Intercooler Cracked!

[DieselDood78]

The last few days I've been hearing a funny squeeking noise when I'm into the throttle a bit (over 20psi). Well last night on my way home from work it got really bad, and I was loosing power. I went straight to a friends shop and we ended up buying some pipe fittings to plug the intercooler piping, a regulator and tapped a quick-coupler on it to pressurize the system. Once we hit 10psi we found the intercooler cracked at the tank on the passenger side! We pulled the intercooler for a better look and found 5 or 6 of the passages at the tank cracked right where they meet the tank! Right now we are trying to get the truck back up and running, but obviously I need an intercooler! Anyone know where I can locate one for a decient price? I need the truck tomorrow to go to work!.

Thanx
Josh

 

[thumper 549]

can a radator shop weld them ??

 

[rubberfish]

Originally posted by thumper 549
can a radator shop weld them ??

Yes they can, but, you don't want a chunk of slag going through the turbo

 

[Whit]

I dont know about your intercooler but mine is aluminum, Yes it could be welded, My experience with aluminum is that it doesnt do well with vibration, I know it is rubber mounted, check the rubbers to see if they were compressed too much, if so get some new onees before you re-install. As far as slag on the inside you wont need to worry to hard about that if a quality welder does the job AND if you blow it out well before use.

Cheers, Kevin

 

[DieselDood78]

Well, We Epoxy'ed the intercooler with a JB Weld like material, and it held 40PSI with our nifty home made testing tools. We reassembled it, but still have low boost and low power. We only gained 5psi from before. Any Ideas? We have checked the AFC, good, holds pressure and moves properly, Fuel pressure is at 28psi, and we switched my Air filter with Tims. We are leaning twords a fuel related problem, but the squeek really makes it a wierd problem. It may not be related, but it started just before all of this.

Josh

 

[thumper 549]

One thing with aluminum it dose not 'slag very much..........next thing the jb will hold till probly till the next forever.
It sound like you know how to trouble shoot good....and your F.P is good?.........mabe the map sw??.
I guess the other thing is to supect everything, boots and all.

 

[ofcourse]

agree with thumper 549'

Check all boots and connections, sounds like a boost leak with the squealing sound.

TC

 

[DieselDood78]

The squeel seems to have gone away when I filled up with fuel today. When we reinstalled the intercooler, we re-pressurized the system before we started it to make sure all the boots and clamps were good. Everything held pressure, so now we are looking at fuel delivery. We have 28psi of fuel pressure, under no load. We are thinking that under a load it's low.

Josh
PS, I'm a Mercedes-Benz Technician, my friend Tim is a Volvo Master Tech.
We just don't deal with these trucks every day to know the little goofy stuff like this......Any ideas?

 

[DieselDood78]

Well we found it! I was changing the fuel lines that go from the engine to the frame rail, and found that I had to take the fuel filter off....I then dumped it into a container and found......critters.....diesel fish....algie....So I purchased some fuel additave that kills the little bastartds and after 100 miles, it's pretty much back to normal. Thanks for the help Gentlemen!

Josh