Stargeezer

Say What??? Yep, the day has come to start pulling off the junk that should have never been put on our truck - turning my Ram into the truck I thought I was buying.

Step one is to pull off the assorted filters, mufflers, perfume sprayers and anything else that stands between the turbo and the tailpipe tip and offers ANY opposition to airflow. I want as open a pipe as I can get.

So here are an assortment of photos I took of the exhaust as I started. OK, we've all got an exhaust, so what? Well, in addition to all the stuff everyone has - I got a big slab like box under my truck that hold my wheelchair lift. In some ways it made a few things easier - but in a lot of ways it was really, really, in the way.

See for yourself:

Looking back from just behind the front wheel;



Looking from just in front of the rear wheel;



Here is the cross member that some have had to unbolt and allow to swing down. Here is on of the places where the wheelchair conversion HELPED me. With the 4" body lift, I had a lot more room to move the down pipe around in. I actually did not have to drop the cross member the only thing I had to remove to pull the pipe was the exhaust pipe bracket on the transmission bell housing. two bolts out and then a unscrew motion applied to the piped allowed it to drop down in front and slide away toward the front of the truck.



While I was getting the down pipe out of the way, the part with the big filters just laid on the lift box. Peacefully but I had to get to out.

When I began to disassemble the system, I started in the back with the tailpipe. The night before I sprayed each connection liberally with PB Blaster. It's always been my choice in a pentatrant since I met the creator many years ago and watched as he demonstrated his famous Styrofoam cup trick. The stuff works.

It works so good that when I hit the first clamp with the impact it unscrewed with little difficulty. the tailpipe almost fell out of the muffler as I popped the rubber hanger off. There are a couple star thrust washers on the mount that pop off with little problem. This was another place the two lifts helped out - although my legs don't work I was able to pull myself on top of the duals and reach through the fender opening over the frame and grabbed the tailpipe hanger from above. For me this was much easier, but it did feel real good to get off the tires.

Next in line is the muffler and it's real easy with a wire hanger/dog bones and the next clamp to loosen. All the OEM clamps stayed in place, welded to the pipe they tighten - it was nice not to have to chase clamp parts all over.



Next were to be the DPF/NOX filters and my plan was to just take the flange apart at the down tube and slide the assembly backwards across the lift box.

The best laid plans of mice and men..sure..be philosophical. It was not that easy. When I started to unhook all the sensors the lift decided it was payback time - turned out that there was something blocking every connection that I had to remove. I finally figured out that by opening the lift and laying on the platform I could reach the plugs. Close the lift back up and side things out, right? Nope. The floor of the backseat area had been dropped 5 inches to give me headroom - that drop put the floor literally on top of the wire sandwiching them against the frame - they would not move. So I ended up removing the sensors from the filters, cutting the two rubber lines near the tranny AND - finally sliding the junk back (as Planned) and out the back.

To get the sensors out I had to gently pry the floor up a fraction of an inch and sliding them forward and clear of the pinch point.

Now back to where I started with the down pipe. The first thing is to locate the one sensor on top of the cat, unhook it and the last sensor way up the tube, around where it's hard to see, but don't forget it! Here is a pic of the turbo clamp;

http://lostcreekpottery.com/delete7.jpg



Be carful of the gasket between the tube and the turbo. Its pretty rigid but fragile if its bent. The body lift also made reaching through the fender well possible again.

I'll update this with pics showing the reassembled pipes.

AirGrabber

looks to me like you have a nice ''hoist'' to lower that heavy chunk of scrap your removing from under your truck.

AirGrabber

Glad to see you tackle that task on your own. If I were near you I would of offered my assistance.

Blake Clark

My hats off to ya Larry. Wish I could do more to help ya than to just spout off a little info.

Stargeezer

Hey Guys!

I do know that if you all were close by, you'd be here for the fun. Thank you, I am warmed by the kind thoughts.

There are a lot of things I do that a lot of guys in chairs can't. I'm just blessed by every nut I get to turn. It has been a few years since I've done much more than general maint. I'm having a ball.

Next up, EGRcooler deletes, I get to perform my circus act over the engine bay! Sinister Kit - any suggestions?

Circle B

Great write up & pics Stargeezer! My hat's off to ya, even with the obstacles thrown your way, you get more done than a lot of young, supposedly healthy, fellas I know.
Can't wait to see the end product and how well it works for ya.....keep those pics & posts coming.
BTW, did you end up with the MiniMax?
Wrench on.....JB

Busboy

Good to see you are getting her done. I didn't use the sinister kit but the H&S is not that different and if the cooler is coming off there is one nut 14 or 15 mm you will have trouble with. It's right up front and one of 4 that size but this one is difficult to get on. On both trucks I used a long chisel and a 4 lb hammer to tap it around until I got it finger tight. I saved the coolant in the egr cooler to add back into the overflow bottle effectively topping off the system when done. I also did the CCV delete at this time so as not to have to bolt bits on that I was going to take off later.

Stargeezer

Thanks Busboy, I looked long and hard at these kits trying to make up my mind. In the end, even the possibility that I might get an air pocket in the head made me go with the sinister kit. I've never seen one of the heads off, so I don't know if that is an irrational fear or not, but for me, it was enough.

The Bride is out shopping today and has on her list a set of crowfeet sockets for that nasty 15mm I've heard about. I think I've needed a crowfoot less than a half dozen times in my life, but Harbor Freight has a set for $10. The last time I bought a single one at Sears, I think it cost about half that much (a long time ago) and since Sears is now closed here, I'll pop for the cheap junk for one bolt.

This is not a tool review and understand I enjoy GOOD, well made tools - my toolbox is full of all the major names - Snap-On, Mac, Matco, S&K and others we all know - My RV toolbox is full of the Harbor Freight sockets. Not wrenches, not ratchets, not their "powerless" tools but the scokets are ok for minor stuff on the road.

I do have one of their electric impact wrenches that has been used to R&R tires on my RV trailer, motorhome and many campers wheels we have stopped to help with flats. I carry a small generator to power it and it has done fine - might burn up in the morning, but its worked when I've needed it.

I don't know it it's got enough umph to change one of our truck tires, but I'm pretty sure I don't either.

Busboy

I have 2 different styles of crow feet, I couldn't get it with either set. A curved 12 point box end bent up in the middle would work best or perhaps a Snap on offset wrench bent up in the middle. Sorry I just could bring myself to heat up and bend either of those two wrenches. Perhaps a stubby box end wrench that you could pry on but I don't have any stubby's.

Stargeezer

I think my son has just the wrench............

bggrndodge

Nice work, I used a crows foot and it worked fine. The one I had a hard time getting to was the aft inboard one. Just an un comfortable postion and I don't have the daintiest hands...

Stargeezer

Heating and bending a Snap On wrench should be grounds for confiscation of your tool box.

Most of the Snap On tools I own I bought close to 38 years ago when I was in collage at night and wrenching at Goodyear during the day. The only price I remember was for the complete 1/4" drive SAE set I have. Deep, shallow sockets with a set of extensions, swivle, braker bar, driver handle, and two ratchets - all for the huge sum of $125.

Busboy

Now that I'm retired I just couldn't live without it, seems like there's always something that needs attention. Although the off set wrenches don't get used much anymore I did break my FAVORITE 8mm snap socket on the clamp on the EGR cross over pipe right in front of the engine. It was so tight I had to blow the clamp off with an air chisel then use the clamp to rotate the bolt. It keeps life interesting.