Oh man you had it easy wiggle out without the ac shit in youre way lol. Thanks for the vid brother. There’s not too much actual lb7 content out there showing the hard stuff
lol, yeah I was pretty happy to not have to fight the AC unit! I hear ya man, in part that's why I started this channel. There are a lot of LB7's on the road and a lot of guys who prefer to do their own wrenching, me being one of them. I ran into the same issue, not many tutorials detailing the nitty gritty. Happy to give back to the LB7 community, ya'll have helped me out a ton over the years. Cheers!
If u had to do it all over again and with all the knowledge u k is now about the downpipe what’s the best way to get the bolts especially the middle bolt??
@cody6.6max I think I'd get the stronger power ratchet that I have now. The milwaukee m18 that has 275 lb of torque. It might not work for all the bolts but it would certainly help. I'd still use my other power ratchet to back off the bolts once they are loose. But really I think I'd have to do it pretty much the same as I did in this video. All those little tricks helped a lot. Oh, I probably get kroil to help break through the rust.
@@lisaborino4939 nah you shouldn't have to remove the down pipes at all. Depending on how stuck those bolts are you may need to be creative with your tools though. Right around 30:30 of the video I show how I used a serpentine belt tensioner tool to get to those bottom driver side bolts. Mine were a huge pain. Every bolt was rusted and/or cross threaded. You could clean the bolts up but I just replaced all of them with new. The bolt heads were pretty tore up by the end of it and many of them were so cross threaded that they weren't worth saving for this project.
Thank you for the question! It drives nice after the first 15 minutes or so when the ecm re learns the new parameters. I'm still running the PPE Xcelerator on tow tune 2. Since this video I ported the heads, exhaust manifolds, uppipes, down pipe, rebuilt the turbo, ported that then added an aluminum compressor wheel. All that extra air brought the tune and injectors to life.
I had an LB7 sitting around waiting for me to get running again. I bought that way from family. I done many mods already for the PO. I got a downpipe with it and have everything up top tore down anyway. So I thought might as well while im here. Those bolt were friggin tight! But I got em all with wrenches and a little ingenuity. But couldn't get the pipe out from the deep recesses of the hole its in lol. So I quit for the night and thought I would see how everyone is getting them out. Seen the way the guy got em loose using the snapon tool. But nobody showed actually getting the dang thang out! I haven't yanked the dipstick tube out yet and I'm sure thats what I was missing. Thank you for posting an actual removal! Now to order up-pipes cause I ain't fighting this again!
hello Jr Payton! Man, the struggle is real when it comes to fighting bolts and removing pipes tucked behind the engine bay. I had the exact same issue you were having which is why I made sure to capture the actual removal process. Happy to hear it helped ya! It's a fighter haha. Cheers 🍻
Lol, the LB7 Duramax dually is a freakin beast but I' tell ya, I've taken my OBS Chevy TBI 350 up all the same logging roads on the same mountains with the same camper and she handles it in stride! Although there were parts where I put the 350 in 4 lo to creep up sketchy areas a little easier with the added bottom end torque whereas with the diesel, it makes so much power down low that the dually would stay in 2wd and idle right up. Still wouldn't trade my 92 k1500 for anything :)
Looking forward to more. I am in Wisco and trying to get my lb7 good to go by the time the snow falls. Always looking for good lb7 "learning experiences ". Awesome stuff!
Very excited about this series and it's nice to see someone explain how to think about those practical low end gains as opposed to blowing fuel out the tail pipe all the way to the top end. I've got all new kryptonite front end parts to throw on and the air flow is next on the list. Those new injectors you mentioned made me grin as well....
I would be kinda weary of that downpipe for the reason you mentioned associated with basically a plate behind the waste gate. If the waste gate can't bypass enough exhaust, then overboost on a stock truck will happen.
Heard that wiley. Good news is that the waste gate does fully open and so far so good. I have my ppe tuner on level 2 (tow haul) and haven't seen more than 23 psi so I think we are in the clear. This pipe flows 😁👍
My concern isn't not with the wastegate. I guarantee there will be a restriction caused by this design on exhaust gases exiting the turbine. If there was no space between the turbine port and the 3in down pipe portion, I would think differently. However, with the space between the turbine port and the back of the turbine housing and the space in your mounting plate, this design essentially creates a closed chamber at the very place your exhaust gases are trying to move out of the exhaust system. For reference, consider one of the first things all duramax guys do. They delete the resonator box on the factory intake. Why? It enduces resistance in the intake flow. That is essentially what you just added to your down pipe, but worse because exhaust gases are trying to expand. All the time spent gasket/port matching was a waste with this design. Please don't take my critique as personal criticism. I like you bud because you always take on your own work; lots of which most would not dream of doing themselves.
@@TXRed1836 I appreciate your thoughts and comments and thank you for offering them. It took a lot of deliberation before purchasing this down pipe due to its unique design and I don't think it's as restrictive as one would think. I port matched both the turbine housing and the downpipe to 3" so a majority of the gases pushing out at the velocity that it flows at will push right past that tiny gap that opens up to the waste gate side due to the circular shape of the turbine port matching up to the downpipe and the downpipe offering the path of least resistance. I recognize at the lower psi when the waste gate is closed how that closed chamber will fill up with gas and therefore pressurize which in itself seems like that pressure would push back exhaust escaping the turbo back to the path of least resistance where it wants to go. I think what is interesting about this design that I didn't take into consideration before reading your comment is that when the wastegate opens, the exhaust gas pushing out the turbine housing that is filling the closed chamber will offer resistance to the gases trying to escape the waste gate therefore utilizing more gas to spin the turbine.. I think the question is how much resistance is created by that chamber and is it enough to make a noticeable difference? The gap is pretty small so I can't imagine a ton of exhaust pushing out the turbine housing is making its way into the closed chamber. With the waste gate open is there enough pressure in the closed chamber to actually push more exhaust back into the turbo thus making the turbo spool up more than it would otherwise? If so I wonder how much and is it enough to be detrimental to the turbo. I would cross my fingers the 360 thrust bearing would do its job and hold those higher RPMS, haha. That said, would this style pipe be more suitable for a racing application (for academic purposes assuming the pressure in the closed chamber actually forces more air back into the open waste gate or at the very least holds the gases trying to escape the wastegate at bay) and the traditional open chamber style more suitable for lower psi/ closed wastegate scenarios? Now that we are talking about it I kind of want to do a compare and contrast video between this down pipe and the traditional open style like the MBRP, PPE ect. I also think it would be cool to do a compare and contrast video of the billet aluminum 11 blade vs 6 blade and between the stock 11 blade turbine wheel and new 10 blade turbine for lb7 turbos. Thanks again for your comments and inspiration to create more content :) Cheers! 🍻
I'm not sure where you got your info on diesel performance vs gas performance some of the same rules apply but they are vastly different just a 64mm drop in turbo would have done everything you want to do I pull 28,000 lbs with the mulching rig and skid steer together with an 03 2500 hd Sierra pulled it for years on a bone stock engine stock injectors lift pump and a tune now it's got a 64mm drop in and the rpm range you are talking about is the mid range not low range you wasted a lot of money on pipes really all you might have benefited from would be a 3' down pipe and left the rest alone aside from a turbo
Few points of clarification: The rpm range i was talking about is idle-2000. While on the logging roads I spend a lot of time between 1200-1800. I can now light the turbo up almost immediately whereas the completely stock turbo would tend to light up around 1600 rpm with a much slower spool up time. I picked up 4mpg and a ton of power and efficiency in the rpm range i spend the most time in for a fraction of the cost of a 64mm turbo 🤷 My costs were around $450-$500 total for the down pipe, BD full bore driver side exhaust manifold, turbo rebuild kit, 11 blade billet aluminum compressor wheel and gaskets. The 64mm turbos usually start around $1600 and go up from there. I realize you've only seen this video in the series and not the complete series so you haven't seen the end result of all the work I did which was mostly port&polishing. The expensive part was the 45 over sac nozzle injectors, head gaskets and studs. Porting the exhaust turbo housing on a bone stock lb7 will net around 40hp. With air mods and tuning will net up to 60hp. All it took was a little bit of elbow grease/porting to get the stock turbo to perform almost just as well as a 64mm. The obvious difference is that the ported stock will light up lower in the PRM range than the 64mm and will top out sooner than the 64mm. Performing a mild port and polish on the heads, porting the turbo (exhaust and compressor side), porting the exhaust manifolds, up pipes, port matching the new down pipe, porting the y bridge, adding the 45 over injectors is where all the magic happened (its the sum of all the parts that make the truck not the individual part). Bet it runs quite a bit different than only doing a 64mm turbo, namely runs more smoothly with aligned ports with the added bonus of better fuel efficiency. I'm not doggin the 64mm one bit, I think they are fantastic. I am just going a different route is all. I decided that if I'm going to buy another turbo then I'll buy a larger turbo to use in tandum with my rebuilt/ported stock turbo for compounds to save a few extra bucks and get that much more power out of it. And I agree, the stock LB7 can do a ton of work and is a fantastic truck by itself. However, if I just ran my truck stock I wouldn't have much of a youtube channel. Also, I've brought this thing up from 8mpg when I first got it to 15mpg with a cabover camper permantly installed and there is still room for improvement when I get the EFI live loaded. If I just ran my truck in town I would probably keep it stock and be done with it. But I take this thing on 2 month road trips up into the mountains of Alaska where I don't see people for weeks at a time. The more efficient the truck runs the further I can go and the longer I can stay out between fuel ups. So i've made minor adjustments here and there and continue to do more as I learn & experiment more. At the end of the day we all do what we want with our own trucks based on a variety of factors. Best of luck.
Oh man you had it easy wiggle out without the ac shit in youre way lol.
Thanks for the vid brother. There’s not too much actual lb7 content out there showing the hard stuff
lol, yeah I was pretty happy to not have to fight the AC unit! I hear ya man, in part that's why I started this channel. There are a lot of LB7's on the road and a lot of guys who prefer to do their own wrenching, me being one of them. I ran into the same issue, not many tutorials detailing the nitty gritty. Happy to give back to the LB7 community, ya'll have helped me out a ton over the years. Cheers!
If u had to do it all over again and with all the knowledge u k is now about the downpipe what’s the best way to get the bolts especially the middle bolt??
@cody6.6max I think I'd get the stronger power ratchet that I have now. The milwaukee m18 that has 275 lb of torque. It might not work for all the bolts but it would certainly help. I'd still use my other power ratchet to back off the bolts once they are loose. But really I think I'd have to do it pretty much the same as I did in this video. All those little tricks helped a lot. Oh, I probably get kroil to help break through the rust.
@ thanks
Yeah!! I knew it was a down something. 😂 I’m so excited I found this.
the down pipe removal will be a fun one for ya!
Do I need to remove the down pipe to get to the third bolt on the up pipe?
Phones about to die I’ll have to resume with your video later
@@lisaborino4939 nah you shouldn't have to remove the down pipes at all. Depending on how stuck those bolts are you may need to be creative with your tools though. Right around 30:30 of the video I show how I used a serpentine belt tensioner tool to get to those bottom driver side bolts. Mine were a huge pain. Every bolt was rusted and/or cross threaded. You could clean the bolts up but I just replaced all of them with new. The bolt heads were pretty tore up by the end of it and many of them were so cross threaded that they weren't worth saving for this project.
props doing that on the road
Road warrior brother!
You have 45 over injectors. It's not too much injector? How's driveability? Whose tune u running?
Thank you for the question! It drives nice after the first 15 minutes or so when the ecm re learns the new parameters. I'm still running the PPE Xcelerator on tow tune 2. Since this video I ported the heads, exhaust manifolds, uppipes, down pipe, rebuilt the turbo, ported that then added an aluminum compressor wheel. All that extra air brought the tune and injectors to life.
I had an LB7 sitting around waiting for me to get running again. I bought that way from family. I done many mods already for the PO. I got a downpipe with it and have everything up top tore down anyway. So I thought might as well while im here. Those bolt were friggin tight! But I got em all with wrenches and a little ingenuity. But couldn't get the pipe out from the deep recesses of the hole its in lol. So I quit for the night and thought I would see how everyone is getting them out. Seen the way the guy got em loose using the snapon tool. But nobody showed actually getting the dang thang out! I haven't yanked the dipstick tube out yet and I'm sure thats what I was missing. Thank you for posting an actual removal! Now to order up-pipes cause I ain't fighting this again!
hello Jr Payton! Man, the struggle is real when it comes to fighting bolts and removing pipes tucked behind the engine bay. I had the exact same issue you were having which is why I made sure to capture the actual removal process. Happy to hear it helped ya! It's a fighter haha. Cheers 🍻
Best video I have seen on downpipe installation/removal been putting this off for a while now but will get to it this weekend 🦾
Thanks for that man! It's a bit of a bear to do the first time through but the juice is WELL WORTH the squeeze. Good luck! 🍻
Dude. What!? That is one hell of a beast brother. Hahahaha. Puts my 350 tbi to shame.
Lol, the LB7 Duramax dually is a freakin beast but I' tell ya, I've taken my OBS Chevy TBI 350 up all the same logging roads on the same mountains with the same camper and she handles it in stride! Although there were parts where I put the 350 in 4 lo to creep up sketchy areas a little easier with the added bottom end torque whereas with the diesel, it makes so much power down low that the dually would stay in 2wd and idle right up. Still wouldn't trade my 92 k1500 for anything :)
Looking forward to more. I am in Wisco and trying to get my lb7 good to go by the time the snow falls. Always looking for good lb7 "learning experiences ". Awesome stuff!
Also have two pairs of those 5100's waiting for their turn to go on the ol' girl
Heard ya there man. Always trying to beat the rain and snow!! Haha. Best of luck brotha 🍻
@@tdude8386 I just put on a set of 5100s last week. Man what a difference!
Beautiful weather all last week and then I get home from trucking all over the country and it rains for two days. 🙃
Very excited about this series and it's nice to see someone explain how to think about those practical low end gains as opposed to blowing fuel out the tail pipe all the way to the top end. I've got all new kryptonite front end parts to throw on and the air flow is next on the list. Those new injectors you mentioned made me grin as well....
I would be kinda weary of that downpipe for the reason you mentioned associated with basically a plate behind the waste gate. If the waste gate can't bypass enough exhaust, then overboost on a stock truck will happen.
Heard that wiley. Good news is that the waste gate does fully open and so far so good. I have my ppe tuner on level 2 (tow haul) and haven't seen more than 23 psi so I think we are in the clear. This pipe flows 😁👍
My concern isn't not with the wastegate. I guarantee there will be a restriction caused by this design on exhaust gases exiting the turbine. If there was no space between the turbine port and the 3in down pipe portion, I would think differently. However, with the space between the turbine port and the back of the turbine housing and the space in your mounting plate, this design essentially creates a closed chamber at the very place your exhaust gases are trying to move out of the exhaust system. For reference, consider one of the first things all duramax guys do. They delete the resonator box on the factory intake. Why? It enduces resistance in the intake flow. That is essentially what you just added to your down pipe, but worse because exhaust gases are trying to expand. All the time spent gasket/port matching was a waste with this design. Please don't take my critique as personal criticism. I like you bud because you always take on your own work; lots of which most would not dream of doing themselves.
@@TXRed1836 I appreciate your thoughts and comments and thank you for offering them. It took a lot of deliberation before purchasing this down pipe due to its unique design and I don't think it's as restrictive as one would think. I port matched both the turbine housing and the downpipe to 3" so a majority of the gases pushing out at the velocity that it flows at will push right past that tiny gap that opens up to the waste gate side due to the circular shape of the turbine port matching up to the downpipe and the downpipe offering the path of least resistance. I recognize at the lower psi when the waste gate is closed how that closed chamber will fill up with gas and therefore pressurize which in itself seems like that pressure would push back exhaust escaping the turbo back to the path of least resistance where it wants to go. I think what is interesting about this design that I didn't take into consideration before reading your comment is that when the wastegate opens, the exhaust gas pushing out the turbine housing that is filling the closed chamber will offer resistance to the gases trying to escape the waste gate therefore utilizing more gas to spin the turbine.. I think the question is how much resistance is created by that chamber and is it enough to make a noticeable difference? The gap is pretty small so I can't imagine a ton of exhaust pushing out the turbine housing is making its way into the closed chamber. With the waste gate open is there enough pressure in the closed chamber to actually push more exhaust back into the turbo thus making the turbo spool up more than it would otherwise? If so I wonder how much and is it enough to be detrimental to the turbo. I would cross my fingers the 360 thrust bearing would do its job and hold those higher RPMS, haha. That said, would this style pipe be more suitable for a racing application (for academic purposes assuming the pressure in the closed chamber actually forces more air back into the open waste gate or at the very least holds the gases trying to escape the wastegate at bay) and the traditional open chamber style more suitable for lower psi/ closed wastegate scenarios? Now that we are talking about it I kind of want to do a compare and contrast video between this down pipe and the traditional open style like the MBRP, PPE ect. I also think it would be cool to do a compare and contrast video of the billet aluminum 11 blade vs 6 blade and between the stock 11 blade turbine wheel and new 10 blade turbine for lb7 turbos. Thanks again for your comments and inspiration to create more content :) Cheers! 🍻
the stock one is more egineered and higher flow js
Hey. Just did a 3 inch downpipe, did you use the sane transmission dipstick tube, or go with the drivers side tube?
I used the passenger side, though it doesn't fit very well.
I'm not sure where you got your info on diesel performance vs gas performance some of the same rules apply but they are vastly different just a 64mm drop in turbo would have done everything you want to do I pull 28,000 lbs with the mulching rig and skid steer together with an 03 2500 hd Sierra pulled it for years on a bone stock engine stock injectors lift pump and a tune now it's got a 64mm drop in and the rpm range you are talking about is the mid range not low range you wasted a lot of money on pipes really all you might have benefited from would be a 3' down pipe and left the rest alone aside from a turbo
Few points of clarification: The rpm range i was talking about is idle-2000. While on the logging roads I spend a lot of time between 1200-1800. I can now light the turbo up almost immediately whereas the completely stock turbo would tend to light up around 1600 rpm with a much slower spool up time. I picked up 4mpg and a ton of power and efficiency in the rpm range i spend the most time in for a fraction of the cost of a 64mm turbo 🤷 My costs were around $450-$500 total for the down pipe, BD full bore driver side exhaust manifold, turbo rebuild kit, 11 blade billet aluminum compressor wheel and gaskets. The 64mm turbos usually start around $1600 and go up from there. I realize you've only seen this video in the series and not the complete series so you haven't seen the end result of all the work I did which was mostly port&polishing. The expensive part was the 45 over sac nozzle injectors, head gaskets and studs. Porting the exhaust turbo housing on a bone stock lb7 will net around 40hp. With air mods and tuning will net up to 60hp. All it took was a little bit of elbow grease/porting to get the stock turbo to perform almost just as well as a 64mm. The obvious difference is that the ported stock will light up lower in the PRM range than the 64mm and will top out sooner than the 64mm. Performing a mild port and polish on the heads, porting the turbo (exhaust and compressor side), porting the exhaust manifolds, up pipes, port matching the new down pipe, porting the y bridge, adding the 45 over injectors is where all the magic happened (its the sum of all the parts that make the truck not the individual part). Bet it runs quite a bit different than only doing a 64mm turbo, namely runs more smoothly with aligned ports with the added bonus of better fuel efficiency. I'm not doggin the 64mm one bit, I think they are fantastic. I am just going a different route is all. I decided that if I'm going to buy another turbo then I'll buy a larger turbo to use in tandum with my rebuilt/ported stock turbo for compounds to save a few extra bucks and get that much more power out of it. And I agree, the stock LB7 can do a ton of work and is a fantastic truck by itself. However, if I just ran my truck stock I wouldn't have much of a youtube channel. Also, I've brought this thing up from 8mpg when I first got it to 15mpg with a cabover camper permantly installed and there is still room for improvement when I get the EFI live loaded. If I just ran my truck in town I would probably keep it stock and be done with it. But I take this thing on 2 month road trips up into the mountains of Alaska where I don't see people for weeks at a time. The more efficient the truck runs the further I can go and the longer I can stay out between fuel ups. So i've made minor adjustments here and there and continue to do more as I learn & experiment more. At the end of the day we all do what we want with our own trucks based on a variety of factors. Best of luck.