Help- I'm down on power, Boost is low

[Wayne M.]

I've been down on boost by about 2-3# lately. I can't find anything obviously wrong. I want to test the intercooler for leaks. Has anybody made up test plugs out of pipe or PVC for this purpopse? If I can find out what size the hoses are, that can save me a trip under the hood. I plan to cap one end and hook up my mightyvac on the other and pull it down. I just want to eliminate this.

I usually push 16# @ WOT. Right now I see 13 or so and power is down. I see no jump in EGT. I can't pinpoint when this started happening since I don't need WOT all the time.



Thanks in advance!

 

[DieselBuzz]

Intercooler leak

I imagine that you have "painted" soapy water on all the other possible leak spots. I have never tested an intercooler so I can't help with that. Did you check your air filter? That might be restricting your intake. Good luck resolving it.

Art

 

[Harlan]

Just thinking = If you are down on boost and also no jump on EGT, I wood look for a fuil problem. It takes fuil to make heat and hot gas to make boost. Have you checked your fuil filter and and then your lift pump. As for your cooler. When I checked mine , I removed the out put line from the cooler to the to the moter and pluged it with a pease of caped exost pipe. On the intake side from the turbo I did the same thing but put a quick disconect for a air hose in the pipe. This way I could plug in my air line from my paint gun and have regulater pressure to the cooler. Only takes a few minutes to make up the fittings. In a quiate shop with 30 to 40# of pressre you will know if you have a leek.

Be shoure to put a small beed of weld around the end of the pipe that is going into the ruber sleaves to keep from bloowing plugs out. I used a wire feed for this.

Harlan

 

[Wayne M.]

Come to think of it, I am due for a fuel filter real soon, so I will change it. I took a crude measurement of the piping and it seems 2. 5" so I ran down and got some PVC 2" caps that are 2. 75 OD. I will chuck 'em in the lathe and turn them down to size and tap one 1/8NPT for a connection. I can pull or push with my mityvac. we'll see what happens. The truck runs great, but is low on boost and top end oomph. I don't think any pumps are bad.