[datz510]

This last weekend, I replaced the exhaust up pipe gaskets on my early 99 PSD with the thicker "chevy" donuts (Felpro #8194). Took me most of the day to R&R them, but I have to say the result was nothing short of amazing. Total cost for the fix.. about $1.95 for two gaskets.

When I pulled the up pipes, I found that both OEM donuts were leaking pretty badly. The passenger side was the worst, as shown by the completely soot covered pipe and flange. Before this, I could never hear the leak well enough to know that there was a problem.

The job wasnt too difficult. My truck is a rust-free Arizona truck, so everything came apart without any problems. My uppipes were gouged a little from the stock donuts, but I reused them until I can get some new pipes. The hardest part was getting the Y-pipe w/ new gaskets & flanges attached back onto the turbo before I reinstalled the up-pipes.

For those of you with early 99s with a random unsteady idle... This fix CURED my unsteady idle! It now idles rock solid and as smooth as ever. No random miss.. it just purrs now. It is now quite a bit quicker off the line than it was and seems to build boost faster. I'm also hoping this helps a little with my fuel economy.

 

[Fat Diesel]

I've been meaning to do this since I can actually hear my exhaust leak when I drive by sounds walls. What's the basic procedure? Did you have to pull the turbo off?

 

[datz510]

Nope.. didnt pull the turbo. There is enough room to get to everything without pulling it.

The basic procedure I used:

1) Disconnect the exhaust downpipe and wedge a 4x4 peice of wood between it at the crossmember to hold it up and out of the way.

2) Remove Passenger side fender liner. You do not need to remove the driver's side.

3) Unbolt the up pipe to manifold flanges (10mm and 13mm)

4) Using about 2-3ft worth of socket extensions and an air impact gun (or breaker bar) a u-joint and a 10mm 6 point socket, loosen the bolts on the passenger side up-pipe to y-pipe flange. Loosen them and then you can push in & rotate the passenger side uppipe and pull it out.

5) Using the same extension, u-joint, and 10mm socket, loosen the upper bolt on the driver's side up-pipe to y-pipe flange.

6) Loosen clamp that holds the y-pipe to turbo and remove y-pipe from turbo. It will fall back towards the firewall.

7) Using the extension, u-joint and 10mm socket, loosen the lower bolt on the drivers side up-pipe to y-pipe flange (cant get to it with the y-pipe clamped in place).

8) pull out driver's side up-pipe. Remove the y-pipe.

9) Remove all old donuts, clean up pipes, and loosely bolt Chevy donuts in place with flanges. (the up-pipes will slide right into the gaskets)

10) reassemble. I found that it was easier to reassemble if I got the driver's side up-pipe in place and loosely bolted to the manifold. This positioned the "key" dowel in the y-pipe so that it was easier to put back on the turbo. Also, you may find that a 10mm crow foot extension (box end preferrable) will help to tighten the lower bolt on the driver's side up pipe.

Once you get everything reinstalled, tighten all the flange bolts. I had to go around a few times with the long extension and torque the flange bolts to get rid of any exhaust leaks.

 

[Fat Diesel]

Thanks for the low-down. I'll be doing this soon.

 

[datz510]

Figure on a full day to do it.. It took me about 6 hours with a few breaks to rest.. but its also 113F here and I was doing it in my driveway.

 

[klhansen]

[ QUOTE ]
Figure on a full day to do it.. It took me about 6 hours with a few breaks to rest.. but its also 113F here and I was doing it in my driveway.

[/ QUOTE ]

What a wimp! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif

You shoulda had a water tank rigged up on top with a tube down to your mouth so you could just keep on working. Ya know, kinda like those bicycle guys with the water bag backpacks. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Seriously, I bet you sweat buckets. I call that dedication to your truck. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

I'll second the thanks for the instructions.

 

[Fat Diesel]

That is brutal to do on a 113 day. I used to work for a road oil company where we'd spray steaming hot oil down with a big wide roll of felt. Working conditions from the oil on I-5 north of Sacramento in July were upwards of 150*. Lucky me, I was introduced to the work ethics of a crack addict. He worked great until he ran out of crack. There were no words in my extensive vocabulary that would get him out of the truck to help... Nice to do the work of two on a day like that. At one point I was overheating and shivering so I had the truck pulled over and I layed in the dirt under the truck pouring water on myself. Ahhhh good times. Hey I was getting paid, like eight bucks an hour. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

I think I would have someone sitting there spraying me with a hose if I had to work on the truck in heat like that. And maybe pouring Sierra Nevadas down my throat. My driveway is pavement, so it's pretty brutal this time of year. Makes it nice in the winter though, when the wind chill hits 55* /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif

 

[JimTJr]

I will third the thanks,,, I will be doing a turbo and up-pipe, Pedistal, and intakes. Upgrading from an early 99 to the later one with a van turbo and ATS housing,with a WW.
Look forward to seeing what improvement this gives me.

 

[datz510]

Three days after the fix, the driver's side sprung an exhaust leak. The truck still runs MUCH better than it did, but under hard accelleration, I can hear the telltale ticking of an exhaust leak. Pushing 25psi of boost, the exhaust will do whatever it can to take the easy way out. haha

Got under it last night with my mag light and found that the donut on the driver's side is leaking as evidenced by the soot around it. I am going to unbolt the Y-pipe again and lean it back against the firewall to see if I can get a 10mm socket on the lower bolt that is blocked by the tranny bellhousing. Pretty sure that is the culprit as I was only able to get a little 10mm wrench and barely any torque on it when I installed it. The passenger side pipe was pretty chewed up as well, but the chevy gasket seemed to seal on it, as it covers double the width (hence ungalled metal) of the stock gasket.

*crossing fingers*

One thing I am curious about.. If I do need to replace that pipe, can I use the cheaper later 99 uppipes on my early 99 truck? My pipes are 1.5" diameter. Has anyone seen them side by side to tell me if there is any difference? I may cut, flip, and reweld the galled end for the time being, but would be nice to have a new one in there.

 

[JimTJr]

I am pretty sure they do NOT interchange, I am going from the early 99 turbo to the later model van turbo with an ATS housing and WW real soon. I got all the fixins from Wackerjr...the pedistal, up pipes manifolds ect... SO they ARE different. Also Wacker told me his Chevy doghnuts leaked pretty quick too...so that is not the GREAT fix everyone thought I guess.. I am going with the stock FORD ones,,and make sure I tighten them well....

 

[RAC400]

I had a local muffler shop make my up pipes for me. $40 for the pair. Not bad when I believe ford wanted $80 a piece

 

[RAC400]

Also, problem with ford donuts is that the collar/clamp that bolts up againts the Y pipe bottoms out on the Y. The chevy gaskets are thicker and prevent this. If you tighten one bolt more than the other, this bottoming out can occur. I believe the material of the ford and chevy gaskets are the same, it is just the thickness that differs

 

[datz510]

My driver's side is leaking because the lower bolt didnt get torqued properly. I torqued the upper a little more and the leak was reduced. The leak should go away when I torque the lower bolt, which has only had a 10mm wrench on it so far.

The advantage that I see with the Chevy o-ring is that its got more surface area to hug the pipes, so it ccould be used to seal a damaged pipe. It also provides a lot more potential to crush than the OEM gaskets, which can still be loose when the flange bottoms out.

My pipes were *terribly* galled, so if I do get these to seal up, I'll be in business. Its pretty darn close right now. I could just barely hear it at full throttle on the way to work this morning.

Either way, its a HUGE improvement over the stock O-rings that were in there.. The truck actually runs correctly now. If I can get it to seal up completely, even better.

So far, I've spent $2 fixing it... vs $150 for Ford gaskets and the required new up pipes. If I can make it work, thats money that stays in my pocket.

 

[datz510]

[ QUOTE ]
I am pretty sure they do NOT interchange, I am going from the early 99 turbo to the later model van turbo with an ATS housing and WW real soon. I got all the fixins from Wackerjr...the pedistal, up pipes manifolds ect... SO they ARE different. Also Wacker told me his Chevy doghnuts leaked pretty quick too...so that is not the GREAT fix everyone thought I guess.. I am going with the stock FORD ones,,and make sure I tighten them well....

[/ QUOTE ]

Jim,

When you tear into your project, can you compare your early 99 up pipes side by side with the new later ones to see exactly what the difference is? If it is just length, they may interchange one way by trimming the pipe.

 

[datz510]

Pulled it apart again last night and got both bolts torqued on the driver's side pipe. No more leaks! Its now nice and quiet..

We'll see how long it lasts. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Fat Diesel]

Good. Did you use the crow's foot again, or something else?

 

[datz510]

I figured it out...

The trick to getting all the bolts torqued properly is when you have the up-pipes installed but everything loose, to loosely bolt both manifolds to the up-pipes and then reattach the y-pipe to the turbo (to properly position the up-pipes in relation to the manifold and y-pipe). Once you do this, tighten the top bolt of the driver's side up-pipe enough so the pipe does not move around (it is now positioned properly). Now, disconnect the y-pipe from the turbo and disconnect the up pipe from the driver's side manifold. The whole assembly can then be moved back against the firewall and you can get to BOTH the top and bottom bolt. Tighten the bottom bolt first, since you already got hte top bolt. Then torque both bolts. Then, loosely bolt the drivers manifold back to the up pipe, reattach y-pipe to turbo, tighten marmon clamp on turbo, then tighten manifold to up-pipe flanges on both sides.

 

[RAC400]

What was your technique for getting to the bolt on pass side

 

[datz510]

Remove the fender liner on the passenger side and disconnect the downpipe from the turbo. Raise the downpipe up a bit using a block of wood between the exhaust and the tranny crossmember. If you do this, you'll have plenty of room to get a long socket extension(s) in there (between the body and frame inside the passenger side fender) to get to both the top and bottom bolts on the passenger side. You will need a u-joint on the socket to get it to line up right, but aside from removing the liner, you'll see that its actually much easier than the driver's side lower bolt.

BTW, the idle on my truck is still rock solid.. It hasn't missed a beat since I replaced the uppipe gaskets. The leaky donuts were definitely the problem.

 

[datz510]

Quick update..

Noticed that my fuel economy has improved after R&Ring the donuts..

I'm now hitting over 500miles per tank before the fuel light comes on vs about 410-420miles before. I need to go review my fuel records to get an exact figure on the improvement, but its enough to make this fix well worth it.

On the downside, my driver's side donut started leaking again slightly. Still MUCH better than it was, but I'm going to have to replace the up-pipe on that side to fix it for good.

My idle is still smooth as ever. No more missing while sitting at stoplights. I can barely feel the engine running at idle.