Running again, no leaks this time

[Mr. Hipster]

After the epic fail of using 6.5 head gaskets on this 1st year 6.2, took my lumps installed correct +.010 Felpros w/yet another set of new head bolts. Hope I have the glow plug wires protected well enough, the vertical gage thing is to monitor blow by, reading were inconclusive. Crafted some copper tubing to equalize the water flow from back of block. Junk ran good once the air got out of there. With load, guessing about 1800 saw 5# of boost, WOT against the 13" Allison spec converter.
Test stand continues to add value to my life, one of the load runs block heater blew out, easy fix on the stand, not so much in the 4x4 truck.

 

[bowtiebutler956]

Nice work on your 6.2, but I'm really digging the old Blue Bird Wanderlodge in the background. Had a 76 model a few years back with a 534 For gas burner in it. Always wanted to do a 3208T Cat conversion, but it never happened, and ended up selling it. Those are very well built old coaches.

Matt

 

[Mr. Hipster]

Yes, well built and very heavy.

 

[Mr. Hipster]

During my recent saga of puttering with my vintage 6.2 stash, had the opportunity to compare Victor Reinz packaged bolts and FelPro packaged bolts.
Victor pkg. had 10.9 vs 11.9 on bolt head, feel on the quarter turn was such that pulled them out and shit canned the whole set. The FelPros had triple line on the head and felt much better on the quarter turn. Sealant was MUCH fresher too, got them 2 Summit on line. I do have the studs on the shelf but will wait for an application that will actually show some boost. Trying to wrap my head around why the Commetics aren't the answer, but I believe you folks, they are sitting on the shelf while I ponder. Got a set of Victor head gaskets for the 6.2, they look better than the FelPros to my eye, but wanted the +.010 for the turbo. Should have it in the truck late in the week, looking forward to the test drive.
Next step is making the test stand mounting apparatus a little more serviceable, have to make changes to facilitate the center mount turbo.

 

[Jorge6.5]

Very nice setup you have there, I like it.

Why did you go with the gm turbo and not a better flowing turbo?

I'm looking forward to reading more about this. Thanks for posting.

 

[Mr. Hipster]

Friend gave me the turbo. Thought I might retro it to one of my 5.7 powered cars, then I came across the 82 GMC that the thread engine is from. Found the exhaust and intake components on ebay, had the exhaust coated, resealed the engine and now it's ready to put into the chassis. Found a full instrument dash, including tach for the truck, will have boost and pyro on the steering column. The granny gear manual is a poor ratio box but it's all that fits with out major hacking, want to stay with the stick shift, a T-400 would be a better choice.
I've been working on 3208 for the last 10 years due to the fact I've got two rigs with that vintage power plant, the turbo set up is similar to the center mount 6.5. If I get serious about making some power it will be with a center mount, on the other hand I'm a mechanical pump man so there will be limits on that.

 

[Mr. Hipster]

Got the engine in chassis today, was a bit of a struggle, rear cross over pipe looks to complicate the clutch linkage, other than that no scary revelations. Pictures later.

 

[turbovanman]

Why did you have issues with 6.5 head gaskets? Its all we use, they are built better than the 6.2 gasket. I put 22 psi thru mine for a year, others also have also run more boost than me, no issues.

Not sure I'd use the copper line, it will work harden and break, better to use pushlok hose or simple heater hose, my 2 cents. These engines vibrate, lol.

Engine looks great though.

 

[Mr. Hipster]

I got a 1983 Wanderlodge that is fully plumbed with copper, air brake/chassis system, fuel system and house water system. Has 300k miles, nothing has cracked yet and life hasn't been kind to it. I know about vibration, chaffing, hoses rubbing thru, yes I do.
The 82 6.2 heads have two little bean shaped passages bottom of the deck surface out side corners that aren't sealed by the 6.5 gasket, didn't know then, do now as I know what to look for. Found the info on another forum. Had to look hard @ the gaskets to see why. The Victor gaskets are the better choice in my view compared to the Felpros, however I did use the Fps due to the +.010 thickness.
We will see how much boost this junk will build under load, but I don't intend to beat it too bad, just for pulling my jet boat and puttering around in the woods.

 

[turbovanman]

Gotcha, we just seal those passages up, GM had an issue and removed it on later heads.

 

[Mr. Hipster]

Finally getting close to running the truck down the road. Exhaust system for a 88 and up, used most of the parts other than a few L's for the turbo down pipe, trimmed the inner fender a little and had to do a quick hack job on the cross over pipe to clear the front shaft.
Was a loggers truck back in Idaho so the cab's a mess but new mat, freshen the dash, get the instruments working and fresh paint, it'll be a good old ride.

 

[Mr. Hipster]

Test beat today, after a couple of days of details, like some one switched the heater control cables once, lets just say I've gotten pretty good at dash board work through repetition. Got the tach interface coming from Dakota Digital, other than that every thing works in a way.
Boost was only 4# with handy spring, locked it, shows 12 w/pyro @ 600f. Pipe sounds good, quick enough for me. Had the pump set @ 3500 rpm, might live a little longer that way.

 

[Burning oil]

Nice, got a pic of truck?

 

[Mr. Hipster]

After the new paint.

 

[Mr. Hipster]

Had a pretty good back of oil pan/rear main type leak, changed the pan gasket as it was cork with rear rubber that didn't seem to get enough crush. The Felpro pan set was much nicer, let it all set up over nite with block heater on. Test beat Sunday it still marked it's place after word, pretty messy, oiled the front drive shaft, a bit of Brake Kleen to get things under control.
Thought about it a while. As I'm a terrible person who doesn't give a damn if the planet likes me or not and pride my self by size of my carbon foot print, ran a 1" draft tube down below the frame rail from the oil spout. This rascal has a bit of blow by. It didn't leak a drop before the turbo install and as the engine only has 70k miles, figured leave sleeping dogs lie. Occurred to me that MAYBE the inlet air would provide enough draft to relieve the extra crank case pressure from the boost, so I cobbled a 1" barb to a short elbow @ the turbo inlet and clamped the K&N pos sort of filter to the front and made a 100 mile free way run, down to Badger diesel to pick up a fresh mechanical pump. No leaks, I'm so happy. However the rope seal is history, feel better if I replace with a new lip seal type. While @ Badger Diesel, Fred showed me a couple of pallets of 'stuff' from a Govt. auction, about 75 NEW AM General crank shafts in the original packaging. I took two, he'll have them on eBay.

 

[Mr. Hipster]

In Idaho for a while now, truck is in it's element. Tach shows 2700 @ 70 w/4.10 gears, rolls right up the Lewiston grade @ 65, 7% for 6 miles, like the 3" full length exhaust, a great sound, can't believe the way the turbo/fresh pump/nozzles woke up a weak puppy engine. Pulls the boat no problem, 20 mpg most of the time unless the wind kicks up. It DOES smoke like a worn out 3208 on start up but clears as soon as all 8 holes are on fire, 73k miles untouched rather than the +.010 Felpros and new bolts. 12v plugs manual control, did use the 12v tapered Bosch 15/20 seconds to start unplugged, then bump the button for a minute or two to clear it up @ 1200. Hasn't used any 15/40 Rotella in 2500 miles.
Point of reference, the 82 Delta 88 sedan 5.7 diesel 200R auto with 2.9 rear axle 'just' makes it up the grade @ 55 @ wot in direct. Need to turbo some of my 5.7 powered rides in the near future, probably start with the 83 Eldo.

 

[uniquediesel]

You'll continue to have leaks if you use any gaskets. The only gasket you need is the rubber rear pain lip seal. Unfortunately in the aftermarket world they don't sell this separately. I buy a Fel-Pro Pan set and throw away the pan set and keep the rear lip seal. Then I use a specific RTV that is very rubberized and seals just like the OE Sealant did when used at the factory. I run a bead of sealant on the pan on going on the inside of the bolt holes, then come back and loop all the holes. I also place a seal of RTV on the seam between the front timing cover and the block (that parting line). For the lip seal, run a bead on the main cap, place our seal onto the sticky cap now. Your bead on the rear of the pan will mate between the seal and itself. Also place a blob of RTV on the ends of the lip seal to the block, this will squeze out but make a good seal.

If you want some of this good RTV, hit me up on www.uniquediesel.com via the contact form and I'll get you a quote. I need to place this on the store.

Life's too short to be doing this job over and over...

The good about this sealant, formerly made by Kent Automotive is that disassembly is possible. Lots of people like Permatex The Right Stuff, I don't as you damage tin work trying to get it apart, I've also had leaks too. It's better than your normal squeeze tube, but not really the right stuff for our engines.

 

[Mr. Hipster]

Uh,,,,,,,don't have any leaks.

 

[uniquediesel]

I noticed that too from your post, that you're venting the blowby externally thus releaving any crankcase pressure. All these engines have blow-by. The only ones that don't hardly have any where you can vent like this are those that are equipped with gapless 2nd compression rings. Even then, there is some, but much less than even a healthy stock engine. There is a good reason why the CDR system is designed the way it is, to create some vacuum to pull blow-by gasses into the combustion process.

The normal way all of us 6.2 6.5 guys check our blow by is with a stock system running at operating temperature hot is to open the oil filler cap and observe smoke. If smoke is present there is more blow-by than the CDR system is capable of handling, more than average wear on the engine. Now take that same engine, and route the flow of blow-by away from the suction area (turbo inlet or intake on na engine) and you'll see a lot of blow by. So, venting yours openly you'll see a lot of blow-by smoke, it's not an indication that since your turbo'ed your engine that it's now got a lot more blow-by, it's that it's normal method of eating it's blow-by has been defeated.

The smell of blow-by is an obnoxious smell, I only vent it on the race truck because I don't want to oil up the intercooler system.

 

[Mr. Hipster]

Might want to review post # 15. After 2000k highway miles @ 2500+ rpm, still dry down there and no oil consumption, engine is fine for my use. When it blows up, I'll build another.