I have been putting a few miles on the fossil with its new motor and it is not giving me the boost that I think I should have. I should have around 32 to 35 lb and I'm only seeing 26 to 28. My pressure tested the system and found some pin holes in the piping which I fixed but it did not do much for boost pressure. So I pulled off the charger cooler and pressure tested it. Turn that it was leaking quite badly where the tubes are welded into the the header tanks. A new charger cooler is around $1,000 and I had this one out on the bench so I decided to try a fast and dirty repair.
I spent some time at home Depot and the auto parts store and settled on this stuff.
There were lots of glues, two part epoxies and resins to choose from but I was concerned about temperature. This one is designed for concrete and has a higher max temperature rating than anything else I could find.
So I knocked out the heat transfer fins on the end of each tube to give myself room to squeeze the adhesive in and cleaned the areas as best I could with a wire wheel brushes and some chemicals.
I was able to squeeze from one side of the cooler until it pushed through to the other side so I have a pretty good coating all the way through around each tube and then I cleaned it up and smoothed it over the ends. I'll let it dry for a few hours while I go watch the mud drags and pressure test it later on this afternoon. Think it will leak or will it hold pressure for a while?
No idea if it'll work, but if it doesn't, a cursory search says re-coring intercoolers is a thing, presumably for a lot less than $1k?? That said, idk if that's only for ICs with plastic end tanks, or either plastic or metal.
procainestart said:
No idea if it'll work, but if it doesn't, a cursory search says re-coring intercoolers is a thing, presumably for a lot less than $1k?? That said, idk if that's only for ICs with plastic end tanks, or either plastic or metal.
I will just replace with a new aluminum one regardless, but I thought it would be an interesting exercise. I went out to pressure test it and now see it takes three days to finish curing.
Today I went out and tested my charge air cooler repair, and also my piping.
The adhesive I used is still a bit soft in the middle, I think because I used so thick of a layer. So I only applied about 25 lbs which it held.
The piping held 30 lb. The gray on the welds is a coating of JB weld that I smeared on to deal with any pinholes. I freely admit I am not a great welder.
I'm interested to see if it holds and how long it lasts!
After what I presume was a canoe that bumped this thread I'm still curious, did it hold regular pressures?
iansane said:
After what I presume was a canoe that bumped this thread I'm still curious, did it hold regular pressures?
It is substantially better but I am still low on Boost. It comes up to 28 earlier and hangs on longer at lower rpm but I should have at least another 5 pounds. According to my horsepower calculator I should be able to pull a 7 per cent grade at around 80 kmh and I can only do about 70. That is still dramatically better than the 30 kmh with the old motor but I am entitled to my entitlements so I will dig into it again in the spring. I am going to replace the manifold pressure sensor and see if that makes a difference. I think perhaps the ecm is limiting fuel thanks to incorrect readings.
