Leaking Intercoolers

Fingers

Village Idiot
Vendor/Sponsor
Apr 1, 2008
1,717
95
48
White Oak, PA
Since I have fallen victim to a bad intercooler, I was wondering how many others have and what, if anything they did.

Here are some pics of my cooler prior to repair:

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During the repair:

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And After:

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There are still some very minor leaks, but I can suffer through them. I welded the main leak. For the tiny, tiny ones, I pulled vacuum on the intercooler and used some JB Weld. (don't laugh!) The Vacuum pulled the JB into the pin-holes. Worked great. Trouble is, the more I fixed, the more tiny holes I found as I increased the pressure. It isn't perfect, but will work well enough till I decide on a more permanent solution.
 
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Big Angry

<--My idea of a good time
Sep 3, 2006
406
0
0
South Central Pa
Mine was leaking, it was replaced with a Banks kit. Caleb was the first person to turn me on to the idea, and was kind enough to test it for me, to verify it was leaking, and treated me well on my new one. :thumb:
 

05_LLY

Out-A-Time
Aug 7, 2006
1,756
1
36
42
Norvelt, PA
I went threw two of them befor putting a banks in corries truck, Bigblock bill was the first i know to discover the problem a few years back!

Ive seen a hand full of others come tthrew the shop with the issue, currently have a stock dump truck here with one, all llys!
 

JoshH

Daggum farm truck
Staff member
Vendor/Sponsor
Feb 14, 2007
13,715
779
113
Texas!!!
Thanks for sharing the information and your fix, Jon. I went ahead and resized your pictures so they are easier to see.
 

Bryce418

Still slow
Oct 5, 2009
611
0
0
As I mentioned in your piston thread, my lb7 had a leak in the same spot (drivers side). One of my coworkers had a good intercooler off a crashed truck he bought and hooked me up with. Our plan is to have our buddy who used to weld dry sump components fit petersen fluid systems weld it up, but haven't gotten around to it.
 

TrentNell

Finally underway !!!!!
Jul 7, 2008
7,543
0
0
44
slc tuah
I had the same problem on my DD , had 2 spares here ............... pressure tested the other 2 before re-installing and all 3 had leaks :baby: , put another used one in and its been fine for a while .
 

Bryce418

Still slow
Oct 5, 2009
611
0
0
Lol. I never posted anything because I figured it was just mine.

I can't say much positive about the quality of Behr products. Up until about 2 years ago we had to order 5 topkick radiators to get a single unbroken one.
 

S Phinney

Active member
Aug 15, 2008
4,008
18
28
Quncy, Fl
There are no minor leaks. You will notice a difference in a small leak on a highly modded DMAX. I had some on the Spearco for a long time before I found those.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
 

Fingers

Village Idiot
Vendor/Sponsor
Apr 1, 2008
1,717
95
48
White Oak, PA
I've run mine around all of yesterday. After I finish up some business this morning, I hope to recheck the intercooler for leaks to see how she held up.

My reading, and gut feeling, would indicate that an air/water intercooler would be better for high boost applications. Heat soak can be an issue though.
 

Bryce418

Still slow
Oct 5, 2009
611
0
0
Jon, did you notice any difference in the truck after you fixed it?

I felt like mine spooled a bunch better after getting rid of the leak. I didn't notice much difference up top or at the drag strip, but the street manners were dramatically improved.