Up next The Southern Diesel Supply Story Published on August 18, 2025 Author Riff raff Diesel Share article Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Mail 0 Bringing a Dead 7.3L Powerstroke Turbo Back to Life Breathing new life into a ceased up, 7.3L Powerstroke junk yard turbo In today’s world, the options for 7.3L Powerstroke turbo replacement are seemingly endless. Aftermarket replacements and upgrades are everywhere. With all these options, we rarely hear about rebuilding our own turbo. It’s a surprisingly simple process and often comes with upgrades too. If you’re not looking to add gobs of extra horsepower, it’s hands down the most inexpensive way to replace your failed turbo, if you’re willing to get your hands dirty. The 7.3 used a GTP38 Garret Turbo from the factory. This one has seen better days and is ceased up in every way. We’re going to change that. Here we’ll be rebuilding a junkyard turbo with parts from Riffraff Diesel. We picked a junk yard turbo because we wanted to see how far gone a turbo could be, and still be returned to operational status. After about 2 hours of work (most of which was spent cleaning rust and other deposits), we were able to take a seized-up turbo that honestly should have just seen the recycling pile, and bring it back to life, with a few upgrades too. It’s not the prettiest turbo you’ll ever see (a little high-temp paint would fix that), but it works great and even pulls harder than the OE turbo did, on our 2001 F250 with the 7.3L Powerstroke. First, we need to tear the turbo down, starting with removing the wastegate actuator. The rod on the exhaust side is retained by a clip that can be removed with a flathead screwdriver, and the opposite side is held in with two 10mm bolts. Then the exhaust back pressure valve (EBPV) housing is removed. It’s secured with seven, 8mm, 12-point bolts. Next the compressor housing is removed. It is also secured with 8mm bolts, this time five in total. Subscribe Our Weekly Newsletter Next, we’ll remove the compressor wheel using a 16mm socket while holding onto the turbine wheel hub with a pair of pliers to make sure it doesn’t spin. Once the compressor wheel is removed, the four bolts securing the compressor housing backing plate can be removed and the housing can be set aside. Separating the center carrier from the exhaust housing requires removing four more 12-point, 8mm bolts. Two of these bolts can only be removed with a ¼-inch drive socket due to tight clearances. Once the bolts are removed, a light tap with a hammer will normally free the two pieces, but in our case, a pry bar was needed due to excessive corrosion. With the center housing separated from the exhaust and compressor housings, the turbine wheel and shaft assembly can be removed by lightly tapping on the exposed shaft. The turbine wheel and shaft assembly removed, the tow bearings and spacer were simply slid off the shaft and discarded. Here’s the whole turbo disassembled. At this point we spent the next 30 minutes or so cleaning. The most important areas to clean are gasket surfaces, and bearing surfaces. Do not use sandpaper on any of these surfaces as it will damage them. A dull pick, some Scotchbrite and some WD40 were all we needed. Here’s the rebuild kit we sourced from Riffraff Diesel. It includes all the parts and gaskets you’ll need to rebuild the turbo, as well as new pedestal bolts and the O-rings needed to reinstall the turbo onto the pedestal when the rebuild is done. This kit does include some upgrades like a 360 degree thrust bearing and new improved center housing to exhaust housing bolts. Moving on to the shaft, we removed the oil seal ring, cleaned everything around it, and replaced the seal ring with the one in the Riffraff Diesel kit. Before installing the new bearings, all were placed in an oil bath. Standard motor oil is all that’s needed here. This oil will lubricate the moving parts upon initial start up, before the engine has time to pump oil to the turbo. With the new oil sela ring on and the shaft clean, the new bearings and spacer were installed. The entire assembly was then slid into the cleaned center housing. A slight “pop” is felt when the oil seal ring is fully seated letting us know it has been installed properly. Next the center housing with the shaft installed can be bolted back up to the exhaust housing. Riffraff includes new bolts here and it’s important to use them as there was a recall on the OE installed bolts due to failures. We torqued the bolts to 15-17 ft-lbs. One of the biggest upgrades in the Riffraff rebuild kit is this 360 Degree Thrust Bearing Plate. The 360 bearing better supports the rotating mass by adding more bearing surface area than the OEM bearing provides. Next the compressor housing backing plate needs to be reinstalled. When installed you won’t be able to see the orientation, but the thrust bearing will look like this. When installing the thrust bearing and thrust bearing collar into the compressor housing backing plate, it’s a good idea to use a bit of heavy grease (Vaseline works well) to help keep the two items where they belong. When we install the backing plate it’ll be upside down, without the grease the two pieces may fall out. We also installed the new Riffraff supplied O-ring here. With the compressor backing plate reinstalled, we torqued the mounting bolts to 15-17 ft-lbs. in a crisscross pattern. The OEM installed compressor wheel has surging issues. Simply put, it doesn’t offer very consistent pressure, especially in tuned trucks. So, we opted to replace it with a billet upgrade from Riffraff Diesel. This wheel is lighter so it’ll spool faster, and the new design offers more air flow capability often resulting in an additional 5-7 psi of boost. No surging, quick spool, more boost. A win-win situation. The Riffraff Billet Compressor Wheel simply threads onto the shaft like the OEM wheel did, but this time with a 13mm socket. We torqued the wheel to 90-100 in-lbs. At this point the compressor housing, EBPV housing, and wastegate were reinstalled as well. All said and done we were about 2hrs into the rebuild and spent less than $300 in the parts. This is a super simple job just about anyone can pull off in an afternoon using simple hand tools. Tools Used ¼-inch and 3/8-inch ratchets 8mm, 12-point, ¼-inch drive socket and extensions. 10mm, ¼-inch drive socket 16mm, 3/8-inch drive socket 13mm, 3/8-inch drive socket Torque Wrench Rubber mallet Visegrips Small pry bar Right angle pick Scotchbrite, WD40, brake/parts cleaning solution Total 0 Shares Share 0 Tweet 0 Pin it 0 Share 0
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