New charger setup TWINS YAY! but seriously I have a question

[dodgeram5-92500]

So I drive my truck daily and being on a budget I bought the necessary piping to build a twin piping setup. I based what I needed from the sizes of the parts and pictures of other twin kits. My problem is, I'd like to mock the setup outside of the truck and ready the piping (welding etc) before I yank the existing setup out since that will render the truck down and out until it's finished. And since I'm still not 100% sure if I'm going to run into a snag I don't want to "yank" without being ready. So for those of you that have had similar situations, how did you go about mocking the setup up? My real concern is the exhaust and it's placement on the new charger, there's not a lot of wiggle room down here and I don't want to suddenly be like "crap how am I going to make that work?"

Any thoughts would be appreciated, I've thought about trying to make a cardboard replica of the engine bay and then measure everything out but I wanted to ask what others have done.

Thanks for any help!!

[KhakiCummins]

You're probably going to get a better response posting on one of the other Cummins/Dodge forums. This forum is a tuning forum and discussions here tend to stay in line with that.

[CapitalDiesel]

i am new to this forum, but i am not new to compound turbo builds. i would say if it your first build, plan on taking a full weekend off with your truck and pull the current setup. make sure you have material to make a mount for the primary(larger turbo) and the tubing and start there. i assume you are using a second gen manifold. locate the primary charger where you want it and build a mount where the exhaust can be easily routed to the back of the vehicle and a place the charger where it will not come into contact with the shock tower, even if the motor were to move about an inch because of the flexible engine mounts. after both turbos are mounted and in a fixed location, start connecting the dots with tubing. you will likely have to remove and reinstall the setup multiple times to get a good fit its just the way it is. i have on plenty occasions pulled the stock setup mounted the new twins for measurements, made a couple pieces and then put it all back to stock in the same day. i did it like that until completion to have a truck available at all times. it took extra work but i was never without a truck.

[dodgeram5-92500]

I am actually at the exact position your in. I started by cutting out a cardboard box the dimension of the engine bay and then attached layered boxes etc to get an idea of where things sat. it kinda worked but I still want a little more detail in the end I think I'm going to tack weld up the piping I have and the new parts and turbo and "hang" them and then measure like crazy. That may be where the box finally becomes useful in telling me if I'm outside the constraints of my space I have to use.

Using a few pieces of scrap steel for a base and building a frame to hang the turbo from should at least give you an idea of where the exhaust is going to hit compared to where the turbo is bolting up on the manifold, I know that's the two points I'm concentrating on.

[Jakects]

Check this page out, it gave me a lot of ideas:

http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/98-5-02-performance-parts-discussion/535743-diy-twin-piping.html

Hope it helps. I don't think it's the best fit for this foram but it still a cool thread. Best of luck.