I'm hearing all these people plugging their waste gates to get more power. If I do this will it hurt my truck and if I do how much power and how do I do this?

 

stopping the waste gate from functioning will only add to problems you dont yet have. If you have the fuel, you need air to burn it. More fuel (from a tunner box) and thus need more air. Your turbo is driven basically by the fuel flow. If you cut back on fuel you also will notice a drop in boost, if you add more air, and the fuel stays the same, you don't get more power. I put a boost regulator on my intake to waste gate hose and now it has to get up to 30 psi in order for the waste gate to see any pressure. Of course I'm running a Banks 6-gun w/speedloader on top so I have extra fuel. If I run it on the stock setting, I still get the same boost amount I got before. If I open up the regulator valve and let the waste gate see whatever boost it sees, then if jack up the tuner, I get some extra smoke but not much more power, of course the EGT's go up higher as well.
Everything is a balance between good and evil... good makes horsepower, evil breaks parts.

LoL

Does this make any sense to you?

 

It's not the best thing to do but it probably won't hurt it for a while. Like mentioned above, blocking the wastegate will do you nothing unless you add more fuel to complement it. Without more fuel you'll still only make 15-20 psi.

 

Blocking the wastegate is a bad idea.
It will allow for over speed of the turbo, it will increase the drive pressure. This could blow the head gasket.
Performance wise, the turbo would try to opperate outside of its 'map'. And that heats the air which will hurt any gains.
Setting the wastegate for a higher boost level is a common mod.

 

The Members here are giving you good advice on NOT blocking off the wastegate on your truck. I agree with them. If you still have the HX-35/12 on your truck, that turbo is "off it's efficiency map" at anything above 30-35lbs. anyway.

But with that being said, if you still want to do it you can do it a couple of ways:

1.) Crimp the rubber hose shut with a small set of visegrips.
2.) Find a small steel ball (but bigger than the metal outlet of the wastegate
and push that ball into the rubber hose and then re-attach it to the turbo.
That effectively "blocks" the wastegate.

Like DTR Member j-fox said, you could cause damage to the engine if you do it.

Good luck.

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John_P