Hey everyone, I am in the finishing stages of putting my CTS turbo kit on my truck. All I have left to do is to attach and run the down pipe, and re-install the starter and hope there are no leaks!!

My question is how are the down pipes usually run on the old style trucks? I have not been able to find any pictures of anything so far. From all the searching I have done my kit is essentially the same as an ATS where the turbo mounts above the valve cover in place of the stock intake muffler. It attaches to a boost plenum that sits on top of the stock intake manifold and uses the stock air cleaner.

Does anyone have any idea how the down pipe on these systems is supposed to run? I am not sure if I have enough room for it to fit above the frame rail and under the AC box.
Or is it supposed to run outside the frame rail? Is there some major inner wheel well "massaging" that has to be done?

Any pictures or ideas would be great!

BTW, the only picture of an ATS system that I found had the down pipe incorporated into the exhaust manifold. Mine is not. Also the first part of the down pipe that runs horizontal is square.

what about just trying to see if it fits,and modefy if it does'nt

That is likely what I am going to do, I was just wanting to see if anyone had some experience with these setups. I can have a new one built at the exhaust shop, but it is a good 40 min from me and I wanted to drive the truck there as apposed to trailering it.

I really don't know much about the ATS/CTS style system, I have never even seen one actually, but guys with the banks kits end up running them outside of the frame rail, however with different mounting of the turbo, you may encounter a whole different set of problems. I think just test fit it a millions times and modify it if needed, and then snap some picture so we can see what it looks like in there.

I am taking my camera with me today to the shop so I can show you guys what I am working with. I was abel to get ahold of the gentleman I bought the kit from to ask him about it.

He bought an 89 burb for parts and it had this turbo system on it. He was just wreaking the burb, so he stripped off any and all the parts he thought would be needed and kept them, and then sold the engine.

I asked him about the placement of the down pipe, and he thought it ran above the frame rail and then down and out the back of the engine bay by the bell housing.
He wasn't sure if the burb had a body lift on it or not. I didn't expect him to, as he just ripped all the parts off.

Guess I will find out soon enough...

guys with the banks kits end up running them outside of the frame rail

Banks kits don't run outside the frame rail. The 6.5 turbo setups are outside the frame rail.

Banks kits don't run outside the frame rail. The 6.5 turbo setups are outside the frame rail.

Thats right, what was I thinking.......

No worries. I figure that any of the "turbo kits" would have a downpipe running inside the frame rail.

Well she is running again...man, what a project. I still have a coolant leak to fix at the back of the drivers side head, and I don't have the down pipe on yet, but I do have it worked out.

Unfortunately on this system it has to run outside the frame rail. I had to pull the inner wheel well, and the little plastic piece that goes behind it.
The downpipe will run along the frame rail, and down the firewall behind the inner wheel well. At this point it is aiming right at the right hand fuel tank, so a pipe will have to be made to run the rest of the exhaust inside the frame where it should be...

I guess I will see what happens when I get it to the exhaust shop, and I guess I will be doing a little "surgery" on the wheel well.

Anyone have any pics of there wheel wells once the exhaust is run through them?
Also any pics of how you ran the rest of the exhaust to get it inside the frame?

I took some pics today, and will get more in a couple days to share with you guys and show you what I am working with.

I have to take tomorrow off to go pick up a truck 6.5 hours away that my brother bought for parts...should be fun. :rolleyes:

Banks kits don't run outside the frame rail. The 6.5 turbo setups are outside the frame rail.since when?

I've got a 6.5 turbo on mine and here are some pics. Basically i cut the downpipe in two places to get the angle i needed to clear the tire at full lock and to run the sidepipe. Unfortunately my truck has dual tanks and the one that works is on that side. That's why I did it the way i did.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=392534160&albumId=1005941

since when?

Every 6.5 turbo setup on the older model trucks has the downpipe outside the frame rail that i have seen.

yeah, the 6.5 turbo system won't fit inside the skinnier frame rail of the old 6.2 trucks...

Well guys, I finally have a few pics for you, but I don't know how to upload them. Once I get it figured out I will show you what I have been working with.