I think I decided tonight that I’m going to build a single turbo setup for the truck. I just scaled it at a weigh station and it’s sitting at 5400 with a half tank and 5550 with me in it, I’m about 170lbs. I was fairly surprised after weighing the front with me in it at 2900 and the back with me in it at 2550 that this truck is fairly well balanced, about 53/47 weight distribution. I think with moving some stuff around I could offset the weight of a turbo setup. I think I found a local 4l80e for $400 that I’m gonna pick up and my buddy tony is gonna go through it with me and upgrade and replace parts that are needed. Gonna start to order parts here and there and I just sold my little s10 today so that makes me feel better about dumping some money into the caddy. I’m not looking for a ton of power (we all know how that goes) but I think if the truck picked up 150whp from where it’s at along with making some cool turbo noises that would be respectable and make a fun daily. I would really like to find an oem turbo for reliability’s sake that would meet the needs of my 6.0l but I’m a bit unsure as to what might work for it.

 

What’s everyone’s thought about this manifold? I could build the pipe that connects the drives side exhaust manifold to it and probably add in a 60mm wastegate to control boost well. I built a turbo setup for my 5.0l ranger with a hx35 and used a single 60mm wastegate that would hold 4lbs of boost perfect without any sort of boost creep and that’s a pretty small turbo for a 5.0l.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Single-Turb...AAAOSwelldQdtK

i was thinking about going with either that manifold or forward facing headers or turbo manifolds what ever you wanna call them and building the y pipe but that would be a bit more fabrication work as well as I would want to brace the turbo due to weight and heat probably cracking the stainless headers. I don’t know about gm stuff but with Honda’s the cast iron manifolds are cheap and pretty bullet proof. Definitely not something that flows great or designed for making allot of power but that’s not what I’m after. I would like minimal lag and have the truck still be fairly reliable.

 

havent seen anyone use it yet. If the flanges are flat, the casting isnt porous and the header flange is thick enough; should be no issue

I dont know the answer to that question tho lol

 

I always file the mating flanges of any turbo parts before installing. I’ve also found out that not using any turbo to manifold gaskets and having a clean flat mating surface works out allot better, especially then running the composite gaskets that comes with most eBay crap. I also use permetex muffler and tail pipe sealant on the mating surface to insure it will seal up.


I ordered the passenger side manifold, a 60mm wastegate to run on the crossover pipe, a 50mm tial Knock off bov that I’ll cut the springs down in because they are always way to hard, and a eBay gt45. I used that same turbo a few years back when I fabbed up a turbo setup on a local guys ls1 fc rx7. Still need to purchase an intercooler, mandrel bends, couplers, and some misc fittings. Also what would you guys recommend for a fuel pump, I’ve heard allot of people doing dual walbro 450’s but that seems a bit excessive for my needs. I was thinking a single wally 450 wired up with a relay.

 

I made 477whp with a walbro drop in 255: didn't have much left in her tho

oem flex fuel will do about the same

you should have the bigger fuel tank opening so a drop in single 450 should be more than you need and allow headroom

 

Sweet thanks for the feedback aurthur. I’ve made 525whp on a single 255lph wally on a turbo Honda on pump gas. I don’t know how much more it would have done but that’s pushing the limits on pump for a 1.7l engine anyways. I’m gonna order up a single 450 and wire it with a relay. just a question, since I’m not well versed with gms, is the fuel pump something I could install without it changing the tune on the stock engine? I know with Honda’s you can but dsm’s are picky about fuel pump swaps since their fuel pressure regulators suck.


on a side note I finally pulled off my half broken Escalade emblem from the passenger and drivers side. Unfortunately the truck was wrecked at some point, drivers side front corner and whoever fixed it did a crappy job. Drives front fender sits about 1/2” low, hood has a small bend in it and the way they blended the paint from the fender to the door they painted over the original emblem double sided tape so I can’t shave that one off cleanly. Kind of a bummer but I paid $3500 for the truck two and a half years ago and other then that it’s a very clean truck. I ordered some vortec max badges to cover the fubard paint on the driver door but they didn’t fully cover the Escalade badge so I’m gonna paint the letter black and stick them back where they go. Between both sides I have enough for 1 clean set of letters. Also removed engine covers, under hood sound proofing and finally painted the Chrome trim on the hood satin black to match the grill.

 

Took some measurements tonight and I think I have a pretty good plan for the charge piping on the turbo kit. Shouldn’t be very hard once I get some efans on the truck I think I will have plenty of room. Also I think I’m gonna run a 12” high by 31” long by 4” thick air to air intercooler on it which will be more then enough for my goals. It will have plenty of room to fit Behind the bumper sitting at an angle like V mount setups do. I’ll be able to weld in some brackets on the lower cross member for mounting tabs easy and it won’t block any of the radiators airflow. Definitely allot more room in this truck for turbo parts then a small Honda. I plan on building the turbo setup piece by piece so when it’s time to install it it should go pretty easily and the truck will have minimal down time.

 

The 04 is returnless, so I don't know if you need a tune or what the plan there should be.

99-02 rails will bolt on and give you a return and an FPR

Get the flex fuel rails, the regs are better

 

I’m gonna get a set then. From what I’ve read people are saying you can use the evap line for the return. Hopefully that’s true. I want to get as many of the small projects done before tearing the truck apart for the turbo install.

 

just to put the info out there the roof rack complete with hardware weighs 19lbs even, the running boards are 26.4 lbs including hardware and brackets per side so 52.8lbs total. The truck looks kind of funny without them but I’m gonna make some side skirts for it that will drop down 3-4” and weigh allot less then the running boards.


finally got the damn roof rack off. Seriously was a pain because I didn’t wanna break anything and I started on the drivers side front piece which was the hardest by far. I like the look of the truck without it. I think I’m gonna take the running boards off as well. I’ll post some pictures later but right now I gotta run to get some rounded cap Allen bolts to cover the holes. Gonna put a little rvt on the threads as well as sand the seat down slightly to make sure it gets a good seal. Its for sale if anyone wants it.

With rack and running boards

Without racks


without rack and running boards