Are you losing boost?

[Petrina Polo]

I think this should be done periodically on all turbo cars..

Trace all connections from intake to turbo, hot side pipes to intercooler, post intercooler pipes to throttle body.. Inspect for leaks and tighten clamps etc. Tighten DV as well.

I have a forge FMIC, With added boost courtesy of APR tune. The cars are more likely to shake the clamps up a little, loosen them up, maybe leak boost. My old XR6T used to loosen up the clamps all the time. My boost gauge was holding boost over 22psi so I doubt it was leaking much or at all. But it was a little jagged at times..

This is a pain in the bum job, thankless job.. You may or may not improve your cars performance, dependant upon if your clamps are tight and if there are any slight boost leaks. The front bar needs to be removed on our Polo Gti.

I grabbed a bottle of thread locker (mid strength) and lubed up the clamps and reset them nice n tight. Prevent me having to do this again in the short term.

With the forge FMIC setup, I noted the following issues...

1. Clamps were loose especially off the turbo hot side.
2. The front fog light had pierced a small part of the silicone hose (intercooler to throttle body). I shielded it to prevent further damage to the hose. There was no hole but it was wearing away.
3. The screw holding the aluminium pipe in place had broken off and the mounting part of the aluminium pipe almost worn away. Suggests to me there is a fair bit of movement of this setup whilst driving. The aluminium pipe was not fixed properly due to the screw braking off.. A bit of wire and now its properly fixed.

This is a good opportunity to clean up the intercooler as well. Now its nice n shiny..

Ill see if the car goes better tomorrow. I hope its not 2 hours wasted time.

[Jmac]

Yeah had a few where ive had to redo the clamps, pretty much check them at service anyway, and i feel you havent wasted anytime mate, very sensible moves in my book, boost will find the smallest leak, thats why we use a smoke machine for the troublesome ones, it finds a leak anywhere.
Enjoy
Jmac

[mikepologti]

your selling what now??


funny you should mention it i was going to do the same thing myself, i realise i havnty had it on for long but sometimes ive noticed in the past that clamps have loosened after first installtion, so i usually check them a few weeks later. certainly no time wasted even if it doesnt improve performance.

[noone]

So for the clueless and garageless ones, how do I check I'm not loosing boost?

If you know every pipe, you've got a good chance, but I would have no idea where to start and I'm more likely to break something under there...

Guess a dyno should give you a good idea if the numbers are pretty comparative to what others have reported, but hardly conclusive...

[Petrina Polo]

Just follow the hoses from the intake to your throttle body. All your doing is securing them/tighten.

You might have to get under the car and take the front bar off to get to all the hose joints. Its a thankless job but I think necessary periodically.

Its not a fool proof way of ensuring your not losing boost but if all the hoses are in good conditioned and fastened properly should be ok.

I have driven the car and didnt notice a difference to performance but I may have prevented a boost lose down the track...

[Roodosutaa]

Not sure why but when I first saw this thread this is what came to mind

[Petrina Polo]

hahaha. good call