2012 6.7, tuned and deleted, aftermarket intercooler pipes.

I have a boost leak I cant find. Truck builds over 30+ psi easily on gauge but not all making it to the engine. Truck is down on power, lots of smoke, and has a loud air blowing noise under hood when under a load. The turbo doesnt make the whoosh noise like usual during a shift or when I let off the throttle.

It leads me to believe it has to be leaking between the turbo discharge and the upper intake manifold. I took off all my intercooler pipes and boots, which were snug, and no silicone boots have any cracks. All block off plates are still sealing and I found no soot anywhere. I'm wondering if the factory intercooler has failed? Has anyone experienced this? I pulled mine off and dont see any visual issues but want to pressure test it. I was thinking adapting a radiator pressure tester somehow. Anyone have any ideas?

I will say when the boost leak started I was out of town, I took a look to see if it was an easy find/fix but ended up limping it home a couple hours drive. When home I found I also got a coolant leak and lost all of my secondary coolant at some point. So I imagine the intercooler was pretty hot for a while.

 

What color smoke are you getting? At idle and under throttle?

 

No smoke at idle. Revs fine in neutral. Black smoke under load from lack of air. Its definitely an external boost leak.

 

I made myself a boost checker for my 6.0 with a flexible PVC rubber cap and a schrader valve with thick rubber washers threaded onto the cap. This let me clamp the rubber cap onto the turbo inlet from the air filter, and pressurize the boost side from the turbo to the engine with shop compressed air and listen for leaks.

The turbo is obviousy more buried on the 6.7, but you might be able to interface something similar on the air filter side of the intake before it feeds into the turbo. Then compress it to 5-10 psi and listen for leaks.