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Sububan repower with an HX40WII

vegtech

WVO Enthusiast
Messages
329
Reaction score
11
Location
Tilton, NH
So my buddy broke the crank in his 97 Burn so we did what any of us would have done. We took another 6.5 I
I had bought off Craigslist for $100. The guy claimed he had it rebuilt 50k ago but it lost power and his mechanic first told him it was the turbo so he replaced it. That didn't fix it so he told him it was the pump then the injectors. None of these fixed the no power issue. Then his guy told him it was either head gaskets or cracked heads so he said the hell with it a bought a GM crate motor and that fixed his problem. I tore the motor down to find 1 rocker button missing and the rocker slid off to the side. The push rod was warn half through where it was rubbing against the head. I found 3 lifters that had stuck plungers ans a few push rods with very uneven wear on one end. I don't know which end cause I noticed it after the parts came out of the parts washer. The rod bearings had pits in them. Almost like the had delaminated or something. The crank looked good as did the .020 over pistons and bores. Sent the crank, block and heads to the machine shop. The block was good and the bores cleaned up with a slight hone. The crank polished up nice. The heads were flat with no cracks. Although, I did not like how the pre cups had been "staked" in place. I had never seen that before. They had T cups.
The motor got assembled with new rings, bearings, .010 thicker head gaskets, main girdle and ARP main studs and ARP head studs.
We wanted to go with an HX40II so I ordered racedaymechanic's down pipe adapter and a turbo off eBay. The day before the instal, we figure out that the turbo we got was not an HX40II but HX40WII. Raceday's adapter is for the 40 not a 40W The W has a 4 inch outlet not 3 inch like the adapter was made for. So.........no time to get the right turbo let's make this work. With the motor in and the turbo mounted. I put the adapter on the down pipe and put the V band clamp on loose. I centered the adapter inlet in the turbo outlet with equal spacing all the way around (about a 16th inch) and tack welded it. Then removed the band clamp and the 5 bolts that hold the outlet flange to the turbo and removed the whole thing. I finished the welding inside and out. I smoothed the inside with a grinding stone to make a nice taper to the 3 inch. All went well.
 
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After test drive and break-in I noticed boost numbers were erratic. 8-10 on minute 5-6 the next. After looking things over I took off the waste gate control and moved the arm by hand. I found it had a catch about half way closed. So I took the back off to get a look at what was going on and I found that 8 out of 10 times I closed the gate, the round flap would catch in the hole. It has play and flops around in the arm and sometimes the top of it would just barely catch on the top of the bore. It was enough that no matter how hard I pull on it It would not close. To fix this I held the round flap in a spot on the arm where it did not catch and I tack welded it there. It works flawless now.
Still not impressed with the boost numbers. Even with vise grips holding the waste gate closed to ensure that it was not opening, it spools about 8-10. I'm sure its all in the tune. It's running Bill Heath's Max E-torque set up for the gm8 butt plug.

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Pic 1 is closed pic 2 is open and pic 3 is where the flap would fall into the hole.

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Looks good from here! Does the w denote waste gate? Or does the non w have a gate as well?

I have no idea. I am still confused about all the models there are for the HX40.
Racedaymechanic said the 40II is 3 inch and the W is 4 inch.
 
Lol the name cast on the turbo is TURBONE I want to weld an R at the end cause it gives me a TUR....BONER :conehead:
 
I put the HX40wII turbo on my truck (14cm2 turbine housing with the 3" exhaust outlet) used racedaymechanic's kit and it worked flawlessly. With the stock waste gate it would bottom out my 20psi boost gauge instantly and this was with stock ECM. I soon went with an adjustable waste gate to keep the boost to 17-18psi
 
By the looks of the turbo you got, you have the HX40W (must have been mislabled in the ad)with 16cm2 turbine housing and 4" exhaust outlet. Must be why the exhaust elbow didn't work on yours.
 
By the looks of the turbo you got, you have the HX40W (must have been mislabled in the ad)with 16cm2 turbine housing and 4" exhaust outlet. Must be why the exhaust elbow didn't work on yours.

That's the difference, you nailed it. II is a 14 cm housing, the 40 is a 16 cm housing and hence why you can't get as much boost as the guys running the II turbo.
 
Did you put new pushrods in and have the coated/hardened end on the rockers? Sounds like the rebuilt engine had some of them upside down.

Boost isn't the only thing that matters - add backpressure, intake air heating, etc. and maybe one turbo will have the same or more power at lower boost number.
 
Did you put new pushrods in and have the coated/hardened end on the rockers? Sounds like the rebuilt engine had some of them upside down.

Yes. Well....new used. I had a few sets so I picked and cleaned the best. The ones in it didn't have a colored end so I figure they where cheap ones or something.


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