DFI Performance - T4 conversion kit review

[uw mitch]

I've got my build thread over here (http://powerstrokearmy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53098 but I wanted to do a dedicated review of the DFI Performance T4 conversion for 7.3L diesels (specifically the E99-newer, but I believe they're working on OBS kits soon).

I met Wes Tuttle of DFI Performance 2 years ago at a long distance rifle class. Through our conversations and my bringing my truck in for some routine work (transfer case + shocks) it came up that he was working on a T4 conversion kit for the 7.3L engines. It’s been a long road to get to this point so I was very excited to be the first customer (aka guinea pig) to get this on his truck and mine was the first automatic trans (Wes has been running his for nearly 2 years.)


Goals for my truck:

• Daily driven, w/ wife and toddler - breaking down because of too much power is not an option
• ~400HP, so I could stick with the stock bottom end

You can see some of the kit parts laid out on the bench in his clean room. Mounting plate, pedestal, Y-pipe, downpipe elbow, turbo blanket.

The Y-pipe is pretty cool and pre-plumbed for 3 nozzles – perfect because while doing the T4 kit, we were also installing a Snow Stage 3 MPG-MAX kit, with 3 nozzles.

The mounting plate is designed so that the turbo oil feed and drain retain the factory location at the back of the valley, instead of dropping hot turbo oil in one of the forward/center ports in the valley (and onto the camshaft).

 

[Meniacal_Mark]

Looks like a nice kit there

 

[uw mitch]

The pedestal itself is a really nicely cast single piece, with all the critical surfaces for the turbo itself and the uppipes nicely machined. Having a solid casting eliminates the risk of cracking a weld right at the collection point between the uppipes and the T4 plate.

Removing the E99 factory plumbing/turbo was a matter of cutting the uppipes and downpipe out, since they weren’t going to be reused (Wes pointed out how my factory donuts in the uppipes were both blown), pulling the factory turbo, pedestal, spyder, etc. I was amazed at how tiny the 2” E99 intake tins were and how flimsy they looked compared to the Riffraff Billet Plenums I’d be replacing them with.

Once we had all the factory stuff out of the way, and general inspection and clean-up was done, the actual install started with installing the Riffraff billet intake plenums. Then mounting plate and pedestal going in. Then the new bellowed uppipes were mounted, and feed and drain lines installed. Note the insulated heat shield for the turbo drain line. Before things got too buttoned up, Wes installed the EGT probe for the Snow controller.

 

[uw mitch]

Once the pedestal and upipes were in, the turbo came next – I’m using a Bell Turbo LASB that I got here on PSA from Swaan. You can see the downpipe is actually a 2 piece design. There’s an upper piece that is an elbow that mounts to the rest of the downpipe. This makes it a lot easier in the future if I wanted to switch from an S300 frame to an S400 frame, I would swap the turbo and the upper elbow piece and not the entire downpipe.

Next the turbo blanket and intake pipe.

Then the elbow connecting the charge pipe to the factory pipe to the intercooler. And the Y-pipe and new pipe from the intercooler. Install note – using Clay’s billet plenum which are thicker and taller than stock put the mount point about ½” higher than using factory tins, so some trimming of the silicone elbows from the Y-pipe to the plenums was required.

The most of the second day of the install was spent on getting the rest of the Snow kit mounted and installed. It was actually rather eye opening to compare the time spent on the T4 kit versus the time spent on the Snow kit – because I would’ve thought the T4 install would be pretty significant and while it was not a quick job, it was rather straightforward.

Final shot of everything installed – DFI T4 conversion kit, running a Bell Turbo LASB, Riffraff Billet Intake Plenums, Riffraff’s boost fooler, S&B air filter, Snow Stage 3 water meth kit.

 

[uw mitch]

And I know you guys all say, it don't mean sh!t until you show a timeslip...so here you go.

Jody's +120 Race tune on:
160//30% from Tim at PIS (love his injectors, disappointed by his after sales support)
T500 from Joey - he was awesome to work with
Bell Turbo LASB that I here on the forum from Swaan
T4-kit from DFI Performance - all the work on the truck was done by Wes and Dan at DFI.
Diamond eye 4" turbo back
S&B intake
Snow Stage 3 MAX-MPG Water/Meth with 15% meth washer fluid

8100 lb truck, 14.815 @ 90.88mph (unfortunately I cut a redlight...it was my first time to the track)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OBWd5lb6jk

 

[Ron's Power Stroke]

that looks like my kit....it was built by Turbonetics a few years back..the pic in the thread doesn't show the polished up pipes or air filter tube but they are polished in my kit...
http://powerstrokenation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82650

 

[jngreen]

Yep, you are not the first customer to have that kit.
Did they claim to build or develop it?
It definitely is a Turbonetics Kit.

 

[Ron's Power Stroke]

looking closer at both kits i see his pipes are welded to make the bends.. the TN kit is all one piece of tube that are mandrel bent to fit....same design none the less..it looks pretty good....

 

[jngreen]

looking closer at both kits i see his pipes are welded to make the bends.. the TN kit is all one piece of tube that are mandrel bent to fit....same design none the less..it looks pretty good....

Some of the pieces are Turbonetics. You can see the "T" on the top of the up pipe collector and the intake Wye looks the same. Maybe DFI built the up pipes and the oil drain.

 

[Ron's Power Stroke]

looks like he built off of the TN stage 1 kit witch is the up pipes,collector,mount and the wye... i have the stage 2 kit...

 

[buschpoweredstroker]

Who built the intake pipe?

 

[backwoodsboy]

I really wish the Turbonetics pedestal and collector was available separately.
I really like the idea of a cast collector, but can't bring myself to spend that much money on tubing that I can fab myself.

 

[uw mitch]

I really wish the Turbonetics pedestal and collector was available separately.
I really like the idea of a cast collector, but can't bring myself to spend that much money on tubing that I can fab myself.

You could always contact DFI and see if they'll sell you the pieces you want.

~Mitch

 

[Ron's Power Stroke]

I really wish the Turbonetics pedestal and collector was available separately.
I really like the idea of a cast collector, but can't bring myself to spend that much money on tubing that I can fab myself.

they do have the stage1 kit..you get the up pipes, collector and the Y,,not sure how much..my kit was 1500 to my door from Nate at unlimited diesel

 

[96F350KID]

and an Irate kit was avoided because????? I ran a 14.85 with FFD 160/100s and tuning on my OBS 5 speed. I think somethings a far

 

[Cloverleaffarm]

and an Irate kit was avoided because????? I ran a 14.85 with FFD 160/100s and tuning on my OBS 5 speed. I think somethings a far

Ran the same setup on my E99. Loved Jakes kit, zero issues with install. Sold the truck to a member here on PSA and he hasn't had any issues either

 

[uw mitch]

and an Irate kit was avoided because????? I ran a 14.85 with FFD 160/100s and tuning on my OBS 5 speed. I think somethings a far

I didn't go with Jake's kit, even though they're local and even though Dan at DFI is buddies with Jake, mostly because Wes was working on these kits. It's also kind of not fair to compare your 1/4 mile time in an OBS with similar set-up. How many hundred (or 1000?) pounds lighter is your truck?

~Mitch

 

[strokin'_tatsch]

From what I could find, you can no longer get THE Turbonetics kit. None of the vendors that I approached that I had seen sell the kits in the past were able to get me one. I think DFI got the patent for it or something and now they will be producing it instead of Turbonetics. Looks like they didn't change much about it though, so that's good.

 

[uw mitch]

From what I could find, you can no longer get THE Turbonetics kit. None of the vendors that I approached that I had seen sell the kits in the past were able to get me one. I think DFI got the patent for it or something and now they will be producing it instead of Turbonetics. Looks like they didn't change much about it though, so that's good.

Pretty much correct, and Wes emailed me that he's not on PSA.

Basically Turbonetics wanted to get out of making these kits, and Wes was already working on something very similar, so he took a trip to SoCal and bought their designs and brought back their remaining inventory, molds, etc. He's made some improvements to the kit (some posters have noted slight differences from the kit on my truck and their Turbonetics kit).

So, if you want a "Turbonetics" kit, they're no longer made/available, but the DFI Performance kit has many of the same core parts/design. Hope that clarifies things. As I said, I'm pretty damn happy with mine.

~Mitch

 

[Ron's Power Stroke]

and an Irate kit was avoided because????? I ran a 14.85 with FFD 160/100s and tuning on my OBS 5 speed. I think somethings a far

he was never avoided.... this thread was about the TN/DFI kit...don't get your panties all bunched up..Jake does nice work and he is reasonably priced as well...

From what I could find, you can no longer get THE Turbonetics kit. None of the vendors that I approached that I had seen sell the kits in the past were able to get me one. I think DFI got the patent for it or something and now they will be producing it instead of Turbonetics. Looks like they didn't change much about it though, so that's good.

thanks for the info......looks like i need to get a hold of DFI..id like a spare set of up pipes...