My Turbo is gone.... I will be rebuilding my 5.9L and getting a new turbo charger. What are the engine improvements when rebuilding and which turbo charger is better than the stock? Thanks guys.

 

How much power do you want to make, how much money do you want to spend?

On a bone stock engine/turbo you can make well over 400hp at the tires.

 

just curious...why are you rebuilding the engine? not just because your turbo went I hope?

these things will go 600k-1m miles before needing a rebuild...you know that right?

They wear 10x slower than a gasser...

anyway: if you want a better than stock turbo that spools like stock, HE351VE with a fleece controller.

its a VGT from the 6.7L trucks. spools out of the hole fast and vanes adjust to carry boost into the top end without being choked off...its almost like having a small set of compounds. also has an exhaust brake function built into it by choking off the vanes to build back pressure and help slow the engine.

another improvement would be an airdog or fass fuel system with the filters...

the filters are better than your stock filter and will help prevent small particles from damaging your CR injectors...

 

Here is the story.... I bought the truck 2 months ago for my job, pulling and delivering RV and utility trailers weighing up to 17,000 lbs. The truck has 145,500 miles on it now. I have put 10,000 miles on it after I bought it at a used car lot. After I bought the truck I went to the Lithia Dodge dealer in Missoula, MT and asked them to run the vin to check for recalls and service done on the truck. Then I found out the truck's previous owner screwed up and put the wrong oil in it, NOT 15-40. Then the previous owner traded the truck into Lithia Dodge and bought a new truck. Lithia Dodge pulled the engine, saw damage and replaced the main barings, #6 piston, connecting rod, piston rings, said there was scoring on the #6 cyclinder walls and the engine needed a rebuild or replaced. So Lithia Dodge band-aided the engine and sent the truck to the auction in Spokane, WA.
Then I bought the truck from a used car dealer "Cheep Cars" in Missoula, MT (close to where I live). Now I have been driving the truck 10,000 miles and the engine is leaking oil when I rev it over 2,000 rpms, The turbo charger is shot from the #6 piston damage. The engine uses 1qt of oil for every 1,000 miles - lots of blow by.

I took it to Rocky Mountain Diesel in Missoula, MT and they will install a machined block rebuilt engine for $5,000.00 installed and recomended I replace the turbo charger with a stock turbo charger as not to stress the engine. The engine will be stock with no high performance parts.

What a mess.... Thanks for any help, comments.

 

that sucks to hear!

if you engine is just going to be stock, then a stock turbo will be just fine, not much of any gain at all to go with something different, the only thing i would recomend would be an aftermarket cam, the engine will benifit quite a bit from it, and a good set of injectors, something like ddp 20 or 40hp, with that you will get a little (safe) bump in HP and get quite a bit better fuel milage

 

I still say go with the VGT...nothing but benefits from it, and it is a turbo that comes stock on the 6.7L trucks...

 

Save your money, put stock stuff back on

Edit: is this an early 04 or a late 04? 325hp on the engine ID tag makes it an 04.5, located up on the front cover by the APPS, or might be on the side of the valvecover as well.

 

I ordered a stock turbo charger and I am now thinking about waiting on the engine rebuild because I don't have $5,000.00 to do it right now. I hope the engine in it's current state doesn't hurt the turbo. And I found out it is a 2004 1/2 - 325hp engine. At least thats good!

Dodgetrucker75 - Thanks for the aftermarket cam idea. I like anything that will gain performance without feeding it more fuel. I will know more this next week after Rocky Mountain Diesel starts working on it.

 

Good decision there on the stock turbo.

I can't say I really saw any benefit with my cam, no increase in mileage, no noticeable drop in EGT's. It does burn slightly cleaner out the pipe on a hammer-down run; slightly. For the money to have one installed, and a stock truck, I'd skip it.

 

If you don't have an exhaust brake already, the VGT turbo would be an AWESOME upgrade.