thanks! Can't wait to continue that rebuild either. Someone buy my headlights!
I actually got filmed a bit the other day when I ran into a BRZ filming an STI. The sti was factory orange, only 100 built. NICE car. Static slammed, tbe intake and tune. Chick driving it, too.
I stopped to say hey and learn more about their cars. They knew my front end wasn't stock but didn't know what about was different. They also said I should be lower :lol: CSB.
As the PCV dumps crankcase pressure into the intake pre-compressor, oil vapors and other debris can coat the interior walls of the charge piping leading into your engine cylinders. Though it's not really a big deal for most of that length, it is coating the inside of the intercooler and adding an insulating layer between the aluminum intercooler fins and the charge air that needs to be cooled. This DIY shows you how to remove that oil and restore some performance from your intercooler.
Removal
Follow one or all of any of a number of great guides for removing the front end of the car to access and remove your intercooler. To my surprise I found this to be much easier than I thought it would be. You don't need many tools, or any specialized tools. 2 people would help, but only in the removal of the radiator mount (which isn't too heavy to begin with. Just large). Everything else is really straight-forward. http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5002623-DIY-S3-Intercooler-on-MK6-GTI
By the way, this is why you retain the stock intercooler location. Don't want my intercooler to look like this:
Now that the IC is off the car, it needs to be cleaned. I cleaned mine with dishwashing detergent. I used it because:
It's a really strong surfactant that's particularly adept at removing fluid soils such as oil
It doesn't have any solid additives (such as pummous)
It's a pretty pure product without additive hand cleansers, sheeting agents or waxes so it will rinse cleanly, and
It works better at elevated temperatures.
There are two primary downsides to dishwashing detergent. One is that it's not combustible, so if there is any remaining in the intercooler it won't burn off. The second downside is that it's designed to be agitated to lift and remove soils from surfaces. I could live with these downsides so that I didn't have to handle gasoline, which is the other common intercooler cleaning substance.
Washing
To start, I placed the intercooler face down and filled it 3/4 full with a 3tbsp/2gal detergent to HOT water solution. Note that this solution is not foamy to begin with - unlike car shampoo, dish detergent works best when it is agitated and foamed in the presence of soils. In fact, the fewer bubbles that result from agitating this detergent the more the detergent is working to remove soils. (If you're interested in how surfactants in dishwashing detergent and other soaps work, see this article.)
With the intercooler 3/4 full with the detergent and water solution, seal both the outlet pipes with the palm of your hands and tip the intercooler one way and then another to "slosh" the solution around in the intercooler. It may take more time than you expect for the solution to make its way to the other side, so the pace of sloshing is actually pretty slow. Do this for about 5 minutes. It's pretty tiring unless you adhere to a serious upper-body workout regimen. Pour out the mixture when you're done.
This is my water after sitting and letting the bubbles settle for a long time. I was surprised there wasn't more oil, but the solution turned from a sky blue to a swampy green color. So there was definitely some stuff in there to be removed.
Rinsing
Now it's time for rinsing. I can not stress this enough: the detergent must be completely removed from the intercooler before bolting back up to the car!! If any detergent remains in the intercooler, it will be carried into the cylinders where it will seep by the piston rings and break down the oil. That oil will not lubricate, it will get too hot under the increased friction and it will certainly damage the piston rings and cylinder walls. Even if the broken down oil escapes this burn on the cylinder walls the remaining sludge can ruin main bearings, gunk up the oil pumps and cause other integral engine systems to fail. So do yourself a favor and give it far more rinsing than you think may be necessary.
To rinse, I turned the intercooler diagonally into my kitchen sink and kept my palm on the bottom outlet pipe while I filled it with water. Once it filled up, I shook the intercooler around to get all the bubbles out and refilled to ensure the water was hitting every surface in the intercooler to dissolve the detergent before I let the water out the bottom outlet pipe. I did this a dozen times with water as hot as my palm could stand.
When I laid the intercooler flat and filled it up, I noticed there was still some oil floating on the surface of the water. I decided to add more detergent and repeat the sloshing motion. This worked pretty well, because after the following dozen rinses I no longer saw oil on the surface of the rinse water.
Drying
With ALL THE DETERGENT removed from the intercooler, it's time for drying. Drying is also pretty important because if large droplets of water enter the cylinders you could hydrolock your engine and blow the bottom end. It's also important to remove the water right after rinsing so that the intercooler doesn't corrode or collect dust on the interior. I was fortunate to know a guy who designed an industrial intercooler dryer (for ~3000hp intercoolers - different application ). He recommended adding as much heat as possible across the outside and maintaining a minimal flow of air through the inside to keep the intercooler hot enough to dry off while still extracting the water. I set up a fan and a space heater as shown in the picture below.
Keep in mind that it's really important to cover the entire surface of the intercooler with heat. You don't want to leave a small corner cold and wet. My space heater swiveled. You'll also see that I put cheese cloth on the blower intake to minimize sucking up bugs or other debris and spitting it into the intercooler.
I left this setup to sit for about an hour. That time could be reduced if you retained a higher temperature during cooling, but my blower blew too fast to raise the intercooler temperature. It was still warm to the touch on both hot and cold sides, front and back, but not really that hot.
All that's left is to reinstall the intercooler. Again, it's a good idea to do this as soon as possible so that it doesn't collect bugs and dust on the interior. At the very least, mount it back onto the radiator and hook up the pipes.
Impressions
I was surprised just how much this made a difference, since I didn't see a whole lot of oil pouring out of the intercooler with the detergent. Before I start, though, I'm sorry to say I don't have before and after IATs to share. Though it would have been difficult to replicate the exact conditions (temperature and relative humidity) before and after, I'm sure we would have seen some improvement beyond a doubt of the initial test conditions.
In short, the car feels more powerful now, on a dry 73F day, than it did this past winter. This was confirmed when, the day after the install, an unusual cold front made the next day a mere 65F and the gains in power due to the 8F drop from the day before were substantially less than the gains due to having a clean intercooler.
Gains were made throughout the rev range. A few lb-ft in the low range, hardly enough to notice. Yet once the midrange of 2.8k - 5k come around, when I'm at full boost, the car has considerably more punch. The upper end feels as if it has more breathing room than before up to about 6-6.2k RPM where the power has always fallen off. It feels a bit like a breather mod like an intake up top, but perhaps more subtle. In all, it feels like it did during the colder winter months, only more so.
Drivability hasn't changed much. If you've followed my recent posts (why you wouldn't I just don't know) you'd know I've been having a bit of a "jerk" at part throttle at 2.5-2.6k RPM. I've changed coils (R8s) plugs (BR8EIX's @ 0.028") and I've changed the fuel filter. Plugs and coils made no difference but the fuel filter made the car feel more willing to follow me lead in the 1.5-2.5k RPM range crucial to city driving. This intercooler cleaning didn't do much for driveability but give me a bit more torque to draw from.
Final Thoughts
Given the relatively low difficulty of this cleaning regimen and the benefits it brings (over buying a larger intercooler that'll eventually just get dirty itself), I'm committed to cleaning it out every spring. I bet I could do it in a morning now that I know what I'm doing. Very recommend. Much torque. wow
Also, I figured out my broken passenger headlight. The whole projector assembly inside the housing was moving around. Whenever I accelerated it would tip the beam right up into the sky and when I braked it would fall back onto the ground. Fortunately I didn't need to drive at night these past few weeks.
Just yesterday I got the light out and was able to fix it. Turns out that the projector assembly had been jostled severely enough that it fell out of both a fulcrum fitting and the up/down adjustment guide.
The up/down adjustment guide is a ball and socket system, though the socket is more like a track in which the ball can slide around in. By pressing firmly enough on the right parts, I was able to get the ball back into the socket.
The fulcrum point was harder to reach but I managed to clip that back in there as well.
Here is the fulcrum point. It's hard to see but that black circular cutout is supposed to be on the white clip.
Reattached:
And here is the socket of the up/down adjustment guide, looking into the side of the turn signal bulb cover. It's a nice soft white plastic. Easy to pop back in with a bit of force.
Looking in from the HID bulb cover, that cylinder is the adjustment motor that has the ball on the end. It's been popped back in.
Gingerman raceway. It was an awesome trackday. Damp session in the morning, a few dry sessions, then a thunderstorm passed right over the track in the afternoon. A few bolts of lightning hit the track, actually. Some advanced drivers and instructors cleared the track for use and I got one more really wet session in before I ran out of gas. Hung out with some cool NATOR guys (one guy flew up from fucking Guadalajara, Mexico. There were a handful from Florida, too). Best of all it was free-to-me. Thanks Gingerman Raceway!
The car was brilliant all day, too. These Michelin PSS really set the car off dynamically. I was getting oversteer in some of the long sweepers. There's so much grip up front that the rears were just prone to breaking away first. 38/35psi cold f/r (seems low, right? I didn't want to mess with it since it was working so well). It's not like I was steering on the throttle, though. I had to enter the corner aggressively and sometimes build up a lot of speed before the back end would step out. But once I got to 10/10ths, the car was so much fun. Back with even the HTRZ-III's I would get a lot of push at 10/10ths and feel at the front was a little vague so I couldn't figure out exactly what steering lock I needed to match the speed I was cornering with. The PSS grip so tenaciously that I could in fact feel the front at 10/10ths and the steering lock needed to either kick the tail out or apply power. I did take out a bunch of tread but they didn't chunk like the HTRZ-III's. If I can turn in and get a mileage warranty out of these when they're done I don't see a need to use any other tire.
I'm also reconsidering what I want from suspension mods, too. I know I need a 1/2" off the ride height because these 17" wheels just look funny in the oversized wheel wells. Other than that and some stiffening via an XB I don't know if I really want to do much more. I'll probably try out a RSB but I think it'll just reduce my cornering speed if the tail is any more prone to giving out than it is now. Maybe an ALK kit, but not before more power. I hardly spin 2nd gear with stage 1 on a warm surface as is.
Times for the day: 1st Session: Stock mode, TCS on, wet track
1* 2:20.93
2 2:13.03
3* 2:22.67
4* 2:10.57
5* 2:19.83
6* 2:18.5
7 2:08.43
Just sold the headlights so the car fund is back in black. Downpipe and stage 2 is next.
Also just installed the euroswitch. It ...turns my lights on and off. At least I could run DRL only or automatic lights with that little single in the future.
Just sold the headlights so the car fund is back in black. Downpipe and stage 2 is next.
Also just installed the euroswitch. It ...turns my lights on and off. At least I could run DRL only or automatic lights with that little single in the future.
Been having some musty smells inside the car lately, so I did a full carpet cleaning this past weekend. Half a can of blue choral later, the carpets look almost showroom new. A couple days after application the Blue Choral smell is dissipating and the car smells clean again.
Even shampooed the map cubbies. They needed it most...
Oh and the day before that I cleaned out my boost gauge lines because it started rattling. Took out a literal fuckton of oil. Also replaced the filter, which of course was completely saturated with oil. Now, a few days later, the rattling is getting progressively worse. wondering if there's a pool of water in the line that's bubbling and causing the rattles, or...?
Wondering if it's time to replace my PCV, too. Keeping a close eye on that new filter for oil. It'd be fine if I seep oil only at the track. If it's an everyday thing then maybe I should consider a PCV replacement before I drop a new turbo in there.
Going to be taking it slow and saving more than not this winter. Was told I need a new roof. Need to save ~$15k by spring. Woopee.
Still have my mod budget in tact but I need to have funds there in case we don't save on schedule. If I do draw into it then we'll repay it first so ultimately the timeline hasn't changed. I want to be stage 2 by dyno day 2015 and k04 by dyno day 2016. Probably k04 sooner than that.
Going to be taking it slow and saving more than not this winter. Was told I need a new roof. Need to save ~$15k by spring. Woopee.
Still have my mod budget in tact but I need to have funds there in case we don't save on schedule. If I do draw into it then we'll repay it first so ultimately the timeline hasn't changed. I want to be stage 2 by dyno day 2015 and k04 by dyno day 2016. Probably k04 sooner than that.
Damn, new roof sucks on a newly bought house man. Sorry to hear about that. I tried to find a better price for Em locally, but didnt come up with much.
I worked on my motor a bit this weekend. Having trouble finding time to do work on it. I dont really need to spend much more, just need to do the work. Hoping to have it done, installed and tuned by the dyno day next year. I need to put down a bigger jump than the 6hp I gained this year from 2 years ago.
One thing helping me now is we just bought a 3rd vehicle, so now the car can have some down time to get the motors swapped.
If we can do anything now to get your stuff prepped let me know and I'm down to help. What do you need for stage 2?
Damn, new roof sucks on a newly bought house man. Sorry to hear about that. I tried to find a better price for Em locally, but didnt come up with much.
I worked on my motor a bit this weekend. Having trouble finding time to do work on it. I dont really need to spend much more, just need to do the work. Hoping to have it done, installed and tuned by the dyno day next year. I need to put down a bigger jump than the 6hp I gained this year from 2 years ago.
One thing helping me now is we just bought a 3rd vehicle, so now the car can have some down time to get the motors swapped.
If we can do anything now to get your stuff prepped let me know and I'm down to help. What do you need for stage 2?
Lot to chew on there. First of all, you bought a car?!? You guys were looking at Wranglers, right?
Second, I'm down to help out! I won't be working on my car too much this winter, that's for sure. I mean I still need a carbon cleaning but other than that, downpipes are really simple in these cars. Nothing in the way but the tunnel brace. I'll need to get my gearhead fix vicariously.
thanks! Can't wait to continue that rebuild either. Someone buy my headlights!
