The trucks we use every day are workhorses, and as such, spend a lot of time getting, well, used. Everyone knows that hard parts fail. However, with today’s high-tech haulers, more often than not, if we experience an issue, it is usually with wiring and/or electronics.
We have a 2015 Silverado shop truck that has, unfortunately, encountered some serious issues with the turbo. The 6.6-liter Duramax engine was letting us know it was time for a turbo upgrade. We learned this when the truck encountered what we thought was a Vane Position Sensor (VPS) leaving us stranded. The VPS controls the unison ring and turbo vanes located within the engine’s Garrett turbocharger. This is a common issue amongst the 2004.5 to 2016 Duramax turbo-diesel engines which use variable geometry turbochargers.
The Cheetah turbo looks stock but is far from it.
Once we dug into it, we soon learned soot build-up inside the turbo was actually causing the truck to run poorly. Since the Silverado was suffering from poor performance and wouldn’t make the boost it should — and since we were going to be knee-deep into the valley of the engine anyway — we thought what better time for a turbo upgrade than right now?
Who You Gonna Call?
Since we were getting in deep, there was no way we would install a stock turbo. C’mon, why would we? To upgrade the boost maker, we had our eyes set on one of Fleece Performance‘s Cheetah turbochargers. For years, Fleece has been at the front of the pack when it comes to stock replacement turbochargers, offering support for virtually every truck you see on the road. We wanted to see if our Duramax could benefit from a Cheetah, and we also wanted to find out what makes their products so popular, so we gave them a call.
We talked with the Vice President Of Sales And Marketing, Jeff Everett, and discussed our situation. We told him what our symptoms were and mentioned doing an upgrade. While corresponding with Jeff about this project, we made it known upfront that our upgrade needed to be stock appearing and conform to California Air Resources Board (CARB) guidelines since the truck is in California.
“After hearing your symptoms, it could be a few things. It could be the Vane Position Sensor or the actuator itself, “Jeff tells us. “Lucky for you, all of our turbochargers come new with both, so you’re going to be fresh anyway. These turbochargers come brand new from Garrett and we then turn them into our Cheetahs.”
As I stated, the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at DragzineDragzine…