HI guys,

I'm new here but I have been driving a 2001 PSD Excursion for about a year and a half now. I just put a 4" intake, 4" turbo back MBRP exhaust and an Edge Evolution II on it. It ran reat with the mods for about 3 weeks until one day it started smoking when I started it up, and kept smoking for several minutes afterewards. I noticed that I had a loss in power and the egts were getting way too high for city street driving. What I mean by that is I would put my foot to the floor when I originally installed the mods about a month ago and I would get 20psi, 1000EGT max and I'd be moving. Now, when I put my foot to the floor, the truck smokes like a freight train, EGT's climb to 1300 and boost maxes out at 8PSI.

After all of that, I went ahead and did a search for a boost leak detector and made one out of a 4" pvc end cap and 4" rubber hose with a valve stem installed. I put it on my intake tube and filled my intake with a compressor to which I could only get about 2psi on the gauge.

Long story short, air is coming out as fast as it's going in, maybe a little slower. I can't pinpoint the leak but it seems as if it's coming from right below the turbo meaning the intake manifold. I checked all of the silicone boots and none of them are leaking. THe only place I can hear the leak is below the y pipe.

Do you think this is the intake manifold leaking? Has anybody had this repaired and how much would it cost at a dealership?

Thanks for all your help!

 

Check your up pipes for soot. They may be leaking

 

How much air pressure are you using? Keep it down to 20 psi or so. Fill a spray bottle with water and put a little dish washing soap in it and spray things down. The soap will bubble if you find the leak.

Leaking intake manifold is pretty rare. Are you sure it's not just an open valve? What color is your smoke? How does your air filter look?

 

wouldnt you have to cap the bottom of the "Y", where it connects to the plenums? Sounds like, if not, your air will just go into those/that area.

 

WHen I first start it up, there is a little white/gray smoke followed by black smoke just puffing out for a few minutes until it warms up, after that it goes away.

I looked at my up pipes and they look fine, I just replaced them last April.

I know there is a leak somehwere because the damn thing will not get more than 8psi with my foot on the floor and it feels like it has about half the power it did.

Ideas? I sprayed down every silicone boot I could find with water/soap and did not find any bubbles

 

This might sound a little odd but could something have jumped up and poped a hole in your intercooler itself some where? One more thing to narrow down.

 

If all the boot clamps are tight then you need to check them for holes or tears. You should remove them for a proper check.

I also don't understand how leaking up-pipes can cause a boost leak. Doesn't seem feasible to me. Lack of boost yes, but a boost leak?

 

If its not the y pipe then it could be the intake manifold were it bolts to the head. That is in the area of the y pipe since that is were you say you here the air leaking from.

 

Any what I'm looking at to repair a leaking intake manifold gasket? I know labor is about $100/hr at the dealer

 

I may be wrong but pressurizing the air intake without pluging the other end will just allow the air to flow right through it. This will not help you find your leak. The air from your compressor will flow right through the engine and out the exhaust!

 

By intake manifold are you talking about the plenums, one on each head. If so they don't have gaskets. They are sealed with Motorcraft RTV.

Have you checked the boots for holes or tears?

 

Yep checked all of the boots, no signs of holes or tears.

 

Where do you have the leak detector hooked up?

Why I ask is a couple weeks ago someone thought they had a bad boost leak but the detector was hooked up in
front of the CCV coupling and the air pressure was escaping through the doghouse and down into the crankcase.

Detector needs to be hooked up to the intake hose that goes directly to the turbo.

 

I simply took my air filter off and put the boost leak detector straight onto the intake pipe before the CCV hose. Maybe that's why all the pressure is escaping. Could my problem be something else like the EBPV sensor? It's been pretty cold here, not getting above 30 degrees but this problem started recently and the temperatures have been less than 30 for the last 3 months

 

This is your problem. You need to go directly to the turbo.