I recently bought a STI tmic that looked really ropey... I straightnened out most of the fins where possible, and removed the sections of fins that were too far crushed to be salvable.

anyway, I also wasn't sure that the core wasn't leaking, because they're getting on a bit now, so I rigged up a simple pressure tester:

Basically a 52mm pipe, with a cap welded on, and another 76mm, also with a cap.

The 76mm one was further modified to take a tyre valve, so that I could add small amounts of air to the intercooler.




Seems to work well - the dump valve cracks open at about 0.3 bar because it hasnt got the air pressure holding it shut, but 0.3 bar should be enough to find any leaks anyway imo.

Found that the seals that seal the y pipe were leaking, and also one of the silicone hose joins on the y pipe was also leaking.

Replaced the gaskets and reseated the hose, and no more leaks

It wouldn't have been possible to see that the gasket was broken, so well worth testing.

All in, I spent 0 pounds on the project, and 10 on gaskets from ICP

 

Probably worthwhile to always replace the gaskets when fitting a TMIC or include them as part of a scheduled service, given the price.

 

Nice job.