bighornram

Did you gut the baffles in the intake tube as well? Gotta do that too if your still running stock airbox. Just did a friend of mines recently and its a little louder but no comparison to an aftermarket intake...

EdmontonCanada

I wouldn't clean the fins at all. They spin so fast in some turbos that the outer perimeter of the compressor breaks the sound barrier...so if you create any imballance in the fins, you're asking for trouble in time. My dad, a heavy dudy mechanic of many years, told me when I was installing a brand new turbo, to never to even touch the fins with my fingers as to not get my skin oil on them. Crazy! I've read the same in some turbo books.

As for the black residue, some turbo systems have a hose that leads connects between the air filter and turbo intake - it leads to the engine camshaft/tappet cover. When under boost, the engine creates blow-by gas from the piston movement. This pressurized, fine oil mist in the top of the engine is trypically relieved by the hose that leads just in front of the turbo. Some guys install "catch cans" to trap this oily mist...however, I'm not sure diesels have the same hose to relieve blow-by pressure. Turbocharged GAS engines have this hose...I don't know why a diesel wouldn't.

moparbryan

black residue on the turbo fins is a fairly normal condition it is actually an oxide forming due to the air speeds sudden change @ the face of the compressor wheel. i.e. the air speeds up so fast its actually trying to polish the fins. if you have ever polished aluminum the black residue that results is roughly the same. also be very careful w/putting water in the intake w/ running the engine. Cummins use a mono-thermic piston that does not react well to excess water. yes, water methanol injection is a great power adder but too much straight water is the easyist way to melt the top of a piston. just my 2 cents. I work on these things for a living and have seen it happen. Bryan

CamperAndy

I find several of your comments a bit hard to believe (mono-thermic??) but the one that I would love to hear an explanation on is the water melting the piston opinion. Maybe too much meth but you won't melt anything with water.

NickBeek

"mono therm" is a trade name for a certain brand of piston. It really means a one piece piston. On heavy duty (big truck) engines the piston of choice used to be an articulated (two piece) piston that consisted of the crown, made of forged steel, and the separate skirt made of aluminum. The pistons were changed several years ago with the first round of emissions regulations to a single piece (mono) style. One of the two major players in the heavy duty piston game calls there design the "mono therm" piston. I have attached a picture of a "monotherm" piston.

As far as a water mist melting a piston, I have a hard time with that concept too. Now causing a hydro-lock situation maybe, but that's just me.

CamperAndy

Well monotherm makes more sense as mono-thermic did not make any. Thermic function/reaction has nothing to do with piston function.

cbx

Well, first off, this is an awesome forum. This being my first post here i'm gonna walk out into the machine gun fire on this one, but I have to tell you guys, as a profesional diesel tech, owner, and operator of all kinds of equipment. I really do not recomend doing anything to the turbo. you seriously will cause so much more harm than good.

Dont touch the blades. especially the turbine (exhaust) side. I understand that everyone really wants to take the best care possible of your investment in these very expensive trucks, but resist the urge to to anything to that turbo when it comes to cleaning. If your in a situation where your turbo is really really dirty, you've got much bigger problems to worry about. Use good filters. Of all of the air box designs i've seen, the dodge ram CTD box on the 3rd gen trucks is possibly the best one for sealing.

If your in any kind of fairly dusty enviroment, your really asking for trouble with a some of the less capable filters IMO.

NickBeek

So by wiping the compressor blades off, as I have already done I have put my turbo at risk? Please expand on your post.

CamperAndy

You do not need your flame suit on but you are a bit too conservative on maintenance of the turbo. Have you seen the mod that Dodge does to the 07 turbos to de soot them? No one is suggesting to get a file or die grinder out to clean the turbo but a manual cleaning of the turbo is a ZERO risk action.

hivoltage

So out of curiosity, has anyone else pulled their tubes to check for the "black dust"?
Like I said before mine has been like that since nearly new and I've got 30,000 miles on the clock now with no problems. I don't think the residue is hurting anything and is considered fairly normal. My truck gets the best possible treatment,runs well,no smoke,and spends 95% of it's time on pavement away from dusty conditions. I have no mods and do not drive the truck hard so I don't see how the black residue hints at any type of problem now or in the future.
Like I said before, a filter will not stop everything. The engineers that designed the filter knew that particles of a certain size would be able to pass through and apperantly deemed it acceptable. If nothing could get through then it would be too restrictive and the truck wouldn't get enough air.
I'm like most of you guys,I worry way too much about the care and health of my truck but I really don't worry about the black stuff on the turbo fins.Why, because I've checked everything over good and find no leaks,always keep a good stock filter installed and checked often.

cbx

If there's soot in a turbo, it hasnt been worked hard enough. However, I have heard that the variable turbo's on the 6.7 have been haveing some issues with soot. Seems to be the veichles that dont see any heavy work or towing. I say that because i know 7 guys who have 6.7's and 5 of them do nothing but tow. their trucks have been flawless. the other two have had issues. they also just use their trucks as daily drivers. The one guy who has had the most problems drives very conservative. never gets on it or tows. That IMO is harder on the engine than anything. They never run hot enough. 7 trucks is a narrow and small sample of trucks, but i have a feeling the guys with sooted turbo's most likely not getting run hard. Run them hard. I'm not saying race the stop lights if you dont tow. But when you can, get on it and run the snot out of it. Drive it like a corvette. It will live longer and run better.

Far as the turbo matinence, We have one loader that has a 5.9 12v in it that must have had at least 20,000 hrs maybe more on it before I remaned it. Dairy farm use. The other one has over 10k hrs on it now. Both under the worst conditions. start and stop constantly. thousands of cold starts. driven wide open and in the dustiest conditions. And we change the oil about every 3-400 hrs. Lots less than everyone says your suppose too. If it was a truck and averaged in the 40 mile per hour range that would be around 12-16000 miles...And pretty much just abused all the way around....... We never ever touched the turbo. Worn out. Yep. but still ran. The point here is that these engines are so tough its not even funny.

Run good oil, good fuel, good filters, and work them hard. Dont be scared to push it. Your not going to hurt it......(disclaimer: When you chip, change any control parts, pour anything other than fuel in it your totally at your own risk, obviously. I know many of us, including me turn them up. just wanted to put that out there before someone says well i blew my turbo up doing 85mph towing 20k uphill with my edge on 5 )

The turbo will take care of itself if used right.

Nickbeek: i"m sure what you did is just fine. I guess i should have said you run a chance of problems instead of saying you will have problems. Its just one of those things that you are trying to make it better, but could case more harm than good. Thats all Rock on!

NickBeek

Thanks CBX. BTW, welcome to the forum. I hope you will continue to share your thoughts with us.