Welcome back to another installment of “Stock to Not,” where we take our 1994 Ram 2500 and go from, well, stock—to not! We are well on our way through this build after completely going through this engine and drivetrain over the last few months to make sure that our 700-whp goal is able to hold up for a little beating after we’re finished with upgrades.
We were over-fueling the turbocharger we used in our first build (Smeding Diesel S362), so today, we’re going to take things up a notch. Instead of our 300 frame charger and T3 stock manifold that was previously specified, we’re going to use a Smeding Diesel S467 with a T4 three-piece manifold. We are also going to install Smeding’s stainless manifold bolt kit. Let’s get to it!
Smeding Diesel, Davy and Ricky are to be commended for their support of this build and excellent customer service. They have a ton of options for every diesel platform no matter what power range you’re going for.
The stock manifold looks great on the truck. It’s time to get rid.
Now that we’ve removed the old manifold and charger, we’re going to get these stainless manifold bolts in. Definitely make sure to get enough of the stud threaded into the head because you’re about to put a lot of weight on them. You don’t want to only have a couple threads in there holding everything up. Also, don’t forget the anti-seize!
I normally like to place the charger on top of the manifold, before it is placed in the engine bay. Doing this makes it a little easier to get a good grip on the back of the turbo bolts to make sure they’re tight. V-banded turbos like this Smeding Diesel S467 also make putting this in so much easier because assembly/disassembly is way easier as you can see in these photos., Only the hot side is on the manifold so there isn’t a whole turbo in the way.It’s time to install the manifold! Be sure to set your gaskets on the manifold and that they are seated on the studs. As needed, readjust your studs and then put on the nuts and tighten like you would lug nut set (not clockwise). For each nut that I tightened, I moved from the left to the right of my charger. I then went over all of them again after they were snugged down.Reassemble the turbo. Be very careful not to damage the compressor wheel. You can tighten the clamps and then angle the housing in any direction you want towards the intercooler.We haven’t gotten the opportunity to get a custom pipe made for this yet, so we cut the stock intercooler pipe right above the top rib where you clamp the boot down. The fit is perfect. We did some additional rotating and it fits perfectly. Soon we will switch to a V-banded, cleaner setup.This turbo is much better than what I had expected. This is my first 400 frame turbo so I’ve definitely got some learning to do, but I’m excited to get to know this truck a little better, get it tuned to our 700HP goal in the next few weeks and report back to you all!
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