Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) How to pressure test intake system?

[Tom W]

I have seen posts talking about using plumbing fittings to connect to the turbo inlet. I haven't been able to find any boots that will work, I have tried Home Depot, Lowes, and plumbing supply. Nothing seems to be 4" ID to fit over the turbo. Can anyone help me out?

Thanks

 

[SamBrown]

tom, try connecting to the inlet of the intercooler, smaller diameter so u should be able to find something to fit easy. limited room thought so i think u will need a 90 degree elbow to connect your air supply too. make sure to use a regulator so u dont apply too much pressure.

 

[AFoulk]

My buddy just pressure tested the intake system for a guy with a 99 24v. we took the hose off at the turbo and the intake elbow and put the caps in either hose so we could elimanate a boost leak coming from any of the hoses and the intercooler. The caps that he made up out of pvc were made to test the cooler on a 1st gen and were to small so he just took some of those blue shop rags you can buy at autozone, folded them neatly and wrapped them around his end caps and tightly wrapped that up with electrical tape. It seemed to work ok, the caps didn't leak at all. What size were the caps he made? I have no idea, but I'd measure one of your hoses, find something as close to that size as possible and then use the rags and tape to make them fit.

 

[akinsella]

Cheap intake pressure tester

Tom, I built this for around $15 at Lowes after I installed my gauges to find out I had no leaks but my MAP sensor was crap. 4" flexible coupling to a 4" cleanout adapter with a screw on cap. The guy in plumbing thought I was nuts when I told him what I was going to do with it :-laf Maybe print this out and take it to him, that's what I had to do. I just drilled a hole into the cap and screwed in the air fitting. I had to put a fair amount of slicone on threads since the threads are large and not air tight by any means. I read to SLOWLY increase air pressure (thanks TDR) from zero using the regulator on my compressor a few PSI at a time. I would think you would be able to find a leak if you have one.



What lengths people will go through in the mile high city to check for air leaks

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Clamped to the turbo with air supply

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[rweis]

Mine looks almost exactely like akinsella's, works well.



My boost leak was a split in the little boost hose to the boost gauge as it came through the firewall into the cab. Would have been really hard to find without the "adapter".



Bob Weis

 

[JasonCzerak]

ok I knew I wasn't nutz when I built one for my 3rd gen. I need to rebuild it as I used RTV (only stuff around). And it gets in the way of hte oil filter.



Also, mounting it to theturbo proved to be "slippery" as about 30psi it would push of (and into the filter).



I'll have to re-do it some day.



I used hte rubber deal from the AFE filter to mount the "plug/tester" to the turbo, wasn't strong enough for pressure.

 

[Jim Fulmer]

WARNING: I have one that is made out of metal exhaust pipe, one time I was testing it at 60 psi and it blew off, lucky I knew to stay away from it.



Jim

 

[GCroyle]

12V Pressure Test

The tool pictured in this post is off the shelf simple until I tried to hook it on to our 12V, doesn't fit the inlet. I used some nylon strapping to take up the space, about 5-6" wrapped as shown, slid the coupler hose on, tightened the clamp and slowly turned up the air regulator. The truck would whistle at about 10psi and up. It didn't take much pressure to locate this gasket leak on the Twin Ram intake. New gaskets go in this weekend. The intake came off to do the KDP, didn't have new heater grid base gaskets, oops. Used soapy water in a spray bottle.

 

[Bob4x4]

I use a nice machined aluminum plug that uses an o-ring to seal on the id of the turbo,it also has regulator and hose with a gauge mounted. I would venture to say you could get by with drilling and tapping some pipe thread

anywhere in the system to acomplish the same thing. Most ctds already have a hole somewhere that has pipe thread and a plug or sensor hole that could be used



Bob