Hi all, need some help. Friend of mine told me of this website and he said there were some real sharp guys on here...Thats what I need!! Without getting too windy I will try to explain "what happened" and what I have done/checked so far.

I have a 98.5 24 valve Dodge 2500 basically stock except for the air filter (K&N) and a 4" exhaust, 168,000 miles with a xmission overhaul and shift kit. I pull a 11,000 lb 5th wheel RV on 4 or 5 times a year.

I was returning home last weekend starting up the first of three 3,000 foot hills. When I hit the steepest part I down shifted into 2nd gear and brought it up to about 2800rpm. All the sudden I heard a lot of air noise and lost a bunch of power. I pulled over to check and found the upper hose on the passenger side (out of the turbo) had blown off. No problem, have tools and put the hose back on and tightened up the heavy duty hose clamp. Took off, hit about 2500 rpm and off it came again. Repeated this two more times each with the same result. So I limped home with about 1/2 power...what a bummer!! Took the hose off at home and cleaned it all up. Put it back on and really tightened all the hose clamps on both sides. 2800 rpm and I blew 1 of the two metal plugs out of the bottom of the intake air heater unit. By now I'm thinking way too much boost. I removed the small hose from the air monitor nipple, used air compressor with 19lbs pressure to blow into the hose to the wastegate actuator. The rod moved, don't have a dial gauge to measure it but in the vicinity of 1/8". Released the air button and the hose/acuator stayed put, no leak down until removing the air nozzle..Also took a big shop vac and blew air thru the intercooler and there seems to be no restriction. Could I have a broken wastegate inside the turbo?? Can this be fixed without a whole new turbo (HX35W)?? Any Ideas???? HELP!!!

 

What is your actual boost pressure reading on the guage?

 

I am stock, other than the listed items on the original message. I do not have a boost pressure guage. But it must be real high to blow off hoses and/or those metal plugs on the bottom of the intake air heater...

 

Even if the wastegate was stuck shut, on a stock engine 25psi should be about as much boost as you should see. The clamps on the boots are set pretty loose from the factory, tighten them up as much as you can. The rest of the system should be able to hold 60-80 psi easily. not quite sure what plugs your talking about.

 

Clean the boots with alcohol and then use the wifes hair spray on them before re-assembly. Not sure what you are describing by the heater grid.

 

YOu may need a new clamp or boot,but certianly not a turbo.Clean everything up real good,and reassemble.You shouldnt have any trouble keeping the boots on at 20-25psi.

 

Boost probably wouldn't even get to 25 psi on a bone stock 98.5 without some type of boost fooler - even with a malfunctioning wastegate. The ECM will throw a 0234 overboost DTC and defuel the engine.

I would be willing to bet the boot and/or clamp are pooched and not clamping properly....the stock boots and clamps easily hold twice the stock boost levels without any issues which a stock HX35 can't even generate without a ton of extra fuel.

I'm not sure about what is being referenced in regards to the intake heater either?

 

Are you refering to the electric contact post coming from the side of the air heater grid block?

 

Thanks for the replys, guys. The point your seem to be missing is the part in my original post where I cleaned up the boots and REALLY tightened them down. Then instead of blowing off the boot hose, it blew out the metal plub on the intake air heater. The intake air heater is the part right where the air goes into the manifold/engine. This is the part that has two wires coming from the heater relays. If you remove the intake air heater it has two metal plugs that keep the intake air from escaping from the heater. The plugs cover the bottoms of the two studs that actually attach to the heater grid inside the heater unit and which the heater wires are attached to on the top of the heater unit. So what it seems is that if I tighten the hoses so tight than they won't blow off or leak, then it finds the next weakest part to blow out, ie the plugs on the heater unit bottom.

 

In my post above I kinda asked if those were the plugs you were talking about. To be honest, if you read some of the other replies here you will see that everyone is questioning the actual boost amount. I don't think that a stuck wastegate is your problem. Other people actual have the waste gate closed all the time. So if your wastegate is stuck closed, the stock turbo will not build enough boost to blow those pressed-in electical studs. Besides if you over boost, the MAP sensor will pick that up and the ECM will de-fuel to slow down the motor, which in turn will slow down the turbo.
Maybe the boots and clamps are old and worn. Maybe the post was weakened after many years of heat and boost pressure. I think you need to start be checking what your boost levels actually are. You also need to find out what codes the CEL is kicking out.........

 

I think at this point, it is quite important to determine what the actual boost pressure is before continuing to blame excess pressure for these problems. From what we can determine, there is just no reason for boost on your truck to be anywhere near critical levels to cause these problems repeatedly.