I finally got around to building a turbo leak detector with a pressure gauge and hooked it up to the tube that comes from the turbo wheel side. When I pressurize it (20 psi) the air just seems to leak out and the gauge doesn't even register? Its not leaking from the tester or the boots for the intercooler tubes. Am I missing something that I should have done? Shouldn't it fill up and stay pressurized?

 

You are putting it on the turbo side of the ccv port correct?

 

Yes I put it on the side where the turbo wheel is. I removed the big hose that goes to the air filter.

 

Mine I go to 20 psi and it will slowly bleed off. If your gauge ain't moving I would be spraying everything with soap water to find leak. May be real bad leak or gauge is messed up.

 

I can hear it leaking out as I put it in. where is a common place that it leaks besides all of the boots?

 

You removed the hose going to the air filter, but did you remove the plastic coupler between the turbo hose and the air filter hose? The CCV is plumbed into the plastic coupler and will cause all pressure to vent into the crankcase.

 

ye I removed the plastic hose. I hooked it directly into the turbo coupler hose. Do I have to remove and plug the CCV hose where it comes out of the valve cover ?

 

No. As long as CCV is bypassed, you should be OK.

 

I have done a smoke test on vacuum systems on regular cars, would that possibly work on the diesel to find a leak?

 

You should be able to hear/feel the air leaking out at that rate. I have seen the bottom of the rubber tube that connects to the turbo crack and leave a large enough hole to vent out air but if your gauge won't come off zero then you have a massive leak and the truck would be very low on power.

 

I must be missing something big? The truck seems to run well. Normal driving around town I get about 2-5 lbs of boost. If I really get into it at high rpms I get up to 10 lbs? I will try again this weekend to locate any sort of leaks. What about if the wastegate is set wrong? Or if it is broken? The guy I bought the truck from said something about having it set manually?

 

I would think you should be seeing closer to 16-18lbs of boost when you are really on it. I would just start spraying soapy solution on anything in the turbo loop. Start at the turbo, work your way all the way to the plenums. Not just the joints but the solid pieces of pipe and turbo too. I discovered a hairline crack in my spider when I was doing a boost leak test. [IMG][/IMG]

 

Wow, that's a new one to me! I never would have thought about checking it.