I did a search, but couldn't quite find the exact answer I was lookin fer....if I want to drill for the egt probe myself, but am afraid of drilling with the turbo still attached for fear of FOD-ing out my turbo and I'm not 100% trustworthy of magnetizing drill bits, can I simply disconnect the turbo from the manifold and drill the hole with the engine running, so as to blow all the pieces out without the turbo at risk? I know you can run the engine with the turbo on and it's supposed to blow out any bits and pieces out of the hole, but would it hurt anything to simply remove the turbo from all risk for those few minutes??

I'd rather not pay a diesel shop the $80+ bucks to do what I could do for nothin, but I don't want to mess up anything else in the process, y'know whadda mean...

Thanks in advance folks!!

Ed

 

I drilled mine with the truck running. When you start to go through the exh pressure is enough to blow the shavings out. I ran a pencil mag in the hole and got a small amount of shavings but nothin to worry about.

 

I dip the drill bit in assembly goo when I get close to punching threw. Then take a pencil magnet and clean out the rest. More goo on the bottom of the tap, then magnet agian.

If your half as paranoid as you sound, yes you can pull the turbo off about a 1/4 inch and slid a small paper style magnet into the exhaust to get every last bit. Alot more work than what is needed, but it works, too. Just loosen the four turbo mounting nuts and slide it off a little. It will take some grunt to make this happen.

I don't run the engine while doing EGT probes.

JD

 

What he said^^^
I've done about 6 and mix of 3rd and 2nd gen trucks. Just goop up the drill bit & tap with lots of grease, and your good to go.

 

Those shavings really won't hurt anything at low engine speeds. The exhaust volume is low enough at idle that the shavings will simply pass along the turbine blades and right into the downpipe.

Do some research on where to drill the manifold. There is a wrong place.
Also, use a good, sharp drill bit that will create two metal chips that will be easy to control and will just peel up out of the drilled hole.
You can put some chassis grease on your tap and keep the tap shaving "stuck" to the tap and out of the manifold.

When you have finished, you can take pride in knowing your work is right and done properly!

Ronnie

 

You don't have to take the turbo off. You can just unbolt it from the exhaust manifold, it will drop down enought to stick a piece of carboard in there to cover up the opening to the turbo and then throw a shop rag over that. Drill and tap your hole and when you're done with that, fire the truck for just a second to blow out any debris and then bolt everything back together. No greasy drill bits, no magnets and you don't get the crap burnt out of ya with the truck runnin. Takes about 20-30 minutes.

 

I just put grease on the bit. Then used a pencil magnet to get the extra stuff out.

 

I had an extra set of hands holding a shop vac suckin up the shaving while i was drilling and taping the hole

 

Thanks guys I think I'm gonna go for it on Saturday...I'll let ya knowhow it turns out.

Ed