cleaned my SMIC today

[Black95TSIawd]

My car has a butt load of miles and i'm heading to the track on saturday. So i decided to clean my stock smic. Just took the little sucker out, capped off one end, poured some deisel fuel in it, shook things up, and then emptied it. I did that a couple times until the fuel came out its original color and then put it all back togther. I'm about to get a catch can to keep oil from getting in it. Boost response is a lil better and the car picks up a lil better. Kinda suprised me how a dirty intercooler can hurt performance that much. Its not like the car is flying now but i definately felt a difference. I also changed my oil and put a ground on my exhaust. Whole thing took about 2 and a half hours. I had the use of a lift so it probable took some time off my hands. To anyone with a decent amount of miles on their motor with the stock smic, i highly recommed doing this.

 

[98TsiAWD]

Put a ground on yoru exhaust?

 

[Black95TSIawd]

When I put my catback on i noticed there was a wire on the stock exhaust but it as ripped. I didnt pay much attention to it and just put my new catback on. When i finally found out what a ground on ur exhaust does i decided to ground it. Ran a wire from the an exhaust bolt to the chassis. Makes the second o2 sensor work. No wonder that shit never worked. I should've put one on anyway from before. If it was on there, musta been a reason but out of stupidy i didnt do it till now.

 

[sleepinGSX]

I cleaned mine for the first time this weekend. It wasnt as ditry as i expected. I used 97%alch, i think i could tell a slight difference afterwards but who knows.

 

[echo]

i cleaned mine about 2 weeks ago. 107k on the IC, never been cleaned and never been filtered...it took 3 bottles of alchohol, i shook that thing till i couldn't stand up without falling over, . i could tell a huge difference. it pulled much harder and felt smoother.

 

[Black95TSIawd]

Yea the motor did seem to run a lot smoother.

 

[RipperXX]

hmm hey whats a catch can catch can and how does it stop oil from geting into the IC..

 

[Blitzed95Eclips]

http://www.tgilmore.com/talon/catchcan.html

 

[Airpoppoff]

it takes me almost 2 gallons to clean my ic

 

[Defiant]

Originally posted by Black95TSIawd
So i decided to clean my stock smic. Just took the little sucker out, capped off one end, poured some deisel fuel in it, shook things up, and then emptied it. I did that a couple times until the fuel came out its original color and then put it all back togther.

I hope you flushed the diesel out with something (acetone, alcohol, gasoline if you're a daredevil), I'd think diesel might be a bit oily to use for a final ...er... douche.

 

[rick]

i cleaned mine with gasoline, and when i poured out the stuff,i left a huge black puddle. i should have kept going until everything was a garunteed spotless, but i was pressed for time. even then i felt a little more pull.

 

[UltraImports]

Originally posted by Defiant
think diesel might be a bit oily to use for a final ...er... douche.

:laugh:

Intercooler cleaning should now be referred as douching

 

[twistedtsi]

when i took mine off to clean i used gasoline and when i dumped it out their was some sort of sand inside so what i did was cut the endtank off and made a front mount out of it BIG difference

 

[Black95TSIawd]

How the hell did u get sand into ur intercooler? Front mount out of a stock SMIC? I think its too small. It should be called the Tsmic referring to the TooSmallT25 turbo on our 2g cars. Got any pics?

 

[Black95TSIawd]

Oh yea i just thought of the only way u can get sand into ur IC. Either u got a hole in it or u've been driving with an open MAS. No filter.

 

[twistedtsi]

ya i had a lil crack on one of the endtanks so i cut that part off got 3 more sidemounts cut the endtanks of those and welded them together and put new endtanks on came out pretty nice ill take some pics and post them

 

[dsmstunna]

how long were you driving your car with a crack in your intercooler thats big enfoe to get sand it?????? it would srew up both top and bottom. lean when at idle and rich at boost.

 

[greyforestgst]

screw a catch can
rubber hose is inexpensive, and it can go from your valve cover breather to the ground relatively easy

 

[Bohrn]

hehe, when I first cleaned my SMIC it was GROSS!! Thick black crud, and I used gas. Then professional degreaser, then an air nozzle. Clean and shiny.

As for the oil from the PCV, why not put a $1 carb fuel filter inline with the pcv breather hose? Just cut the hose on the passenger side of the valve cover, and insert a clear fuel filter. It lasts at least a year, and you can see what you get, empty it when you need to(2 times a year) and you are still a sealed system, and doing no harm by dumping oil and vapours.

besides it looks kinda trick

 

[Laser0385]

Does it make much of a difference if the system is sealed or not? Jake

 

[Bohrn]

well for emmissions testing, it will fail if they see that crankcase vapours are getting into the atmosphere.

for engine bay and driveway cleanliness, the condensed vapours make a mess. Also it will get pushed back along the underneath of the car by the wind when driving, and will smell bad when it hits the exhaust.

and it is bad for the environment, due to air pollution, ground water hazard, get it on your dogs/cats/kids feet, etc etc.

Your call of course, but there is no performance, drivablilty, economy or anything else to be lost by keeping the system closed, and filtered.

 

[laserturbo91]

how many miles was on everyones car when they cleaned it? jw, i am in the process of cleaning mine (doing other stuff while shes down as well), and ive got 188k

 

[Bohrn]

I had about 210,000 kilometers on mine. It was very dirty.

 

[Black95TSIawd]

i had about 118,000. It wasnt as bad as i thought. But still dirty

 

[GreddySpyder]

I just cleaned my intercooler tonight for the first time. It has 85,000 miles on it. I used the gas method and after filling, shaking, and dumping it about 5 or 6 times the gas came out clean. Then I rinsed it out thoroughly with water to remove as much gas as possible, and i stuffed rags in the inlet/outlet of the intercooler to absorb any water that might be left. I also removed the upper and lower intercooler piping and cleaned it out so it wouldn't just blow more oil in right after I cleaned it. I also did the fuel filter catchcan mod recentl so hopefully no more oil will be blowing into my intercooler.
As for the test drive... it was well worth the effort of cleaning the intercooler! What I used to think was a boost leak is now solved... the boost used to "stutter" a little if i was coasting and stomped the accelerator suddenly, now it just spools right up all nice and smooth like