6.9L Turbo

I have an '85 F-250 2WD in really good shape for an old timer, (177K original miles), and was wondering if anyone out there might know where I could find a turbo kit for my 6.9L without having to spend more on it than the whole truck is worth.  The engine is still tight, with good compression and doesn't use a drop of oil until you get over 3,000 miles---and I drive her really easy.  Banks has a good setup for this engine, but they want around $2200 for it.  Any suggestions?  

I am also looking for a turbo kit for my 7.3 ford IDI.

They are hard to find you can get ats or hypermax they are also around $2200 but from what i have found is hypermax you can get the turbo gauges boost and pyro full exhaust kit and air induction for 2400.  This is the only way you will get more power unless you can find a used on on a factory 7.3 with a turbo in or a used turbo kit .

So far i have not been able to find a used kit..

Hope that helps you  

Have seen one or two on ebay from time to time, but --no way of knowing if all the parts are there or not---or if you're buying someone else's problems.  I'm thinking probably the best place to look is a salvage yard, or some rollover somebody's parting out....at least if you take it off a wreck, chances are most all the parts are there.  Thanks for the info, tho.  

Yeah, unfortunately, to buy a new and complete kit is going to run you about $2k+. You can take your chances and buy a secondhand one off eBay, but sometimes you may have to piece together the missing pieces.  

I had an '87 6.9L that I put a turbo kit on. I bought the whole kit direct from Banks for $2600 last summer. The kit bolted on very easily in one day, including exhaust and all. When I ordered through Banks, they did let me customize the kit and take out stuff that I didn't really need ($100 chrome exhaust tip). Putting the turbo on the truck made a phenominal difference. Withing a month I broke several U-joints, and snapped my rear yoke in half thanks to the extra torque. Before the turbo, attempting the projects that broke these pieces would have just killed the engine.
Now the important stuff...No matter what anyone says, if you turbo a 6.9, REPLACE THE HEAD BOLTS WITH ARP HEAD STUDS! I did not do this and that is why the turbo was only on the truck for 2 months. The head bolts stretched, blew the head gaskets, and filled my cylinders with coolant, breaking at least one rod and killing the engine. And that was just with daily driving, I didn't hot rod the truck. Remarkably the truck started a few months later and was able to pull itself onto a trailer.
I have sinced moved the entire turbo kit to a '89 7.3L that I purchased to replace the 6.9. The swap was another simple success, and the increased performance on the 7.3 was even better than the 6.9.
If anyone has advice to help with the 7.3 rebuild, or needs help with the 6.9, let me know. I am no diesel genious, but I knew that 6.9 pretty good.  

Does ARP sell head studs specifically for the application or did you have to tell them what you wanted? Did you have to do anything to the studs or did they work without modification? What was the part number? 6.9L  and 7.3L have different stud diameters right?  

I am planning on replacing the injectors on my 6.9L Project 300. Maybe that will help the low dyno numbers. Is it best to remove the engine if you want to pull the heads. I bet they are heavy. Maybe I'll do a compression check and that will influence the decision.

The ATS kit I bolted on in the August issue went on easy too. I replaced the body mounts and that made a big difference getting the pipes to fit. Also in the issue I forgot to mention to prime the turbo with oil.  

So you're the guy doing Project 300 huh? I read about it, but did not start getting DPM until April. I just went back and read the original article today. Like I said though, I don't know the part numbers, because I never replaced the head bolts with studs. That is why I ended up blowing my head gaskets. Plus my old 6.9 had almost 300K miles when I added the turbo. I am sure they were the factory bolts and head gaskets. But I am sure if you just call ARP, they will be able to hook you up, it is a common enough application.
I have never pulled the engine on my 6.9 simply because I didn't have the resources to. But I would think if you are going to replace the heads and injectors, it would probably be easiest to pull it out and do all that at once. Plus it will give you a chance to clean up the old engine pretty good and the engine compartment as well, something every old truck needs.
I did the oil prime when I put the turbo on the 6.9 but now that you mention it, I forgot to do it when I moved the turbo to the 7.3. But I guess it all worked out fine. Priming is just to ensure that the turbo doesn't get too hot that first time you start the truck back up. I am sure mine still had oil residue in it from the 6.9 that was enough to protect it when I first started up the 7.3. I recommend straight pipes as well. I cruised around in mine without the muffler for a while and that turbo was almost louder than the engine.    

im glad to see people are turboing 6.9s i have one with 150,000 miles on it im hopeing to turbo it how much were the head studs ?  

Have any of you diesel gurus put an aftermarket turbo on a 6.9 in an international 1654?

Tons of space under the hood.

My truck only has 56k on it and is still nice and tight.

Any thoughts other than the head bolt replacements?  This truck has a gvwr of about 25k so the engine will likely take more stress than on an f250 or 350.

Thanks for any advice.  

banks turbo setup is junk. the way they run all the exahaust piping they put it right up against the right side tranny bolts, so you have to cut it apart if you ever have to pull the motor.  

i have a whole 91 4 door dually i will sell that has a turbo kit on it, cheaper than the kit is worth. then you will have a truck for parts too. bigfrd8@yahoo.com