How To: Build And Use Boost Leak Tester

[Denovae]

I was reading through some FAQs and searched for this and nothing came up immediately so I thought I'd show this to you guys. This boost leak tester will fit onto any 2" inlet turbo (you can change the reducer to whatever you want) and has a 90 degree elbow which you can also remove. Basically this is general guidelines so you can modify it on however you want it to fit your application.

__________________________________________How to Build

First the list, followed by the pic of the tester layed out in assembly sequence. All pics here are in my gallery here in much larger sizes. All the parts with the exception of the tire valves were bought at Lowes.

Valves were bought at Wal-Mart. By the air compressors. List gives maker, then part number, then UPC code. Also needed to build is the PVC cleaner/glue, so I've listed that in the parts section. If you know a guy who does home improvement type stuff, he mifgt have some you can borrow.

1. American Valve 2" to 2" Flexible Coupling. RC 50. UPC: 1191801822

2. Charlotte Pipe and Foundry 2" 1/4 Street bend. UPC: 1194203371

(All the WHITE PVC pieces were made by CPF, so I wont retype it)

3. 2" threaded adapter UPC: TBD, its inside the fitting:)

4. 2" cleanout plug UPC:1194203252 (you only need two if your building both options)

5. Cambell Housfeld 2" Tire Valves P/N AU1044 UPC: 4556459566 (Wal-Mart)

6. Amelo brass plug P/N CP21B UPC: 8781762018 (found in the air tools section in Lowes)

7. Oatey PVC primer/glue.

Primer is purple, P/N 30755 UPC3875330755

Glue is LO-V.O.C. All Purpose Cement for PVC, ABS,CPVC P/N31895

UPC: 3875331895

So, those are our parts/supplies. the photo below shows the assembly sequence, with one change. The coupling needs to be cut with a razor knife. Otherwise the tester is too big to fit. The cut should be made on the inside edge of the clamp groove. That clamp is then loosened up and put up onto the thicker portion of the coupling.

1. The cut end of the coupling is slid over the elbow, then tightened

2. The threaded adapter is glued into the elbow.

3. Drill a hole of the correct size in the top of the cleanout plugs, insert either the brass plug or the valve.

4. Thread the appropriate cleanout plug into the threaded adapter.

When complete, it'll look mostly like this. Except your coupling will be shorter, and the clamp on the pipe side will be on top pf the label. And you'll have purple stains where the threaded coupling is glued into the elbow.

provided by ~ glhs837 @ SRTForums

__________________________________________How to Use

Take off the intake piping with your car OFF. Put the open end of the boost leak tester to your turbo inlet and tighter down the clamp so there is a positive seat. Next use a bicycle pump or air compressor with the appropritate valve. Make sure your air compressor is already on ahd charged. Next fit the compressor or bicycle pump to the valve. Start pressurizing your system, try to get no more than 20psi in your system ( AND DO NOT START YOUR CAR WHILE YOUR SYSTEM IS PRESSURIZED IT WILL DAMAGE YOUR CAR ).

Once you reach 20psi turn the air compressor off or stop pumping. pick one or two spots on vacuum lines or intercooler pipes to listen to at a time. Repeat the process untill you've checked all lines and piping at clamps and junctions. If you hear air coming out from anywhere zip-tie it, tighten your clamp, or replace your coupler and clamp. Once you are done pumping your system will not stay pressurized for low so let it drop then remove the boost leak tester if you have completed checking all piping / lines / clamps.

Once you're done checking your system and the pressure has dropped remove the boost leak tester, fix any problems, replace your intake and you're ready to go and be happy boost leak free.

[Denovae]

no one wants a boost leak tester or is interested... oh damn. a waste of 5min lol

[turbor850]

what about the other side of the throttle body where the vacuum tree is ?

for that I took off the line going from the left side of the intake manifold down to where the turbo inlet is, unplugged it, ran 15 psi through that line into the intake manifold and listened for all the lines coming from the tree

another thing to do is see what one boost gauge says with the compressed air then go and put it up to your boost gauge in your car, see if the results are the same

[Denovae]

what about the other side of the throttle body where the vacuum tree is ?

for that I took off the line going from the left side of the intake manifold down to where the turbo inlet is, unplugged it, ran 15 psi through that line into the intake manifold and listened for all the lines coming from the tree

another thing to do is see what one boost gauge says with the compressed air then go and put it up to your boost gauge in your car, see if the results are the same

yea you can put another valve on the side of the elbow or boot and screw on a pressure gauge.

[Geevs]

no one wants a boost leak tester or is interested... oh damn. a waste of 5min lol

I made a similar one last year. The tester was installed post-turbo though and I capped the upper intercooler hose to determine if there was a leak in the intercooler, hoses and piping. No leak other than the slight one coming from the intercooler weep hole.

Will your pre-turbo tester be able to test for leaks in the CBV? A leaky CBV can be difficult to diagnose.

[Denovae]

I made a similar one last year. The tester was installed post-turbo though and I capped the upper intercooler hose to determine if there was a leak in the intercooler, hoses and piping. No leak other than the slight one coming from the intercooler weep hole.

Will your pre-turbo tester be able to test for leaks in the CBV? A leaky CBV can be difficult to diagnose.

with a leaky CBV the boost is extremely hard to maintain within the system... like it won't go past 10psi with an air compressor. I've used one similar to this on my SRT and others SRTs. the tock CBV from mitsu is a piece of junk. it opens on SRTs are about 6psi while using a boost leak tester. My forge BOV will open around 14psi, the Tial on my buddy's didn't move. Surprising the worst BOV i've seen was the Turbo XS RFL... it opened about around 10psi and let everything out everytime. we eventually took off the entire cold side of the pipe and put in a stock pipe to check the rest of the system. RFLs are leaky as hell!

I'll be back in about 10min (charging my camera's battery) with a quick fix on the CBV question. I'll show you how to increase holding power of the stock spring with out any diaphragm modifications.

[Denovae]

___________________How To: Make your CBV not leak / hold more boost

Note: You may have differences this is for a TD04LR-16gk

First you're going to have to take off your CBV, should be three bolts holding it to the side of your compressor. Loosen the three bolts with the approriate wrench. Once off you can just pull the diaphragm, spring, and retainer straight out of the housing no problems - nothing is going to break. Clean the diaphgram, spring, and retainer along with the housing... you want some resemblance of bling don't you?

Required parts:

CBV Housing

CBV Spring

CBV Retainer

CBV Diaphragm

1-2 Quarters

Reassemble your CBV diaphragm, spring, and retainer as below, if you don't the retainer and diaphragm may not lock correctly.

Next put one or two quarters in the depression of the CBV Housing as shown below.

Reassmble!

Next put it back on your car and the CBV will be able to hold more boost.

[JHEIII874T5M]

Yeah, that CBV trick works great... just so long as you don't have pin sized holes in the CBV like all the ones I've pulled off have.

Thanks for sharing man. :)

[Denovae]

Yeah, that CBV trick works great... just so long as you don't have pin sized holes in the CBV like all the ones I've pulled off have.

Thanks for sharing man.

I'm only doing this so gdizzle stops putting those damn lurker smileys under everything i post.

[mbaker]

nice!!!!

mike

[Denovae]

nice!!!!

mike

thank you.

boost leaks definitely hurt a lot of people performance wise. tighten down all your clamps... don't wnt to be blowing off any hoses or piping while getting on it.

[TFIVEM]

very nice post!

[Deuss]

one question can you show the pic of where you hook up your tester to? If you are saying taking off the intake pipe from the turbo how do you do it? I tried taking the plastic pipe with accordion thing last summer but could not pull it free. do you just yank on it hard or what? i did not do anyting because I was afraid to damage it.

Can someone let me know plz.

BTW great explanation. Im going to test my system soon.

[Denovae]

one question can you show the pic of where you hook up your tester to? If you are saying taking off the intake pipe from the turbo how do you do it? I tried taking the plastic pipe with accordion thing last summer but could not pull it free. do you just yank on it hard or what? i did not do anyting because I was afraid to damage it.

Can someone let me know plz.

BTW great explanation. Im going to test my system soon.

did you loosen the clamp that holds the intake pipe to the turbo inlet?

[Deuss]

lol that could be the problem i just had so much stuff in the way I could not see the clamp.