitting. Drill another hole to insert a pressure gauge. Hook up a air line with no more than 40 psi running through it (dont want to blow a headgasket with 120 psi). If you hear airleaks seek them out and fix'em. I'm still looking for the picture.

 

Perfect, thank you.

 

Her is a link to a tester already built.

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...st+leak+tester