popped my intercooler
Turbo Mini Forums

hello all

the end cap popped off my intercooler on sunday, luckily i managed to find the seal and so i repaired it all later on in the evening

however i didnt get chance to try it out

is it likely that it will be ok, or will it leak/keep popping?

an excuse to upgrade though!! (how the fck do i insert a smiley)

Nic, if you are happy enough with your intercooler, why not get some end tanks fabricated from ally and then have them tig welded on? Then you can be sure the end tank won't pop off again, and you won't have to go through all the intercooler piping modifying it to suit the new cooler.

i am thinking that, although i would like to put my grill back on

The vw tdi unit looks very similar and is 0.5cm thinner

alsoi would like to measure the temp in and out of it and see how efficient it is

They're a bit like pringles - Once they've popped....


Take the opportunity, and the impending winter. Remove the intercooler, and carefully prise off the endcaps by bending back the tabs. Once removed, use some carbcleaner / gunk / whatever to 'degrease' the ends of the core. Now get some gaffa tape and cover the core holes - you don't want any grit in there!

Remove the 'tangs' either with a hacksaw, file, bending to and fro, or a mixture of the above!
Now get some 16 gauge alloy, and make some new end caps. Use cornflake / weeties package as your template if needs.

Holding this together with gaffa tape or similar, you can now put your inlet and outlet pipes exactly where you've always wanted them. Cut the holes and 50 mm pipes to suit, then take the whole lot to a place and get it all TIG'd together.

Now you have a 'custom' All Alloy, Front-Mount Intercooler - perfick! Blow the caps off that and you're really going some.

How dids you manage to do that anyway? Most OE intercoolers are rated to somethign like 200% more than the intended boost of the vehicle for safety factoring. So did you get a badun - or is that more more more boost???

yes agree with daves 'pringles' analogy.....!

i was on 12psi, i shat my self when it went pop and there was no power! a road side repair using a rock was enough for me to carry on

presumably vibrations from how it was mounted and the sheer veleocity (??) of my car was too much for it hahaha

will a frosted shreddies packet be ok?

Frosted shreddies no good, only genuine Kelloggs cornflakes will do, none of your Aldi rubbish either....

im going to have to go to tescos on my way home then!

Ah - yes I (wrongly) assume everyone mounts the intercooler on rubber bushings and pays attention to pipe runs to avoid stressing the intercooler (like I do )...

no dave... we tie wrap them to the coolant hoses!

alex

AlexF

my intercooler is the only rubber mounted thing on my mini. I also like my women in rubber, but that's another story

Team Racing

My intercooler is rubber mounted as well at present.

It's connected to the Samco hoses in each end, and rest on the water and oil cooler pipes. Rubber mounted :)

Yeeeee Haaaaawwwwwwwww

i was semi rubber mounted, the one side was and the other, errr, wasnt

ive read mximum boost but it doesnt say anything on the subject, if i were to make the end caps smaller would there be any disadvantage?

Not really... just pay attention to the entry


(trying to not give away every one of my secrets)

cheers anything else you would like to share?

nope!

2+2=4

??

AlexF

alex!how degrading

That was me I am afraid

I am sure you won't be suprised by that comment when you hear its source......!!!

Bit of a log-in error!

phhwwwwooooooaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr!!!!



Not arf!