question about intercooler

[mopartech]

just installed an intercooler on an 89 lebaron. its a T1 2.5. i installed the stock intercooler and airbox setup. the boost in the car catually is lower now with the intercooler added. its got no boost controller or anything. its all stock. i assume its like this from the calibration being a turbo 1 cal ????

it was making 6 lbs of boost before. now its more like 3 lbs. this is the first time i've added a stock intercooler to one of these and no boost controller so im just curious if this is normal.

[wallace]

Sounds like you have a leak, either the intercooler or the piping is leaking. Did you have the intercooler pressure checked prior to installing it?

[daytonajesse]

+1
recheck your hoses, check your bov if you still have one.

[Beachbum3478]

possibly an issue with some vac lines because the TII airbox vac lines were a little different from the TI from what i remember from doing the switch.

[daytonajesse]

T1 box has a bov T2 box doesnt

[saw wave analog]

if you are using a manual boost controller adding an intercooler will almost always cause a drop in boost because of the added restriction it places in the intake tract.. but it sounds like you are still running letting the computer control boost with the solenoid and in that case it should automatically correct itself and you do have a problem.

look for any obvious bad connections as thats likely all it is, also possible but less common is a leaking intercooler. if you have a coupler to match the ic inlet it is easy to make a boost leak tester.

take a ~4 inch long coupler, go buy a peice of pvc pipe that fits in it and a solid cap for that pipe. put rtv silicone on the threads of the cap and screw it onto the section of pipe. then drill a hole in the middle of the cap, take an old bike innertube and cut off the air valve leaving a bit of innertube around it so it will seat, smear the inside of the the cap with rtv then push the valve through the hole you drilled and smear more rtv around.. be generous as its going to need to hold 20 psi or however much you feel like testing. then just clamp the other end of the coupler to your intercooler inlet, take out your air compressor, and inflate your intake tract


at 100 psi in the compressor it takes a few seconds to pressurize my car to 20 or so psi. leaks will be evident as an obvious hissing sound.


once you make the tester it is really easy to find leaks as it will pressurize the entire vacuum system and everything.. im sure you will find a lot of them if you are still on the stock brittle shitty plastic lines. in fact one of the first things i do on my toy cars is eliminate ALL of the stock vac connections because they almost always leak, and every leak you have is making the compressor wheel work harder and the intake temps rise.

there is a member on the board that sells very nice vacuum blocks that make custom vac setups rediculously easy. you only really need 3 vac lines for the car to run.. wastegate, map, and fuel pressure. everything else is optional.

ive found that giving eash component that needs a vac reference its own dedicated line makes troubleshooting much easier, and it looks slick too


sorry if this is all basic information.. im not sure what your experience level is and im bored and feel like rambling

[darkredturbo]

^^^^Could you also do this with water?

Ian

[saw wave analog]

you could fill your intake up with dirt if you really wanted to haha.. doesnt mean it would be a good idea though


i dont know if im missing the point or that was supposed to be sarcastic, but no. please dont fill your engine with water.

[mopartech]

well it seemed to relearn its boost curve after some driving. its not my car. its a friends at work.

so i decided that we would put a boost controller on it tonight. so we did. its set at 7 psi. runs good.

what boost do you guys run on stock stuff ??? i mean without an exhaust or injectors or whatever. how much can you squeeeze out of a stock setup ???

[saw wave analog]

if its intercooled now 14 should be ok as long as your stock pump injectors and regulator are all working correctly. give it a hard pull at 14psi then check the plugs to be sure. the stock stuff can definately handle 14 as long as its all working right. if its a clean good running car i wouldnt worry about it. i dont know if the owner cares about noise or not, but if the exhaust is stock and i were him id hack off everything from the stock downpipe back and run it open. its free obviously a very noticeable gain. the garrett turbo on the car doesnt creep at all like it would if you did this to a dsm so its a pretty effective mod, especially considering the price


as for the general strength of the tI bottom end.. im running 18-20 psi (all supporting mods are there) on stock tI internals, the engines CAN take it if they are in good shape and the tune is good, theres just not as great of a margain of error as there is on a tII.. im fairly certain id destroy a rod the second i ran into detonation as it stands, ive pretty much taken the tI bottom as far as im willing to go.. but there were many who said it wouldnt last and so far its taken an entire season of having the absolute shit beat out of it and is still running as hard as ever. dont know if it would last years on this setup but the tI bottom isnt totally useless.. ive put about 15k on it daily driven for the most part racing it constantly and its never skipped a beat.

[turbovert]

i've got a 91 shadow with 2.5 T1 and 5 speed and it boosts to 12 psi everything is stock and i haven't played with anything and i drive it hard and its been like this since i got the car 2 years ago, and i've never had a single problem