How do I make / buy / use / troubleshoot a boost leak tester? [merged]

[Turbo Monk3y]

All boost leak tester threads are combined here.

i read somewhere maybe the Vfaq about making or buying a boost leak tester of some sort but never found it.... the reason being my acceleration seems slower than normal and all ive done to my stock car so far is take out the air box put on a K&N filter and cut the dump tube i have my boost guage sitting in a box not hooked up yet. and since those 2 mods it when i go wot on the car i can hear the turbo spool up and it sounds nice but i can also hear a sound as my rpm increases the SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH sound does too. the sound comes from the same area as the BOV i think maybe i got a #@%#@%#@%#@% stock bov and it cant handle over 11-13 psi??? Then i shift and it makes the nice BOV sound WHOOOOSHHHH... but my car seems to be a little slower.. any ideas before i go check every tube clamp and tube????

 

[psychlow]

Well, I've yet to check the compressor blades, but yeah it's a TDO5H.

 

[tylerdurden801]

Will this tester reveal leaks in the exhaust manifold as well? I know you need to hook it up two different places, is that the inlet of the turbo and the TB? I get a gurgling exhaust sound on deceleration and I know my exhaust piping itself has a hole in it but I'm trying to see if it could be the manifold as well.

 

[dave99gst]

it test the intake system --- ( which the exhaust mani isnt a part of )
ya hook it to the turbo inlet (inplace of your snorkle tube )

 

[psychlow]

Originally posted by tylerdurden801
Will this tester reveal leaks in the exhaust manifold as well?

Nope. An easy way to test for exhaust leaks, though, is to remove one or two plugs, pour a little oil into one or two cylinders, start her up and rev her a little with someone watching the manifold. If it smokes up your engine bay, you know you have an exhaust leak somewhere in there....

 

[tylerdurden801]

Originally posted by psychlow
Nope. An easy way to test for exhaust leaks, though, is to remove one or two plugs, pour a little oil into one or two cylinders, start her up and rev her a little with someone watching the manifold. If it smokes up your engine bay, you know you have an exhaust leak somewhere in there....

Hm, good idea, I'll be doing a compression test soon as well, so I'll try that at that time. That shouldn't foul the plugs or anything should it? I'll be putting in some new plugs as well.

 

[Defiant]

Or, you could make a pressure tester to mount on the exhaust.

 

[tylerdurden801]

Originally posted by Defiant
Or, you could make a pressure tester to mount on the exhaust.

Where would I mount it? On the manifold in place of the turbo? Also, if I checked it with oil, how much oil are we talking about here? A tablespoon?

 

[Defiant]

Originally posted by tylerdurden801
Where would I mount it?

On the tailpipe. Same as an intake tester, just the other direction.

 

[tylerdurden801]

Uh, are you screwing with me? Or are you serious?

 

[Enigma_Man]

Why wouldn't he be serious? It would work just fine. It's all just pipes.

You don't need to connect an intake leak tester to two places. If you just connect it to the inlet of the turbo, that will also pressurize the intake manifold through the throttle body, so there's no need to do that twice.

-Jesse

 

[tylerdurden801]

Originally posted by Enigma_Man
Why wouldn't he be serious? It would work just fine. It's all just pipes.

You don't need to connect an intake leak tester to two places. If you just connect it to the inlet of the turbo, that will also pressurize the intake manifold through the throttle body, so there's no need to do that twice.

-Jesse

Sorry, thanks for info. It just kinda sounded like a "yeah, just change your blinker fluid" response for some reason. I knew he was a great resource on the board though, so I thought I'd ask. Unfortunately there are several reasons I couldn't connect it to the tail pipe. 1) dual tip stock exhaust, and 2) I'm sure I have holes in the exhaust piping after the cat (and maybe in the muffler too), so the pressure would bleed off before it got to the manifold. Maybe I'll try the oil in the cylinder trick when I do the compression test tomorrow. No one answered with how much I should use though. Is a teaspoon too much?

 

[dave99gst]

if defiant mess's with you ..... it will be EXTREAMLY obviouse. he isnt really a smart ass......







........ on purpose :X

 

[tylerdurden801]

OK, more help please. Now that I'm ready to get started, several questions present themselves. How much of the intake needs to be removed? Should I just unplug all the vac lines and take out the tube/filter? Can some of it stay together? It also seems there are leaks this test could miss. There are all kinds of lines going to the intake (wastegate and BOV lines) which I would think would be potential leak areas (which obviously won't get tested). Any advice for a noob?

 

[tylerdurden801]

Hello? I tried it today and didn't find that it would hold any pressure. Figured it was the valve, so I superglued it to no avail, still figured it wast the valve. Tried it later with a can of pop and it held to 12 psi or so before the pop can shot off. Did I just not let the pressure build enough? How many pumps should it take to pressurize the entire tract with a bike pump?

 

[Defiant]

As many as it takes to get a reading on the gauge. You only need about 10psi. If you're getting nothing and not hearing a leak, bump the motor over a little so you aren't at an overlap point in the valve timing.

 

[joeym4130]

When you do a pressure test by pressurizing the intake at the turbo, does everything get tested?? Like if i had a leaky intake manifold gasket , crack, etc...would that be able to find it? I just am hazy as to what this does, because i know a lot of ppl, and the vfaq call it a IC tester. thanks

 

[L2RTSiAWD]

Yes it will indicate leaks in anything from the IC to the IM, that's how I found out my IM was leaking.

 

[dave99gst]

it pressure test .. all yer i/c piping, intake, tb , turbo

 

[joeym4130]

ok one more newb question. When i pump the pressure into the system, i lose it all thru my boost controller. Its a JoeP MBC, and the little bleeder hole loses all my pressure when i try to pump it. isnt this a vac leak?? wtf? i only pumped like 3psi into the system...

 

[joeym4130]

ok nm, i just was talking to my friend and he said thats normal, to either plug the lines to the mbc, or close it all the way so it cant bleed off. whew!
so that doesnt create a vac leak at all?? it still confused me.

 

[Defiant]

It does, but not enough to worry about.

 

[dsmstunna]

I just built own boost leak tester from the bottom of like a grease gun metal piece of a grease gun. It works great the air compersor nipple bolts right in the middle and the outer diamter is about perfect.

anyways i got it all hooked up and i first found a boost leak coming from my throttle body shaft. if i pushed on the shaft it would stop. then i stuck my ear in the intake pipe and i noiced a hissing from that. At first i thaught that was from the BOV. but i unhooked it and it was still hissing. Well i traced it back to the hoes that hooks up to the valve cover. I don't know the right name for it but the deal that sticks out the side of the valve cover. when i put my figer on that a few seconds later valve cover gasket. and it sounded like it was leaking bad from under the timing belt covers too.

can anyone help me out?

also to go with I have a breather filter and i changed it and i noticed it was filling with oil really fast.

i came to 3 things that may be wronge
1. PCV valve is screwed up.
2. low compersion and air is leaking past the pistons and all the way through the oil system to the head.
3 bad valves.
or 4 this is just normal.

 

[Todd95TSi]

Make sure you have the moter at TDC.

 

[mramc3]

ok wait, I am confused. I called Roadrace yesterday and they said to plug off the throttlebody with a plate or something???

I made the adapter with the valve stem, used a compressor unit that plugs into the cigarette lighter, and nothing, no pressure buildup.

My question is, what exactly are you suppose to plug or block off, and what numbers should you see as far a pressure?

 

[ImportModder]

If you have the inlet side of the turbo plugged with that adapter and you can't pressurize the system then you have a BIG leak somewhere. When the car is off, everything is normally closed already, so when you do this test, it should pressurize. You should pressurize to 20psi max. It should hold this number fairly steadily, dropping slowly.