Is it safe to assume that half ton did not have a 4l60 behind the motor?

 

On the same topic, if you don't mind me asking OP: can the turbo exhaust pipping be done with a MIG welder? I usually see guys using TIG. Is the material stainless steel of some sorts?

I would be interested in toying with a low boost turbo just for fun at some point. I don't have a Tig setup, but I can do MIG.

To me it seems like the piping is the largest hurdle. The good thing is that there's tons to room on the engine bay of these trucks and the LS engines are nice and compact.

 

it used to! It's getting swapped to a 6L80 as we speak

 

I've never installed FI on anything but I have MIG'ed exhaust pipe on my Duramax. The muffler shop that just installed my Magnaflow's used MIG.
there's a guy on YouTube running a rear mount turbo on a GMT800 where the turbo is under his bed. I haven't been able to really dig into this idea yet but it seems like it may be a way to keep your engine bay cleaner. One of the things that makes common rail turbo diesel motors such a PITA to wrench on is that there's so much "stuff" crammed under the hood, you can't get to the motor until you remove all the turbo piping, coolant plumbing, oil and fuel lines. I wonder if a rear mount turbo would prevent this from becoming an issue with a turbo gas motor.
Blowers also seem pretty non-invasive.

 

As long as the inside of the pipe doesnt look like it has cancer when your done, you can Mig or Tig it
Ive done both and they both work. But Huron has a awesome hot side kit that works very well and looks great.

 

I started out with a Rear mount 60mm on my silverado back in 2004 or 2005 and it did very good but had a lot of lag and was choked out at 5500rpms. The only part that i didnt like was the oil scavange pump. If it failed your down for awhile..
It worked good for towing but the air filter needed to be cleaned every few weeks. It was so bad i made a splash guard for it and added one those K&N prefilters. I eventually sold it and went to a KB Racing (RIP) Front mount with a S475 and it was quite a difference. Still did very good towing even with a bigger turbo. Never melted anything under the hood or had any heat issues. And i was towing way more than the truck was rated for.
Pulling a 24' enclosed thru alabama, tennesee, and kentucky hills it made enough torque to hold 4th with TCC Locked and i had no complaints except the turbo whistle. LIstening to that for a long time got old fast. I never could figure out how to kill that sound. I routed air filter down to the front of truck behind bumper and still could hear it.

 

@RDF1 how do EGT's do on gas motors while towing? I have heard that stock diesel tunes never have EGT issues but both of my duramaxes had tunes so I constantly had to watch EGT's while towing, even when I turned the tune all the way to the lowest setting.

 

I MIG welded my 409 stainless exhaust on my turbo truck. Tri mix gas has gotten very expensive, so I even used 75% argon/25% co2 shielding gas. Welds just look gray from the CO2, but the exhaust has been great since I welded it back in 2020. Strong and sealed.

 

I dunno. Never had a EGT gauge. I had the hot side glowing before but turbo still alive with 300,000 miles on it so it couldnt have been too bad.

 

I've been reading some older threads here and other sites like the RV forums and they were generally saying a supercharger generates a lot of heat and it's hard to get rid of the heat for heavy towing. But even there was a guy here in like 2015 towing with one.

Turbo is preferred but even then, managing the heat for towing in the summer under high loads and steep grades seems to be a challenge. Well, that's what I read at least. I'm just an armchair expert here. 😂

The good news is that the HD trucks have a larger frontal area and a lot of room. I looks like they made 3 seperate radiator setups for those trucks: 6.0, 8.1 and 6.6 TD. I'm sure the larger set-ups can be easily swapped in, just swap the radiator support to match.