Where do they go?

[91BlackLaser]

I just replaced another 14B on my son's Laser. It was a good turbo when I put it on but I think it might of ate something because right after I installed it, it starting making funny sounds. Anyways, a short time later the turbo packed it in and I replaced it today and found out that all of the fins are badly damaged! 1/4 of them are broken in half and all the others are chipped pretty bad. My question is, where do the broken fins go? Will they just sit in the bottom of the intercooler or will the blow up into the motor and kill that too?


Thanks

Marty

 

[JayRolla]

Thats a real good question. Im pretty sure if they made it to the motor you would know by now. But with all that pressure you think it would blow right through the intercooler.

 

[toybreaker]

The blades from the compressor wheel are probably hanging out down in the intercooler inlet end cap/tank. The actual airpath thru the cooler is a bunch of fairly small tubes, so I don't think any big pieces went any further. I would just pull the intercooler out and backflush it with solvent, then water from the outlet side back towards the inlet.

And, I would most definately check all the intercooler piping all the way to the throttle body. If there's a lot of oily residue in the piping, it'll probably catch a lot of small bits of blade, and mulch/chips from the housing. Just removing the ducting and wiping them out with a rag should be good enough. Just ball up a rag, tie a string to it, put the string thru the tube, and then pull the rag thru.

The blades from the turbine wheel will be down against the catalytic convertor honeycomb core.

I would strongly suggest you retrieve them. They are certainly going to resist exhaust flow, and exhaust restrictions increase heat significantly, and may end up damaging the convertor substrate.

Besides, they make cool objects d'art...Maybe a windchime?

 

[funkbuster]

They would have to be some really small pieces to ever make it to motor. I would pull intercooler off asap and clean it, the ol' gas method.